B52 question for SAC guys.

[Nikos]

During the Vietnam war, did SAC rotate B52 Wings from the USA to Bases in South Vietnam and Guam?  Or, were these Wings assigned to South Vietnam, and Guam for the duration?

[capmaj]

Primarily Guam, Okinawa and Thailand.

[PHall]

B-52's were stationed at Anderson AFB, Guam and Utapao (spelling?) RTAFB, Thailand.
The only SAC aircraft that were in Taiwan were KC-135 tankers.
B-52's were not stationed in South Vietnam because they would have been just too much of a target.
There were occasional emergency landings at DaNang by damaged aircraft. Some sucessful, some not.

[Luis R. Ramos]

I did get the response to the bases, and maybe the OP did get the second part, but I did not.

The part that I did not get was: Were those B-52 at Anderson and Utapao assigned there permanently, or were those wings rotating from the States?

[bosshawk]

I worked in the 7th AF TACC in 1966 and seem to recall that the crews rotated to Guam and Thailand for about 3 or 4 months(not sure about the length).  The airplanes were D models and I seem to recall that they stayed in place while the crews rotated.  Don't remember whether or not the crews were all from a single wing when they went on deployment: maybe some of the AF old-timers remember.  When I was at the TACC, the "Arc Light" planners were just over the partition from me and I knew a lot of them.

If I think of it, I'll query some of my Buff friends in the local area about the tours.

[Mitchell 1969]

I worked in the 7th AF TACC in 1966 and seem to recall that the crews rotated to Guam and Thailand for about 3 or 4 months(not sure about the length).  The airplanes were D models and I seem to recall that they stayed in place while the crews rotated.  Don't remember whether or not the crews were all from a single wing when they went on deployment: maybe some of the AF old-timers remember.  When I was at the TACC, the "Arc Light" planners were just over the partition from me and I knew a lot of them.

If I think of it, I'll query some of my Buff friends in the local area about the tours.

I was in the cadet squadron at March AFB in 1972-73. Crews and aircraft from the 22nd Bomb Wing rotated out to Anderson and back on a regular basis.

We were given some additional space in an area that had been used by an Aerial Port Squadron. It was right on the flight line. We were told we could use whatever furniture was there including some lockers - but we had to cut off the locks ourselves. A couple of us cut off some locks, found nothing. But then we found a few lockers that had personal items and equipment in them. We called the USAF people and they immediately realized that somebody had goofed - the items belonged to crew members who didn't come back. They finished cutting off the locks, took the stuff and we heard nothing more about it.

[PHall]

The B-52D's were at Anderson and at Utapao. The B-52G's were at Anderson.
The aircraft were deployed on a semi-permament basis, they came back to the states for heavy scheduled maintenance, i.e. Depot Overhaul and modifications.
The crews were usually on a 90 to 120 day deployment.  Remember, they still had to support the Nuclear Ground Alert mission too.

[capmaj]

I was with PACAF HQ then and, IIRC, flight crews did indeed rotate with the AC's staying put. (Unless the planes were broke). The maintenance guys stayed in-country for their tour.

[scooter]

I was there as a tanker pilot.

Buff crews rotated TDY thru SEA, not Wings. The Wings still had an Alert/EWO mission back home so the rest of the crews took on the load for the TDY crewmembers.

Tanker crews did the same thing. The mission was called "Young Tiger".