THE B-52 VIETNAM - OPERATION ARC LIGHT BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM 23460 

After serving 10 years in the USAF flying B52's in Vietnam and other areas around the world. my grandfather was given the option to fly with SAC for 10 more years or get a job as an airline pilot. He chose option A, then later became a Presidential Agent under President Reagan. A great career by an equally great man.

To all the Men and Woman who served and died thank you for my freedom.... Thank you DAD My Dad is COL James D Harford retired Pilot and Commander B-52 pilot he was stationed in Guam and Utapoa Thailand. Line Backer 2 campaign. I was born in 1978 we were stationed at KI-Sawyer were my dad was the vice wing commander he retired in 1994. He flew the Buff from 1968 to 1994 I miss you dad and I love you I'll never forget what you told me about Vietnam and what you taught me and all I've learned about all military personnel and history.

Hi Periscope Film, thank you for these videos of an era long forgotten by a newer millennial generation. I lost 23 friends over three wars in my 28 year naval career - thank you for letting younger generations that the peace they enjoyed came at a price - regardless of the political mistakes of the past or the side combatants were on; we were all humans after all. Peace be with you, may we never forget the cost of war, Ciao, L (Navy Veteran, 118 combat missions)

Was at Utapao 6/72-6/73. Worked the jet engine test cell Next to the B52 ramp and the bomb dump. Night shift. We busted our asses out there, if fact, everybody in acft maitenance busted ass. But we got the job done.Remember during Linebacker 2 saw the shot up B52 trying to land, he didn't make it, and crashed in the jungle just off the end of the runway. He was trying his damnest to get that bird down, just to much battle damage.

I'd say the B52 and Tu95 shall go down in history as the worlds most pivotal bombers. Both still in service . Nearing over 60 years old in general service.

Operating weight of over 400,000 LBS Is incredible. That behemoth gets up and flys over 500mph

Always welcomed the Heavy thunder-Earth Quakes from the B-52's in the Cambodian Jungles, engaging the North Viet-Namese forces who survived the bombing thru the night. Bombing reduced the number of forces we would be engaging in the comming days as they came towards our direction. Cobra Gun-ships ,& Spooky gun ships made a difference. Army INFANTRY, 199th INF. Brigade, best days of my life. Only GOD helped me live thru does days. Thanks to all B-52 Crews for they're great help. ,and my trusty M-16 who performed well with a Red hot Barrel but never failed me. Living today to an old age.

It was mid 1968, we were making our way back to LZ Birmingham, a fire support base with about five or six 105mm artillery batteries stuck out on top of this hill, along side Highway 547, a dirt road that led up the center of the Au Shau valley. We, 3/5th Cav, originally based out of Bear Cat down in the Delta, we were put on an LST to Danang, where we transferred to several LSU;s to get in the shallow harbor at Phu Bai and after TET68 subsided down south, we were shipped north to be Op Con to any one of a bunch of other units in the Hue area as Tet68 was still raging up here. Can't have us down south lounging about getting a sun tan. Up here we worked for 1st and 3rd Marine, 101 Airborne, 1st Air Cav, and some Vietnamese units. Seldom did a day pass that we did not get shot at. Anybody that needed some Armor for a few days for one of their missions, essentially we were Rent a Tank or I guess more accurately Rent a Calvary. Seldom did we ever go anywhere by ourselves but today we had to make a run into "town", meaning Camp Evens. It was getting late to be out here by ourselves, and we had just crossed the pontoon bridge across the Perfume River and nearby there was a CB base camp (they built and maintained the pontoon bridge) where we pulled in for the night and some hot food. On other occasions we have made pit stops at a few other CB base camps as well as Marine Base camps, hot food is always a good idea when you can get it. Nice to chat up with some other people. In our line of work while on dismount missions we will find weapons caches and we are supposed to turn all that stuff in just like good little soldiers but we also know that there are people that like souvenirs and it is our job to supply them since we have so much of that crap. After dinner we do some bargaining and I had some old Chinese SKS rifles that I did not turn in so I traded the CBs for a brand new GMC 6-71 supercharger, still in the box. It was a spare replacement for one of their graders that had Detroit Diesel in it. ... they were never going to need it,they hoped. I got rid of some old SKS rifles from my inventory of trading goods. I hatched a plan of how to get this home to put on my race car. This was 1968 and this was as good a supercharger as any that was on race cars at the moment back home... and I had one now, a brand new one still in the box. Only two obstacles, get me home and get the supercharger home. A challenge for a different day. The new 6-71 supercharger was still sealed in the silver bag inside the red white and blue Detroit Diesel box and I tucked it away up in the front of the ACAV sitting on top of the stacks and stacks of ammo both 50cal and 7.62 M60 ammo that filled the bottom of the ACAV. We had so much weight in her that the torsion bar suspension was just about out of travel. Our TO&E is 10,000 rounds for every gun we have on board. The enemy plan is to over run us when we run out of ammo. That is a very big job that they had tried on many occasions, and never with success i might add. Although I will admit there were a couple of times...... Sorry for the acronyms .. ACAV is Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle, basically a highly modified M113. After dinner we set our our watch schedule and I drew mid watch, the worst one, where you get two hours of sleep, get up for two hours of watch, then get to sleep two more hours before we had to get on the move again. With a full belly and a new supercharger to sleep next to I laid down at about 11pm hoping to get a bit of extra sleep before I had to get up at 2am. I was awakened for my watch and the night as black as the inside of a cow, there was no moon tonight. . No one else was awake on our ACAV but even if we are inside a CB Base camp we always kept one man away at all times. It was about two thirty in the morning, it began with the ground starting to tremor, something you felt more than I heard it. Yes it was a WTF moment. I am not new in country, I am a seasoned soldier, I have seen a lot of shit... but WTF is this? A few seconds later as the horizon began to light up It took a moment before I realized that what I first thought was a sun rise it was happening in the north not the east. Unless dogs and cats are now sleeping together, this does not happen, it was then I realized what I was witnessing was a Arc Light B52 event in the Au Shau valley. With dozens of B52s each dropping 70,000 pounds of bombs it is a spectacle few have ever seen, and those that do see often do no survive it. The crescendo of the ground vibrating increased as the light got brighter and brighter holding that for a few minutes (I did not look at my watch) then both the light and the ground shaking subsided and the impenetrable dark of the night fell back over me. It was like it never happened, I has no one to share this with, everybody else spelt through it. I never saw it before and never saw it again and speaking to others in country not many did get to see it. Awesome does not even come close to the description. It was the night I saw the sun rise in the north..... if you are unaware of the B52 Arc LIght events google can be your friend. Now the story about the new supercharger... well that is a different story. I will write it up if you let me know you are interested.

