Skywatch was changed to Operation Chrome Dome. My old man flew '52s from Ellsworth AFB So. Dakota and March AFB California from 1958 to 1970 before deploying to Guam during Vietnam. I asked him what his targets were after he retired and it was Kiev and Stalingrad. He also said he was convinced they would be shot down before reaching the target, and if so they would drop wherever they were. He was part of the Christmas bombing over Hanoi when about a dozen B-52s were shot down and they used all the defenses talked about in this video and none of them worked. He said they felt like sitting ducks, big fat ducks and to think an all out war would have been ten times worse. Thank God NOBODY on either side pushed the button. Hand Salute to ALL the Cold War Warriors who risked it all and were willing to fly into the unknown for God and Country!
+Brett Bass at the time this video was made those defences would have worked, sometimes. By the time of the Vietnam war, they were way outdated which came as a rude awakening to SAC planners and led to the change of the B-52s mission from high altitude to low altitude penetration, and the creation of the ALCM and SRAM missiles to give them more standoff range from their targets. All of which of course took time to implement and build, leaving SAC without much of a viable bomber force for a decade (the FB-111 was a stop gap which could have penetrated, but there were only a few of them, the B-52s would effectively be sacrificed as decoys for them).
Probably seemed like the counter measures didnt work. I heard that aircrafts were breaking formation which breaks up the defense cell that makes up a formation of B52s. God damn scary I'm sure
I served with the 92d Bomb Wing at Fairchild AFB Washington. the klaxon would sound at anytime day or night and no matter the weather. Our aircrews had 15 minutes to be on board the bombers and at the runway threshold ready to take off. However the base was engineered for this purpose. Certain roads going to the flightline from base proper had red lights similar to police lights that would come on automatically if the klaxon sounded. All nonessential traffic were ordered to leave the roadway, only command staff, security police and fire department personnel were permitted to be on roads as the Alert Force crews had ultimate priority, even as security police we never got in the way of alert crews responding, had we done that the responsible parties would be standing in front of the Division Commander's desk, and that visit would not be pleasant for the violators. The Division Commander at the 47th Air Division was a Brigadier General! You could bet Alaska would be your next immediate assignment courtesy of the Air Force! The alert pad was also known as the Christmas Tree because the pads the aircraft parked on were 45 degrees off center line, this taxiway lead directly to the active runway. In the winter snowplows were on the runways as much as needed to guarantee a successful launch. I can not miss that we also had the KC-135 tanker on alert as well as the B-52's. The aircraft on alert never took off with the special weapons on board and we never had an accidental detonation of those weapons. We at Strategic Air Command were ready at any moment. I served when President Ronald Reagan was shot, we immediately went into higher alert, security police were confined to barracks and we had a large bus ready to take us to the flightline in the case we were ordered to deploy! Maybe an hour went by and we were released from restricted alert and stood down. We were ready to do our mission. Our motto was Peace Is Our Profession, we trained to do the unthinkable and in over 46 years our enemies decided today was not the day to attack the United States!! SAC was an amazing machine ready to go, thank God we never had to!
Know an old boy who flew the B-52D from 1958-1983. He flew Operation Chrome Dome missions up over the northern borders of the USSR. When I asked him how long a mission took he replied, "23-27 hours, depending on winds and route. Sheez. Later in his career he flew bombing missions from Guam to Hanoi. I guess those were something like 22 hours long. That's a lot of time in the air!
My Dad was a crewchief on B-47s and KC-135s in the ‘60s and ‘70s. At one base we were ringed by Atlas missile silos and at another one Titans. The scariest times were the Cuban Missile Crisis and the next year when Kennedy was assassinated.Both times all the B-52s were loaded and the bomber and tankers were put on alert. The crews were moved to secure barracks. Let me tell you,to go off the base for school in the morning in peace and come home to a base ready for war is a stunning feeling. I did that both times.
Hope you know for what soviets have build missiles launch pads on cuba? If not its for doing the same as US have doing in Turkey, installing nuclear missiles heading soviet union.. Once again you have the complete responsibilty of the mad world of cold war, in 1972 US have 26000 nuclear weapons when Russians have only 6000 who was the war mongers??
@@badbotchdown9845 The main reason for 1962's CMC, (as admitted by Nikita Khrushchev's own son), was that the Soviets believed Kennedy had shown indecisiveness and weakness by refusing US air support for the 1961 Bay Of Pigs invasion debacle. Therefore, they predicted him to do either very little, or nothing at all after finding out about their deployment of IRBM's to Cuba. The limited number of US Jupiter IRBM's deployed in Turkey in 1960, while considered a provocation by the Soviets, were acutually a very weak deterrent in reality. This is because the Turkish government would not have permitted the US to launch them unless Turkey itself had been directly attacked, (or invaded), by the Soviet Union. In short, Khrushchev considered Kennedy a weak opponent and, like in a chess game, tried a gambit to place a sizable offensive nuclear threat directly off the US coast that, unlike Russian-based ICBM's, had an extremely short warning time. A threat that Khrushchev granted only himself the authority to ever use.
