This is topic A little history in forum Member forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
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Posted by TA17Rem (Member # 794) on August 04, 2013, 07:37 PM:
Some history from my area that took place back in 1963 and has resurfaced again this past year with a memorial being put in place.
Part of the jet bomber at the gate to the crash site..
Crash site at the base of the flag pole..
Posted by TA17Rem (Member # 794) on August 04, 2013, 07:40 PM:
few more....
crash site;
Wild flowers that grow around the site pointing to the heavens..
Stone work was done by a long time friend of the family....
Posted by Frank (Member # 6) on August 04, 2013, 07:59 PM:
Cool, I love this kind of stuff. I try to stop at these kinds of memorials or historical sites whenever I see them.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 04, 2013, 08:24 PM:
When I was TDY at Eglin AFB in the early 60's, they tested a lot of different planes, B-52's and F104's mostly. Since I was in a hut in the middle of the runways, I saw a lot of takeoffs and landings. Some were remotely operated by a T38 trainer already in the air. The wings of a B52 have so much flexibility that if not for the outriggers, they would scrape on the runway. Once airborne, kind of amazing they swing outwards, or upwards at least as much as they dragged on the ground. I believe I heard that they have eight engines from a F86 Sabre Jet? Same engine, not sure, something like that?
The Starfighters were also amazing, STRAIGHT UP, painted in orange and chartreuse and black, probably other colors, but these were drones, I think they were doing high G's that a pilot wouldn't survive, out in the gulf. I saw guys polishing the airplanes in the hangers, I could go up to the needle point thingee and blow in it and it would register in the cockpit as airspeed.
I actually had never heard of a B47 before? But, they had them everywhere, parked in rows. I can't remember if I ever saw one fly or not, now that I think about it? Kind of a strange looking beast though. It's hard to see any generational resemblance to the B52.
So far as I know, we eleven were the only U.S. Army in the State of Florida, at the time, which was after the entire 82nd went back to Ft Bragg. That was after the Cuban flap wound down but we stayed to keep crypto, phone lines and teletype warmed up, the whole network from Ft Polk to Key West, for the next six months.
If people knew how close we came, they would shit!
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by Prune Picker (Member # 4107) on August 04, 2013, 09:33 PM:
LB, were you in a position to hear what the country felt about the Cuban mess? A neighbor & friend was also in the Army at that time. He has told me his unit was issued live ammo and loaded onto airplanes more than once. If I remember correctly, his plane flew in big circles and refueled in Colorado and Texas. He also said they knew we were close to war but had no idea what was being said due to being isolated with leave cancelled and all contact with the world cut off.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 04, 2013, 10:25 PM:
We watched Kennedy's speech in the day room and immediately had inoculations for several tropical diseases I never needed before.
Then we learned the bad news. The doors were locked and we couldn't make the public phones work.
By evening, in full combat with weapons, we were loaded on civilian planes headed for new Orleans. We had all the isle seats and the civilians were inside at the windows.
We transferred to AF transport planes and landed at Elgin, they put us up at the Eglin Yacht Club on Boggy Bayou.
We were cadre for about 25 C124's coming in from Ft Bragg, herding them into a bivouac area in the center of the runways. They stayed there and camped I don't know exactly how long, but the entire time, you couldn't keep a cap on your head, all those planes still had their engines running, ready to jump off.
I have talked to guys that served all over the world and not since the Second World War have there been the secrecy and censorship of private mail as we endured during that time. Of course we all made out wills supervised by Judge Advocate Corps lawyers. I'm pretty sure nothing like that has happened before or since.
I managed to make a phone call at Christmas, should have cost me a hundred bucks but phone company operator called me back as soon as I hung up and asked me if I was able to make my call. I lied. Never heard another word about it.
Every back home was building bomb shelters though. They all thought it was the real deal. We sure as hell knew it was. Of course, I signed non disclosures. BFD.
Lotta shit going on, submarines, frogmen sneaking onto the base but under surveillance. Shots WERE fired. But, we got midnight chow on the flight line, the whole six months. This was supposed to be reserved for those fliers in transit all over the world. Decent food, too.
We also blended in with the locals, played Bingo with AF families, I think it was on Wednesdays? By then we were in private rooms at the B.O.Q. so it was easy duty, pulled an eight hour shift in the hut every other day and played nonstop poker the rest of the time.
