15,B52s in a MITO from Minot in '09

Thanks for posting that Daveroo.

I saw a similar launch back in the early 70s out of Carswell AFB outside of Fort Worth, Texas. Not only B-52s launched but also several KC-135s launched after the Buffs. It was about the loudest thing I ever heard as they flew over me at only a thousand feet or so and back in the Cold War days, one never knew if it was an exercise or the prelude to doomsday.
 
Man that is great to see! My dad was stationed at Beale in the 60's when this happened a lot! He was there for the filming of the movie, "Gathering of the Eagles".
 
Those big planes never fail to impress. 10 minutes from man-up to last plane off is pretty good. I assume the residents of Minot are used to these MITO drills and don't automatically assume WWIII has kicked off when they occur.
 
I saw a similar event at Fairchild AFB some years back with 52s and 135s.Pretty impressive and smokey:icon_lol:.
 
An abiding memory is riding in dad's car as a 9-year-old in October 1962, driving by one of the taxiways of Detroit Metropolitan Airport and seeing a row of gleaming B-47s parked there, swarming with mechanics and surrounded by maintenance vehicles and armed security forces members on the perimeter. They only flew in there, I never saw them leave though obviously they did, but the knowledge they were only a few miles away from our home, "locked and cocked" should something happen in Cuba, was awesome. I have wondered what base they were dispersed from. I was only 9 and awestruck by what I had seen; I'm sure Dad, being a combat veteran, was worried about what they portended.
 
As a B-52 Pilot friend of mine says....


"Smells like piss, sounds like freedom."


I believe this was a reference to the older relief system on many of the aircraft.
 
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