@@charlestaylor253 Partly correct, partly incorrect. When Khrushchev took his holidays on the Black Sea, he would often stand on the veranda with binoculars, looking out to sea. His guests would ask him, "What are you looking at, Nikita Sergeyevich?" He would reply, "American Jupiter missiles in Turkey, aimed at my dacha." Remember too not only were Jupiters in Turkey, but also in Italy. They were close enough to the Soviet Union to be extremely destabilizing, because their flight time was SO short-- only about 6-8 minutes from launch to detonation over targets in the Soviet Union. It basically forces them into a position of "launch on warning" because you have NO TIME to verify the attack and make decisions as to a response, and issue the orders. SO the Soviets felt completely justified in forward deploying their own missiles in response to the US precedent. The second thing was, despite Khrushchev's bluster and assertions that the Soviets were "cranking out missiles like sausages", their ICBM force was pathetically weak in 1962. They had about a dozen R-7 "Semyorkas", which were the same missile that put Sputnik in orbit, and became the workhorse of the Soviet space program, a missile that was incredibly vulnerable, being launched from only a few surface pads, taking hours to fuel with liquid oxygen and kerosene. Their second generation ICBM's like the R-9 and R-11 were *just* coming online, and only a dozen or of them were available. Despite the Soviet's pioneering and getting the first ICBM, they had lost their early advantage as the US had rushed development and deployment not only of the first generation kerosene/liquid oxygen fueled Atlas and Titan I missiles, getting them into coffin launchers (for Atlas) and early silos (for Titan I and later Atlases) and the second generation missiles like Titan II (using hypergolic storable liquid propellants) and solid propellant ICBM's like Minuteman, which followed on the heels almost concurrently with Polaris SLBM development, using solid propellant. The US had a sizeable ICBM force in 1962 that the Soviets simply couldn't match, and of course their bomber force was a mere shadow of SAC. SO the Soviets KNEW they were at an extreme disadvantage to the US and its allies. What the Soviets DID have in abundance were MRBM's and IRBM's (medium and intermediate range missiles). BUT they only had the range to wipe out Western Europe from launch sites in the Soviet Union-- they could not hit the USA. The Soviets had a few subs that could hit the US, diesel subs at that point, with only 3 liquid fueled missiles per sub, in tubes behind an extended conning tower, which could only be launched from a surfaced sub, making them extremely vulnerable, compared to our nuclear powered Polaris missile subs. When Fidel Castro asked the Soviets for help, and cozied up to them and offered to allow them to base missiles in Cuba, it presented a golden opportunity for the Soviets-- they could secretly station dozens of their readily available MRBM's and IRBM's in Cuba, well within range of the US mainland, giving them basically "parity" with the US in terms of missiles capable of striking the enemy heartland. If they could accomplish secretly emplacing the missiles in Cuba and getting them operational before being detected by the Americans, they would present the US with a fait accompli-- IOW nothing they could do about it but accept it as the new status quo. Of course for the US, it was an unacceptable situation, because of the destabilizing element it presented-- like US missiles in Italy and Turkey, the flight time from missiles from Cuba was only about 8-12 minutes from launch to impact, which means you're basically back to a "launch on warning" situation, as there is NO TIME to verify whether an attack is actually taking place, and formulate decisions and transmit them to the proper commands before the missiles strike their targets. Basically you'd have 4-6 minutes of warning from detection of a launch to impact. The US also detected the missiles via U-2 photography BEFORE the missiles were in place and operational, and decided that they had options to potentially take them out with air strikes on Cuba followed by invasion. To be continued... OL J R :)
Continued... What the US DIDN'T know at the time was, the Soviets had also deployed a number of tactical nuclear missiles, short range battlefield missiles called "Frogs", to Cuba to defend the island and missile sites. These missiles would have obliterated any US invasion forces attempting a landing on Cuba, raining nuclear hell fire down on the invasion beaches. The Soviets also had deployed subs armed with nuclear torpedoes to the area as well. Due to the limitations of the Soviet command and control systems of the time, and the rudimentary nature of it and believing it too easily jammed, interdicted, or penetrated by the US or its allies, Khruschev had issued orders to his commanders in the field, both controlling the missile regiments in Cuba and on board the nuclear-armed subs, giving them authority to use the weapons if they believed they were in a "use it or lose it" situation and that orders could not be obtained from Moscow due to time constraints or the limitations of the command and control system being jammed or unavailable. SO had any missile commander in Cuba been faced with the imminent destruction of his missile site by US bombers, or any short range missile regiment commander been faced with an invasion of Cuba, they COULD in the absence of orders from Moscow (which was NOT 'instantly available" as the US SAC alert system was, giving even less time for orders from Moscow since the communications between field commanders and Moscow was a lengthy and easily broken process) launch their nuclear weapons against the US. In fact we came a lot closer than anyone at the time ever knew-- the Soviet sub U-52 (IIRC) which was armed with nuclear torpedoes, very nearly launched their nuclear torpedoes at US warships which were shadowing them and "holding them under" (not allowing them to surface for badly needed air, since the Soviet diesel subs of the time didn't have the capability to stay under for months like nuclear subs can) and were actively dropping "depth grenades" on them to ping their hull and warn them to surface for inspection. 2 of the 3 Soviet officers on the sub voted to launch their nuclear torpedoes-- only the captain voted "no" and overruled them... he would eventually become Captain of the ill-fated Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 which suffered a nuclear reactor problem that heavily contaminated the ship and nearly ended in a nuclear disaster a few years later, which he managed to avert disaster again. Had he voted with his political officer and second in command and launched their nuclear torpedoes, we would have ended up in a nuclear war. Had the US gone forward with its air strikes and follow-on invasion of Cuba, we would have ended up in a nuclear war-- some of the IRBM's would have been launched before being destroyed, and US invasion troops would have been vaporized on the beaches by their tactical nukes in Cuba we didn't even know were there. So it was merely luck or a pure miracle that we didn't end up in a nuclear war in 1962. Of course even if we had, the US would have come out on top. The Soviets could have managed about a dozen or so ICBM strikes on the US mainland, a small handful more from Cuba (depending on the readiness of their missiles and the speed and accuracy of US airstrikes to take out their missile sites, vagaries of field commanders launching on warning versus awaiting orders from Moscow and their ability to get through, etc) and while these would have been devastating for the immediate areas struck (due to the limitation of Soviet missile accuracy at the time, they would have all been high yield thermonuclear weapons in the megaton range, but only less than 2 dozen such strikes were actually possible against the US at the time). Our Atlas and Titan 1's could have put several hundred high yield thermonuclear weapons on targets across the Soviet Union, followed up by strikes from our nuclear subs launching Polaris missiles and then SAC's bombers roaming the Soviet Union taking out whatever was left. The Soviets could have devastated Western Europe and Britain with their IRBM's, and we'd have done the same with Eastern Europe and the Warsaw Pact, so all of Europe would have essentially been ashes within hours. Of course our own nuclear-armed fighter/bombers from West Germany, along with the V-bombers from Britain, would have been sent in to wipe out targets in Eastern Europe Warsaw Pact countries and the western Soviet Union, cutting swaths through their air defenses for follow-on US and British bombers to pour through into the Soviet heartland. Curtis Lemay's SAC would have, just as he promised, "bombed them back to the Stone Age". The Soviet Union would have, effectively, ceased to exist as a modern industrialized country, in fact probably 80% of its population would be destroyed and over 90% of its industrial and military capability. Europe would be in similar straits, effectively destroyed by widespread Soviet IRBM and MRBM strikes attempting to knock out NATO's nuclear weapons at various missile and air bases, and shortly thereafter strategic targets like cities and industrial capability. But the US would have come through relatively unscathed... While certain cities and areas adjacent to military targets would have been devastated, MOST of the US industrial capabilities and cities would have come through unscathed and too far from the few ICBM strikes the Soviets could have actually managed to make on the US mainland, and the rather paltry Soviet bomber force would have found itself pretty much wiped out by the US air defenses, from nuclear tipped missiles like BOMARC and Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules, and the many fighter interceptors, some nuclear armed like the Scorpions with their nuclear-tipped Genie missiles, among many others. Virtually all of them would have been shot down long before making it to target, though likely a few would have slipped through, adding somewhat to the damage their few ICBM's could have managed. The US, though undoubtedly mauled, WOULD have survived and rebuilt, FAR FAR more intact than the Soviets or Europe. The Cuban Missile Crisis is probably the last time the US could have actually "won" a nuclear war. By the mid-late 60's, The Soviets had enough striking power to have completely destroyed the US as much as we could them, making it at best a "draw", both sides losing badly. Later! OL J R :)
@@charlestaylor253that sort of thing has caused many wars including Hitler's invasion of the Soviet union and the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands. Nothing much changes.
