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ISSUE
160 - March 2011
Over 8,000 Total Ads Listed
1,000+ NEW Ads Per Week
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| Revolt |
By David Rose,
Contributing Editor
San Diego, California |
 Algeria
had been in the throws of revolt for eight years the first
time I saw it. The French had just about exhausted all efforts
to keep the Algerian people under French rule and were in the
last stages of control over them. In 1954, The
National Liberation (FLN) had launched attacks across Algeria
against military, police and public utilities.
From Cairo, the FLN broadcasted a call
to Muslims in Algeria to join in a national struggle for the "restoration
of the Algerian state, sovereign, democratic, and social, within
the framework of the principles of Islam." The then French
minister of interior François Mitterrand responded that "the
only possible negotiation is war" and thus set
French policy for the next five years.
 In the
end France learned what all governments eventually learn when
their policies conflict with those of the populace. On July
1, 1962, 6 million of a total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million
cast their ballots in the referendum on independence. The vote
was nearly unanimous. President De Gaulle pronounced Algeria
an independent country on July 3. But in 1961 the battle still
waged and from my vantage point in the cockpit of a B-52 at
45,000 feet, the flames of Alger and Annabah along the Northern
coast were clearly visible.
 Now, with neighboring
Libya so dominating the news, I can’t help but recall
those nights over the Med and reflect on what I was doing there.
They had grounded all the F-86’s and shipped us pilots
off to SAC. I guess it was in the interest of domestic tranquility
that they did give us our choice of assignments; but only to
the KC-135, B-47 or B-52. I chose U-2’s in the 4080th
Strat Wing at Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, Texas. |
|
 I
guess they didn’t get my request, or simply ignored it,
because I ended up in the 342nd Bomb Wing, Warner Robbins GA.
B-52-G’s.
Finally becoming “combat
ready,” as they liked to say, I began pulling alert.
In those days your crew would head for the alert shack and
spend anywhere from three to five days “on alert”.
Your B-52 was “cocked and ready” to start in a
minute and be airborne in less than five. The other ‘alert’ was
airborne alert. We would brief, load up, take off and head
out to spent 24 hours waiting for WW 3 (the REALLY BIG ONE)
to break out. If it had, we would have been nearly invulnerable
to being stopped before attacking our designated target. At
any time in those days no fewer than twelve B-52’s were
airborne, ‘on
alert’. In the early days of the airborne alert sorties
we either carried two of the enormous 15 megaton Mk - 17’s
or a rack of the smaller Mk - 28’s. We also carried a pair
of Hound Dog AGM-77 stand off missiles under the wings and used
their air breathing J-85 engines to help stagger this half a
million pound arsenal into the air. |
|
The 342nd was tasked with
two routes; one would take you to the North Pole to fly a racetrack
pattern there for the 24 hours and the other took you to the
Med to fly back and forth there for around 12 hours. Whatever
the route, the time was always going to be about 24 hours.
 Back and forth through the Med would take us just North of
the coasts of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt; turn around
and head back West to a refueling track over Spain, gas up
and do it all over again. Sounds easy enough, but a B-52 cockpit
is amazingly small compared to the plane itself. And it’s
cold. No insulation wasted on bomber crews; save the weight
for payload. And LOAD; no sound deadening; save the weight
for payload. And no galley either, though it didn’t take
long for us to start bringing a fry pan, groceries and our
own coffee.
I know the fires in Tripoli would be visible to
another bomber crew tonight. So what has changed since 1962?
For the Algerians everything has changed; as it will for the
Libyans; and as it has for the citizens of a dozen countries
whose populations have risen up in protest of their government’s
oppressions since 1962. We’ll have to wait a while longer
for the North Koreans, Somalis, Maldavians, Uzbekis, Laosians
and how many other countries.
But one day they’ll be
in the streets teaching their oppressors the lesson the French
learned in 1962.
For now the bombers no longer fly the secret “Chrome
Dome” airborn alert sorties. And Warner Robbins AFB? It’s
still there; hosting a number of Air Force Units ranging from
a Combat Communications unit to a Marine Aircraft Group.
But
closer to my heart is the Robin's Museum of Aviation. The
second largest aviation museum in the USAF with 93 aircraft
on 43 acres of both indoor and outdoor exhibits |
|
| They have a B-52, SR-71,
a Marietta, Georgia-built B-29, and one of the specially
modified C-130 Hercules that were used in the failed Iran-hostage
rescue mission.
The Museum of Aviation is located only seven
miles east of I-75, near Robins Air Force Base. It's open
9am to 5pm Daily and admission is free.
http://www.museumofaviation.org/index.php
|
|
By David Rose, Contributing
Editor
|
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