Old movie

[Nikos]

I recall years ago watching a movie about SAC.  I think Rock Hudson was in it.  Can't member the name of the movie.  Anyone know what the title is?

[HGjunkie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gathering_of_Eagles

This?

[Nikos]

Yes!  Great, thank you.  I will try to find a copy.

[Capt_Redfox30]

Another good movie about SAC with another acting icon and Air Force Reserve Brigadier General

Strategic Air Command with Jimmy Stewart

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048667/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[PHall]

And don't forget the third movie of the SAC movie trifecta, Bombers B-52!

[HGjunkie]

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

Another good movie about SAC with another acting icon and Air Force Reserve Brigadier General

Strategic Air Command with Jimmy Stewart

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048667/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Which should be required viewing for anyone in the USAF and/or CAP.  Make it part of Level I!

General James Stewart flew B-52 missions in Vietnam...not widely known...

[NIN]

Yes this is my preferred movie about the Strategic Air Command.

[Luis R. Ramos]

Dr Strangelove is not a movie about SAC. It is a satire, a farce. Funny none the less, but not my idea of SAC. My idea of SAC? A Gathering of Eagles and Strategic Air Command.[/b]

[Brit_in_CAP]

Another good movie about SAC with another acting icon and Air Force Reserve Brigadier General

Strategic Air Command with Jimmy Stewart

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048667/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Which should be required viewing for anyone in the USAF and/or CAP.  Make it part of Level I!

General James Stewart flew B-52 missions in Vietnam...not widely known...

Indeed...and he was a B-17 pilot in WW2, based in the UK.  I watched the series 'The World at War' twice before I realized that the narration attributed to 'James Stewart, Squadron Commander' was Jimmy Stewart!

We 'found an excuse' for a film night and showed the film to the cadets...they enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Garibaldi]

Yeah...I wasn't going to say it...

[Cliff_Chambliss]

Indeed...and he was a B-17 pilot in WW2, based in the UK.
[/quote]

I believe he flew B-24's not 17's. in combat. 

However prior to going overseas he was a B-17 and B-24 Instructor Pilot.

[MSG Mac]

He went from Private to Colonel during WWII.

[Nikos]

I always liked Dr. Strangelove, I never heard of Bombers B52, will have to look that one up.

[sardak]

Better connections to SAC in Dr. Strangelove





Mike

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

I watched the series 'The World at War' twice before I realized that the narration attributed to 'James Stewart, Squadron Commander' was Jimmy Stewart!

Even with that unmistakeable voice?

We 'found an excuse' for a film night and showed the film to the cadets...they enjoyed it thoroughly.

Good on ya, and a good teachable moment for the cadets.

[Nikos]

Another one I like, but not a SAC movie, is "12 o' clock High".  Those air crews had a really bad time in those early days.

[PHall]

Dr Strangelove is not a movie about SAC. It is a satire, a farce. Funny none the less, but not my idea of SAC. My idea of SAC? A Gathering of Eagles and Strategic Air Command.[/b]

Mr Ramos, were you ever in SAC? I was. (Mar 1975 - Mar 1990)   Here's the mindset of SAC in the 50's and early 60's.

The KC-135A tanker can offload all but 1200 gallons of fuel. The was to ensure that after the tanker offloaded all of it's fuel to the bomber that there would be enough fuel for the tanker to get clear of the bomber before the engines flamed out.

The primary and only mission of SAC was to put the bombs on target, everything else was secondary.

Yes the movie was a satire, but the crew's determination to get to their target was spot on!

[Luis R. Ramos]

I was not in SAC but I was aware of its mission.

If you look at Dr Strangelove being about SAC for the dedication of its crews to put the bombs on the target, then I wonder why you did not mention Fail Safe for the same reason.

To me Dr Strangelove's pilot is unprofessional and stupid, whereas Fail Safe's pilots, both those that go to bomb the Soviet Union and the one that does the final mission are professional and dedicated. in fact, so are also those that work inside NORAD.

I would be worried if even a quarter of those in SAC were as that pilot in Strange.

[lordmonar]

Dr Strangelove is not a movie about SAC. It is a satire, a farce. Funny none the less, but not my idea of SAC. My idea of SAC? A Gathering of Eagles and Strategic Air Command.[/b]

Mr Ramos, were you ever in SAC? I was. (Mar 1975 - Mar 1990)   Here's the mindset of SAC in the 50's and early 60's.

The KC-135A tanker can offload all but 1200 gallons of fuel. The was to ensure that after the tanker offloaded all of it's fuel to the bomber that there would be enough fuel for the tanker to get clear of the bomber before the engines flamed out.