I've had the privilege to talk to an old boy who flew the B-52 on this kind of mission (Chrome Dome) to Arc Light and Linebacker missions of Vietnam. He's 90 years old, but remembers his B-52 service vividly, from 1958-1983.
My Dad flew the B-52 out of Roswell NM after transitioning from the B-36. He was the first 1st LT B-36 and B-52 Aircraft Commender and the youngest. By the time B-52 were used over Vietnam he was at SAC HQ. He watched the reports of them being shot down in real time. He was not happy. It turns out that after dropping its bomb payload each individual bomber would then turn away from the target separately. This defeated the radar jamming equipment they were using. After that, they all stayed in formation straight ahead until well past the target. Losses were much less using that technique.
Happy to report that "Major Paul Dobbins" just turned 97! Helluva guy, Dad...He was flying out of McConnel AFB in Wichita at the time. He says they used old training films to piece this together; he didn't know it existed. Spent more than 20,000 hours in the 52s. Mind blowing. His was truly "the greatest generation"!! BTW, he says he hopes you all have a great day!
That video I found fascinating and frankly inspiring. Thanks to those responsible for preserving and posting it. It's bookmarked. What a treasure trove of equipment shown including minty looking B-52G's, the Quail airborne decoy, and of course the Hound Dog missiles. My hats off to the men of SAC, they kept the world peace and did their duty over Vietnam. The disestablishment of SAC in 1992 was at the very least ill advised.
Thanks for finding this video, flew B-52G's from Guam during Linebacker II which ended the Vietnam war in Dec72, of course spent many years on nuclear alert with B-52 and E4B NEACP
I was a crew chief on F-105G Wild Weasel aircraft with the 561st TFS at Korat RTAFB, Thailand during Linebacker II. I’ll never forget the commeradery between the aircrews and ground personnel. I retired from the USAF in 1991 as a MSGT. Y’all had my respect then and even more now. God bless you ,Sir, for your service.🇺🇸
"Major Paul Dobbins" is not his real name, of course. The audio is also dubbed in later, because that is not the voice of the pilot. This guy is still kickin', will be 90 this June. Flew reconnaissance (Bird Dog) for a year in Viet Nam. He achieved the rank of Colonel, retired in Colorado, and misses flying. He still works every day, except Sunday, because that's what he's always done. Pity the fool who tries to take away his driver's license... Pretty proud of the ol' guy...
Thank you so much for finding this film and the memories it evoked. It retraces my life experiences. I even recognized the briefer at 03:00 in the film. I reported to the 23rd Bomb Squadron at Travis in 1960 (as the film begins) just after the other two squadrons had been moved to Beale and Mather. I spent 7 years there accumulating over 3000 hours, 31 Chrome Domes including 8 in the Cuban Crisis. In 1967 I was transferred to the 99th Bomb Wing at Westover AFB in Massachusetts and served 3 Ark Light tours in Southeast Asia (210 combat missions, 1300 combat hours) before I left for Air Force Hq in 1971 with over 5000 hours in various BUF models. I'm proud to have served with a great bunch of guys and am now enjoying my retired years in Northeast Florida.
You’re welcome. One of the most rewarding things from doing what I do is hearing from people who were there when it happened or their families. These connections with our past are so important & can’t be allowed to fade away.👍
I served at Loring AFB (42nd Bomb Wing) in Limestone, Maine from Sept. 1962 to Jan 1966 in the 23rd MMS (Munitions Maintenance Squadron). My team members and I loaded (and downloaded after missions) warheads in the GAM-77 (AGM-28) and nuclear weapons (4 on a clip) in the forward bomb bay, hundreds of times. In every case, there was a clip of 4 ADM-20 (air defense missiles) in the aft portion of the bomb bay by the missile squadron.
Check out he Hound Dogs under the wings, each one designed to fly 500 miles and take out the target as the B52 was flying into enemy territory. I worked on these 1966 to 1970 at Loring, Dow and WR in Georgia. Hi out to all the guys in AMMS, check out the website on the old interweb AMMS website , there are a lot of old contacts there.
Wow, the buffs look so different nowadays, all retrofitted, I climbed into one of those beasts when I was Tech school at Sheppard AFB, way back in 1983, F-4 crew chief, dag, I'm getting old!!!
We launched twice at bases I was stationed at. They covered it up and said no nuclear laden bombers were launched but we had 4 F-111's and 8 B-52's that took off so quick it would have made anyone's butt hole pucker thinking it was the start of WWIII!
Skywatch and ChromeDome were canceled after a number of accidents in which nukes were separated from the destroyed aircraft or damaged aircraft but the nukes weren’t armed and had to be recovered. This happened in Spain, Greenland, North Carolina and others.
"Work, pray, and sleep!" I'm from that group known as the "Duck and Cover" kids. So we were all very grateful that these men, our Guardians, were on duty!
Is it just me or is the B-47 taking off at 20:10 in this video has its inboard port engine out? There doesn't appear to be any exhaust coming from it . . . .
People wondered why we developed LOW or Launch On Warning. Scary stuff! Yet, they did their jobs and thank the good Lord either side did something stupid!
