B-52 / KC-135 Alert cartridge start, Elephant Walk, 6 ship MITO takeoff Wurtsmith AFB
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- 1987 Wurtsmith AFB, MI. This is a video I took of an Alert Cartridge Start and MITO take off of 6 aircraft. Every so often the alert aircraft would start engines using cartridges and then move the aircraft to the runway. They would then roll down the runway and re-park in the facility. They looked like a bunch of heavy elephants wedeling down the runway...thus the name elephant walk. I was a B-52 pilot at the time.
As a SAC Veteran working on the flight line in the 1970's, the most intense minutes of my life would be when, "THE KLAXON' blew. We never knew if it was just another drill, or if this was the real thing. The most heart stopping time, was when we just finished an alert drill, and 10 minutes later the klaxon went off again. The crews ran to their KC-135's a lot faster with a scared look on their faces. If I remember, all of the four aircraft were ready to taxi and take off in under two minutes. The codes came down to stop and return to alert status. Now at 62 years old, that is still the most heart stopping moments of my life.
+charles good It was especially tense if we "coco'ed" the alert bombers and tankers. If during a klaxon the alert birds blew their carts and started walking, the whole flightline came to a stop to see if we were actually going to launch. Since by the '70s SAC rarely if ever triggered a Delta alert launch, if the alert birds got to the hammerhead, went to TRT, and started their takeoff roll, there was a good chance we had bad news inbound momentarily (SLBMs and/or ICBMs). Those were some tense moments indeed. Typically they'd reach the hammerhead and, after a short pause, taxi down the runway in takeoff order and do the elephant walk all the way back around to the pad to begin the recocking process. Even more tense, if the alert birds rolled but one (or more) had a problem and couldn't get off the spot, or got off the spot but had to pull out of line for a maintenance issue, leaving it sitting there with engines running while the other alert birds walked away toward a possible launch. Whether the bird with the problem(s) was a tanker or bomber, if the alert was the real thing and the other aircraft actually launched, there were several targets "uncovered" if that aircraft doesn't get off the ground. That's truly a pucker factor 10.
+charles good Wow, I cant imagine what it would have felt like to have a scramble command right after finishing a scramble drill. There must have been a lot of people thinking, "We just had a drill minutes ago, so maybe this IS the real thing?" I remember doing the NBC(nuclear, biological, chemical) training and thinking to myself, "I wonder if this equipment is really effective of not?" There were chemical detectors going off all the time during the 1st Gulf War, no wonder no many guys had Gulf War Syndrome.
As a FB-111A bomber crew chief on alert,I know exactly what you mean and feel..
I was stationed at K.I. Sawyer in 1972. 410th Security Police Squadron. Here.... th-cam.com/video/lfOXtwZX1Ss/w-d-xo.html
lets bring back sac
I've been told that a buff does not actually launch, but rather the earth gets out of its way. What a great piece of work, to have stood the test of time as it has.
I just (Friday, 15 July) stopped by the former Wurtsmith AFB for the first time since 1988. It was really something to be able to simple drive onto the bomber alert pad and into the WSA. I worked B-52Hs and KC-135As in SAC for the last two years of its' existence - some of the best times I ever had in the Air Force. Water injection rules!
My God, you had better had that password of the day or you were going to be on the ground face down with either a rifle barrel on your neck, or a very hungry guard dog wanting to have you for lunch. AND a VERY good explanation to the duty sergeant as to WTF you were doing blundering around the alert pad.
@@Nighthawke70 yeah it was absolutely surreal just walking through the sally gate without getting a new badge. The racks for the exchange badges were still in the entry control point building. The alert facility was boarded up but you could just drive right up to the ALCM bunkers as if they were yours.
@@nasiriyah110 I did a similar thing a couple years ago at Blytheville AFB in Arkansas. I felt like a ghost of olden SAC days. Maybe I was…
I was a Tanker Crew Chief at Wurtsmith from 70-74. My A/C tail number was 8014. Went Young Tiger 3 times. MANY weeks on alert. We lived in the trailers at the end of the flight line. SO many cold night out there heating water. What memories !
I was a countermeasures Tech at Loring, and how I loved to watch the MITO takeoffs..... Those poor tankers lifting off in the worst possible jet wash, but they did it and it was beautiful..
One looked like a Navy E6B TACAMO.
Nick d Sylva we had no Tacamo birds on alert there.
Not CALCMs but the real dillio, loaded up to the eyeballs. Ready to go at a moments notice. This is priceless footage and a tribute to what the 379th was about. Awesome is an overused word but so apt for this video!
....was at Kincheloe AFB near Sault St Marie, Kinross Michigan.... 72 till 75 ...SAC .
Alert Elephant walks were by definition "Air Power" on display. Very impressive. .
ScrotusXL We don`t currently have any bombers on launch ready alert status do we? From what I`ve read, George H.W. Bush ordered all bombers on alert to stand down. That would mean that one part of our nuclear triad has basically been disarmed.
+Tom McBride Yeah, our nuclear deterrence basically relies on our submarines and Minuteman ICBMs. Our bombers can carry nukes but they would be wiped out on the ground in a first strike. We really could entirely rely on the Navy for the deterrence mission like the UK and France have done. The Navy's Trident II missile can carry 14 warheads compared to the Minuteman's 3, which currently is reduced to just one warhead. So a Navy missile can carry 14 times the yield of an Air Force missile and they now match the range and likely have superior accuracy because the Trident II is a far more modern design. Silos would likely be destroyed in a first strike but our submarines would not. We really don't need a triad, though the Air Force insists that we do.
As a SAC crew chief,I have to call you on the Bombers being killed on the ground. At the sound of the Klaxon, we'd be airborne within 5 minutes.25 minutes before any Soviet ICBM's could hit our bases.
That's it! I was on alert that night. We got the "message" around 11:30 PM. Red safe opened, launch documents/codes out, launch keys out and inserted into the consoles. My MCCC was very nervous and so was my DMCCC. The two enlisted guys were pretty cool even though we were a little stressed. We could hear all of the radio traffic and we knew something big was about to happen. We were ready to launch and would have if we had gotten a launch message. That message was all we needed to go.
As a kid I watched the B-52's in the early 70's at Wurtsmith. Awesome, just awesome.
I was there in the 1980,s my dad was in the air force,oscoda mi was very nice and cold lol
Thank you for sharing that. I too, was a B-52 pilot at Carswell from 1985-1990. We had H models though. You guys were basically IFR from takeoff roll until you cleared the smoke, eh?
Thank you! Be safe! I was one of those HF guys that you talked to. I would knock newbies off the operator consoles when you'd call. I would start shouting "Do you know who they are"? Giant Talk
Wurtsmith was my base in the mid 70's I worked the RAPCON and still have fond memories of Cheeseburgers and pitchers of Pabst blue ribbon served up at Decker's restaurant in town.
Fabulous Tony Decker's.
Cool video, I remember Wurtsmith when it was up and running as a SAC base. I'll drive through the former base once in a while when I'm in Oscoda and still see some of the relics that indicate it was once an Air Force base. Its kind of depressing, I miss the base being there.
Rusty, while you guys were having fun flying these bad boys, I was stuck in a missile silo. Missile duty was good but I was in during the early 70's, Titan II. There were KC-135's at McConnell and it was always fun to watch them take off. I sometimes wondered what was going on in the world when I was not on alert and I heard a whole squadron of KC's take off during the night.
man the 4th and 5th planes really had no visibility taking off. those old 52s were smoky as hell when they had the water injection going. love the sight and sound of the old turbojets. nothing else will ever compare to the howl.
Spent a week tdy at Wurtsmith from Offutt. Klaxon went off above my head when walking into BX. Was tdy at a lot of SAC bases. I was your red sticker on the phone.
I worked an emergency once for an engine failure and this kid working with me was panicking and I started laughing. I go "They have eight"! Thanks for sharing. Be safe!