Ah yes, strolling down memory lane.
Good hunting. El Bee
edit: the 525th Signal "Company" (FORT BLISS) was one of only two such outfits in the entire Army. We had everything needed for any sort of communications. Didn't have time to put our trucks on flatcars, somebody else did it and we off loaded them about a week later.
[ August 04, 2013, 10:31 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
Posted by Prune Picker (Member # 4107) on August 04, 2013, 10:54 PM:
We lived in Weatherford Ok then, it is about an hour drive to Clinton AFB, near old route 66. Several of my friends fathers were stationed there (B52 wing), I remember them being sad because their dads were unable to call or come home for quite a while. I have read a book by Barry Goldwater, seems he was in the know then and had several unflattering stories about JFK during the crisis. I wish I could remember the title of that book! I would read it again.
If I remember correctly, my neighbor was flying around on C 56's. No food or water was issued while airborne due to the lack of toilets on board.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 05, 2013, 10:46 AM:
Don't get me wrong, most of these guys would have wanted to jump on Cuba, let's go and this won't be another Bay Of Pigs. Which, by the way is the reason I started to look at Kennedy with a fish eye....and he fucked over me personally. My wife was still in Germany, I had to clear post so quickly. And, the expense was my problem. I had plenty of reasons to not shed a tear when Kennedy took a bullet besides being a fucking Democrat. My first vote went to Goldwater. In your heart, you know he's right.
Good hunting. El Bee
PS the gears were put in motion in August when I was given 5 days to clear post and report to Ft Bliss. So they knew what they were going to do long before October 22.
Posted by Prune Picker (Member # 4107) on August 05, 2013, 11:48 AM:
I watched a video made to boost McNamaras (sp?) book. In it he mentions a conversation with fidel castro years after the missle crisis, seems there were appx 100+ nukes pointed towards the US. castro claimed he wanted to launch every damn one on us, but Russians refused because Russia was afraid we would launch everything we had and wipe them off the map. Alexander Haig basically said the same thing in his book. I'm not sure because i refuse to buy Mcnamaras' book, just because....
Posted by The Terminator (Member # 4415) on August 05, 2013, 01:24 PM:
I was born in 1963, but by God i would have been there with you if could have gotten outta my fuckin crib!
Terminator!!
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on August 05, 2013, 03:20 PM:
Thanks anyway. This shit hit the fan when you were a twinkle in your father's eye, 1962.
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by CCP (Member # 913) on August 05, 2013, 03:54 PM:
I was not born till 67 but did hunt Eglin AFB in the 80's and 90's. THANKS for your service...
Posted by MI VHNTR (Member # 3370) on August 05, 2013, 06:21 PM:
I was pretty young when the Cuban crisis occurred, but I can remember seeing many things related to it.
I lived near a former SAC base and the B-52s would come out of the base in large groups, fly over my parents home and then turn north to head for Russia by going over the north pole. You could see/hear that they were loaded (literally) for bear too. This happened night after night for a long period of time.
The phone books here had evacuation routes and blast zones listed in case of a nuclear attack. There are still a few of the fallout shelters in the area today.
Posted by TA17Rem (Member # 794) on August 09, 2013, 06:45 PM:
quote:
blast zones listed in case of a nuclear attack
One nuke from a buff pretty much kills everything with-in a 60 mile circle and anything out-side of that and down wind will be dead shortly after..
Spent my time keeping the Russians from nuking us and stealing our nukes.. Good times that's for sure...... ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Posted by booger (Member # 3602) on August 10, 2013, 09:09 AM:
I grew up in Russell, Kansas, and currently live in Great Bend, Kansas.
There was a B-29 airfield here in Great Bend, and another at Walker, Kansas, about 16 miles west of Russell in the early 40's.
There were two fatal crashes of ‘29s in 1944 in Russell County, one of which almost took out a portion of Russell. In speaking with some of the old timers around town, they remember the plane flying dangerously low over town, trailing smoke from a burning engine. It eventually crashed about 10 miles NW of Russell in a pasture, killing all of the crew, I believe. They were trying to limp back to the Walker Air Base.
I think someone put up a marker. I may have to wander up there and take a picture of it.
[ August 10, 2013, 09:10 AM: Message edited by: booger ]
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