Every piece of electronic equipment in that room including the GIANT WALL MAP @(10:34) is now replaced by one device- The smart phone 📲 (I bet the map guy was telling himself back then, computers will never take my job haha) 🤦🏻♂️🖕🏼📲🤷🏻♂️
My dad's girlfriend lived about a mile from SAC BASE MCcord, Seattle Washington, 76.and I hated it bc her apartment was directly under the landing Flight path. Never could get a good nites sleep with all the planes. It was a SAC, TAC, & MAC BASE. MY DAD WAS AN E6 Wa N.G. HE TOLD ME ALL THAT
If you define constant low level anxiety (or worse) whether the entire world was about to go up in nuclear holocaust as "exciting", sure. Why not? The bomber crews got the "rush" of knowing that at any time they could be dispatched in a one way mission that they would almost certainly not survive, and that even if by a miracle they did, there would be nowhere to return to because all the major bases would be gone in nuclear infernos and massive plumes of fallout. I bet you get really jealous of troops that fought in WW2 as well, because of all the "badass toys" they got to play with. It's pretty much like playing Call of Duty, right?
Are those "White Alice" style communications antennas at 8:10? I understand White Alice stayed in operation in Alaska for civilian phone service into the seventies long after they were no longer used for military communications.
Lieutenant Ralph Kotschevar(Kočevar in slovenian language)defensive systems operators ancestors came to USA from Slovenia. His surename is, was of slovenian origin. Interesting! Father of Boeing 747 (Sutter(Suhadolc in slovenian)) was also of slovenian origin on his fathers side.
Great piece of film! It should be a staunch reminder to us all. The threat is still real. Further note: The B-47 taking off at 20:20 had an engine out! and the B-52 at 27:04, you can see a puff of black from #3 engine as she banks! Perhaps a compressor stall or a little flame instability in the combustors? Interesting!
That is hilarious the commander of Buzzsaw looks like a mother goose leading her goslings since they are so much shorter than he. Perhaps he is working later so he can afford a better car, what a heap! I can't believe we used to think those cars nice looking.
Boy, watching these films you really see their purpose... Not just to intimidate the Soviets, but to stoke paranoia and fear in the American population as well, to keep the budgets high, the USAF money flowing...
Yup. Flying around with nuclear weapons, I mean what could possibly go wrong. 🤔
5 років тому
I was able to get my dome chromed in my exotic car by a soviet blonde because of all the great men who flew chrome dome two generations before myself..much respect and honor to these tough son of a b-52 pilots. These men in the military at this time drank jet fuel shit thumb tacks and scared munitions out of the bomb bay with just a look. And this is clearly not a manipulation of the truth because it is stranger than fiction children
Yeah luckily they were bless ny god to not have a detonation happen during their 30 bad accidents occured in twenty years, after the palomar spills and Thule Groenland accident it was obvious that defence was a joke..
What happened to countdown to detonation and shock arrival time? Read the series of books, ' We Were Crewdogs' for a first hand story of those who flew in SAC.
"Goldie, did you say wing attack plan R?" Then he talks about state fairs,picnics and rodeos and rides an H-bomb into a commie ICBM site. The End I hope that wasn't too much of a spoiler.
A lot of the A/Cs (including me) were captains then. Lt. Col. (Ret) C.W. Wachsmuth : Ellsworth AFB 1966-1069 three Arc Light tours and uncounted home alert tours.
Saw plenty of captains as A/C's when I was the alert bomber area entry controller at Barksdale AFB while in the 2nd SPS., Every morning crews would enter the area to preflight their birds.
Like what you see? Your DVD purchases at our store make this channel possible.
www.zenosflightshop.com
We need your support! Zeno
Skywatch was changed to Operation Chrome Dome. My old man flew '52s from Ellsworth AFB So. Dakota and March AFB California from 1958 to 1970 before deploying to Guam during Vietnam. I asked him what his targets were after he retired and it was Kiev and Stalingrad. He also said he was convinced they would be shot down before reaching the target, and if so they would drop wherever they were. He was part of the Christmas bombing over Hanoi when about a dozen B-52s were shot down and they used all the defenses talked about in this video and none of them worked. He said they felt like sitting ducks, big fat ducks and to think an all out war would have been ten times worse. Thank God NOBODY on either side pushed the button. Hand Salute to ALL the Cold War Warriors who risked it all and were willing to fly into the unknown for God and Country!
+Brett Bass at the time this video was made those defences would have worked, sometimes. By the time of the Vietnam war, they were way outdated which came as a rude awakening to SAC planners and led to the change of the B-52s mission from high altitude to low altitude penetration, and the creation of the ALCM and SRAM missiles to give them more standoff range from their targets.
All of which of course took time to implement and build, leaving SAC without much of a viable bomber force for a decade (the FB-111 was a stop gap which could have penetrated, but there were only a few of them, the B-52s would effectively be sacrificed as decoys for them).
Post-Vietnam Cold War service USMC AirWing.
@@jwenting don't forget the B-52's got FLIR and LLTV after Vietnam and could evade enemy radars...no problem penetrating at all below 500 ft altitude.
@Dan Iacobescu the B-52s would get to their targets many hours after several waves of ICBMs, not much left of the country by then
Probably seemed like the counter measures didnt work. I heard that aircrafts were breaking formation which breaks up the defense cell that makes up a formation of B52s. God damn scary I'm sure
I served with the 92d Bomb Wing at Fairchild AFB Washington. the klaxon would sound at anytime day or night and no matter the weather. Our aircrews had 15 minutes to be on board the bombers and at the runway threshold ready to take off. However the base was engineered for this purpose. Certain roads going to the flightline from base proper had red lights similar to police lights that would come on automatically if the klaxon sounded. All nonessential traffic were ordered to leave the roadway, only command staff, security police and fire department personnel were permitted to be on roads as the Alert Force crews had ultimate priority, even as security police we never got in the way of alert crews responding, had we done that the responsible parties would be standing in front of the Division Commander's desk, and that visit would not be pleasant for the violators. The Division Commander at the 47th Air Division was a Brigadier General! You could bet Alaska would be your next immediate assignment courtesy of the Air Force! The alert pad was also known as the Christmas Tree because the pads the aircraft parked on were 45 degrees off center line, this taxiway lead directly to the active runway. In the winter snowplows were on the runways as much as needed to guarantee a successful launch. I can not miss that we also had the KC-135 tanker on alert as well as the B-52's. The aircraft on alert never took off with the special weapons on board and we never had an accidental detonation of those weapons. We at Strategic Air Command were ready at any moment. I served when President Ronald Reagan was shot, we immediately went into higher alert, security police were confined to barracks and we had a large bus ready to take us to the flightline in the case we were ordered to deploy! Maybe an hour went by and we were released from restricted alert and stood down. We were ready to do our mission. Our motto was Peace Is Our Profession, we trained to do the unthinkable and in over 46 years our enemies decided today was not the day to attack the United States!! SAC was an amazing machine ready to go, thank God we never had to!