My Dad refueled B-52Ds at March AFB 1973-77. I loved watching them fly as a little guy living on base.

The sad point was that they flew the same flight path, same height at the same time. Predictable, Very.. Thank you Mr Macnamara.

Comments to this video show why this country will never be the same again. I was there! I served and am proud of that service to this country despite the treatment we got for it. We served, we did our duty and would do it again if my country called. It's about keeping you safe in your beds at home while others risk their lives to protect you!

The up-close footage of the retracting landing gear is quite impressive. 33:47

I was in Kontum in 1972 and appreciated the noise they made. later I was just off the runway at Utapao Thailand and watched em take off headed for NVN I always wondered which ones didn't come back. thanks guys.

Arc Light,"Charlie Dont See Them Or Hear Them"

I went over with Young Tiger and Arc Lite in may of 1965 and stayed until Nov. 1965. I was with the KC-135 refuelers in Okinawa and went back and forth to Guam for typhoon evacts ect. Also flew with the tankers refueling the B-52's before they went in to strike. It was an awesome sight to see the B-52 pilot and co-pilot looking up at the bottom of the tanker...........

A B-52 a friend you can depend on ✈️👍

I hope this crew made it out of Arc Light ok. You put faces on missions puts the humanity of B52 crews during a very dangerous time

I remember Linebacker II as if it was yesterday! I was 75 miles due West of North Vietnam. (NKP)

I went TDY to Utapao out Clark AFB working on C-130s. I really enjoyed this video and found it to be very interesting.

My dad is 80 yrs old. He was stationed at Anderson in Guam before 1970, because my family was stationed at Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico, then moved to McGill AFB in Orlando when I was born in 1965. I don't remember him until I was 5 because of the war. He loaded bombs on B-52s in Guam over several TDYS, then almost went to Vietnam but the US were pulling out and he was sent to Clark AFB in the Philippines and saw all of the last refugees from Saigon. He also did short tours in Taiwan and China on his way home finally going South Dakota at Ellsworth AFB to work with Minuteman missiles. He stayed in SAC until it got too hard on our family, as any AF brat would know. You could come home from school one day and see your dad packing his gear and be gone in 2 days and your mom packing the house to be moving in a week. Anyway, my dad learned biomedical engineering and he stayed home and stable from then on. But he still doesn't like to talk about Vietnam because he knew were those bombs he loaded where going, he put dead bodies in wooden boxes, and saw the devastation of a conflict we had no buisness in continuing.

Smoking a cigarette in a B-52 !31:10 ! Now that is cool

The B-52s did good in Arc Light but should have gone "up North" as early as 1965. I wish that Periscope did a better copy of this film.

There is an Arc Light memorial at Andersen AFB. It is suppose to be the last B52 to fly the last Arc Light mission.

Carrying a briefcase makes you professional, yep, sounds easy to impress the USAF.......There is an interesting sculpture of B52 & other parts at the Airforce museum in Hanoi as well as the B52 in the lake.

