Operation Chrome Dome and the Palomares Incident 

"Now, boys, we got three engines out; we got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule; the radio's gone and we're leakin' fuel, and if we's flying any lower, why, we'd need sleigh bells on this thing. But we got one little bulge on them Rooskies, at this height, why, they might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen

I like that you listed the names of those who died carrying out this operation. They, too, should be remembered.

The closing screen is a very classy touch. Those men served and died during one of the human race's closest approaches to self annihilation. They deserve to remembered and their sacrifice honored. Thanks for that.

I was involved in that fifth Operation Chrome Dome incident. I was stationed at Thule Air Base in Greenland from Sept '67 to Sept. '68. On Jan. 21, 1968 I was getting ready to go to work at the comm center when the barracks shoot. We all looked toward the bay and saw an orange ball of flame rising. It was the dark period so, even though was technically "daytime" it was completely dark. Long story short, we later learned a B-52 had crashed and the next morning they asked for volunteers to go help build pre-fab huts with kerosene stoves for the SAC teams who were one their way to clean things up. Even though I was just a teletype repairman, I volunteered for that job. I spent two days on the ice, having my mukluks taken each day after they made the Geiger counter click. That was nearly 53 years ago and I'm still here. That's my closest brush with the Cold War.

Thank you. My father was a B-52 pilot and flew those missions. The names of those that died was very nice touch, thank you again.

Having been raised as a Air Force brat and my father flying Chrome Dome his whole career starting with the B-36 then transitioning to the B-52 I can tell you these guys were incredibly motivated not only the flight Crews but the ground Crews I think it's remarkable that more accidents didn't occur!

As an old B-52 pilot, I appreciate your review of these incidents....enjoy your channel very much!

My father (9 y/o at the time) was living in MD at the time of the 3rd crash. An escape hatch from the aircraft ended up in a scrap yard near his house. He took it home and kept it hidden in the basement for a month or so before my grandfather discovered it and made my dad return it. Great channel, I subbed!

The photo of the B-52 missing its vertical stabilizer is not the actual plane that crashed over Savage Mountain, but, instead is another B-52 that had suffered similar damage. The picture is used for illustration, as no actual picture of the B-52 that crashed is available in the public domain. The plane pictured was being operated by a Boeing crew and was successfully landed. The episode includes many public domain images of B-52s from all eras of the plane’s long service history. I mention that planes had to raise flaps in order to slow for fueling. In fact, flaps are extended to slow the plane. I say that the KC -135 was derived from the Boeing 707. In fact, both the KC-135 and the Boeing 707 were derived from the same prototype. Some viewers have complained that I left out various crashes of nuclear armed bombers. To be clear, this episode was not intended to cover every instance when a bomber crashed. Rather, it talks about the unique circumstances caused by the operation to keep B-52 bombers constantly airborne.

The Palomares incident and subsequent recovery operation was also where Carl Brashear (the Navy's first African American Master Diver) injured his leg. Having to eventually be amputated . He Served an additional ten years as an amputee Master Diver.

