FLYING FROM THE BLACK HOLE: THE B-52 NAVIGATOR-BOMBARDIERS OF VIETNAM

B-52 Bombers over Vietnam | Flying from the Black Hole: The B-52 Navigator-bombardiers of Vietnam | Robert O. Harder

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	• Flying from the Black Hole: The B-52 Navigator-bombardiers of Vietnam Robert O. Harder Naval Institute Press, 2009 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Pilot. Radar. Center the PDI and turn up the heat!

As I read FLYING FROM THE BLACK HOLE I was back in the Air Force and eventually in the left seat flying the BUF out of Guam, UT and Kadena. Little has been written about the duties of the nav team in the BUF which is where most of the action occurs once you get the beast off the ground. Harder fills that void very well. His descriptions of the aircraft, crew, duties of said crew, and the world they lived and worked in is accurate without being redundant. He covers his introduction to the Air Force, SAC, and Arclight very accurately and brought back things I had forgotten. His description of celestial navigation reminded me of my time as a B-47 copilot trying to find those elusive stars and getting a good shot and then plotting them with the nav.
Anyone who participated in Arclight in any way, as a flyer or in a support function, will find the book a good read as well as anyone interested in aviation and especially the BUF. As pilots, we knew the nav team accomplished all kinds of magic to get us to our destination, Harder explains how they did it.
The book is especially educational for those who think only of pilots when they hear or read about the BUF. It is definitely a crew aircraft and everyone has a specific duty to complement and complete the assigned mission. This became especially evident to me over Laos just west of Ben Karai pass on February 17, 1971 when I led Snow cell through a SAM attack. Everyone played their part perfectly while I just flew the bird and we had no hits, no runs and no errors. (I cover this event in WHERE THE BUF FELLOWS ROAMED which is still available.)
I missed the big show in Dec 1972, but was there in spirit, for many of the names he listed as participants were friends that I had flown with, checked out in the G, pulled alert with over the years and especially Louis LeBlanc who was my gunner for two Arclight tours in the D.
Those who think everything goes smoothly in the bombing business learns how it is in real life. It is always the men in the arena who make the mission successful regardless of the rules imposed upon them by those who are not present or directly involved.
Harder also gives credit to the supporting cast of aircraft and crews involved in Linebacker II that made the whole thing as successful as it was, in addition to the BUF's activity.
Pilots need to read it, they might learn a great deal.

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FLYING FROM THE BLACK HOLE: THE B-52 NAVIGATOR-BOMBARDIERS OF VIETNAM

FLYING FROM THE BLACK HOLE: THE B-52 NAVIGATOR-BOMBARDIERS OF VIETNAM
ROBERT O. HARDER
NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS, 2009
HARDCOVER, $34.95, 336 PAGES, ILLUSTRATIONS, NOTES, ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX

The war in Southeast Asia turned many things upside down. For more than seven years, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress of the U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) hauled and dropped millions of "iron bombs" or non-nuclear ordnance in an essentially tactical role, while tactical fighter bombers attempted to conduct a quasi-strategic air war against North Vietnam. Throughout these years, the B-52s flew routine missions to support ground forces (Operation ARC LIGHT), attack hostile base areas, blunt enemy offensives, and interdict infiltration routes in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (Operation COMMANDO HUNT). Then, during eleven days in December, 1972, the B-52s played their most spectacular, costly, and successful role-in Operation LINEBACKER II bombing campaign against targets in the Hanoi-Haiphong area of North Vietnam. Their attacks helped to urge the North Vietnamese back to the Paris peace talks that eventually produced a settlement in January, 1973. This "Eleven-Day-War" was the only time in eight years of bombing that the B-52s were employed in a nearly strategic role, and it brought the air war against North Vietnam to a close. When the Kennedy Administration adopted the "flexible response" strategy, stressing conventional warfare, Strategic Air Command closely examined the tacrical potential of its strategic bombers. The B-52 was chosen for operations over Southeast Asia because it was much better suited for such activity than the smaller B-47 or B-58. Although originally designed for both nuclear and conventional roles, the B-52s were, by the early 1960s, dedicated solely to strategic deterrence. The prospect of a long commitment to the war in Southeast Asia prompted SAC to employ the more numerous B-52Ds and to give them greater conventional striking power. The "Big Belly" Program of 1965 modified 82 B-52s to carry 42 750-pound (340 kg) bombs-or as many as 84 500-pounders (227 kg)-inside the plane, with 24 750-pounders or 500-pounders suspended from simple "stub" pylons beneath the wings. These changes increased the B-52s' maximum "iron-bomb" load from 51 bombs totaling 27,000 pounds (12,247 kg) to 108 bombs totaling 60,000 pounds (27,216 kg). Also developed were "C-racks" that could be loaded with 28 500-pounders and "clipped" into the bomb bays. Between December, 1965 and September, 1967, the entire B-52D fleet was modified. Studies made by Boeing of the heavier weight carried by the Operation ARC LIGHT B-52s resulted in a structural strengthening program to extend aircraft service life. While undergoing "Big Belly" and structural modifications, all B-52Ds received new radar transponders for ground directed bombing and coats of camouflage paint. After tests to find upper-surface, camouflage schemes that would hamper visual detection of low-flying B-52s by enemy interceptors, SAC chose a mottled pattern of tan and two shades of green. A black under-surface and tail fin were chosen for searchlight suppression in the case of strikes on North Vietnam, where optically-guided AA guns constituted a major defense element. The B-52Fs based on Guam (The Rock) received temporary coats of black over their white nuclear-blast-reflection paint; only the B-52Ds received coats of camouflage and black. In author Robert O. Harder's new book FLYING FROM THE BLACK HOLE: THE B-52 NAVIGATOR-BOMBARDIERS OF VIETNAM details for the first time the overlooked roles of the navigator/bombardiers and other crewmen that ensured the B-52s carried out the various types of missions over Southeast Asia. Harder, a former U.S. Air Force navigator/bombardier with 145 combat missions, really tells the in-depth story of these men and leaves nothing out: the men, the aircraft, strategy, tactics, successes, and failures. Written in a clear and gripping account, Harder is a master of his subject. This outstanding book will ensure that no American one will ever look at the air war over Southeast Asia from just a pilot's perspective ever again.

Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida

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B-52 Bombers over Vietnam

Author Robert Harder was a navigator-bombardier of a B-52 bomber during the Vietnam War. He writes an extremely interesting book on what life was like for B-52 crew members, ground crew, being in the Air Force and especially what happened during Operation Linebacker - the 1972 Christmas Bombing of Hanoi.

The book brings to life the duties of a B-52 crew member. The pilots always get the glory, but Harder is able to show what the crews said, did, thought, felt - the fear, gallows humor, bravery are all brought to light. There are maps, drawings of the crew stations, photographs that help the reader really experience what happened and why. This is not a "nuts and bolts" story of the B-52, but a human side of the crews of the infamous Boeing Bomber.

Harder gives a very honest appraisal of the US Air Force - he is rightly critical of the decision makers who needlessly sacrificed too many crews in an attempt to bring the Vietnam War to an end. What happened will really get your adreline going. B-52's dodging Surface to Air Missles the size of telephone poles makes for intense reading. Not all got through. Ultimately, we succeeded, but at too high a cost. Harder's bitterness is clearly seen to this day and this book is a fitting tribute to the brave crews who saddled up, did what they were told to do and made the impossible possible. I highly recommend this book to all aviation fans, historians, anyone associated with B-52's past or present.

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Excellent First Person War Story From SAC's Glory Days

The author and I share some background; University of Minnesota, AFROTC and time in SAC and SEA, which made this book more interesting to me. Mr. Harder's detailed memories of USAF and SAC training and B-52 operations are fascinating. His stories of the bombing missions over Vietnam are chilling, horrifying and funny all at the same time. I am thankful he has documented an important aspect of the Vietnam war. I am glad I got to share his experiences. I highly recommend this book for both old soldiers (airmen) and others with an interest in military aviation.

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Flying from the Black Hole: The B-52 Navigator-bombardiers of Vietnam

This is a very interesting book.

As an EW it was interesting to read the navigators perspective. There is an off chance that I attended breifings with and flew missions with the author.

U.S. Air Force navigators and bombardiers have long labored under the shadow of pilots, their contributions misunderstood or simply unknown to the public. This was especially the case with the B-52 non-pilot aircrews in the Vietnam War. Yet, without them, it would have been impossible to execute nuclear war strike plans or fly conventional bombing sorties. With this book, one of their own reveals who these men were and what they did down in the Black Hole of the B-52 bomber. It is the only work to detail the B-52 air war in Vietnam from the perspective of a navigator-bombardier. The book's opening thrusts the reader into the thick of the war's climactic 1972 Hanoi Christmas bombing, an operation so poorly planned that it nearly became a disaster of epic proportions. The author then offers a history of the development of bombing techniques and the evolution of bomber aircraft, focusing on the Vietnam-era B-52. Final chapters return readers to the eleven-day Christmas War over Hanoi and Haiphong for an insider's view of that defining battle, described by the author as the last massed, heavy bomber raid the world will ever see. The author brings the book to a close with a discussion of the B-52 and its capabilities in the twenty-first century.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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