Awesome video and great insight into the lives of these USAF heros!

"Grandpa - you were in the Air Force and flew in a B-52, did you ever go to Vietnam ?" "Many times son, many times..."

I was stationed in Guam and got to ride in a KC-135( I believe it was) in the back and got to watch through the window while refueling a B-52. That was pretty damn awesome. They hit an air pocket and we could see the whites of the B-52 pilot's eyes.

Every time I see films about Vietnam tactics and strategy I get angry. LBJ micromanaging the war, this "halfway" war that killed 55K of our best. US generals planned to win battles not the war.

I do not know much about the B-52's and the power of their bombs. But, this is my recollection of being an FTG aboard a guided missile destroyer on the gunline in South Vietnam in 1970 and 1972. We would have firing missions and then have a cease fire because B-52's were in the area. Our ship was about 7 miles at sea, yet we could feel the vibration in the water from the B-52 bombs about 10 miles or more inland. Kind of like small earthquakes that lasted about 5 minutes.

Anyone who has ever seen an arc light air strike has see the utmost n air power, awsome

Ive heard from vets that even at a safe distance in their trenches that B-52 strikes would make the entire earth around them act like a shaking mold of jello and they would bounce around like pinballs in the trench.

I worked with the 144th Avn (RR). Our units did the ARDF to help find the NVA on the ground so that Airclight could have targets. We were proud to be on the team!

Loaded bombs on 'buffs at Kaden ab 69-70 and again Thailand 70-71

Kubrick got it right with the General Buck Turgidson character!

This is amazingly rare!! Wow 👌

I was stationed at takli afb on the 105s ,65 to 66 not far from there.

That Colonel looks like a tough guy! I wouldn't want to be on his bad side!

My father was with Sac Strategic Air Command during Vietnam four tour's completed retired out of March Air Force Base navigator lieutenant-colonel Robb Steinheider. Love you dad who's my hero ...

Awesome video, good old beer, Schlitz, Carling Black Label, and I think Pabst! USAF from 1982-1986, George AFB, Asst Crew Chief on F-4 Phantom Tail # 66-6333. I am OLD! HA! George AFB closed a few years ago.

Such an iconic and legendary plane. 🇺🇸👊🏻💪🏻

What an awesome bird, still flying decades after it's inception.

Wow! The communist Vietnamese took a pretty sound ass whooping at Khe Sanh! The Marines lost 244, while the Vietnamese lost 15,000? That is a 60:1 kill ratio. That is epic! And the liberal media was working with the communists to try to tell us that Khe Sanh was a loss? What the? We handed Giap a severe ass whooping on that one.

I hope there all ok and enjoying retirement after successful careers in the airline industry. I thank them for all they have done.

I was a B-52D, G, H model flight sim operator/tech at Castle AFB 67-70, retraining strategic G and H crews to the tactical D and back for emergency procedures. Peace was our profession...WWG1WGA

All that work an effort just to be completely outclassed by some sharp bamboo rods placed in a hole.

Bummer the model D variant only had front facing electronic jamming countermeasures, standard operating procedures (based on a multi-megaton payload) dictated a hard left turn following ordinance deployment. This meant the aircraft was completely exposed to missile lock by SA2 SAM sites when over places like Hanoi, resulting in loss of aircraft such as callsign ebony 2 (serial 56-0674) or LILAC 3 during operation linebacker II on 12/26/72. While heavy use of chaff strip countermeasures, changes to SOP removing the turn pattern, and over 100 supporting aircraft running countermeasures during operation linebacker II improved protection against SA2 (in addition to the improved model G b52 variant), even a small reduction in accompanying support aircraft could result in loss of crew/aircraft. Salute to those who served in USAF 🫡🇺🇸

The USAF needed an airbase near a good port in Thailand, to shorten the transport of all those bombs and fuel needed for the B-52s. There was no site available, so a hill was removed and a swamp filled in to create Utapao airbase. It was typical of the airbases in Thailand, maybe a little better than most, due to location, but too much SAC for most of us AF types, glad I was in the NE of the country for my year!

These and many others were following orders from the President of the U.S. and flying a very capable aircraft. The B-52 is still in service as of July 2013 and is expected to finally be retired in the year 2040. That will make the B-52 85 years of service in the U.S. Air Force. I served with the 92d Bomb Wing in the late 70's, early 80's.

I was in U-TAPAO in 1970, TDY from Westover AFB, MASS. 99th Bomb Wing, 99th AMS. Not a great place to be at. Nothing nice. Crappy barracks, crappy area. But we survived. I was Radar/Nav Tech. Our shop area was probably the cleanest place on the base. Lots of Snakes.............and not the good kind. I would love to re visit the area. From what I see on Google Earth..........it still looks like a dump. Imagine that.

