Lol fr just having a good day til u see a single plane coming over the city. “Weird that doesn’t look like most of our Air Force” as you see a single parachuted bomb fly out of the back and an American flag on it when it passes 😳
I used to live in the flight path of Barksdale AFB also. I remember plenty of time being on the phone while outside and having to stop talking on the phone because one was flying overhead. 😅
Freedom as in 60% of national budget going to military, people and the government drowning in debt, patients having to pay hundreds of thousands out of pocket for basic medical care, people dying by guns for ringing a doorbell, and when anyone disagrees with this view of freedom, they enforce it on innocent people in other countries because they have the budget to. Why I am saying this? Idk man I like to rant when given the chance 😅
I started my career in the air force in May 1966. After basic training I reported to Minot AFB North Dakota. US highway 83 goes north out of Minot along east side of tbe base. The east end of the. Runway and alert pad can be seen from the highway. At night with the alert pad lights, the runway lights on plus the lights on the 52's tge area looks like day time. I finished my career at Barksdale after twenty years retiring as a MSgt.
Thank you for your long service. I grew up in Shreveport next to Barksdale and our next door neighbor was a Col at the time He made Lt Gen. Buckman was his name. We watched B-52s a lot. Kind of a hobby. Is this picture of Barksdale? Looks like Louisiana.
My grandpa has a mug and some pot made from it, he say. It's like a collectible item, i wouldn't say that he was bragging about it, but tbf b52 is one of if not the state of the art aircraft at the times, a flying castle.
I would love to see that. The best I've seen was a low level fly-by at Arcadia, California by a B-2 Stealth Bomber. My favorite as a child was seeing an SR-71 Blackbird on final approach to Norton AFB in California, back in the day.
My dad used to tell me stories of back when OIA was still McCoy Airforce Base of waving to B52 tail gunners as they flew over head on final approach. That and the F4 Phantom pilots that used to use the railroad tracks that became the Van Fleet trail on their way to and from Pine Castle Bombing range. One time my uncle and his cousin were coming back from Lakeland after attending the gun show and as they were driving past the peak of the over pass that went over the railroad tracks, one phantom flew under the bridge followed seconds later by another flying over the bridge.
There's just something so sexy about the sound those engines make..... like, I get how underpowered and old they are, but their scream will never be forgotten even if they are re-engined.
When I was going to UCR back in 70s, they would go on alert out of March AFB. BUFFs screaming, belching smoke, make the bank at 1,000 feet overhead, and right behind it came another and another. Insanely loud and you would see those massive camouflage wings with 8 engines hanging off them.
I remember walking through a b52 at an airshow. It was absolutely amazing and then watched it take of almost completely vertically. They have a ton of power.
My dad use to take me to, I believe it was Castle AFB, when i was really little, and we would watch the B-52s take off and land. It was so loud and unmistakeable, and it’s imprinted on my mind forever. And for them taking off…all you see is black smoke and eventually they pull up out of it, and the 4 smoke trails are awesome to see as it takes to the sky. Love the BUFF!
I saw that after I posted the comment. Thanks. It must have been a treat seeing that. I was on a lake in Florida when a B2 flew right over my boat at treetop level. I could see the pilot and copilot. Pretty amazing.
I served at barksdale from March 86 through December 89 working on the B-52G models. Some of the best years of my life. Met some amazing friends and beginning in May of 2019 we had our first squadron reunion(2nd OMS) and met every 2 years during the air show. Since my departure from the Air Force that May was the first time back on base since I left at the young age of 26. To all the Crew Chiefs reading my comment remember those good old days working swing shifts and graves hearing the power units supplying power to the aircraft.
I live in the San Gabriel Valley of So. Calif, and almost every year the they flew they B2 right over my house signaling the start of the Rose Parade, that was sooo... coool. :)
Gave me goosebumps,thanks to all the young men who fought and died in ww2 so we could have the freedoms we have and who stopped the crimes against humanity.
No other plane in the world sounds like a B52 in flight. The sound is unique. I served in the USAF from 62-66 on a B52G base in Maine. Even though I heard these planes every day, I always watched them take off and land.
I remember when I was at school a few years ago while I was in third or fourth grade, sometime around 2020-2021, the class group I was in at the time was at recess and out of nowhere, I hear a sound which sounded like a large jet in the distance. I looked over to where the sound was coming from and waited a few seconds as it got louder and louder. After those few seconds, I saw the B-52 for the first time. It was an insane experience as it was at least one to two hundred feet above the ground. It was bigger and louder than I thought it would be. I can't imagine what the other kids at the playground were thinking.
Many years ago I was on a pay phone at a 7-11 making a long distance call and pumping quarters into the phone as three BUFFs and three KC135s were taking off over me. I enjoyed the show,but it cost me a roll of quarters in the process! Lol Haha I was near the end of the runway of March Airbase South of Riverside, CA. Love the south of 8 burning! Have a nice day.
Back in the 60's we lived within the flight path of landing planes at Larson AFB. The "silver and white" B-52's would land over our house (we were about a mile from the end of the runway) and then, later, during the Vietnam war involvement, they were black on the bottom with green mottled camo on top. As a kid in grade school, I loved it. Sometimes we'd see B-36's at altitude as well . They looked like tiny silver crosses in the sky. My father worked on the analog computers used for the tail guns.
I used to live close to Griffith Air Force Base in Rome,NY when the B52s were stationed there. Knew one of the pilots. They would leave Rome loaded with nuclear weapons and fly the Looking Glass route outside of Soviet Union air space. Always on alert back then 20 plus hour non-stop flight. Was very cool when B52s was come in low like in this video to land at Griffith.
I grew up in the 1950s in a town next to a SAC airbase. We didn't have many B-52s overhead, but we had countless beautiful B-47s just above our roofs and an assortment of other types like the B-57 Canberra, KC-97 tankers, etc. What a treat for this kid who loves airplanes!
Wow, that's an awesome site! It just seemed to come out of nowhere too. Majestic and scary at the same time, image being the enemy and seeing that coming at you.
Texas St (Hwy 80) Bossier City. See them everyday. Used to be a bushhog operator at Barksdale years ago. When we were required to cut the runway, we had to be there early enough to make a 250' cut on both sides of the runway for the entire length before they started flying at 7am. Even being 250' feet from the edge watching these planes come in to land and getting hit by side wind would make your butt pucker.
In 1974 at Bossier City, LA we used to sit outside near Barksdale Air Force Base and watch in amazement as the B-52's took off and landed. At 12 years old we didn't know what Vietnam was.
Theyve flown over my small town at about that height a couple times in the 30 years ive lived here. So freaking loud you can hear them coming for a minute before they fly over
Our farm is 7 miles off the northwest corner of Grand forks Air Force Base. Huey's by the dozens, B-52s, KC-135s B-1's, and now drones and the occasional F-15 have had the pleasure of shattering my eardrums with well spent jet fuel.
I Remember watching them lift off for Operation Chrome Dome trips right from the end of the Runway at SJAFB in the 70's - also remember watching an alert lift off - 18 or 20 at 15 second intervals was impressive!
