Post by -E on Apr 6, 2006 19:01:15 GMT -5
I've been reading a book about Linebacker II and ran into two interesting stories... one would flip me out, the other cracked me up.
A B-52 is heading for Hanoi, worried about avoiding SAMS and MiG's, when the pilot is told by the copilot that there is a MiG on their wingtip. The pilot leans and looks, and sure enough, there is a MiG flying formation with them. Shortly thereafter the MiG departs. Then the SAMs start coming, but they're fused for the exact altitude of the B-52's. I would've messed my flight suit had I looked out and seen half of my worst fears for a night like that, just sitting there looking at me. One (okay, me *grin*) wonders why the MiG didn't go for a kill after radioing in the formation's exact altitude? I would doubt it was lack of intestinal fortitude, as getting there amongst the MiGCAP and escorts took some. Did he think no one saw him and that the SAM's would be a bigger suprise? That would be odd, as there were reports of flighters with their lights on leading up to this. Due to the Buff's jamming, inability to contact their escorts and vice versa was the norm at (at least) this point in Linebacker II (at least in the book *grin*).
In another instance, there was an EWO (electronic warfare officer) who carried a whistle as a good luck piece. In the middle of SAM launches, he apparently broke into the North Vietnamese net and blew the whistle and then yelled "TIME OUT!" All SAM launches stopped for 90 seconds and the entire formation made it through their bomb drops. The author of the book acknowledges it might've been a cooincidence, but the other crews sure credited that EWO with the SAM launch's "time out."
A B-52 is heading for Hanoi, worried about avoiding SAMS and MiG's, when the pilot is told by the copilot that there is a MiG on their wingtip. The pilot leans and looks, and sure enough, there is a MiG flying formation with them. Shortly thereafter the MiG departs. Then the SAMs start coming, but they're fused for the exact altitude of the B-52's. I would've messed my flight suit had I looked out and seen half of my worst fears for a night like that, just sitting there looking at me. One (okay, me *grin*) wonders why the MiG didn't go for a kill after radioing in the formation's exact altitude? I would doubt it was lack of intestinal fortitude, as getting there amongst the MiGCAP and escorts took some. Did he think no one saw him and that the SAM's would be a bigger suprise? That would be odd, as there were reports of flighters with their lights on leading up to this. Due to the Buff's jamming, inability to contact their escorts and vice versa was the norm at (at least) this point in Linebacker II (at least in the book *grin*).
In another instance, there was an EWO (electronic warfare officer) who carried a whistle as a good luck piece. In the middle of SAM launches, he apparently broke into the North Vietnamese net and blew the whistle and then yelled "TIME OUT!" All SAM launches stopped for 90 seconds and the entire formation made it through their bomb drops. The author of the book acknowledges it might've been a cooincidence, but the other crews sure credited that EWO with the SAM launch's "time out."