Having spent time during the mid 60s in the eastern Arctic of Canada, I occasionally saw those highly swept winged B-52s overhead, northward bound over the general vicinity of the DEWline radar bases at about 69 degrees North latitude. That is, on those Chrome Dome North American circumnavigational flights, as well as heading for Operation Hard Head picket duty transits across the northern Greenlandic & Canadian latitudes of the USAF SAC base at Thule Greenland. (I was participating in an Arctic Wolf Research Project on west central Baffin Island at the time, so I always had binoculars & a spotting scope available when I heard the high altitude rumble of those eight engined heavy bombers high overhead.) You mentioned very quickly in passing a 'broken arrow' B-52 crash "in Greenland" where the four hydrogen bombs detonated their high explosives. They contaminated a large area of the sea ice, ocean waters & bottom, & also some land around the SAC base there with plutonium, ETC!!. Perhaps one of the four fissile units has never even been recovered to this day! As you mentioned, this 1968 event, two years after the Polmares (sp?) Spain event, spelled the end of Operation Chrome Dome. To my understanding the details of that final broken arrow story (AKA the Thule Event), is best told in summary so far on Wikipedia. it is fascinating & truly deserves to be remembered! It's replete with military ops such as Operation Hard Head (the High Arctic picket patrols associated with Chrome Dome); Operation Crested Ice, the cleanup mission also dubbed 'Dr. Freezelove' (for obvious Kubric-ian reasons). Then there's the associated Danish political scandal of 1995 that the Danes dubbed Thulegate! Also since NASA's New Horizons space probe recently reached an icy space rock six billion kilometres beyond Earth (& a billion miles past Pluto in the Kuiper Belt), known as Ultima Thule, there's also that tie in as well! As you are no doubt aware, Ultima Thule (pronounced Too-lee) was that mythical northern-most & remotest place beyond the realms of the known world, to ancient & medieval scholars. Perhaps a kind of circular island continent surrounding an ice free sea by some ancient Greek accounts, if memory serves. (This alone is also worthy of a ten or fifteen minute presentation in my humble opinion.) In any case a Greenlandic Dane, about a century or so ago, named Knud Rasmussen established a trading base & Arctic exploration outpost near Cape York (as I vaguely recall the Anglo nomenclature & known to the local most northerly Inuit peoples of the world as Quaanaaq) & Knud named his High Arctic outpost Thule. (I believe that the USAF SAC base was established there about three decades later at about the time of the first Russian nuclear weapons test in 1949.) Knud Rasmussen also probably deserves to be remembered in perhaps a parallel item. He was what we'd now call not only a polar explorer (first across the Greenlandic ice cap as I recall & across the Canadian Arctic several times all the way to Alaska too), but also as an ethnologist & anthropologist. In his day he was celebrated as 'the father of Eskimo-ology'! (sic) He conducted at least five Thule Expeditions. My former neighbour in Igloolik Nunavut, Zacharias Kunuk made a film about Knud Rasmussen's Fifth Thule Expedition & its one or two years with Awa & the Igloolingmuit (the people of Igloolik Island & northern Foxe Basin) during the early 20s. 'First European contact in that area for 100 years. The feature film is entitled The Journals of Knud Rasmussen & was filmed during 2004 to 2006. I lived year-round for more than 11 years in Igloolik working for the Nunavut Wildlife Service, which had its territorial wildlife research & management programs based there. I moved back south late in 2015. Chilly cheers & warm regards to you History Guy from Canada! P.S. Three or four suggested topics, perhaps interrelated, all in one submission! Cheers! 🐾🦌🐾 PPS I'm not old; I'm retro! I'm also a DEWline, Pinetree & Mid-Canada radar lines history geek. 'Now they've been supplanted by the largely automated North Warning System. They all fed into the NORAD command headquarters at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex & at nearby North Bay Ontario where the cavernous underground bunker command centre has also been mothballed. I.e. 'in care & maintenance' only. I could provide some original contemporary photos of the Igloolik area for any of these possible items, as well as of the current North Warning System base at Fox Main - Hall Beach Nunavut. Also I've got excellent contacts with the ultimate DEWline historian Brian Jeffrey of Carp Ontario. He's also one of the custodians & tour guides for our nation's capital's Cold War bunker near the former RCAF base at Carp near Ottawa. It's generally referred to as The Diefenbunker after the Prime Minister of the day, George?? Diefenbaker. Whew! 'Better sign off for now! Reading you five by five History Guy! Over & out for now!

My ship USS Cascade AD-16 took part in the Palomares bomb recovery incident in 1966. Jon Lindbergh (son of the aviator) was one of the Alvin pilots in the search. We had him to the wardroom for dinner one evening and I donated a pair of my working khaki trousers and a shirt to him. They finally found the bomb in 8,000ft of water. Pulled it up with grappling hooks manufactured on board by its still attached parachute. We took it back to the states enclosed in a DASH helicopter container strapped to the deck. We were there for 77 days til they finally located it right where a Spanish fisherman told them it dropped in the beginning.

I know an old boy who started flying the B-52D in 1958. He did Chrome Dome and similar missions. Also did the transition between the KC-97 and the KC-135. He's very proud of his time in the Cold War and the 25 years he flew the B-52D. I'm proud of him too.

honestly out of thousands of missions over a 10 year span, 5 accidents is a great track record. Shows just how reliable the B-52's were and how well trained their crews were.

