Saturday, September 1, 2007
In Harms Way
I was going through some old pictures of my Air Force days and found this. It’s of aircraft B-52G 0248. It’s probably too small to see, but the nose art shows that this aircraft had the nickname of “In Harms Way”. There is a story that goes along with the nickname. Then again, don’t most nicknames have a story? This is the B-52G that was accidentally hit with an AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile fired from an F-4G Wild Weasel on the first night of operation DESERT STORM. The B-52’s tail gunner mistakenly locked his anti-aircraft radar on the Wild Weasel thinking it was an Iraqi MIG. The Wild Weasel immediately detected the B-52 tail gun radar locking on to him and misidentified the radar signature as that of an Iraqi anti aircraft artillery (AAA) site. The Wild Weasel crew fired a HARM missile and watched in horror as it headed not towards the non existent Iraqi AAA site, but to the very B-52 is was trying to protect.
Luckily the missile failed to hit the plane, but instead detonated directly behind the bomber. These missiles are designed to hit nonmoving ground targets, not moving airplanes. The resulting shrapnel and missile debris caused an excessive amount of damage to the tail section of the B-52. It ripped off everything aft of the vertical stabilizer. This included much of the tail gun system, the aft electronic warfare suite, and the drag chute. The B-52 was able to land safely on the island of Diego Garcia at Jedda, Saudi Arabia.
It was then sent from Diego Garcia to Anderson Air Force Base on Guam for repair. I was in on the repair of this aircraft shortly after is was damaged. During the first Iraqi war, I was assigned to a squadron that was responsible for repairing B-52’s being used in Iraq being flown from Diego Garcia. I spent four months back on Guam. I had been stationed there prior for almost three years. I could have been sent to places far worse then Guam. I could have gone to Saudi. I could have spent four months on Diego Garcia. I spent two weeks there once and that was long enough for me. As it was, I loved Guam.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I actually worked on the tailgun section at Castle AFB after they were able to cut the aft section off of a B-52G which had “broken its back”. After refitting all of the components into the newly “pasted” tail, and to get it functioning again, we were able to get it to track on the 141 radar test set, almost 30 degrees/sec. The minimum being 15 degrees/sec. Of course, that took tons of man hours to accomplish, with a team of DFC Specialists for the AGS-15. I was just glad that the wiring was flawless once we got the B-52G.
And yes, I was mildly irked when our jobs as 321×1Gs was no longer needed.
Inky
320FMS
43AMS
93OMS
I forgot to mention, that I received a call from Diego Garcia on the day 0248 was hit. Actually, the nearest DFCS Mechanic, I just happened to answer the phone. The person on the other end wanted to know how to jettison the tailgun while in the air. I guess his question was prior to the aircraft reaching DG. Not having know the current situation, I basically told him that the only way to jettison the tail gun section was to hit with a missile. The caller then explained why he needed to know, and wasn’t sure if the turret was just dangling off the end of the aircraft. After our short discussion, they decided to do a fly by to see the condition of the turret.
After knowing what I knew then, I guess they saw that the whole aft section was completely blown off. And jettisoning the turret was not necessary.
I had no Idea that I would actually work on the aircraft a couple months down the line and bring it back into service. That is, after they pieced together the wiring and the aft section.
This should make for some interesting discussions.
Inky
320FMS
43AMS
93OMS
I have often wondered how many people remembered this A/C. I was at Diego also, 4300 Provisional Bombardment Wing. The patches we had made were a dragon with the B-52 engines. I am “Sheet Metal” and do remember when this all happened. It was cool running across this article. Thank you for sharing.
Ace
42 FMS
93 FMS
Our tail numbers did’nt go that low. Usually 0492,etc. I worked @ Robins prior to being trans. to Andersen. What a pity…I always knew the gunners were to crazed. Randy.
