I flew the B-52 for almost 14 years. I had 77 combat missions over NVN. I LOVED my job! Starting all 8 engines simultaneously was literally a BLAST.

I'm just an old 83yr old who has been fascinated with airplanes since a teen - love to watch them close up - I grew up in UK, we went to Heathrow sometimes just to watch them from the perimeter. No more flying for me now - not going anywhere these days, but I have always regarded flying machines as the most awesome thing on this planet ! Thank you for your video !

I worked as a civilian contractor and we were the central communications hub at our location. Every day, I would chat with the US forces at NORAD, NATO, the 5 Eyes and more. It was a well oiled machine. All of us had high clearances because of what we dealt with, and we may as well have been on the front row seat at many situations that will remain classified. The flow of information was essential and setup with insane backup systems. I can only say that the professionalism of everyone involved was exemplary.

I was B52 ground crew/crew chief on B52D's in 1966-1969 and went on the alert pad quite a few times. This was Columbus AFB, MS. The ground crew and flight crew stayed at a separate alert pad building where the planes set on alert status. We stayed there round the clock for several days before rotating off of alert. Seems like it was like four days in a row. We had our own chow hall to eat and they showed movies for entertainment. Plus, we had TV's and pool tables and card games to keep us occupied. The smoke coming out of the engines were what we called "shotgun" starters. Basically it was a canister filled with powder to start the engines without having a pneumatic starter attached to the aircraft for normal starts. And, before the B52 could shut their engines down on the alert pad we had to remove and replace at least one of these canisters so they would have a way of starting the engines if a real emergency event would happen. Only two of the eight engines had the shotgun starters on them. One engine on each wing of the aircraft.

I was a Crew Chief on B52s in the 1980s based at KI Sawyer, and I pulled a lot of alert duty. I can relate to the guy struggling to remove the pitot cover! We usually had intake and exhaust covers to pull as well. This sure brings back memories.