Unless they've changed the terminology over the last decade, that's ASLAR - Advanced Surge Launch and Recovery.

I wouldn't want to be at their destination.

Think how awesome that would have been if cameraman didn't have Parkinsons.

Not cool. Scary. Seriously. I'm never going to be happy thinking there's a single briefcase or button somewhere that someone can push and end my life, my children(s) lives, and the lives on everyone on the planet because they happen to have a beef with someone somewhere at that point in time. That's just farked. Seriously. It's not right that a few countries think they have the right to kill 6 billion individuals plus billions more animals, plants, insects and marine life. It's wrong and nuttier than a farking fruitcake to be happy about that capability.

Old_Chief_Scott: I grew up in a town in upstate New York, Plattsburgh.

Back then (early 60's) Plattsburgh Air Force Base was a part of the Strategic Air Command.

I grew up in Spokane, WA. Fairchild AFB was also a SAC base. I watched B52s fly over our city for years and years. I remember getting to go inside one at an air show when I was seven or eight. I was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my short life. I'm still in awe of these planes.

Fairchild became an Air Refueling Wing in 94. Spokane just wasn't the same without the sound of the B52s overhead.

indarwinsshadow: Not cool. Scary. Seriously. I'm never going to be happy thinking there's a single briefcase or button somewhere that someone can push and end my life, my children(s) lives, and the lives on everyone on the planet because they happen to have a beef with someone somewhere at that point in time. That's just farked. Seriously. It's not right that a few countries think they have the right to kill 6 billion individuals plus billions more animals, plants, insects and marine life. It's wrong and nuttier than a farking fruitcake to be happy about that capability.

Then don't think about it. Leave global stability to the adults.

For those who might be interested in this sort of thing, there's an old 80's documentary on Youtube called 'First Strike' which has some footage of B-52 and missile silo crews preparing for a strike. Some of this footage ended up in 'The Day After'.

Here's the link. Starts getting interesting at 3:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlPEBROvR9w

There were some great bird songs in the background.

indarwinsshadow: Not cool. Scary. Seriously. I'm never going to be happy thinking there's a single briefcase or button somewhere that someone can push and end my life, my children(s) lives, and the lives on everyone on the planet because they happen to have a beef with someone somewhere at that point in time. That's just farked. Seriously. It's not right that a few countries think they have the right to kill 6 billion individuals plus billions more animals, plants, insects and marine life. It's wrong and nuttier than a farking fruitcake to be happy about that capability.

I think they make psych meds for people like you. Having that capability is exactly what allows stability to exist at all on this planet. Peace revolves around having better military capability than your enemies, that's the way it's been for thousands of years, and will likely continue for centuries more. There are hundreds if not thousands of other things much more likely to kill you than dying in some sort of human created cataclysmic warfare event. And as far as I know, detonating every nuke on the planet would not likely be capable of killing nearly as many people as you think, particularly those well outside of population centers and prevailing winds and in mountainous areas, etc.

I hope the Obama White House doesn't see that footage. With all that pollution put out by the planes it would be a miracle if he didn't ground the entire fleet immediately.

That would give the Russians a chuckle - they could honestly give two shiats about the environment.

Who filmed that? They same guy who did the Blair Witch Project?

Same story as Old Chief

I was a 14 year old kid working my dad's field in the middle of nowhere when I saw a bunch of these talking off tail to nose from the GFAFB. In 1983, it made one wish he had a radio to make sure that the end of the world wasn't imminent.

I'm no hawk, but that right there is The Sound of Freedom™

I grew up living on SAC base housing in Alaska and California, we had B-52s flying around the clock back then, I never got to watch them take off this close to the flight line tho.

/good and bad times

What sucks is that we need this. We continue to need this.
Point of pride to say we can do that. Easily.

/never seen his UH1s and F16s do an Alert exercise
//would really like to

Those airframes are 47 years old, and will be flying for another 30 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B52

You know we fly these birds just to keep the public away from Aurora. My hearts go out to these kids knowingly flying these cold war relics all to keep the media distracted. Soviets of course, know about Aurora which is why to this day they still call themselves Ruskies.

(Actually very interesting to see droopy wings come alive, but I'm glad that mach 6 Aurora has smokeless engines....)

Prysm: particularly those well outside of population centers

There's a reason I live in BFE.

/not just because I am a sociopath

Crewed in SAC in the days of Curt LeMay.

Red phone & Black phone, identical except for color. Would always start running to the bird on the first ring of the red the black phone not so much.

