‘All of a sudden, I notice what I think is our number two aircraft in a three-aircraft formation doing a 50-degree bank. Which was not allowed normally,’ George Holmes, former B-52 tail gunner
Entering service in 1955, the B-52 served as the primary long-range heavy bomber of the U.S. Air Force throughout the Cold War and remains a key component of the USAF bomber fleet today. Nearly 750 aircraft were produced before manufacturing ceased in the fall of 1962, including 170 B-52D variants.
B-52 bombers began combat operations in Southeast Asia in June 1965. By August 1973, they had carried out 126,615 combat missions, with seventeen aircraft lost to enemy fire and several others damaged, as recalled by George Holmes, a former B-52 tail gunner who flew 113 combat sorties over Southeast Asia, in a post on Quora.
“We were inbound to Vietnam on a bombing mission. Must have been around 1966. I was sitting in my station, the tail gunner’s seat, all the way in the back of the plane.”
“All of a sudden, I notice what I think is our number two aircraft in a three-aircraft formation doing a 50-degree bank, which was not allowed normally.”
“Well, as it turns out, it wasn’t number two; it was our plane doing a 50-degree turn in the opposite direction. We had lost all electronics; we were in monsoon clouds. And carrying a full load of 500-pound bombs. All the forward cockpit had was the starter battery. Also had a compass with an oil-filled body for bank and turn indicators.”
“So number two changed places with us in our formation. They lead us to a spot in the ocean reserved for dumping ordnance only. When we dumped all of our bombs, both from the bomb bay and under the wings, it felt like we went upward for about 100 feet.”
“Then the new lead plane, listening to the tower for the base that we were going to make an emergency landing at, started leading us to the end of the runway.”
“The runway was ONLY 8,000 FEET LONG!!!”
“Our normal runway was 2 miles long. Our pilot touch the wheels down at the very start of the run so he could use it all. We did have flaps and popped the drogue chute on landing at the very start of the runway with high speed.”
Holmes concludes:
“This is how good a pilot Dan Roark was; he had to apply engine power halfway down the runway.”
“THANK YOU, MAJOR ROAK!”
“JS Broadbent, who studied aeronautical engineering & law, and finance at RNZAF/CIT,” explains on Quora.
“8000 feet is still quite long even for a big, heavy bus like the B-52—especially with payload gone because that markedly lowers the minimum required LDG speed.”
“But that is not the point. Major Roark did indeed do a damn fine job. Firstly, by keeping the A/C reasonably stable immediately after virtually all instruments were lost in stormy IMC. Assume the 50° bank was mostly deliberate; 30° would have been safer, but then a B-52 is not an airliner. Secondly, by retaining the presence of the mind to understand, without comms or much in the way of signals, how the others were trying to help. Thirdly, executing what would normally be an instrument approach (without any) good enough to touch down right on the ‘piano keys,’ at the right speed. And then completing a safe landing.”
Broadbent concludes:
“It may sound easy to some, but pile on the stress, uncertainties, and responsibility resting almost 100% on the PIC’s shoulders—it can get tough, and some do get overwhelmed. Not Major Roark, however.”
Photo by U.S. Air Force
