B-52s In The News
B-52 STATIC AIRCRAFT DEDICATED TO LINEBACKER CREW
2009, 04 June
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. -- The B-52 Stratofortress static aircraft display at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, will be dedicated to the crew of another B-52 which was shot down over North Vietnam during Operation Linebacker II in December 1972. The ceremony will take place on 24 July 2009. On 26 December 1972, Capt. Robert Morris, a Missouri native, piloted his B-52, call-sign Ebony-02, to the Giap rail yards and delivered the ordnance on target. During the post-target turn, the aircraft was hit by one of 30 surface-to-air-missile sites in the vicinity and exploded in mid-air. Captain Morris and Major Nutter J. Wimbrow, electronic warfare officer, were killed. Miraculously, the other four Ebony-02 crew members, 1st Lt. Robert Hudson, co-pilot, Captain Michael LeBeau, radar navigator, 1st Lt. Dwayne Vavroch, navigator, and TSgt James Cook, gunner, escaped the aircraft, and became POWs. The B-52 display, located near the Arnold Gate, was repainted with Captain Morris name under the crew compartment and the names of his crew members on the lower portion of the fuselage. Following a moment of silence in remembrance of the sacrifice and heroism of the crew of Ebony-02, a B-52 will fly over the ceremony signifying the aircraft was lost. For further information, please contact the Office of the Historian, 509 Bomb Wing, at 509BW.HO@whiteman.af.mil.
REVEALED: HOW U.S. LEFT NUCLEAR WARHEAD LYING AT BOTTOM OF OCEAN AFTER B52 CRASH IN 1968
2009, 22 January
A U.S. nuclear warhead was abandoned under the ice in northern Greenland after a B52 bomber crashed in 1968, an investigation has found. MORE
TEAM TO VISIT MINOT TO PLAN FOR NEW SQUADRON
2009, 10 January
With Minot Air Force Base as the preferred site for a second squadron of B-52 bombers, a team will visit the base early next month to help plan for the new unit. MORE
DENMARK: NEW PROBE INTO US NUCLEAR BOMBER'S 1968 GREENLAND CRASH.
2009, 7 January
Copenhagen - Danish politicians Wednesday approved a new probe into the circumstances surrounding a US Air Force B-52 bomber, armed with nuclear bombs, that crashed in 1968 off northern Greenland. One of the plane's four nuclear bombs reportedly went missing, and has never been found. Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller said the probe would be “comprehensive”, Danish news agency Ritzau reported. MORE
NEW LAW AUTHORIZES VETERANS' SALUTES DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM
2008, 30 October
WASHINGTON -- Veterans and active-duty military not in uniform can now render the military-style hand salute during the playing of the national anthem, thanks to changes in federal law that took effect this month. MORE
