Ten minutes of your time, but my Dad was in SAC and things like this still stir some mighty proud feelings. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ7niLYSVFo[/media]
I was in Bossier in 1970 when they scrambled the wing. The minimum interval was something like 15 or 20 seconds and the tankers were coming off just as fast as the bombers. Lots of black-ass smoke and they all fanned out immediately once they retracted the gear. Every strategic plane on that base that was flyable was gone in 12 minutes. It made us wonder if maybe we should get the hell out of town.
Very impressive....but what does MITO stand for? A few years ago I was playing golf at Squirrel Run in New Iberia, and saw a C-5 lift off out of the air facility over there. The first impression I had was, "something that big can't possibly be flying."
Minimum Interval Take Off. I was in SAC for a year with the 11th Air Refueling Squadron. The wingspan on those B-52s is so long that the wings have wheels on the end of them.
About 72 are still flying and half are expected to serve until 2040 when they will be 80 years old. We once had over 650 of these suckers--all nuclear capable. The Soviet Union was seriously intimidated by them. Most of them went to the boneyard to be recycled in the Strategic Arms Limitation talks.
Good stuff, really powerful watching that video. Never gave much thought to the process of scrambling pilots and getting planes off as quickly as possible. Makes you feel damn proud watching it! Red, check this out: Tuscon Boneyard
Wow you can really zoom in. This is better imagery than the last I checked out. there about 50 B-52's still intact with another 50 chopped up and left on the ground to be verified by Russian satellites. Lots of F-111's, KC-135's, F-14's, A-6's. Surprisingly there are 11 B-1 bombers , C-5's, and quite a few F-15's and F-16's. Still a lot of F-4s. I can't find the F-117 Stealth planes although they are all retired now. I wonder if they have them stored under cover.
B-52's are some bad ass mo-fo's. Not sure if youtube has video of an arc light mission or not but if they don't I'll hop on a site that i know of that does and see if I can rip it. Total destruction. Truly shock-n-awe:thumb::usaflagwa:thumb:
