B-52 Stratofortress Scramble

I'm a Canadian, and as a kid at roughly the age of 10, my family and I went to Plattsburgh NY for the day. We were going to go to the Pyramid Mall, and to the Plattsburgh beach. When we were coming out of the mall, we heard this god-awful roar coming from somewhere, and when we looked up this massive airplane completely filled the sky. It was a B-52 coming in for a landing at the base in Plattsburgh. I've never forgotten that sight, and I don't think I ever will.

My Grandfather flew the B-47 then B-52 for SAC. He was in 3 wars. WWII (Alaska search and Rescue),Korea (B-29) and Cold War B-36,B-47 and the B-52. Heart attack ended his flying career at the age of 39 as a Major in the United States Air Force. I heard all his story’s and he was my hero growing up. I lived on the same 19 acre vineyard property in Northern California. I lost him due to heart failure when I was 18. Major James F. Millerick.

The B-52 is a testament on how an airframe can be so good that it sticks around for years…

I was a grunt (1st Cav Div) in 1968 - 1969 in Vietnam. We loved your bombing runs knowing that you guys were taking out the bad guys and helping us to get back to The World some day. Boucoup gratitude!!

FACT: those airframes are twice older than most people watching this video.

I am very proud to say that back in the days of Nam, I was a member of the crew of a B-52.

I can remember being in Tech School at Amarillo AFB in Texas in 67'. I was just out of basic training at Lackland AFB, Amarillo was a temporary SAC base at the time. We would start our classes at 6AM and the classroom was just across the street from the flight line. When a group of B-52's were taking off the instructor would have to stop talking because we couldn't hear anything but those 8 jet engines. I still love the sound and that plane.

I am an OLD buff pilot and every time I see theses videos it reminds me of all the good and bad times I have on the really old D (dog) models tail 0002 was the tail number I was usually assigned to. These flew from just after I was born and they will be flying after I am dead and gone. What a hell of a bird and to see your name painted on the side of the bird was a hell of a way to start the day

When your wings are so long they need their own landing gear. Long live the BUFF

My dad was crew chief on these for many years until retirement. He told us - " She will still be flying when you kids retire !! " He was right, as always. Love these videos, they always bring back good memories and make us feel safe knowing that the BUFF is always there and ready. Miss ya Dad.

I use to love watching them bomb the Ho Chi Mein Trail in 1966. They would be way above the clouds but you could see the long sticks of bombs falling. When they hit dirt would shoot up hundreds of feet in the air. Moments later the ground would shake then the noise. I was 25 then. Now I am 80 and the planes look just as good.

Straight up feels like they're breaking physics by getting this giant beast up in the air. Absolutely astounding.

Recall scrambles of the entire squadron as a kid living on base - such amazing sights and sounds as 24 of these monsters fired up simultaneously and roared off the runway in rapid succession

Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find: one .45 caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing: antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair a nylon stockings. Shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.

It’s amazing that the B52 bombers are still flying. Over the years I’ve read on the internet that they were legendary in the Vietnam war. They were definitely built to last.

Former B52G gunner...never fails to thrill.

As a kid in the 60's I saw these flying around Spokane-Fairchild in awe. They still are awe-inspiring.

I'm still in awe of these birds, even though I grew up around them. My Dad was a gunner on them from 1957 until 1972. Then a hiatal hernia took him off flight status. Home base was Dow AFB in Maine, but we followed him to Offut AFB in Nebraska, March Field in California, and Andersen AFB on Guam. At Dow we lived right on the end of the runway, so we always knew when Daddy was coming home from a flight. Watching them launch from Andersen was always fun. They would go off the edge of Tarague Cliff and disappear for a few seconds before climbing out. Then all the memories of crawling through the birds at airshows. It's been a long time since I've thought about my childhood. Good memories, almost forgotten. Thank you to all those served.

Worked on these planes at KI Sawyer AFB in the 70’s, It was always awesome to see a scramble drill not knowing for a short while if this was a drill or the real thing.

I used to watch training flights take offs and landings at Carswell in FTW and it was quite different from watching airliners because the 52's had so much lift, when they would come in to land they almost looked like they were nose down until right before the wheels touched. I used to drive home right under the flight path as they were getting real low and they were at 90 degrees to the highway, the end of the runway was pretty close and seemed like they were skimming the tree tops