A very fine video. It was day in my life that will long be remembered. I was the gunner on the crew of the other B-52G commanded by Captain John F Wylam. We had breakfast with the other crew before the mission began. I knew all of them well especially fellow gunner Ron Snyder and the young navigator Steve Montanus. There was some disciplinary action taken as a result that the Aircraft Commander Charlie Wendorf allowed Major Messinger to occupy the pilot's seat and attempt to refuel. It was not in accordance with SAC Policy at the time since he was not a combat ready pilot assigned to a numbered Combat ready crew. SAC Policy at the time for Chrome Dome Operations stated "Only combat ready numbered crew personnel can occupy the pilot seats during critical phases of flight (takeoff, air refueling and landing". Messenginger was a trained pilot and had previously been an aircraft commander on a B-52G. He was however not currently a certified combat ready pilot and his normal duties was a command post controller. It was normal to have a spare pilot along that could occupy the pilot or co-pilot seat during time that the could rest. Being 81 years old today and the incident 53 years ago has not faded in my memory.

I was in Lisbon Portugal when Palomares happened. My dad was naval attache. He came to breakfast grim faced and announced the news. Years later at Kirkland AFB my wife and son went over to the Atomic museum and saw the casings of the lost weapons. History guy, I get the impression you were an airman! Like me!

As an Air Force fighter pilot veteran and retired Airline Pilot I love your frequent lessons on Aviation and Military topics. Well done Sir!

When I was 10 years old, my family lived on Loring AFB - my dad was Army Air Defense - I still vividly remember the almost non-stop take offs and landings of those B52's and the fighter and other aircraft that supported them... One of my most vivid memories of childhood along with the Cuban missile crisis and the assaination of JFK - at those times we lived near Nike Hercules missile sites (near Niagra, New York for the missile crisis and Loring AFB for JFK) where my dad worked. I can still recall the sirens going off and thinking WWIII had started...

I primarily guarded KC-135’s for 26 years and I’ve been on a refueling sorted with a B-52, it’s an amazing experience.

The video states B-52s would "raise the flaps and lower the landing gear to refuel with the slower tankers" . Raising the flaps would increase the airspeed required to maintain control of the aircraft. Lowering the gear increases drag and does not increase the stall speed. I have over 1000 hours as a B-52 tail gunner. The greatest job I ever had. Your videos are well done and very interesting. Thank you for your work.

The list of names at the end of those who died was a nice touch.

You're making me love history even more, thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

Carswell AFB my Junior High was situated completely under ground. Lake Worth Independent School District (1959-today) By the 1960s, noise from air traffic at Carswell Air Force Base caused the district's schools to lose 10 percent of teaching time each day. To mitigate this problem, Lake Worth Junior High School was built underground; this 1964 construction project included 18 rooms at a cost of $495,000.[5]

I was a Crew Chief of the KC-97L pictured at 5:38. We flew out of the 180th Aerial Refueling Group based at Rosecrans ANG St. Joseph, MO during the 1960's to the late 70's. I was part of the 139th CAM (Consolidated Aircraft Maintenance Sq.) I got to be run-up and taxi qualified on her. It was a hoot. 283 was reassigned to Texas before it was de-commissioned. She was later purchased by the Raddison Hotel people and it now sits at the Raddison in Colorado Springs still bearing Texas Air Guard markings. I was told they removed one of her wings. Hard for me to think about as she was a great aircraft and I loved flying on her. Thanks History Guy for honoring the fallen Airmen at the end of the video. I knew several fellow airmen who was part of Chrome Dome.

I have read about these accidents quite a few times over the years. Your video for them was very well done. I will definitely be sharing this one with my friends.

These events were discussed in Eric Schlosser's book "Command and Control". However, you do an excellent job of covering them here as well. I find it very fortuitous that none of our H-bombs detonated and went critical. In one case, a simple .49 cent on/off "air burst/ground burst/off switch" saved the day, even after 4 or 5 sequence switches in the bomb activated. The Captain had the instrument panel switch set to the "off" position. Had it been set to "air burst or ground burst" the remaining triggers would have set off the bomb, according to Schlosser. It has been proposed that if the Carolina bomb had detonated, most of Washington, D.C, N.Y.C. and parts of New England would have been exposed to deadly radioactive fallout.

This one touched close to home... sorta. My father was the Air Police Sergeant that took the initial call of a plane down and the Broken Arrow in Spain. He coordinated the security personnel at the land-based recover sites during the operation. On the Navy side, the techniques used to locate the weapon lost at sea were later used to create a program called "Ivy Bell's". I was fortunate enough to participate in this operation when I was in the Navy.

You Sir are the new Paul Harvey of the new generation. Information, Creative Captivity, Entertainment and Passion for History. Thank You for re-igniting the flame of interest in history. Well done.