It's always awesome watching freedom launch into the sky
I was 43rd SPS at Andersen AFB Guam in the mid 80s. We had Nuc uploaded Buffs at all times. On a rare occasion the alert crews would respond, run up engines, and actually leave the APA and go to the head of the runway. That gets freaky! Ya don't actually know if they are going to take off until command comes across the radio to stand down.
It is an awesome sight to see them ugly bastards take off though!
Good video! Being a former tower controller from Grand Forks it's hard to explain how one of these launches really looked without being there!
Nice!! Brings back memories of Blytheville AFB, AR, 1980-1981... Worked in the Combat Crew Comm shop... MSgt T, AF Retired..
Thank you for your service. I am a veteran myself.
I began Basic Military Training in August of 1973 after joining under the Delayed Entry Program four months prior. I was in the first batch of the All Volunteer Force. In October, I was transitioned from basic to my tech school. If you're alluding to US reaction to an Israeli raid during the Yom Kippur War, I'm familiar. But, this exchange we're having now sounds like deja vu. I believe you and I conversed before. When I was a trainee in the command post at D-M in early 1974, SAC (1 of 2).
As a Tanker Crew Dog at Mather AFB , CA. I still get wet seeing the Bufs and Tankers fire the water and all the Black smoke , cough , cough !
That was in the early 70's
I too was enlisted. Ended up attending college(s) quite a bit and earned a graduate degree. I always believed that the Titan crews had a better, more well-rounded, professional take on the crew concept largely because the crews were 50/50 officer/enlisted. The Minuteman crews didn't enjoy that cameraderie and experience. Titan was an awesome system.
Cool to see those FLIR blisters in the open position. Kinda rare!
SAC 7Th BMW 73-76 and 79-89 Carswell AFD Texas watched the Elephants walk to many times. It always made me nervous you never know what was happening.
The 379th! I remember ye well at Jeddah in early 1991! Diligentia et accuratio and Triangle K forever!
454th Bomb Wing and 1965, Fairchild, world bombing champions with 054 Miss Magnolia B-52F models. We went through a considerable amount of Cocos' and Bravos. Spent some time in Guam with the heavies going balls to the wall over Vietnam Nam. Started off with grey and white color scheme but, all were converted to O. D. camo to accommodate the war. AFSC 43151E don't miss all the drama that went with the job but, still love the BUFF. Hope it is still around to celebrate its' 100th birthday.
I was stationed there from Jan86 thru july 88. I was on tanker 60-0317. I had a lot of good times there.
Love the dramatic musical score! I worked victor alret with F-111F's at RAF Lakenheath in the late 80's. You went in there for one week, and didn't come out, until it was done, and you got rotated out. Some really boring shit, but I was a weapons load toad, and the exercises, and ICT's were a blast.
Hello.
Are they B-52G, right?
I was a Controller at KI Sawyer AFB. I miss the the owl whistling “Buff”.
I was actually a college educated MFT. I was a little older than most of the guys who came in when I did. During one of my most harrowing alerts, I was actually the oldest crewmember. I was in from 1971-75. Were you in during Oct. 1973? You may know what I'm talking about.
Most Titan crews got along very well. Every now and then a young officer tried to shun the enlisted crewmembers but that didn't last long. One of those was on one of my crews. He "busted" a check later on. Bye bye!
I don't remember ever being issued a gas mask for this. I was a crew chief here at Wurtsmith during the time of this video. You remember the scotchbrite pad was illegal! We would use hand cleaner and scotchbrite pads hidden in the -60 starter cart.
Nothing like a MITO, I got to witness one, Travis AFB? I don't know they flew over the place I was staying in Sacremento, it was awesome
(2 of 2) went to its highest state of "ready alert" in its history. The media never even learned of it. SAC responded to a multiple-missile launch from the USSR and placed SAC in the most advanced "Posture", short only one step from a Positive Control Launch. Missile crews certainly took many actions as well. I was still less than 19, a trainee, and a bit puzzled when I acknowledged the Alert Receive Panel on the SACCS/465-L and found a hard copy that simply said "KLAXON KLAXON KLAXON".
I pulled alert at Ellsworth, and Minot on ec 135a and g model tankers remember the cartridges really well, the olley, and tally.
I remember cleaning breech caps after every alert exercise, fun stuff to write home about lol.
In my 4 years at Seymour Johnson from 1974-78, 68th BW only did one moving exercise.
Were you a pilot? We had KC-135s at McConnell. I really miss the Air Force. I'm 63 now and still remember clearly my days in the Air Force.
0:38, crew-chief was right downwind of that cart-start. I`ve read you didn`t want to breathe that smoke in!
As a child we were stationed at wafb in the 70s and every time my dad would get time
off they would pull an O.R.I.....
Great video. Miss the glory days of the USAF
Those last 2 were so close!
There was a modification called the Y MOD which put a cartridge in every engine and significantly decreased the start time for alert aircraft. For non-alert starts we used a ground air source to provide forced pneumatic air to start 4 and 5 then used bleed air to start the rest.
It was called " quick start" it was quite the mess.
Ah, the weekly mover. I was at Loring for three years.
FylthyBeest, Were you a "gunner" on at B-52. It's odd but every one of the MFT's in my training class had listed B-52 gunner as their first priority. I took 2 physicals while I was in basic but I was placed in the missile field. Tell me a little about B-52 life.
This aircraft is so ancient, I guess it will have to be towed started before too long.
I know they're moving as fast as they can on the ground but it sure seems like it takes a long time to get these birds airborne.
Wish I could go back in time for a few days............ ( K.I. Sawyer 1972 )
I was there for this such a site, I was standing in the bomb bay in the MMS
Lovely black smoke curtain from water-injected J57 turbojets.
To take off and get away quickly they didn't carry a full load of fuel. The KC-135's which took off with them gave them their first fill up.
Plattsburgh AFB 1969-73, 380th AMS, B-52, KC-135 and FB-111A
135's used one back then on #3. buffs used two since they had 8 engines one on two and one on 7. after that hit crossfeed air to start the rest
When I was at Wurtsmith in the early 70's we had H models. Those look like G's. Does anyone know when they switched and why?
They switched from the Hs to Gs in 1977 to give SAC better dedicated conventional bombing capability as the Big Belly Ds from VietNam were being retired. Some of them were still nuclear capable, but their focus was conventional and that was why they were the lead B-52 unit to go to Desert Shield in late 1990.
What year was this
about 1988 or so.
Porque o B-52 faz tanto fumacê?
Elephant Walk, why did they name it that? I'd ask my dad but he passed in 1993, he served 23 years Air Force
Like the man said in the intro because these giants waddled like overweight Elephants when they taxied
As a Tanker Crew Dog at Mather AFB , CA. I still get wet seeing the Bufs and Tankers fire the water and all the Black smoke , cough , cough !
And they used to call the Phantom a "smoker!"?
Was this an ORI sortie?
No this was just what they called an Elephant Walk. Took the loaded birds for a taxi down the runway and then put them back on alert. the takeoff was of a training mission I flew soon after that...had a friend take the video.
No there were no D's around at this time. Only G's and H's.
wb 43 j57s each engine has a cart breech b52g all eight can cart start
SSgt 379th; USAF 1968-1972
I was raised in Tawas during the cold war and I remember having picnics on the Au Sable and having the B 52s flying overhead... it seemed like there were several that made a circle and then landed... probably six, like you mention. I saw this so frequently in my youth that I actually thought it was part of a daily routine at the base... and actually I thought they did it a few times every day. I had been told it was a routine drill so the AF would be prepared for an attack against the Soviet Union. Also, later I was told that they actually loaded the B- 52s with nuclear arms during those flights... part of the preparedness.... Can you tell me what part of my understanding is right and what part is wrong. Thanks. Interesting experience to grow up near a major airforce base during the cold war. Also.. I remember suntanning on the beach and the jets would fly overhead in formation extremely fast, very loud... pretty amazing. It would happen so suddenly that it was pretty frightening the first few times.
Back then I lived on base because my dad was in the air force& tawas I remember it ,we use to go there to watch the people jump into frozen Lake Huron,I think it was called the polar bear swim and they also had demolition races on the frozen lake.Also I remember a festival called perch Ville but I don't remember if that was in oscoda or tawas.
its the water makes em smoke so much
What global warming? OUTSTANDING!!
Three pigeons and two crows died from smoke inhalation close to the flight path.
Found my aircraft at Davis Mothin bone yard
@Ilicium One each side on this one. Then bleed for the others.
@lucabrasi1337 So funny...that's what we said about the guys before us.
I was stationed at Wurtsmith 1967-1970. Was there when a B-52 lost two of it’s engines, sorry.
Never happened. There was never a crash of a B-52 at Wurtsmith AFB. There was a KC-135 that crashed at Wurtsmith on landing, not after take-off, but that was October 1988. 6 brave crewmen died in the KC-135 accident. But, you're mistaken about a B-52 going down at Wurtsmith.
A 52H had a TF33 frag and catch fire. It burned its way off the aircraft, which landed safely. The account of the pilot is on YT under Major Witt.
What filthy engines. Why has the USAF not replaced the 8 dirty engines with 4 modern engines with better economy and performance. Maybe it is the big boy syndrome, no-one else has an 8 engine dinosaur like we have.
I agree with you peter and the other bombers B-1 and the B-2 have only 4 jets on them.
Its going to get to the time that all of these jets will have no parts left for them.
Ground clearance? Big fat bypass turbines?
These are B52g in this video. They have old J57 engines on them. This model of B 52 was put in the boneyard right after the Persian Gulf war in 1991. The current B52H is the only model of B52 still flying. They have TF-33 for engines.
The B-52 can carry up to 20 nuclear tipped cruise missiles, far more than the B-2 can carry. The B-1 bombers have all had there bomb bays modified to carry J-dam bombs now and has been taken out of our nuclear triad. The reality is though bombers are a second strike weapon but after a first strike not much would be left.
The water injection for these planes add quite a bit of 'smoke' also.
They kicked up a lot of shit on the full throttling back then eh?!
If the B-52 has been modified like they used to in the D models then what is the point in keeping the B-2 bomber and we have only 21 of them and are getting old now.
I know the H models are great and are adequate for the Iraq bombings over there as of this comment now.
klaxon klaxon klaxon
I was there lol
MFT
Keep the B-1's, save the money on maintenance and overhaul to keep used to keep the B-52s flying and add to the B-1 fleet and any money left over add a B-2. Start dumping early F-16's and use the money to add F-22s. This is called smart shopping.
Nick d Sylva Sounds like you are shopping for food !
So much pollution from these bombers.
yeah ok this video is about planes and not about the environment, talk about that somewhere else
I was at Wurtsmith from the fall of 72 until the summer of 77. I was a pilot in the 920th ARS. Great video. I remember oh dark thirty alerts in the middle of the winter, Bush Hog, MITO's, ORI's and TDY's.
I was the lead tanker pilot in that MITO. I miss those days
Not many people appreciate you guys were sworn to give up your last drop of gas to the bombers. And you were more or less suppose to ditch your acft..That takes commitment and massive balls my friend!! Thank you for being brave enough to do your job!!
My high school friend also flys a flying gas station.
was on duty..SP..in AAA area..about 1600 on a Sunday. Crews/families were at the ECP and parking area. MITO--2 52's launched from the west end going east then a 135. Just as the 135 was lifting off it got tilted ALMOST straight up by those 16 engines
..SOME HOW the pilot was able to adjust the attitude and remain in flight..
Randy Nordhagen I was an Alert Force Controller at KI Sawyer 1977-81 Great memories.
CAP in the 80’s got to fly with Pittsburgh KC-135 and refuel two F-4’s over Kansas. Awesome.
Isaw on the you tube channel a B52 G model at castle AFB and there on the front of that chain link fence was lassie the collie dog.
It was a scramble,scramble excercise at that base.
The b 52 g models are now inthe place they call mothball city its in kingman arizona.
Idoubt any of these models are still now and then flying around.
I appreciate the deicated and tough jobs all of you in our USAF are doing to keep the peace and be vigilant 24/7 365 days a year.