The primary and only mission of SAC was to put the bombs on target, everything else was secondary.

Yes the movie was a satire, but the crew's determination to get to their target was spot on!

+1  My father was a B-47 Radar Navigator and then a B-52 BN instructor before going to Vietnam and switching over to trash haulers.  His comment about Dr Strangelove was....yes there are a lot of inaccuracies....but the dialog...particularly they way they use terminology and the cadence they used was very spot on the way they wanted SAC bomber crews to talk.

He loved the movie even if it made fun of the Silly Air Circus. 

[PHall]

Dr Strangelove also caused a review of Nuclear Weapons procedures. Several major changes to procedures and equipment came about because of this movie and the questions it raised. (i.e. General, could this really happen?...)

[Luis R. Ramos]

Reggarding Strange, I will give you 1 point for that, and 1 point for the post lauding the dialogue of the bomber crews. In comparison, Fail shows more of a dedication up to the supreme sacrifice expected of SAC crews.

From the crews of the six bombers who for all they knew had been sent on a real, authorized mission. To the American fighter pilots who were ordered to shoot them down, who realized they were going to splash down in the cold Pacific as they were ordered to use their afterburners. The same fighter pilots who as their mission began would also have given it all to protect those bombers had they been on a real mission.

To the crew of the bomber which had to carry the last mission in that film... and to the American Colonel who attempts to take over NORAD, and even the Soviet General who had a heart6 attack as he realized he failed to protect his country... And lastly the American Ambassador who is ordered to stay in Moscow even after it was known that at least one of the American bombers was going to get through.

The only problem with the film? It names the B-52 Hustlers as Vindicators, instead of showing the B-52 or B-47. They could even have used the Hustler's real name and designation...

[Nikos]

Mr. Phall, can you suggest any good books on the history of SAC?  I would like to learn more about SAC.

[PHall]

Mr. Phall, can you suggest any good books on the history of SAC?  I would like to learn more about SAC.

I have one really good book that I picked up at the Air Force Museum Bookshop, "Peace Was Their Profession, Stategic Air Command, A Tribute" by Mike Hill, John M Campbell and Donna Campbell. Published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd.

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

It doesn't matter anyway.

We all know who REALLY ruled the skies...

[NIN]

Dr Strangelove is not a movie about SAC. It is a satire, a farce. Funny none the less, but not my idea of SAC. My idea of SAC? A Gathering of Eagles and Strategic Air Command.

Wait, what? Strangelove is satire? I thought it was a documentary?

[flyboy53]

Was never a fan of Dr. Strangelove.

Have any of you ever seen By Dawn's Early Light? Another great SAC movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_Dawn%27s_Early_Light

And as far as the Traveling Air Circus....well....mm

[Nikos]

Thanks for the information on the book, I will look for it.  I also have some recent photos of Loring AFB, but I could not figure out how to post them.

[AirAux]

Jimmy Stewart was my Dad's Squadron Commander while he was in the 453rd Bomb Group, 733rd Bomb Squadron in England out of Ol' Birmingham near Norwich.  Dad loved him and said Jimmy went with them on all of the hard missions.  He would have followed him into hell.  B-24's, around January 1944 through June 1944.  They flew two 6 hour missions on D-Day.  The greatest generation.  God, I miss Dad.     

[Offutteer]

If we're talking about putting bombs on the target, we should be talking about "WarGames."

"Would you like to play a game?"

"Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War."

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

Jimmy Stewart was my Dad's Squadron Commander while he was in the 453rd Bomb Group, 733rd Bomb Squadron in England out of Ol' Birmingham near Norwich.  Dad loved him and said Jimmy went with them on all of the hard missions.  He would have followed him into hell.  B-24's, around January 1944 through June 1944.  They flew two 6 hour missions on D-Day.  The greatest generation.  God, I miss Dad.   

Wow.  Your father must have had some stories to tell!

I miss my dad too...4th Armored Division, Erlangen, West Germany, 1957-59...just as things with the Warsaw Pact were getting tense.

He also had two years in the National Guard prior to that.  After getting out of the Guard, he signed up to join the Navy, but while he was waiting to be called to the Navy, he got drafted into the Army.  Go figure.

[PHall]

If we're talking about putting bombs on the target, we should be talking about "WarGames."

"Would you like to play a game?"

"Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War."