As usual, another fantastic quick lesson of history.. best subscription I have~!

History Guy, Old SAC guy here. The KC-135 was based on the Boeing 720. A shorter fuselage version of the 707. I was at Beale AFB, and remember hearing about the B-52F crashing. However, we were more concerned with the SR-71 and a KC-135 that crashed into a gas station just outside the Main Gate on No. Beale Road. Good stuff! Hammer

I’m impressed that the B52 is still flying

Your channel is my favorite on RU-vid! I learn so much. I remember when you barely had 1000 subs. I am so happy to see your channel over 60000 now. Most excellent! Fantastic video as always.

When you swear the oath of enlistment to serve this country you know of the sacrifices which are bound to come. Deployments, missing your son learning to walk, missing Christmas, birthdays, funerals, just being away from your family etc. These men who died to preserve our freedom didn't plan on losing their lives. This is why we the living honor those who gave their all on our behalf, on my behalf. Thank you History Guy for honoring their memory too in your forgotten real-life stories.

My late grandfather was a maintenance crew chief on the B-52s at Blytheville AFB that flew Operation Chrome Dome flights from that base. He was an incredibly tough Great Depression era raised man that I never once heard complain about his hard life. He was proud, smart, and polished. A great American who loved his country and was thankful each day for what he had.

👏👏👏👏👏 Exceptionally well done. This is such a complex subject that to present the background and incident in 13 minutes and to do it so completely is an accomplishment worthy of note. Hats off to you, Sir.

Since I was on a sister ship, I looked up the sub rescue ship, USS Petrel in Wikipedia. It is worth going there to read about an interesting ship. In addition to helping with the broken arrow incident, the Petrel had several other adventures, including helping get the battleship Missouri off a grounding. Our little ships were slow, some with a top speed of 16 knots, downhill. But we did some surprising work. It just took a while to get to any scene where we were needed. These and similar ships were so valuable in their day, that we (US Navy) gave two or three of them to the US Coast Guard to help in their work, in the ATF format. It's hard to think of such a slow ship as a "cutter". Maybe more of a slow ripper, LOL. But very valuable once on station.

I was in the USAF from 1963 through 1967. In 1964, I was in SAC as a nuclear weapons loading crew member on the B-58A at Bunker Hill AFB in Indiana. None of our 18 alert aircraft flew "hot" (with nuclear weapons). Chrome Dome was expensive but kept the Soviets away until we were able get enough missile launch satellites and ICBM's to counter their missile threat.

I grew up living about 55 miles from Loring AFB, Limestone, Maine. It was quite common to see B52's in the air on a regular basis back then. As a young adult I had the privilege of touring Loring AFB and actually getting up into the cockpit of a B52. And the bomb bay was gigantic. I was also able to lie on the bench in the KC-135 and hold the controls that guided the boom to accomplish the refuleing process. Thanks for the fascinating account.

A family friend swung by the house a few years ago - elderly lady, nice as can be - "Oh, Andrew! What are you doing there on your computer?" (always stand in the presence of your elders, kids. Show proper respect.) "Oh, nothing much, Mrs. ----, just playing a game." She continued to inquire, so I gave her a brief run-down of the Fallout franchise. "Remind me, young man, what year were you born?" "'87, towards the end of the Cold War - I still remember, somehow, watching the Berlin Wall come down. Why?" "Well, I spent all of World War 2 in an internment camp because my parents were from Japan and I then spent the rest of the century expecting to see the world turn to ash in front of my eyes. Have fun with your little 'Fallout' game." and she walked away. I have never felt so small, and she was absolutely justified in what she said. This is why history deserves to be remembered. Lest we forget, 'lest we forget!

A good friend of mine was a 2Lt Pilot on the BUFF that went down at Palomares. He was in a bunk or jump seat downstairs in the Navigator's compartment when things went to Hell. Unlike the narration says, he did not Eject. He crawled to a hole left by one of the Nav's Ejection Seats and bailed out. He is said to be one of only two men to manually bail out of a Buff and live to tell about it! His story is fascinating as he describes seeing the plane on fire from the outside and free falling, afraid to open his chute for fear of falling debris. He went into the Mediteranean. That was when he got mad, after all that he thought he was going to freeze to death! Fortunately a Spanish fishing boat picked him up. He is comfortably retired in Missouri now.

Great job as usual! May millions of people fall in love with history because of you!! 🍀🍀

Used to watch KC135s lumbering over our house when I was a kid. Those things are rattle-the-windows loud. They look like they're flying so slow too.

