JET AGE MAN: SAC B-47 and B-52 Operations in the Early Cold War Tapa dura - 2012

After winning his pilot's wings in December 1950, the author flew 28 missions as a B-29 copilot in the Korean War. His next assigned aircraft was the RB-47E six-engine jet reconnaissance bomber. During his six-year SAC assignment at Forbes AFB, Kansas, he advanced from copilot to instructor, and in 1960 transitioned to B-52s at Castle AFB, California. He, his wife and three sons moved to El Paso and later to Fort Worth, Texas where he logged over 3,000 hours as aircraft commander and instructor pilot in B-52s. In nine years he flew eighteen airborne alert missions and shuttled back and forth to the island of Guam fourteen times. He survived the Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear ground and airborne alert, and a stint in the Vietnam War to retire from the Air Force in 1969. He and his wife of 59 years have lived in Arizona for the last 42.