Why would the security police be confined to barracks?
What if there was a blizzard? Can the planes still take off?
Thank you for your service. We owe you and your colleagues a debt of gratitude.
@@JasonMW45so they wouldn't go on furlough, available to be deployed as needed.
@@broncodaddy46507Ab. So. Lutely. Before emergency conditions, some addl planes may be made airborne.
Know an old boy who flew the B-52D from 1958-1983. He flew Operation Chrome Dome missions up over the northern borders of the USSR. When I asked him how long a mission took he replied, "23-27 hours, depending on winds and route. Sheez. Later in his career he flew bombing missions from Guam to Hanoi. I guess those were something like 22 hours long. That's a lot of time in the air!
My Dad was a crewchief on B-47s and KC-135s in the ‘60s and ‘70s. At one base we were ringed by Atlas missile silos and at another one Titans. The scariest times were the Cuban Missile Crisis and the next year when Kennedy was assassinated.Both times all the B-52s were loaded and the bomber and tankers were put on alert. The crews were moved to secure barracks. Let me tell you,to go off the base for school in the morning in peace and come home to a base ready for war is a stunning feeling. I did that both times.
Hope you know for what soviets have build missiles launch pads on cuba?
If not its for doing the same as US have doing in Turkey, installing nuclear missiles heading soviet union.. Once again you have the complete responsibilty of the mad world of cold war, in 1972 US have 26000 nuclear weapons when Russians have only 6000 who was the war mongers??
@@badbotchdown9845 The main reason for 1962's CMC, (as admitted by Nikita Khrushchev's own son), was that the Soviets believed Kennedy had shown indecisiveness and weakness by refusing US air support for the 1961 Bay Of Pigs invasion debacle.
Therefore, they predicted him to do either very little, or nothing at all after finding out about their deployment of IRBM's to Cuba.
The limited number of US Jupiter IRBM's deployed in Turkey in 1960, while considered a provocation by the Soviets, were acutually a very weak deterrent in reality.
This is because the Turkish government would not have permitted the US to launch them unless Turkey itself had been directly attacked, (or invaded), by the Soviet Union.
In short, Khrushchev considered Kennedy a weak opponent and, like in a chess game, tried a gambit to place a sizable offensive nuclear threat directly off the US coast that, unlike Russian-based ICBM's, had an extremely short warning time.
A threat that Khrushchev granted only himself the authority to ever use.
@@charlestaylor253 Partly correct, partly incorrect. When Khrushchev took his holidays on the Black Sea, he would often stand on the veranda with binoculars, looking out to sea. His guests would ask him, "What are you looking at, Nikita Sergeyevich?" He would reply, "American Jupiter missiles in Turkey, aimed at my dacha." Remember too not only were Jupiters in Turkey, but also in Italy. They were close enough to the Soviet Union to be extremely destabilizing, because their flight time was SO short-- only about 6-8 minutes from launch to detonation over targets in the Soviet Union. It basically forces them into a position of "launch on warning" because you have NO TIME to verify the attack and make decisions as to a response, and issue the orders. SO the Soviets felt completely justified in forward deploying their own missiles in response to the US precedent.
The second thing was, despite Khrushchev's bluster and assertions that the Soviets were "cranking out missiles like sausages", their ICBM force was pathetically weak in 1962. They had about a dozen R-7 "Semyorkas", which were the same missile that put Sputnik in orbit, and became the workhorse of the Soviet space program, a missile that was incredibly vulnerable, being launched from only a few surface pads, taking hours to fuel with liquid oxygen and kerosene. Their second generation ICBM's like the R-9 and R-11 were *just* coming online, and only a dozen or of them were available. Despite the Soviet's pioneering and getting the first ICBM, they had lost their early advantage as the US had rushed development and deployment not only of the first generation kerosene/liquid oxygen fueled Atlas and Titan I missiles, getting them into coffin launchers (for Atlas) and early silos (for Titan I and later Atlases) and the second generation missiles like Titan II (using hypergolic storable liquid propellants) and solid propellant ICBM's like Minuteman, which followed on the heels almost concurrently with Polaris SLBM development, using solid propellant. The US had a sizeable ICBM force in 1962 that the Soviets simply couldn't match, and of course their bomber force was a mere shadow of SAC. SO the Soviets KNEW they were at an extreme disadvantage to the US and its allies.
What the Soviets DID have in abundance were MRBM's and IRBM's (medium and intermediate range missiles). BUT they only had the range to wipe out Western Europe from launch sites in the Soviet Union-- they could not hit the USA. The Soviets had a few subs that could hit the US, diesel subs at that point, with only 3 liquid fueled missiles per sub, in tubes behind an extended conning tower, which could only be launched from a surfaced sub, making them extremely vulnerable, compared to our nuclear powered Polaris missile subs. When Fidel Castro asked the Soviets for help, and cozied up to them and offered to allow them to base missiles in Cuba, it presented a golden opportunity for the Soviets-- they could secretly station dozens of their readily available MRBM's and IRBM's in Cuba, well within range of the US mainland, giving them basically "parity" with the US in terms of missiles capable of striking the enemy heartland. If they could accomplish secretly emplacing the missiles in Cuba and getting them operational before being detected by the Americans, they would present the US with a fait accompli-- IOW nothing they could do about it but accept it as the new status quo. Of course for the US, it was an unacceptable situation, because of the destabilizing element it presented-- like US missiles in Italy and Turkey, the flight time from missiles from Cuba was only about 8-12 minutes from launch to impact, which means you're basically back to a "launch on warning" situation, as there is NO TIME to verify whether an attack is actually taking place, and formulate decisions and transmit them to the proper commands before the missiles strike their targets. Basically you'd have 4-6 minutes of warning from detection of a launch to impact. The US also detected the missiles via U-2 photography BEFORE the missiles were in place and operational, and decided that they had options to potentially take them out with air strikes on Cuba followed by invasion.