I was at Offutt when that movie came out. The base open house was about a month or so later.
We had a Looking Glass EC-135C set up for static display with the crowds walking through.
One of the Comm guys made a sign for the Computer that in the Battle Staff Compartment.
It said "War Operations Plans and Response  W.O.P.R.". It was removed within an hour by a really upset Public Affairs type.
We all thought it was pretty funny.  Of course aircrew humor can be pretty dark sometimes!

[a2capt]

Spoil sports..

[Nikos]

Did the SAC tanker crews have ejection seats, or if the engine flamed out, did they ride the tanker down like a glider?

[SarDragon]

Why would you need ejection seats? The plane is big enough to walk around in, and can fly slow enough to open a door and jump out of.

As for engines flaming out, most tankers have at least three, and can fly to and emergency field with one out. Tankers do not glide well.

[PHall]

Did the SAC tanker crews have ejection seats, or if the engine flamed out, did they ride the tanker down like a glider?

No ejection seats. We had parachutes if we wished to attempt a manual bailout.
And the 135 has the glide ratio of a brick.

[flyboy53]

Did the SAC tanker crews have ejection seats, or if the engine flamed out, did they ride the tanker down like a glider?

No ejection seats. We had parachutes if we wished to attempt a manual bailout.
And the 135 has the glide ratio of a brick.

Never heard of anyone attempting or surviving a bail out of a flying bomb.

B-52s had poor survivability in an ejection, especially if a bottom-firing ejection seat was triggered when close to or still on the ground. Early B-47s were known to be widow makers because the navigator or the weapons system officer never got out.

Even with an ecapsulated ejection system, B-58 survivability was questionable depending on the speed, and FB/EF/F-111 crews suffered sometimes very serious spine problems if the air bladders under the capsule didn't inflate.

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

Kind of like the early F-104 Starfighters...they had downward-ejecting seats.

This proved troublesome, to say the least.

During the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, a PakAF 104 pilot, Wing Commander Mervyn Middlecoat, apparently ejected safely over the Gulf of Kutch.  However, this area is known to be shark-infested...so the Wing Commander was never found.

[Nikos]

Sounds like those ejection seats gave one heck of a ride!

[PHall]

Never heard of anyone attempting or surviving a bail out of a flying bomb.

I had heard that a bailout had been performed back in the 70's by a crew from one of the Michigan bases, but I've never confirmed that.

And I had no desire to be the one who removed all of the antennas from the belly of the airplane either.

Besides, the 135 flew just fine on three engines.

[flyboy53]

Never heard of anyone attempting or surviving a bail out of a flying bomb.

I had heard that a bailout had been performed back in the 70's by a crew from one of the Michigan bases, but I've never confirmed that.

And I had no desire to be the one who removed all of the antennas from the belly of the airplane either.

Besides, the 135 flew just fine on three engines.

It was a KC-135A from the 46th Air Refueling Squadron out of K.I. Sawyer: (61-0313) ran out of fuel on a short final approach prior to landing at its home base after flying practice approaches at nearby Kincheloe AFB to complete requalification training. The flight crew, with the exception of the instructor pilot, bailed out when the engines went quiet. The instructor pilot, who remained on board, landed the aircraft just short of the runway overrun, bounced and rolled to a stop on the runway. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service quickly and even the crew entry door (which separated from the aircraft during bailout procedures) was returned to the Air Force by a local farmer.

Here' what one of the crew said (according to the 46th ARS veteran's associations:  When I became an aircraft commander in the early 1980s, I really enjoyed going TDY with 61-0313.  She was a very well-maintained aircraft with an excellent crew chief, but the best part was the kind of extra T-L-C you could get from ramp personnel when you told them to "take good care of her, this is the famous glider."  Some years before a senior instructor pilot had managed to run her out of gas on short final at K I Sawyer after driving over to Kincheloe for a requalification ILS approach so the "other" pilot on board could go on alert the next morning.  All could have been well, had the IP gone over and back at a "flight level" with more than a single digit!  Anyway, on very short final the last engine flamed out and the very senior boomer took the total silence as a command of execution for "BAILOUT."  In very short order, everybody on board except the IP was gone.  The IP "saved the day" by managing to land the bird just short of the overrun, giving her a good high bounce and then coming to a stop in the first thousand feet of the runway with relatively minor damage.  The copilot (the last man out) had bailed out over a small valley and got one swing on the parachute before he landed -- hard.  Some local farmer found the crew entry door and dutifully returned it to the main gate.  Love the U.P.  No wonder we could all leave our doors unlocked.

James H. Evans, USAF (Retired)


Here's a link to the B-52 bailout history: http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/aircraft_by_type/b52_stratofortress.htm

Still am impressed with both aircraft and what SAC did with them.