I hit the like button before watching, I'm that confident it will be excellent !!

Very unbiased presentation of the material. The recognition of the deterrent effect of Operation Chrome Dome is appreciated.

I didn't know how much I didn't know about Chrome Dome! For one thing, I had always assumed it was LeMay's idea, and learning that he actually had grave concerns about it has complicated my image of LeMay as a mad dog with nukes.

Master diver Carl Maxie Brashear lost his left leg in 1966 recovering the forth bomb at the Palomares Incident. He was the first African-American to attend and graduate from the Diving & Salvage School. In 1968 Carl Brashear was also the first amputee diver to be recertified as a United States Navy diver. I think he deserves 15 minutes of fame from the History Guy.

Another great episode (you hit this out of the park)! B-52s have proven to be a great weapon over the years, but one thing is for sure they weren't built for comfort. I have heard a lot of crew members talk about what it was like to be in the lower positions on long flights and low-level missions. Great respect for them.

Dear History Guy: In the parlance of today, you are 'killing it.' The QUALITY of your content is beyond all reproach. Please keep up the good work! *I would like to suggest/request a future topic: The Battle of Athens, Tennessee 1946. The returning citizen soldiers of McMinn County who stood up to corruption deserve to be remembered.

I really enjoyed this history lesson as well as all of the other ones I have seen so far. I remember the fear that living through those times brought to everyone. My neighbor made the biscuits that were distributed and stockpiled in the "bomb shelters" seen everywhere and marked with the atomic energy symbol. He would bring samples of the emergency stockpiled biscuits over to our home for us to try out and inquired which ones did we think were the most tasty. None were very good to say the least. Some were downright awful. There were several underground shelters built in my neighborhood by some of my neighbors. We had weekly safety drills in our schools and there were civil defense movies instructing us on what to do in the event of a nuclear strike. I was a child actor in Chicago and was in several of the Duck and Cover instructional films shown to the public during the time. I am most noticeable in the one with the young boy on the bicycle who jumps off of his moving bike and runs over to the side of the road and lies in area next to the curb. They had numerous retakes of the clip requiring me to perform the stunt until the director was satisfied. I remember being extremely banged up for several days following the shoot. My schoolmates really enjoyed making fun of me whenever they saw one of the films.

The Cold War was indeed an incredible time in world history. My father graduated from the Naval Academy in 1954 and served 26 years as a nuclear submariner. He commanded a fast attack sub and a ballistic missile sub, was a division commander and a squadron commander before his retirement. During the Cuban missile crisis, we lived in Hawaii and his boat, the Swordfish, SSN 571, was alerted, and secretly deployed on patrol. At the time, he thought the likelihood of a nuclear conflict was extremely likely. He was gone for over 11 months, the longest of his career. Thanks for the great posting of Operation Chrome Dome, which highlights the operations of one of the components of the Nuclear Triad which guarded our country for many years, and to a lessor extent, still today.

Your videos are awesome. Very well done and cleanly produced. Thank you for making these.

The picture at 1:42 of the B-36 & B-52 is one of the best I have ever seen. Thank you for the good story.

Thinking the Bond movie Thunderball..1965 Bond recovers stolen nukes..But that was written in 1961..

More history that deserves to be remembered. 'Props' to the Air Force. Nice you acknowledged those affected to include the air crews by name.

Another excellent presentation! As somewhat of a "broken arrow" buff, I was aware of this and the other events and you covered it all very well. For those interested, a detailed account of the Palomares incident and subsequent operations can be found in the book "One Of Our H-Bombs Is Missing, by Flora Lewis...out of print but used copies can be found through Amazon.

In the field of Aviation Safety the concerns of Crew Fatigue covers a wide range of areas which include human error leading to accidents involving aircraft crashes and mid-air collisions. Lemay was addressing his concerns about possible accidents with his concerns about crew fatigue.