To be continued... OL J R :)
Continued...
What the US DIDN'T know at the time was, the Soviets had also deployed a number of tactical nuclear missiles, short range battlefield missiles called "Frogs", to Cuba to defend the island and missile sites. These missiles would have obliterated any US invasion forces attempting a landing on Cuba, raining nuclear hell fire down on the invasion beaches. The Soviets also had deployed subs armed with nuclear torpedoes to the area as well. Due to the limitations of the Soviet command and control systems of the time, and the rudimentary nature of it and believing it too easily jammed, interdicted, or penetrated by the US or its allies, Khruschev had issued orders to his commanders in the field, both controlling the missile regiments in Cuba and on board the nuclear-armed subs, giving them authority to use the weapons if they believed they were in a "use it or lose it" situation and that orders could not be obtained from Moscow due to time constraints or the limitations of the command and control system being jammed or unavailable. SO had any missile commander in Cuba been faced with the imminent destruction of his missile site by US bombers, or any short range missile regiment commander been faced with an invasion of Cuba, they COULD in the absence of orders from Moscow (which was NOT 'instantly available" as the US SAC alert system was, giving even less time for orders from Moscow since the communications between field commanders and Moscow was a lengthy and easily broken process) launch their nuclear weapons against the US. In fact we came a lot closer than anyone at the time ever knew-- the Soviet sub U-52 (IIRC) which was armed with nuclear torpedoes, very nearly launched their nuclear torpedoes at US warships which were shadowing them and "holding them under" (not allowing them to surface for badly needed air, since the Soviet diesel subs of the time didn't have the capability to stay under for months like nuclear subs can) and were actively dropping "depth grenades" on them to ping their hull and warn them to surface for inspection. 2 of the 3 Soviet officers on the sub voted to launch their nuclear torpedoes-- only the captain voted "no" and overruled them... he would eventually become Captain of the ill-fated Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 which suffered a nuclear reactor problem that heavily contaminated the ship and nearly ended in a nuclear disaster a few years later, which he managed to avert disaster again. Had he voted with his political officer and second in command and launched their nuclear torpedoes, we would have ended up in a nuclear war. Had the US gone forward with its air strikes and follow-on invasion of Cuba, we would have ended up in a nuclear war-- some of the IRBM's would have been launched before being destroyed, and US invasion troops would have been vaporized on the beaches by their tactical nukes in Cuba we didn't even know were there. So it was merely luck or a pure miracle that we didn't end up in a nuclear war in 1962. Of course even if we had, the US would have come out on top. The Soviets could have managed about a dozen or so ICBM strikes on the US mainland, a small handful more from Cuba (depending on the readiness of their missiles and the speed and accuracy of US airstrikes to take out their missile sites, vagaries of field commanders launching on warning versus awaiting orders from Moscow and their ability to get through, etc) and while these would have been devastating for the immediate areas struck (due to the limitation of Soviet missile accuracy at the time, they would have all been high yield thermonuclear weapons in the megaton range, but only less than 2 dozen such strikes were actually possible against the US at the time). Our Atlas and Titan 1's could have put several hundred high yield thermonuclear weapons on targets across the Soviet Union, followed up by strikes from our nuclear subs launching Polaris missiles and then SAC's bombers roaming the Soviet Union taking out whatever was left. The Soviets could have devastated Western Europe and Britain with their IRBM's, and we'd have done the same with Eastern Europe and the Warsaw Pact, so all of Europe would have essentially been ashes within hours. Of course our own nuclear-armed fighter/bombers from West Germany, along with the V-bombers from Britain, would have been sent in to wipe out targets in Eastern Europe Warsaw Pact countries and the western Soviet Union, cutting swaths through their air defenses for follow-on US and British bombers to pour through into the Soviet heartland. Curtis Lemay's SAC would have, just as he promised, "bombed them back to the Stone Age". The Soviet Union would have, effectively, ceased to exist as a modern industrialized country, in fact probably 80% of its population would be destroyed and over 90% of its industrial and military capability. Europe would be in similar straits, effectively destroyed by widespread Soviet IRBM and MRBM strikes attempting to knock out NATO's nuclear weapons at various missile and air bases, and shortly thereafter strategic targets like cities and industrial capability. But the US would have come through relatively unscathed... While certain cities and areas adjacent to military targets would have been devastated, MOST of the US industrial capabilities and cities would have come through unscathed and too far from the few ICBM strikes the Soviets could have actually managed to make on the US mainland, and the rather paltry Soviet bomber force would have found itself pretty much wiped out by the US air defenses, from nuclear tipped missiles like BOMARC and Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules, and the many fighter interceptors, some nuclear armed like the Scorpions with their nuclear-tipped Genie missiles, among many others. Virtually all of them would have been shot down long before making it to target, though likely a few would have slipped through, adding somewhat to the damage their few ICBM's could have managed. The US, though undoubtedly mauled, WOULD have survived and rebuilt, FAR FAR more intact than the Soviets or Europe. The Cuban Missile Crisis is probably the last time the US could have actually "won" a nuclear war. By the mid-late 60's, The Soviets had enough striking power to have completely destroyed the US as much as we could them, making it at best a "draw", both sides losing badly.
Later! OL J R :)
@@charlestaylor253that sort of thing has caused many wars including Hitler's invasion of the Soviet union and the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands. Nothing much changes.
I've had the privilege to talk to an old boy who flew the B-52 on this kind of mission (Chrome Dome) to Arc Light and Linebacker missions of Vietnam. He's 90 years old, but remembers his B-52 service vividly, from 1958-1983.
My Dad flew the B-52 out of Roswell NM after transitioning from the B-36. He was the first 1st LT B-36 and B-52 Aircraft Commender and the youngest.
By the time B-52 were used over Vietnam he was at SAC HQ. He watched the reports of them being shot down in real time. He was not happy. It turns out that after dropping its bomb payload each individual bomber would then turn away from the target separately. This defeated the radar jamming equipment they were using.
