All great fun; but
for a ride on one of these truly harrowing flights, go along
with Colonel Harold (Hal) R. Austin and
Carl Holt, his co-pilot, who along with their navigator would
experience the kind of terror that only comes when a gaggle
of fighters are trying to shoot down your bomber. They had
spent an hour over Soviet territory at 40,000 feet when as
many as eight MiG 17’s had at them. Read the full narrative
of the Colonel’s experience at
http://www.b-47.com/stories/austin/austin.html
In the Colonels own words, “The second MiG 17 made
his firing pass and I don't care who knows, it was scary
watching tracers go over and under our aircraft.”
For more information on the day to day activity of conducting
overflights, visit
http://www.coldwar.org/text_files/ussr_overflights_91srw.pdf
The last known confrontation between MiGs and RB-47s took
place on 27 April 1965, when an ERB-47H was jumped by North
Korean MiG-17s over the Sea of Japan. The MiGs gave the ERB-47H
a working over, but it managed to make it back to Yokota
Air Base in Japan with two engines out.
In fact many of the flights were shot at, by MIGs and missiles
alike. We know now that not all came home again and the stories
of those who gave their lives supporting these missions are
yet to be told. |
So there was great
concern over where the United States was headed; what of industry;
what of finance, Wall Street and the World Markets? 
President Truman
was lobbied primarily by Curtis LeMay. A now de-classified
memo to the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the Secretary of Defense
reveals a meeting with the President. Truman agrees to a reconnaissance
overflight of the Soviet Union. 
Several books are now available providing us
with an insider’s view of Curtis LeMay’s B-47 overflight
program of the Soviet Union. I say Curtis LeMay’s because
there was no greater champion of that program than the General
himself. 
Many
more flights would follow. We now know the flights were flown
in not just the B and RB-47’s, but in many aircraft,
jet and piston powered, large and small, even several of
our front line fighter types would get into the act.