Our father in Omaha, LeMay be thy name. Kinda bat shiat crazy in his dotage.

indarwinsshadow: Not cool. Scary. Seriously. I'm never going to be happy thinking there's a single briefcase or button somewhere that someone can push and end my life, my children(s) lives, and the lives on everyone on the planet because they happen to have a beef with someone somewhere at that point in time.

I probably wont get an answer to this question. In my experience, people like you don't have actually discussions about your opinions, but I'll ask anyway. How would the world be different if nuclear weapons had not been invented? Well, everything would be the same until the end of WWII. Russia would have invaded Japan from the North. So you'd have another divided country like Germany was. After that, after a few years, don't you think that the Soviets would have invaded western Europe? After all, they invaded countries any time they could get away with it. I think the only thing that prevented another war in Europe was the threat of nuclear retaliation. So, instead of fighting proxy wars during the '50s - '80s, the US would either have to fight WWIII to keep Europe free, or just accept Soviet control.

That's what I think would have happened. I'd love to hear what you think would have happened. It would amuse me to hear you say that you believe there'd be peace everywhere and everyone would get along if not for those darned atom-splitters.

It's not right that a few countries think they have the right to kill 6 billion individuals

What a hopelessly naive statement. Try picking up a history book for once in your life. Look, I wish the world was different. I with that humans were rational instead of base-instinct-driven, tribal monkeys. I wish that, but I'm not dumb enough to talk about it as if it would be true if only we didn't have a particular weapon.

pondelik: indarwinsshadow: Not cool. Scary. Seriously. I'm never going to be happy thinking there's a single briefcase or button somewhere that someone can push and end my life, my children(s) lives, and the lives on everyone on the planet because they happen to have a beef with someone somewhere at that point in time. That's just farked. Seriously. It's not right that a few countries think they have the right to kill 6 billion individuals plus billions more animals, plants, insects and marine life. It's wrong and nuttier than a farking fruitcake to be happy about that capability.

Must...not...laugh. Stupid...person...may...cry.

I worked near Dobbins AFB in Marietta Ga during the first Gulf War and saw the same thing with C-130's...pure awesome

Tofu
Think how awesome that would have been if cameraman didn't have Parkinsons.

This.

My dad worked on these birds in the 60s, then moved on to fighters, but he always loved the BUFFs. The B-52 bases were often called -the first good bye- by the people who manned them, and for good reason.

This scene may be a necessary component to current world stability, and it may be awesome from a perspective of pure power, but we as humans should never be proud that this exists.

/still has hope for humanity

Don't military bases frown on people filming their exercises and posting them on the internet?

Minot really needs to work on their tourism videos.

Seriously though - North Dakota is flatter than Cindy Brady and has 4 trees north of I94. Good people however.

gokc69

I just planted two trees last weekend ... That makes 6.

gilbyguy: gokc69

I just planted two trees last weekend ... That makes 6.

;) thanks gilbybuy - Bison grad just having a little fun at ND's expense.

Spend any time at Chub's?

/Windsor Wednesday
//$1.50 tea's Friday
///Stumplifter's FTW

Why do we still fight like this? Why can't we have a navy that is just a bunch of floating missile platforms with various kinds of missiles for different jobs? The F-22 project cost $65 billion. A cruise missile costs $600,000. We could have 110,000 missiles ready to fly at fark whatever and have it be there in a fraction of the time it'd take to get one bomber in the air.

EL_FABREZ: Why do we still fight like this? Why can't we have a navy that is just a bunch of floating missile platforms with various kinds of missiles for different jobs? The F-22 project cost $65 billion. A cruise missile costs $600,000. We could have 110,000 missiles ready to fly at fark whatever and have it be there in a fraction of the time it'd take to get one bomber in the air.

if you really wanted to mess up another country without resorting to weapons of mass destruction, b52 could do it no problem.

gilbyguy: Spend any time at Chub's?

/Windsor Wednesday
//$1.50 tea's Friday
///Stumplifter's FTW

I go back a few years - OB, Sports Bar, Kirby's, Playmakers. Mick's Office in Moorhead for darts; Trader & Trapper all-you-can-drink, etc!

Resonant: Those airframes are 47 years old, and will be flying for another 30 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B52

And then, following in the footsteps of the F86s,F5s, Hercs, Sea Kings and a pile of others, they will probably be sold to Canada to fly for another 40 years

hooray for us. woooohooo

I just saw who knows how many of my tax dollars fart out the back of 15 cold war relics in a pointless, obsolete, military dick-waving exercise.

Hey, teabaggers, we could balance your precious budget instantly if we just stopped buying a few of these death machines each year.