After that, they all stayed in formation straight ahead until well past the target. Losses were much less using that technique.
awesome
Happy to report that "Major Paul Dobbins" just turned 97! Helluva guy, Dad...He was flying out of McConnel AFB in Wichita at the time. He says they used old training films to piece this together; he didn't know it existed. Spent more than 20,000 hours in the 52s. Mind blowing. His was truly "the greatest generation"!!
BTW, he says he hopes you all have a great day!
Hi, from one AF brat to another😊
That video I found fascinating and frankly inspiring. Thanks to those responsible for preserving and posting it. It's bookmarked. What a treasure trove of equipment shown including minty looking B-52G's, the Quail airborne decoy, and of course the Hound Dog missiles. My hats off to the men of SAC, they kept the world peace and did their duty over Vietnam. The disestablishment of SAC in 1992 was at the very least ill advised.
There are now USAF families that have had three generations flying the B-52.
Thanks for finding this video, flew B-52G's from Guam during Linebacker II which ended the Vietnam war in Dec72, of course spent many years on nuclear alert with B-52 and E4B NEACP
I was a crew chief on F-105G Wild Weasel aircraft with the 561st TFS at Korat RTAFB, Thailand during Linebacker II. I’ll never forget the commeradery between the aircrews and ground personnel. I retired from the USAF in 1991 as a MSGT. Y’all had my respect then and even more now. God bless you ,Sir, for your service.🇺🇸
"Major Paul Dobbins" is not his real name, of course.
The audio is also dubbed in later, because that is not the voice of the pilot.
This guy is still kickin', will be 90 this June.
Flew reconnaissance (Bird Dog) for a year in Viet Nam.
He achieved the rank of Colonel, retired in Colorado, and misses flying.
He still works every day, except Sunday, because that's what he's always done.
Pity the fool who tries to take away his driver's license...
Pretty proud of the ol' guy...
but was his wife cooking him a cake for his 38th birthday?
@@mattb917 You bet she was!!
My Dad was a tanker pilot. We lost him in 2012. He did lots of the same stuff.
I worked on the B-52 in Andersen AFB, Guam and on the C-130 in Little Rock AFB, Arkansas!
SAC STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND
Persian Gulf War
No many know how military keep us safe. Love my Marine!!
Thank you so much for finding this film and the memories it evoked. It retraces my life experiences. I even recognized the briefer at 03:00 in the film.
I reported to the 23rd Bomb Squadron at Travis in 1960 (as the film begins) just after the other two squadrons had been moved to Beale and Mather. I spent 7 years there accumulating over 3000 hours, 31 Chrome Domes including 8 in the Cuban Crisis.
In 1967 I was transferred to the 99th Bomb Wing at Westover AFB in Massachusetts and served 3 Ark Light tours in Southeast Asia (210 combat missions, 1300 combat hours) before I left for Air Force Hq in 1971 with over 5000 hours in various BUF models.
I'm proud to have served with a great bunch of guys and am now enjoying my retired years in Northeast Florida.
You’re welcome. One of the most rewarding things from doing what I do is hearing from people who were there when it happened or their families. These connections with our past are so important & can’t be allowed to fade away.👍
I've been to one World's Fair, a picnic and a rodeo, and ain't nobody ever got the go code yet
👍
I read that a BUFF came back to Guam from a sortie over Hanoi with over 300 holes in it! One he'll of a aircraft!!!👍
The pointed end of the Nuclear Stick of SAC. The mighty and bold B52 Stratofortress
"Peace is Our Profession, War is Just a Hobby."
It's an Orwellian motto.
I served at Loring AFB (42nd Bomb Wing) in Limestone, Maine from Sept. 1962 to Jan 1966 in the 23rd MMS (Munitions Maintenance Squadron).
My team members and I loaded (and downloaded after missions) warheads in the GAM-77 (AGM-28) and nuclear weapons (4 on a clip) in the forward bomb bay, hundreds of times.
In every case, there was a clip of 4 ADM-20 (air defense missiles) in the aft portion of the bomb bay by the missile squadron.
I was there from June 1961 to Jan 1965, 42nd CDS, k9 Section.
Check out he Hound Dogs under the wings, each one designed to fly 500 miles and take out the target as the B52 was flying into enemy territory. I worked on these 1966 to 1970 at Loring, Dow and WR in Georgia. Hi out to all the guys in AMMS, check out the website on the old interweb AMMS website , there are a lot of old contacts there.
That opening shot with the B52 flying, banking in the clouds is just georgous. I bet there is so much footage from over the years of similar things.
Wow, the buffs look so different nowadays, all retrofitted, I climbed into one of those beasts when I was Tech school at Sheppard AFB, way back in 1983, F-4 crew chief, dag, I'm getting old!!!
"A message just came in over the CRM 114, it decodes as Wing Attack Plan R."
" I thought I told you guys, no horse-en around on the aircraft!"
Totally fascinating, on several levels. Thank you.
We launched twice at bases I was stationed at. They covered it up and said no nuclear laden bombers were launched but we had 4 F-111's and 8 B-52's that took off so quick it would have made anyone's butt hole pucker thinking it was the start of WWIII!
I think that was in '80&'83!
Rod Firefighter 1983 in November correct? That. It was so close that you could of measured the severity in a fecal crusted anus hair
.
Skywatch and ChromeDome were canceled after a number of accidents in which nukes were separated from the destroyed aircraft or damaged aircraft but the nukes weren’t armed and had to be recovered. This happened in Spain, Greenland, North Carolina and others.
"Work, pray, and sleep!"
I'm from that group known as the "Duck and Cover" kids.
So we were all very grateful that these men, our Guardians, were on duty!
"Goldie, did you say Wing Attack Plan R?"
I wondered who would post a Strangelove reference.
😂😂😂 И смешно и плакать хочется😢 Риппер в этом кино отлично получился, но фильм Fail Safe мне нравится больше!
I served with the 449th at Kincheloe AFB in the 70's. I am well versed when the Klaxon went off. It was even more tense when we had an ORI.
0:38 is an iconic frame...used for the dust jacket of "Men of the Contrail Country", plus countless other publications.
Is it just me or is the B-47 taking off at 20:10 in this video has its inboard port engine out? There doesn't appear to be any exhaust coming from it . . . .
Like wise, my oldan flew the chrome dome over the pole out of Alaska.
