Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Military History 17: The Cold War

 

Orders were issued stating that all old-time navigators would go to upgrading school. I kept saying that I didn't need to go but I went anyway. The school was at Sacramento, California for six months. We went from there to Kessler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi for six more months. Then we moved to Merced, California for B-52 crew assignment then on to Fairchild AFB, Spokane, Washington. The distance between wing-tip to wing-tip on the B-52 is farther than the Wright Brothers first flight. It was a monster. With airborne refueling it could fly as long as the crew could stand it.

We were given targets inside Russia in the event of war. We had fuel enough to reach the target and maybe get out of Russia. After that we were on our own. My job on the crew was to protect our bomber from enemy fighters and ground fire by disabling their radar. The title was Electronic Counter-Measure Officer.

Earlier we had studied escape and evasion for Korea. Korea is a rather small place. At this time we studied escape and evasion of Russia, a seemingly impossible task.

 


 A small section of Lee's Japan and South China Sea silk escape and evasion map

 

 

 

 California 



Spokane, Washington

 


 

 


 

B-52 Stratofortress



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