Aim high USAF.
It's so sad, that we've closed, abandoned such great places, part of our fabric of history... just given up, because of a few dollars...The only time I've ever seen that base was one time when I was 12 or 13 years old, in 1981 or 82, riding a greyhound to visit a friend in Alpena, and watching the bus drop off an air force guy at the front gate...
I'm an ex B-52 pilot, so not questioning the basic premise of your comment but, it wasn't "a few dollars" it was insanely expensive. A B-52 training mission burned over 40,000 gallons of JP-4 and we averaged 2 missions per week per crew/plane. In the 1980s there were about 350 B-52s in opperation for over 30 million gallons of fuel burned per week just for training. The maintenance required was extensive, requiring many man hours for ever hour flown. I wouldn't be surprised if the total cost of keeping the fleet in the air was over $100 million per week in 1980 dollars, probably 5-10 times that in 2019 dollars.
Somewhere around 4:25 I think All Gore shed a little tear. Great video. I miss the G models.
For it's the Iron Bomber the "D" reliable and tough helped send them to the bone yard in the early 80's that hurt.
KC 135A Crew Chief at Wurtsmith 1970-74 - spent MANY hours on alert there !
That is a B-52G model and I can tell by the 50 caliber guns on the rear. The "H" model had the M61 machine gun on the rear of it. I worked on both models in the states and the "D" model overseas during the Vietnam war.
@Jacksonkellyfreak Being 5/6 was a little funky. Co was looking for the plane in front to abort and I was just watching the centerline. Always fun though.
@Rusty Nelson . Rusty, I can only imagine how awesome it must have been to be piloting a B-52, which in my opinion is one of the best planes created and manufactured by Boeing. For aircraft that were first put into production in 1952 and ran through 1962. Then to have so many of them still flying today, to me it's nothing short of amazing. I haven't noticed any books authored by you, have you ever thought about writing a book about your career as an Air Force Pilot? I have seen a list of about 56 books. The Illustrators name was Rusty Nelson. So you know the next question, did you do the illustrations for these books.
Thanks for uploading the video Rusty. I could watch video's of our military aircraft all day long. Just love em period....
Command post controller, ground and airborne, mostly in SAC.
Look how quickly those first two bombers climb. Beautiful. Theyr'e going over the Foote Dam pond of the mighty Au Sable river at that point. Was a great vantage point to watch them fly on either runway heading.
379 sps 82-88 b-flight sec .alpha tango , whiskey tango
In Nov.1983,we actually scrambled our FB-111's in Nov. On snow and it was very tense for 15 minutes. I heard the pilots codes spouting off in pristine succession. I never heard that before in other exercises. This was different. Not to mention in the alert morning briefings there were 3 Soviet Nuclear subs 12 miles off the New England coast. The feeling that this was it !! No more talking, I would never see my family again, or have a chance to say good bye.Here I was, on the edge of the tarmac, looking up to the stars after I launched my bomber..Thinking, This is it.Soviet nukes will be hitting us within 20 minutes. I will never see my family again. The thought of America being blown into bits..
Warner Robbins fire fighter B-52 and more. been there.
Stationed at good ol' Wurtsmith from 87-89 before heading overseas. Worked BISS (electronic security systems) around the AAA alert aircraft and weapons area. Luv'd watching the big BUFF's do their thing!
That was awesome!! I was stationed there at the same time...gave me goose bumps!!
I wish this base was still open :( I'm at vance which is fine, but I'd rather a desolate area in Michigan instead :(
I was stationed at Wurtsmith from Dec 72 to June 73 with a 3 week TDY back to Keesler for training to go to Thailand. This was my 1st permanent party assignment. I was an ECM tech. I made a few trips to the alert pad while I was there. We had a blizzard on April 15th with snow drifts up to the bottom of the 2nd floor of the barracks!
Klaxon! Klaxon! Klaxon!
I was here 1958 -1960. 445th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Air Defense Command ADC. F-101B VooDoo Radar Tech.
How much stress does the cart start put on the engines?