Mark Rippetoe and Scott Davison talk about Scott's experience as an Air Force pilot flying B-52s during the Cold War.
https://youtu.be/oTphnQFkI5E
Mark Rippetoe and Scott Davison talk about Scott's experience as an Air Force pilot flying B-52s during the Cold War.
https://youtu.be/oTphnQFkI5E
Scott really enjoyed the podcast. I was also an Air Force Pilot from 1976 to 1982, C-130s out of Little Rock. Best man at my wedding is probably someone you knew who also "retired" right after we won the cold war, he flew B-52s out of Texas. I got one ride in a B-52. I found the take off terrifying.
I wasn't yet qualified. But I watched that nose low take off, and knew that just "wouldn't look right" at first. I flew in upstate New York (a G model I think) and a "can bird" that had not flown in 89 days. The crew was working to get qualified. This would have been the summer of 1974. The co-pilot was a great guy named Frisbie, he explained quite a bit to me.
The smell was very much as you described. But the horror of having 8 engines screaming, rolling 12,500 feet down the runway and then going nose down... even though I knew it was coming... was memorable. As was the thump, as the main gear hit the 89 day's of sitting flat spot on the tire.
Another thing that struck a nerve, was the absolute confidence of the qualified crews. I recall asking one, "what are the chances of you getting through to your targets?".
"Oh, we'll get through." I recall the chilling realization that I sure wouldn't want to be there. He had absolute conviction.
SAC was elite because it had to be, in order to accomplish its mission. It was a sorry reward for providing decades of peace the way SAC laid off.
Loved it. Fascinating.
Scott, you mentioned in passing /satellite/ detection of SCUD launchs. Is there any detail on that in the open that you can share?
Probably not.
Thanks Mark.
Familiar with Bamford, but Richelson and the Pike Commission are new to me. I see Richelson got a positive review in a redacted document on the NSA’s website. Bamford is probably viewed differently by the men in black.
Bamford should have been prosecuted. His knowledge was derived from his stint in the USN as an intelligence analyst.
The Intelligence Community has only itself to blame for Richelson's revelations. He was an academic who hung around under table as a mascot picking up scraps, until he got accepted sub rosa and got some of the straight poop from denizens of what we now might term "The Swamp."
Pike's links are murkier. He has carefully crafted and effaced much of his early history, and it appears that he was also an academician. Most probably he followed the same path as Richelson and became a mascot.