11-200 Garand Picture of the Day

[usgicollector]

Discription: B-52 Crew Training with the 4017th Combat Crew Training Squadron, Castle AFB
4017 CCTS: Established August 1, 1955 and operated B-52B from June 1955 until 1956, when
it assumed a ground training role.

Information

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[Bob Womack]

The original nose of the plane was prettiest, IMHO. And you know, the Allies called the Germans sissies for clustering the crew together ("holding hands") and then the B-47 and B-52 came along with the same crew config (B model on).

Bob

[usgicollector]

It would have been lonely back in the tail until they moved him up front in the G's.
I personally like the H's in the anti-flash white paint sceme the best. I have not figured out why some BW's had the unit insignia on the right nose and some did not. Here is my favorite pic

[Harlan (Deceased)]

One of my buddies at work was a tail gunner in the old B-52's and told me there were gunners who were actually beaten to death back there.

I've always thought the tail gunner position would have been the loneliest place in war. The Germans designed aircraft in WWII intentionally so that crew members were near each other for the benefit of not feeling alone and to assist each other in battle.

Several years ago my son and I took a day off and flew to Midland, TX just to take a tour of the CAF's derelict Douglas B-23 Dragon parked out in the desert. It's on the MAF International Airport grounds so the only time you got to see it was when taxing past it from the main runway. They tried to restore it many years ago and gave up and parked it out there. I was talking to someone at CAF HQ and asked about seeing it and a lady working there said she could get us clearance to walk out there. The tail gun position is what reminded me of taking these photos. The lady at HQ told me that she didn't think anyone had even been inside it for ten years, so look out for snakes and wasps if I could get inside. I took a lot of photos as a virtual tour and never used them so attached them here if anyone is interested. It was kind of like walking into a ghost town. Sad to see it like this, but where it is the weather is nearly like Davis Monthan, so if it has to be outside it won't deteriorate as quickly as some other places.

[Bob Womack]

By the time I was at Blytheville SAC base in the early '70s the B-52s had the gunner in the front. He used a video link to aim the 20mm cannons in the tail. The cabin config was four up, two down: Pilot, co-pilot and defensive weapons officer and gunner behind and rear-facing and in the upstairs penthouse, all ejecting upwards, and navigator and radar navigator downstairs, forward-facing and ejecting downwards.

Bob

[usgicollector]

Bob, were you with the 97th?

[Bob Womack]

Nope. My Air Force auxiliary group just trained at Blytheville after Chrome Dome folded up and went home.

Bob