The Marines are on the attack tonight!

[dmccarty]

Back in the 60's when I was in college in El Paso, we lived about 2 miles directly off the end of the main runway at Biggs Air Force Base, now Fort Bliss. At that time it was a SAC base for B-52's. About 2 or 3 times a year, they would have a practice scramble and launch a couple of KC-135's and a half a dozen B-52's spaced about 15 seconds apart.

You could hear them winding up the engines at the end of the runway and because of the altitude, about 3,500 MSL and the summer heat 100+ they were at full power plus because I'm sure that they were at maximum weight.

There was this god awful screaming from the intake side of the engines that lasted for a couple of minutes and they would pass over the house at less than 1,000'.

Something you never forget.

I used to live across the river from Barksdale AFB which was a SAC base and still has B52s. I could climb this little pine tree in our yard and see the planes taking off at the base. I saw a weather balloon they launched fly over the house once. Kinda surprised to see that thing climbing. One day a B52 flew over the house which did not happen often. The plane was making a very tight turn, well tight for a B52, he was low and his wing was close to the ground. The windows in the house were rattling from the engine noise and so was I. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Not something I will ever forget either.

I will never know why that plane was over the house but I have to wonder if there was some sort of problem on the plane or maybe on the runway. He was in a very odd location to be flying that low and turning that tightly.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

In the 1960's I was in the USMC stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC. They can't fire the 155's at Camp Lejeune. So back then (usually in the dead of winter) we would load up on amphibious ships and cruise down to Vieques, Puerto Rico. We would make an amphibious landing on the lovely beach, set up base and fire ALL the big guns for a couple of weeks. At the same time Navy ships would lie off shore and fire all of their big guns at the island. Marine jets would do their bombing practice with real bombs.

In my opinion you could not ask for a better place for training Marines who are supposed to make amphibious landings and coordinate with the Navy.

Several years ago this was stopped because of protests by the Puerto Ricans. Personally, I don't understand why Vieques was any different from the places mentioned in previous posts.

I guess that is why the Marines are going to Bragg. I did not connect the dots about the Vieques closure and the Marines having to go to an Army base for training.... We left Vieques because of the anti Americans in PR. We should have pulled our tax money from PR when we had to stop using Vieques...

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

My teen years I lived 1/2 mile from a Army Guard bombing range in S AZ, it was 4th of July one weekend a month all year long.

One time I was able to complete a stalk on a Desert Mule deer thanks to Four A-7's that came screaming down the canyon, their noise covered mine as I crossed a shale slide.

In later years I had A -10's do gun runs on my off road buggy many times, and then come back by and wag their wings at me.

In the mid 90's a desert camo'ed C-130 would fly at tree top height and the tree's were Mesquite and five F-16's would hunt him and then dive on him when spotted, I used to watch them often.
Then one day I was fishing at a dirt tank called Bear Grass just East of the old town of Arivaca, it was this time of year because the water level was way down and I was down about 30 ft from the top, when all of sudden a big shadow came over me and it was that C-130, it blew my hat off, i seen it before I heard it and at the same time here came the F-16's and there I was holding my fishing pole, I am sure they had a good laugh.

===J

Back in the 80's I was on a sail boat in the Keys and some F16s took off from Homestead and started practicing bombing runs on the boat. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: They did not come close to us, darn it, but you could tell what they were up too. They would approach in a slide glide miles away and then pull up, go around and repeat. Twas pretty cool. As long as nothing went boom. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Back when highway speeds were limited to oh so slow 55 to save gas, I used to drive up the FLA Turnpike. Oh, my that was a BORING drive at 55 mph. Except for one day with a flight of A10s were attacking a deadly dangerous stand of Cypress! So very cool to watch. They would circle the "enemy" and then peel off into a strafing run, pull up and repeat. Pretty cool to watch and I even slowed down! :laughing::laughing::laughing: A cousin was in the AF and was based at Myrtle Beach which at the time had the A10's. I wonder if the planes had flown down from Shaw.

Later,
Dan

 

[orezok]

Well, the assault stopped. The base went red flag for heat this morning and all outside training was suspended.

 

[houstonscott]

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news...-WWII--Balloon-Bomb--Kills-Six-in-Oregon.html

Was anyone aware of this?

HS

 

[bcp]

Fairly well known in Oregon.

List of Japanese attacks on West Coast and Alaska:

American Theater (World War II) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruce

 

[joemd11]

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I flew KC=135's. We used to do MITO (minimum interval takeoffs) with 5 second spacing between airplanes. These were A model 135's that used water injection to increase thrust for heavy weight takeoffs. The water only lasted like 2 minutes and then you had better be clean (gear and flaps up) or you were in trouble. The noise and smoke made for quite a show. Thank goodness engine technology advanced and made water injection obsolete.

Back in the 60's when I was in college in El Paso, we lived about 2 miles directly off the end of the main runway at Biggs Air Force Base, now Fort Bliss. At that time it was a SAC base for B-52's. About 2 or 3 times a year, they would have a practice scramble and launch a couple of KC-135's and a half a dozen B-52's spaced about 15 seconds apart.

You could hear them winding up the engines at the end of the runway and because of the altitude, about 3,500 MSL and the summer heat 100+ they were at full power plus because I'm sure that they were at maximum weight.

There was this god awful screaming from the intake side of the engines that lasted for a couple of minutes and they would pass over the house at less than 1,000'.

Something you never forget.

 

[mjarrels]

If you want to seen some amazing stats, research Clark AFB in Angles City Philippines during the Vietnam war. Take offs and landings every minute 24/7/365 for years. At one time, about 180,000 boots on the ground. Largest base outside the US. Made Subic Bay and Cubi Point NAS look like a wide place in the road. Very small compaired to Clark AB.

mark

 

[buickanddeere]

Given the US debt. There maybe less than more in the future.

 

[daveshoot]

When I was in Germany, my unit used to go to the "Graph" to fire our M109's.

I had beau coup time at Graf and Hohenfels, driving evaluators for ARTEPs and other exercises in a jeep. I was a tank gunner by MOS (M60s) but assigned to 3AD headquarters G3. Now there, they did have the occasional spectacular accident, and that's how I learned about arty counting bags. That's why I still keep a heads-up when the jarheads are practicing up range. They seem pretty good at it, though.