Face of Defense: B-52 Tail-gunner Recalls MiG Downing

By Air Force Staff Sgt. Don Branum
U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo., Dec. 27, 2010 - If the landmarks here could speak, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber sitting near the academy's north gate would have quite a Vietnam War story to tell.

The B-52 Stratofortress bomber known as "Diamond Lil" sits near the north entrance of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Dec. 23, 2010. Diamond Lil's tail gunner, Air Force Airman 1st Class Albert Moore, shot down a North Vietnamese MiG fighter aircraft Dec. 24, 1972. Diamond Lil came to the academy after it was decommissioned in 1983. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Don Branum (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

The crew of the "Diamond Lil," a B-52D, tail number 55-083, took off from Utapao Royal Thai Naval Airfield on Christmas Eve in 1972. The crew's mission was to bomb the North Vietnamese railroad yards at Thai Nguyen as part of Operation Linebacker II, which took place Dec. 18 to 29, 1972. However, the Diamond Lil's crew faced enemy air power. A North Vietnamese MiG-21 raced to intercept the B-52. The bomber's tail gunner, Airman 1st Class Albert Moore, noticed the MiG's approach.
"I observed a target in my radar scope 8:30 o'clock, low at eight miles," Moore wrote six days later in his statement of claim for enemy aircraft destroyed. "I immediately notified the crew, and the 'bogie' started closing rapidly. It stabilized at 4,000 yards, 6:30 o'clock. I called the pilot for evasive action and the [electronic warfare officer] for chaff and flares.
"When the target got to 2,000 yards, I notified the crew that I was firing. I fired at the bandit until it ballooned to three times in intensity then suddenly disappeared from my radar scope at approximately 1,200 yards, 6:30 low. I expended 800 rounds in three bursts."
Another gunner aboard the B-52, Tech. Sgt. Clarence Chute, verified Moore's kill in his report.
"I went visual and saw the 'bandit' on fire and falling away," Chute wrote. "Several pieces of the aircraft exploded, and the fireball disappeared in the under-cast at my 6:30 position."
Moore's kill is one of only two confirmed kills by a B-52D in the Vietnam War and the last confirmed kill by a tail gunner in wartime using machine guns.
Following the MiG kill, Moore wrote, "On the way home I wasn't sure whether I should be happy or sad. You know, there was a guy in that MiG. I'm sure he would have wanted to fly home too. But it was a case of him or my crew. I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Yes, I'd go again. Do I want another MiG? No, but given the same set of circumstances, yes, I'd go for another one." Moore died in 2009 at age 55.
Linebacker II brought the North Vietnamese government back to the negotiating table after earlier talks had broken down. A month after the campaign, North Vietnam and the United States signed a ceasefire agreement.
Diamond Lil continued serving long after the end of the Vietnam War. In all, the aircraft flew more than 15,000 hours and more than 200 combat missions between its commissioning in 1957 and its decommissioning in 1983. It came to the Air Force academy shortly after it was decommissioned.
 

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National Guard Responds to East Coast Storm

National Guard Responds to East Coast Storm

By Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Orrell
National Guard Bureau
WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2010 - As of 8 a.m. today, 430 National Guard members had been activated in response to an East Coast winter storm that left as much as 2 feet of snow in some areas and prompted six governors to activate their National Guard.

About 100 soldiers from the Virginia National Guard's 116th Brigade Combat Team were called to state active duty Dec. 25, 2010, in Norfolk, Va., in response to a severe snowstorm that dropped a record amount of snow on the Hampton Roads area. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class A.J. Coyne (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Guard members from Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia are providing equipment and manpower support to civilian authorities conducting emergency operations throughout their respective states. "The key to rapid response for this event is having personnel in place and ready to respond," Army Col. Gerald Catrett, joint operations officer for the Virginia Guard, said. "We are staging personnel, vehicles and equipment ... to support missions such as transportation through heavy snow."
Massachusetts Guard members are assisting local police to evacuate some homes affected by coastal flooding caused by the storms.
Maryland Guard members are calling on the lessons they learned during the "snowpocalypse" earlier in 2010.
"During the blizzards of earlier 2010, we helped deliver babies and rescue motorists on the highway," Army Maj. Gen. James Adkins, the adjutant general of Maryland, said. "Who knows what the next call may be."

Virginia Guard members are assisting Virginia State Police and local emergency response organizations in the Eastern Shore by conducting Humvee-mounted route patrols to assess road conditions and assist stranded motorists.
At about 4:45 a.m. today, they transported one adult and two children stranded on a side street and also were scheduled to transport emergency services personnel to work at a local hospital.
At about 6:30 a.m. they also rescued three people trapped in their car for more than four hours and transported them to a local shelter for further assistance.
 

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