A few decades late... but... ATTABOY !! I've had opportunity to be back to Vietnam several times in the past 15 years. In fact, spent 4th of July in Hanoi in 1994, what a strange feeling that was. During those visits I've had several former North Vietnam officials tell me they were beaten and ready to surrender when the B52's stopped coming..
Vietnam, the war won in country, lost in Congress and the public press... Thanks for all you gave Wilton, and to those who gave all. On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 9:59 AM, WILTON via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > Another non-political B-52 tale: > > PERFECT DASK > By Wilton Strickland > > While flying Arc Light bombing missions from Guam and Thailand to > Vietnam in 1972, a normal cell of BUFFs (Big Ugly Fat Fellows - B-52's) > consisted of three bombers, with numbers 2 and 3 in the formation stacked > at 500-foot intervals above and 2 miles behind and 500 feet off to the side > of each other. At the signal, "HACK!" given by the ground controller, the > radar navigator/bombardier on the lead BUFF would release his load of > bombs, the radar navigator/bombardiers in numbers 2 and 3 would start stop > watches and release their bombs based on speed and distance behind lead > (time between aircraft in the cell was usually about 15 seconds). If the > three bombers were in perfect formation and the bombs from numbers 2 and 3 > were released at the right times, the three strings or trains of bombs > impact in lines parallel to those from the lead bomber and start and stop > at the same line perpendicular to the line of flight as those from lead. > This perfect pattern is called "Perfect DASK" - for perfect Drift Angle > Station Keeping or perfect formation flying and timing of the bomb release. > We got pretty good at this. Positions for numbers 2 and 3 are > maintained by the radar navigator/bombardier in each of these aircraft > directing the pilot of each to make adjustments in speed (engine power) and > headings to maintain the aircraft in proper position relative to the lead > aircraft displayed by its blip on the radar scope. We many times made > heading corrections as small as ΒΌ of a degree to maintain a perfect > formation on bomb runs directed by the ground radar sites (Sky Spot). > (Bomb runs during the Linebacker II missions to Hanoi in Dec were made > individually by the crew radar navigator/bombardier in each aircraft using > on-board equipment - RADAR and computer aided.) > Pilot and radar navigator teams who earned a "Perfect DASK" award > received a bottle of Champagne for each award at the pre-mission briefings. > We received several of these - 'got to the point it was nearly every time > we were not flying lead position. We would, of course, take the bottle of > Champagne along with us on the mission to Vietnam each time we had won it. > I would stow it in an equipment rack near the outside skin of the aircraft > so it would be really cold upon landing. My crew many times sipped small > cups of Champagne as we rode the crew bus to post-mission debriefing. The > ground maintenance guys starting calling us the "Champagne Crew" as we > exited the airplane and boarded the crew bus. > > > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those > individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner > has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