Great job History Guy, a very well done video. I flew B-52s for SAC and ACC and have several thousand hours on the airframe. Although I did not participate in Chrome Dome, I've done my fair share of alerts and nuclear generations over my career with actual weapons. The American public has no idea how often we pulled nukes out of their bunkers and loaded them onto our bombers. I vividly remember generating full lines at Barksdale and Minot AFBs and walking out to the jet to see dozens of B-52s up and down the flightline. Each B-52 had a full load of 20 ALCMs (8 internal, 12 external) so there were literally HUNDREDS of nukes sitting out in the open ready to go. A little known fact is that we were in the midst of a nuclear generation (Global Guardian) on the morning of 9/11. We were sitting alert watching the first tower burn. As soon as the second plane hit the klaxon went off and we did an alert response to the jets as the Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) started coming in over the TAAN radios. As we got to the jet, applied power and went through the decode sequence I was sure we were going to do a launch for no other reason than to disperse the weapons and prevent an airliner from crashing into such a large concentration of bombers/nuclear weapons. My longest mission was 36 hours as part of a Global Power mission and it took me days to recover. Unlike modern aircraft, there is very little room in the B-52 cockpit and the vast majority of your time is spent sitting in an extremely uncomfortable, hard, ejection seat. Temperature control sucks and your head will be freezing while your feet are burning up. Food and bathroom accommodations are a joke and the noise is unbearable without constant use of hearing protection. I give credit to the guys who flew Chrome Dome for no other reason than having to endure such long sorties on a regular basis. A final bit of trivia, the Thule crash was due to the inherently poor cockpit temperature control of the aircraft. The pilots set the overall temperature with the other crew compartments having a rudimentary open/close pull/push control at their individual vents. On this particular sortie, the navigators were burning up and tried to stop the heat coming into their compartment by stuffing a seat cushion into the vent. This eventually caught fire and attempts to extinguish the fire failed. Eventually the fire spread and consumed the cockpit forcing the crew to eject and the plane to crash. To this day there is a warning in the Tech Orders to not put anything in or near the vents. One of the greatest nuclear accidents in US history because the USAF couldn't figure out how to keep their aircrews comfortable.

Sane, rational, non-partisan recap of historical events that SHOULD be remembered so that we may learn from them. Thank you. Subscribed.

"Where the hell is Major Kong?!"

As a Cold War veteran and an avid history buff, I appreciate your videos very much. I remember the Palomares incident clearly; my family had lived in close proximity to SAC bases in El Paso TX and on Okinawa, and as children my older brother and I could readily identify just about every aircraft in squadron service in the US inventory. Thank you for your excellent videos.

Palomares was a brief name in the news when I started high school in Canada.Thanks for the nuts and bolts details skillfully married to strategic history of the cold war.The other name in the news was Thresher, perhaps you could do a segment on that sometime.The average newspaper reading civilian at the time was encouraged not to ask too many questions.I have read Rhodes trilogy so have some rough idea on the basics, still....Thanks for the timely series.

I worked (as a civilian employee) at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Pasadena, CA during the late 1960's. The CURV I ROV was designed and fabricated at that facility (prior to my time there, but I was told of the role the CURV played in the H-bomb recovery off Palomares). However, they were working on successor ROV's during my tenure. I remember seeing the large cast aluminum ball housing for that vehicle. NUWC had very complete fabrication facilities, starting with an on-site foundry, machine tools (including early CNC machine tools) and complete electronics design and fabrication capabilities. I worked at one department where I designed and fabricated printed circuit boards from scratch, starting with trace and component layout based on schematics (used black adhesive tape and pre-printed pads placed on clear acetate film). I would then apply photo-resist, expose the board, develop the photo resist, etch the boards, use an optical drill to create the holes for component leads and vias. I would also install and crimp the via connections, which were gold plated rivets (two-sided PCB's only). Then I would install and solder all the components, which at that time included discrete transistors and IC's in metal cans. The boards I worked on were 1/8" thick fiberglass substrate trimmed to an octagonal shape to fit in a (round) Phoenix missile body. The thickness was due to the extreme G-forces they were subjected to on launch. I did not continue on as a career Civil Service employee but the training and knowledge I learned during that time were an invaluable kick-start to my professional career. I retired in 2000 as a Product Design Engineer at various high-tech companies in Silicon Valley.

A nitpick: the KC-135 was not derived from the 707. The 707 was derived from the KC-135. But a very minor error in the context of a truly excellent presentation.

Thank you for another excellent video History Guy! This one took me down memory lane. I served in the Air Force Reserves. I used to catch hops whenever possible. The military allows active duty and reserve members to fly on a military aircraft for free, if there was space available. One time I caught a hop on a C-135. I dosed off after takeoff. When I woke up, everybody was gone. A fighter jet was off our right wing, and another was off our left wing. I found all of the other passengers back in the tail area. They had a birds eye view of the refueling of the fighter jets, and someone stepped aside so I could see it too!