My dad was feeding guys like these at the time of this film. Also, I was born the same year(1962) in an SAC base hospital (now closed, sadly)
People wondered why we developed LOW or Launch On Warning. Scary stuff! Yet, they did their jobs and thank the good Lord either side did something stupid!
And those were the good ol' days?
Pax Americana.
The good ole days
Greetings: Great presentation. Thx 4 the share.
"How many times have I told you guys that I don't want no horsing around on the airplane? Major T. J. "King" Kong
Talk about "old school". Leather gloves and MBU-3P masks with fasteners.
@1:44 looks like SAC had a lax parking policy.
He must have been the CO or Base Commander judging by his parking spot and the way the rest of the men followed him into the building.
Every piece of electronic equipment in that room including the GIANT WALL MAP @(10:34) is now replaced by one device- The smart phone 📲
(I bet the map guy was telling himself back then, computers will never take my job haha) 🤦🏻♂️🖕🏼📲🤷🏻♂️
Nothing quite like the B52D tall tails
My dad's girlfriend lived about a mile from SAC BASE MCcord, Seattle Washington, 76.and I hated
it bc her apartment was directly under the landing
Flight path. Never could get
a good nites sleep with all the planes. It was a SAC, TAC, & MAC BASE. MY DAD
WAS AN E6 Wa N.G. HE TOLD ME ALL THAT
March AFB We had lots of B52s
Must have been very exciting to live during those period
If you define constant low level anxiety (or worse) whether the entire world was about to go up in nuclear holocaust as "exciting", sure. Why not? The bomber crews got the "rush" of knowing that at any time they could be dispatched in a one way mission that they would almost certainly not survive, and that even if by a miracle they did, there would be nowhere to return to because all the major bases would be gone in nuclear infernos and massive plumes of fallout. I bet you get really jealous of troops that fought in WW2 as well, because of all the "badass toys" they got to play with. It's pretty much like playing Call of Duty, right?
Are those "White Alice" style communications antennas at 8:10? I understand White Alice stayed in operation in Alaska for civilian phone service into the seventies long after they were no longer used for military communications.
Those are troposcatter antennas.
I was in Kindergarten hiding under desk drill.😁
Lieutenant Ralph Kotschevar(Kočevar in slovenian language)defensive systems operators ancestors came to USA from Slovenia. His surename is, was of slovenian origin. Interesting! Father of Boeing 747 (Sutter(Suhadolc in slovenian)) was also of slovenian origin on his fathers side.
Great piece of film! It should be a staunch reminder to us all. The threat is still real.
Further note: The B-47 taking off at 20:20 had an engine out! and the B-52 at 27:04, you can see a puff of black from #3 engine as she banks! Perhaps a compressor stall or a little flame instability in the combustors? Interesting!
You have a really good eye, and both appear to be the #3 engines.
That is hilarious the commander of Buzzsaw looks like a mother goose leading her goslings since they are so much shorter than he.
Perhaps he is working later so he can afford a better car, what a heap! I can't believe we used to think those cars nice looking.
I like them old 2 door cars
After watching this I'm amazed that one of these missions didn't get us all incinerated 60 years ago.
That's because you assume people were undisciplined or unprofessional. SAC had no sense of humor. Everyone did everything right or got removed.
Where is COL Rock Hudson of SAC?
Oh, just kidding, the alert is cancelled, geez!! Put your mind at ease now, Damn!!
insane
Boy, watching these films you really see their purpose... Not just to intimidate the Soviets, but to stoke paranoia and fear in the American population as well, to keep the budgets high, the USAF money flowing...
he just parked his '59 ford right there on the grass and sidewalk
Use “Try a Little Tenderness “ for the opening music.
We’re heading down the Atlanta Highway, looking for the lovvvvve getaway …
Does anyone know why the 97th BMW recieved the Oustanfing Unit Award in 1962?
Spain a "free country". Franco was a Fascist, an Spain was a Fascist dictatorship, just being anti communist does not make some one free.
Yup. Flying around with nuclear weapons, I mean what could possibly go wrong. 🤔
I was able to get my dome chromed in my exotic car by a soviet blonde because of all the great men who flew chrome dome two generations before myself..much respect and honor to these tough son of a b-52 pilots. These men in the military at this time drank jet fuel shit thumb tacks and scared munitions out of the bomb bay with just a look. And this is clearly not a manipulation of the truth because it is stranger than fiction children
That'll learn 'em to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids!
Yeah luckily they were bless ny god to not have a detonation happen during their 30 bad accidents occured in twenty years, after the palomar spills and Thule Groenland accident it was obvious that defence was a joke..
What happened to countdown to detonation and shock arrival time? Read the series of books, ' We Were Crewdogs' for a first hand story of those who flew in SAC.
Work, pray, sleep. It’s those that pray that we must fight against. They are bent on destroying this country.
Wow... stop using your head as a suppository... OL J R:)
Then don't vote Trump.
I was a year old.
What’s the music name
"Goldie, did you say wing attack plan R?" Then he talks about state fairs,picnics and rodeos and rides an H-bomb into a commie ICBM site. The End I hope that wasn't too much of a spoiler.
good ol water injection
Apparently we might get nuclear B-52s back to 24/7 alert sometime soon
A Major in charge of a B-52? for some reason, I thought you needed a bird on your lapel to command a sledgehammer like a B-52.
i would say a major would be about right to command a b-52 plane. a bird colonel would have commanded the squadron.
when i was in the air force 68-72 one of our missions was communications for this operation.
A lot of the A/Cs (including me) were captains then.
Lt. Col. (Ret) C.W. Wachsmuth : Ellsworth AFB 1966-1069 three Arc Light tours and uncounted home alert tours.
Saw plenty of captains as A/C's when I was the alert bomber area entry controller at Barksdale AFB while in the 2nd SPS., Every morning crews would enter the area to preflight their birds.
@@steveperry1344 Captain or Major as Aircraft Commander, LTC as Sqdn CO, COL as Wing or Base CO.
Do B-52's have a toilet?
They have a "honey bucket" behind the Navigator's stations (down stairs!)
.... Where Is Major Kong?
Getting ready to ask the same thing :)
Riding a bomb.
Those were the days -- \ua-cam.com/video/qqsP78pKpKY/v-deo.html
❤❤🔥🔥🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸🦅
So they were cave men with clubs?
Squatch Op
The Russians are coming !😁