Well…Not quite right…
I was the Radar Navigator on this aircraft on this mission. A/C was Linwood Mason, CP was Lance Press, EW was Red Urband, Nav was Joe Mitchell and the Gunner was TSGT Zack Peters, probably the finest Gunner I ever met, a pro and an instructor…and he did not lock up the weasel.
You need to check SAC TAC Doctrine (classified) for similarities between B-52 FCS Radars and Soviet Threat Radars to find out why the weasel was so interested in us. The missile did remove everything aft of the vertical stab…all the schrapnel holes went through the top and out the bottom of the horizontal stab…the fuselage was “beer canned” on the bottom where there is a natural break in the fuselage line on the bottom. We never contemplated “jettisoning the FCS because we knew from visual inspection from our #2 that it was already gone. The drag chute did deploy in flight at 400′ and 400kts…but was instantly streamered due to high airspeed…It was drug all the way back to landing…There was no flyby at DG because the A/C was first recovered into Jedda, Saudi Arabia, where it was prepped for ferry to DG. Crew recovered to DG via KC-10 3 days later and rejoined the combat rotation. The reason the Guns came off the Buff had nothing to do with this incident…rather…it was a way to save $$$ because the threat of enemy fighters to the B-52 was no longer deemed viable given advances in C4ISR and operational tactics. Maintenace crews did do an amazing job of restoring life to this airframe…it went on to win best bomber team at “Gunsmoke” 2 years later and was flown by myself and others to Davis Monthan for final ‘disposition’…Hope this sets some things straight.
Bob D.
Bob, thanks for all the corrections. I was only going on what I was told at the time. Considering some of the other info I was given at the time by some of the same people, it stands to reason that what they did tell me about AC 0248 was bunk.
Before working on BUFF’s on Guam, I was stationed in the Philippines where I worked on the F-4G and the Wild Weasel system. The FCS would have been identified as an Unknown AAA site unless the threat library software was updated right before the war. It very well may have, but I would have thought this whole accident wouldn’t have happened if that had been the case.
Thanks again for the info and sorry that I passed on false information about your crew member. It was not intentional.
Wow!
I was also in the 4300 PBW on the Rock when that happened. I remembered the patch, because the “dragon” looked like an armadillo with bomber wings and we called it a “Bombadillo.” This was especially funny to some of my friends because my last anme is Badillo and is similar to Tom Bombadil from “Lord of the Rings.”
I don’t remember where the aircraft was from.
Thanks for the blast from the past,
Michael Badillo
USAF, but not anymore
Does anyone have an image of that 4300 PBW patch?
Thanks,
Michael Badillo,
RavenRux@COX.NET
Michael, have you looked on eBay? I was able to get copies of all my old organizational patches that way. When I was in the Air Force, I didn’t care about keeping that stuff. It didn’t become important to me until later on.
Hello all,
I normally don’t jump into forums, but by coincidence I’m a freelance military photojournalist with a particular interest in the B-52. I’m actually co-authoring a title on the subject – actually my second. During my research I’ve read about the B-52/HARM mystery.
I’ve had numerous B-52 acquaintances who have advised me that it wasn’t a HARM that impacted the B-52G, 58-0248. And coincidently, I had cause to interview Col. George “John Boy” Walton (Ret) for a project titled “Iron Hand” a few years back. Col. Walton was the commander of the 561st TFS(P), which provided SEAD in F-4Gs during Desert Storm. Col. Walton informed me that no HARM was launched against a B-52 on the night in question.
And by way of FOIA, I recently acquired a volume of the SAC 1991 History which covered Desert Storm in detail – some 900 pages were declassified. And while the B-52/HARM incident is just briefly mentioned, the document attributes a SAM as the probable cause.
Bob Deasy and I have a mutual friend who offered to introduce us sometime ago, and I may have to take my friend up on his offer!
Anyhow, I just thought I’d add this insight to the discussion.
Sincerely,
Tony
OK Tony, first of all this isn’t a forum. It’s a blog. Second of all, this particular aircraft was indeed damaged by a HARM missile.