...if the B-52 had to drop the landing gear to create enough drag so that it could fly slowly enough to keep formation with a KC-97...it would need to lower the flaps [not raise them (5:40)]

My father was an f-94 pilot stationed at Goose Bay Labrador as an all weather night interceptor as a deterrent to Russian bombers (in the days before ICBM's). About 10 years ago I got him talking about his flying days. One of his stories was a brief but terrifying encounter with Curtis Le May who was touring the area. Really enjoying your videos.

I always thought operation chrome dome meant something entirely different. I learned something today!

A little late but I can add a small note as an Air Force brat. My father was a career Air Force NCO who retired in 1968 at 26 years of active duty service. One of the assignments was to Ramey AFB (Puerto Rico) 1956/ 57/ 58. At that time he worked as a TV engineer with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS). There were times when B-52s from Loring AFB (Maine) deployed to Ramey AFB on various missions and had some spare time. I think this was before Chrome Dome was actually in full operation. My father was also a HAM radio operator and had crew-members from the deployed planes stop by our home when they could. He then used the HAM radio to contact another operator at Loring AFB. That operator then placed local calls to the crew families and patched them back through the radio. The crew members and families could talk for the equivalent of a local phone call. It was great to be a part of that with those brave air crews. We did have one bad accident that I recall from that time. Our house looked out over the start of the runway and hanger area. One of the B-52s moved to its position at the start of the runway and began to accelerate. We could hear it reach take-of speed and then lift off, followed by a large explosion. The crash happened right over an empty playground and melted the steel swing sets and slides. The crew were all lost and remain in our memories. ...

The deep submergence vehicle Aluminaut was also used in the search for the bomb. In Oct of '68, a launching accident resulted in the sinking of the Alvin in 4,900ft of water. The Aluminaut was used in Sept of '69 to attach recovery cables to the Alvin, which was raised, refurbished/refitted, and as of 2017 was still in use by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Aluminaut was retired in 1970.

Since when are historians so fair and balanced. Your videos are a highlight of my day.

My grandpa was in the room when they were planning all this out. Someone said they should call the strategy, “Operation Up-Skirt”, They all laughed, and then decided on ‘curtain’ instead. Levity, even then. That’s a true story.

Important information, thank you for time putting this information together and posting it.

As with other commenters, I like that you added the names of those who died so that they would not be forgotten. Thank you.

this history class video makes me remember several classic movies about cold war days and brinkmanship. I was a military brat living in europe during the cuban missile crisis. our serving parents disappeared for almost two weeks without notice. we were quite concerned. those movies I think of are: - fail safe - 7 days in May - on the beach - dr. strangelove we can dismiss these as movie fiction, but our world today is much smaller, more populated, and moves far faster. never forget.

Can you do a video on that telegraph line laid across the Atlantic ocean during the 1800s?

Man!! I could watch these all day long!

The US Navy was told were the bomb had hit the water off Spain by the local but they thought they knew better so ignored him. But eventually they had to get him to show them where it had landed and sure enough there it was. As a child I used to watch the British Royal Air force's Vulcan bombers fly over, they were based in Lincolnshire to the south. I used to watch these huge white triangles fly to and from their bases. I sometimes heard them fly over at night time when I was in bed and, oddly enough when you realised what they would be carrying if we went to war, I always felt safe knowing they were there.

This was an excellent episode! After returning from Germany in 1991 I was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana with the 839th missile security squadron. I was very proud to have served in strategic air command.

SAC air bases were always "very interesting" places during the Cold War.

i am glad you got away from the five minute history stuff, I love that you still keep it relatively short but are not running out of breath! you have an awesome channel and fill a nice gap in history channels (yes that was intentional)

The pressure to remain airborne advanced systems pioneered their ability in service for extended periods, and for those of us in extended services, learning to remain awakes days at a time. In a coordinated group, I can do with naps every 6 hours of 20-30 minutes for up to a week coordinated. But eventually you will sleep off the napping.

One of,if not the best channel on RU-vid!! This is what RU-vid is for!!

