B-52 Nam Phong Thailand

As told by a member of U-tapao.org

Story time...I remember Linebacker 2 Dec.72 Everything that had
wings was being launched. One mission we were the backup plane, if a
tanker couldn't launch they would taxi out of the way and we would
take there place. We sat at the end of the runway and watched 65 KC-
135's take off with out an abort. It was impressive to have all those
Planes lined up on the taxiway ready for takeoff. Just as soon as one
started rolling down the runway another one would roll in to place,
hit their water, power up and release their brakes. We were
supposed to go in 1 or 2 minute intervals. I forget what it was but I
know just as soon as we had full power we were rolling. You could
hardly see the runway for all the smoke from the engines. 160
thousand pounds of fuel on board, grossing 270 thousand pounds. I
know we were using every inch of that runway. The hotter it was the
more runway we used to get up to speed. I remember you would roll and
roll finally the copilot would say S1 which was the point of no
return, and you would still roll and roll finally after an eternity
I'd hear rotate and we would finally get into the air.

During Linebacker 2 we were flying in Cells. 3 Tankers to a
cell, stacked one behind the other 1000ft separation one above the
other. Our fighters would show up, we each had 4 to 6 fighters, first
thing we would do is top their tanks off because they couldn't take
off with a full bomb load and full of fuel as they would be to heavy to
get off the ground. We would give them 5 or 6 thousand pounds of fuel
to start, then they would just rotate under the boom keeping their
tanks full. I remember one F-4 pilot telling me he had 12 minutes of
flying time in full after burner. So they kept me pretty busy. You
could usually tell what there mission was by what they were packing.
(smart bombs, Iron Bombs, Rockets etc.) We would be in these
refueling tracks and fly in a big circle till we got the strike
message then we would head on in with the fighters. You would still
be giving them 100-200 pounds of fuel just keeping them full. The
Fighters always wanted us to take them as far north as possible. We
would fly out of our refueling tracks and ground control would call
and tell us to turn around we were in a Sam site or anti aircraft
range. Then the fighters would drop off and we would go back to
orbiting waiting for the fighters to return. In a little while they
would be back. You could tell how it went by the tone in there
voice's when they came up on our refueling freq. During Linebacker it
was pretty much radio silence you would just here clicks as they
checked in. There were many times they would come back and a fighter
would pull up behind you and you would make contact and start pumping
fuel. You could see fuel leaking out of his wings where he took a
hit.
After about 12 hours of this we would head back to U-Tapao with
everyone else. So there would be 100 or more planes waiting to land.
They would stack us up to 50 thousand feet over the field and we
would just orbit waiting for our turn to land. I remember orbiting
for hours at 49 thousand feet and when we landed the ole Sweet Silver
Sow was pure white from all the frost on her.
Once we were back we would head over to the NCO club for a few
beers, some Cow Pod and maybe a hot towel. I don't remember going down
town during Linebacker 2.
After that second night when the B52's took such a beating, and
going to the next days briefing and seeing the exact same mission up
on the board it got real serious fast. That's a whole story in it
self what went on at the briefings.
Well I've rambled on and on but I just want to say; when you saw the
sign "Best Maintenance Anywhere". I believed it with all my heart, when
it was time to fly, those planes were ready....Thanks Guys

Jake Johnson
43rd Air Refueling Squadron