We Were Crewdogs I - The B-52 Collection

We Were Crewdogs I - The B-52 Collection

This is the first effort at collecting untold stories about what it was really like to be a crewmember in a B-52 Stratofortress aircraft. It is told first hand by the only ones who can really tell the story - those who were actually there. <br /> <br />This first book has a great collection of stories and laid the groundwork for additional volumes in this series. The later books are a little larger and have more stories, but this one sets the stage for those with a collection of acronyms used throughout the series and some great stories you will not find anywhere else. If you, or anyone you know was a crewmember, then this will tell the story of what it was all about. <br /> <br />Here is a collection of stories told by 17 contributing authors who were former Crewdogs (crew members) in the US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress. Several of these contributors are well-known authors of their own books and lend their skills to this collection. <br /> <br />Included are stories by a crew member of the first B-52 shot down over Hanoi during Linebacker II and the pilot of the last B-52 shot down over Vietnam. The day-to-day life of Nuclear Alert is the subject of many tales. Not all are war stories. Some are humorous insights into personal recollections of things that happened, but have never before been told. The book includes aircraft and crew photos and photos from alert tours and Guam and U-Tapao, the bases that were used to launch bombing missions, including Linebacker II strikes. <br /> <br />One chapter highlights the terms used by generations of B-52 Crewdogs <br />-------------------------------- <br />Introduction <br /> <br />We Were Crewdogs - Mission Statement - Tommy Towery <br />-------------------------------- <br />Chapter One - Becoming A Crewdog <br /> <br />The Language of the B-52 Crewdogs <br />Peace Is Our Profession <br />Becoming a Crewdog - Vince Osborne <br />My First Crew - Tommy Towery <br />The Aircraft Bible - The Dash-One <br />-------------------------------- <br />Chapter Two - Peacetime SAC Warriors <br /> <br />The B-52 Peacetime Missions - Charles N. Brown <br />Dropping the Big One - Walter J. Boyne <br />Say Cheese, Please - Denny Scruggs <br />Let Sleeping Crewdogs Lie - Wayne Shimet <br />Banned From the Officer’s Club - George W. Golding <br />The Green Ball of Fire - Gordon Hallgren <br />Northern Wedding - A Four-Ship to Europe, 1976 - Lynn Wakefield <br />Nice approach, Co! - Gordon Hallgren <br />Thunderstorm on Final - Walter J. Boyne <br />-------------------------------- <br />Chapter Three -The Cold War <br /> <br />The B-52 and Nuclear Alert - Walter J. Boyne <br />Sitting Alert – A Personal View - Tommy Towery <br />DEFCON 2 Cuban Missile Crisis - Arthur Craig Mizner <br />Satellite Alert and SAC Security - Gary E. Henley <br />And It Wasn’t Even an Eskimo Pie George W. Golding <br />Rookie Alert Tour - SAC ORI on Final - Lynn Wakefield <br />Bite Me Crank, Mate! - Tommy Towery <br />Known-Notice Alert Exercise - Bill Beavers <br />Santa Don’t Need No Stinking Line Badge - Denny Scruggs <br />When a Good Message Goes Bad, Very Bad - Lynn Wakefield <br />Gentlemen, Start Your Engines - Denny Scruggs <br />The Day the Klaxon Sounded “For Real” - Tommy Towery <br />-------------------------------- <br />Chapter Four -The B-52 in Combat -Vietnam <br /> <br />Vietnam and Linebacker II - Charles N. Brown <br />A Picture Is Worth 444 Words - Bill Beavers <br />Linebacker II – A Personal View - Vince Osborne <br />The “Door Rester” - Vince Osborne <br />Bailout - Gerald Wickline <br />IP Inbound – The Final Minutes of Charcoal 1 - Robert G. Certain <br />The Dreaded Bag Drag - James Hooppaw <br />Just Another Flight - George Robert Dempsey <br />-------------------------------- <br />Chapter Five - Bar Stories <br /> <br />A Few Shots from the Gunners - Karl Nedela <br />Put Out the Arc Light, Free the POGS - Bill Beavers <br />Fading Memories, Odds and Ends, and Bar Stories - Tommy Towery <br />-------------------------------- <br />Mission Debrief <br /> <br />Conclusions - Bill Beavers <br />B- 52 Crewdogs in Books and Movies