That was their mistake. Using strategic bombers tactically. Should have carpet bombed Hanoi from the start, continually until NV pulled their troops out of the south.

Amazing. The "Big Belly B-52D model carried 88 mk82 (500lb bombs) internally, and 24 mk83 (750 lb bombs) externally for a total of 108 bombs. Devastating.

I got a pix somewhere of the scrapyard where they kept what was left of a Buff that had crashed in Thailand before they got back to Utapao I loved the rumble they made doing what they did best. saw furniture move on a concrete deck because of the shaking. NVA didn't appreciate it tho.

Good men doing a good job!

That guy lighting up his stogie. Lol

That’s gold

El artillero es todo un personaje

best bomber !!

Crew Chief from Westover TDY 1970 march to July Okinawa Air Base --108 Bombs a mission, and then Cambodia broke out. We ran double missions for 3 days straight What an assume bomber. I never knew the importance of what we all were doing at the time. It must of been all the weed I smoked off duty.----------- down on BC Street.

7th bomb wing, bullet shot II

crews Heavy on O-3s... E-8s, E-9s on the ground

Arc Light Rolling Thunder Linebacker 1 and 2

I remember the thai floating market!!!!!

It's hard to believe that with all the technology America had. They still got there arses kicked.

Paris Match reported as Dien Bien Phu on air for The American

Hard to believe just 65 years later after 1903 Wright Brothers.

Amazing getting 400,000 lbs to cruise thru the air. Anyone know what the max weight if a military aircraft is?

good hunting

Arc Light vs. Rolling Thunder, vs. Linebacker??

I wonder what ever happened to this crew. Where are they now

Keep in mind that almost a million people fled the North at separation. After the fall of Saigon, 1.1 million fled the country. Hundreds of thousands were imprisoned in 're-education camps' afterwards. Hardly rousing support for Ho and the North. Again, look at the aggressors and their stated Communist goals.

Surprisingly the Russians didn't copy this like the B-29 they copied.

phải nhắc đến Điện Biên Phủ trên không, bầu trời Hà Nội rực sáng!

Standing on top of the bunker hoping to go home ?

GOD..BLESS..THESE..MEN...GOD..BLESS..MY..DAD..82ND

"Stateside rank" Soon will be changed to black. All rank was black when I was there.

For USAF Airmen, no Hoo-Rah... jus' biznes

@klausbmj...I am sorry you feel that way but the troops can only do what the president says. What the men do with the girls there are up to the individual and the girls of the country themselves. I will give you this, as far as I am concerned there are other ways to bring security and peace to other than going to war all the time.

Weren't the B-52 bombing missions said to be ineffective, based on payload to target hits? Still, I would not want to be the enemy under this carpet of bombs!

And to think you are in charge

so sad

Anything on 99TH Bomb Wing from Westover ?

thả bôm gì như mưa ai chịu nổi

Did any B52s get shot down over vietnam or did they fly to high to be shot at?

Why are you guys wearing your hats on the flight line!!!!!!!

I remember back to 1969 & 1970 while stationed with the 1st brigade of the 5th infantry division standing on an overwatch position on camp red devil in Quang Tri Province looking towards the north about 11 miles south of the DMZ seeing an extremely black horizion from east to west. The black I was observing was B-52 bomber's dropping 1000 pound bombs on the DMZ. I was amazed at this and once was part of a force that approached the DMZ to see the effect of the bombing runs ! Unbelieveable !!!!!!!

Only a handful got downed I think, so chances are the ones you saw all came back.

Một cuộc chiến mà usa không được lợi gì chỉ tốn

Charlie don't never see them or hear them, man.

Probably were 500 pound cast iron bombs

39 vc

What a beautiful machine and what beautiful guys- incidentally its dresden not "dresdon' dick

Vietnam is part of asean and the allies of usa 2013

They dont all make it back

Highly Motivated… Drive… Desire… Professionals… I wonder is anyone could survive if they took a shot of even 40 proof Gin or Whiskey (or any form of distilled liquor) every time the narrator says those words. At the very least you would be unable to see very clearly, or stand-up without falling over. And it would be very unlikely that one could succeed even in starting a car to worry about a DUI. But just from where I started counting at about 6:30, he’s said each of those words an additional 4 times each. And I am not even finished with the video yet.

-viet nam

50+ years later and people are still criticizing these men. Just keep in mind, it takes a real brave hero to press a button in heated leather seat 5 miles above the rice paddy to shred some peasants feeding their fams. Bet they still getting paid for PTSD too.

Arc Light was a spectacular failure.

one day on these teams wins any SUPER BOWL

Such lovely family men off to drop bombs on other families.

I..HAVE..A..LIBERAL..ON..MY..STREET..THAT..WEARS..A..HO..CHI..MIN..T..SHIRT