Excellent video, I was stationed at Carswell AFB, Loring AFB and Seymour/Johnson AFB during my time in SAC. I've red about the accidents involving nukes several times. I had to learn about the code words used involving an aircraft accident with nukes and what to expect if the weapon were to detonate. Thank God nothing happened. I also know that there are several Nuke bombs that were ejected on purpose during flights, due to problems and have never been recovered. One was lost from a B-47 bomber that ejected a 7,000 pound nuke bomb into the waters off Tybee Island, Ga., after it collided with another Air Force jet. To this day it has never been found. The other interesting part for me was the B-52D that lost it's vertical stabilizer and crashed in MD. I only knew of 2 B-52s that had lost there vertical stabilizers and neither had nukes on board and both incidences happened on training flights. The first was a B-52C out of Westover AFB that crashed in Maine on Elephant Mountain in 1963, only 2 of 9 crew members survived. The second is the B-52H that you show in the video. That one happened in 1964 and was on loan to Boeing for tests and made it back to Wichita, Boeing headquarters because they found that by lowering the aft main landing gear it kept the aircraft stable and the Boeing crew all survived. From what I read about the two aircraft, they were not sure as to what caused the vertical stab to come off. They did learn why on the second one that it was caused by increasing turbulence and heavy gust loads on the tail section as they were flying low through the Rockies. After that Boeing came up with a fix for that. I did know of the B-52D that had crashed in Maryland with the nukes but I only read that it was due to mechanical problems, not thee loss of the vertical stab. Very interesting, informative and short videos, hope you can do more on some of these with a little more detail. Maybe one on the lost nukes.

I was an Electronic Warfare Officer on B-52s. The Navigator & Radar Navigator (Bombardier) are stationed in the lower compartment. So their ejection seats shoot downwards. Later tactics changed to low level attack approaches (very low level). We sometimes referred to the Navigators as "Lawn Darts."

Thank you. I remember the period from around 1970 through the collapse of the USSR. The vast majority of our population today have absolutely no idea what we had to do to insure the freedoms they have today.

Your channel is awesome. Thank you for bringing to light all sorts of historical events I didn’t know that I didn’t know. Your contextual analysis is great as well; thoroughly providing the viewer with the important facts so that he or she may understand the full scope or impact of the event. All of your videos are so well done.

Minor note: B52 would have lowered its flaps and landing gear for low speed flight. Not raise its flaps.

Great topic, and well covered. One small thing. The Boeing 707 and KC-135 were developed together, with the KC-135 first (1954). After "Tex" Johnson performed a Barrel Roll, in a 135 derivative, for a group of airline executives (1955), the 707 was flown as an airliner (1957).

I hope this isn't a stupid question, but if the goal is to be just outside of Soviet airspace with plenty of fuel to penetrate it if necessary at all times, then why are the routes shaped the way they are? Why would any point of the route be in freaking Texas, thousands of miles from where you wanna patrol? Why would you ever even come close to Spain? Wouldn't it have been more effective to just stay in the arctic circle, based of off Alaska, and thats basically it, saving huge amounts of fuel and possibly an aircraft off the route? Maybe another base in Germany of a Scandinavian country? Or Japan?

As a Nam vet I find it very hard to believe the DoD would deny health/exposure claims to nasty materials. Since I was exposed to agent orange and denied health claims for decades. Great show and I enjoy and look forward to your stuff.

My friends dad Col. Arns flew these bombers..had a lot to say about how lucky the Soviet union was .....not to have gotten nuked..he was General Doolittles pilot in ww2

No doubt, one of the best channels on YT. Thank you.

The "Cold War" was a very tense time to be serving in the military. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the USSR, it seemed life became a bit easier.

I was a KC-135 Boom Operator between 1981 and 2001. We studied the Palomares incident during upgrade training before becoming an instructor. If you're interested I can give you more detail on what exactly happened during this incident, and how we trained to avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the loss of the tanker crew.

we lived frightened of our own weapons. i was wondering if you would mention NC and Calif. as if having attack drills and fear of russia weren't enough. yeh, i'm that old. thank you for baring this complete, total, american deep dread of those years. good vid.

...just wanted to tell you that we enjoy your programs from here in Taipei...the bow ties are a nice touch too.

Can you do a video on history of Diego Garcia Island?

I remember as a kid, vacationing at a park near Brimley, mi watching the B 52's take off from K,I, Sawyer 60 years ago. What a sight to see them head out.

my father was SAC pilot - one mission was to deliver nukes to England 6 planes - one plane exploded over ocean - father did not say if it was nuke or high explosives that exploded - has not been reported as broken arrow - happened in 1950s

Thank you Sir for a well produced documentary. I understand there is a great deal of research, Editing and so forth.