I got there almost exactly 20 years earlier, late December 1969. The SAC detachment at Kadena was launching three B-52's every four hours, 24/7 every day. The usual bomb load was 34 750 pounders in the bomb bay, and 24 500's on the wing pylons. I was on flying status for electronic maintenance, so on occasion, I got to climb aboard and fix the compass system or maybe the autopilot en route to the target. Then we got to come back and check out how many extra holes the plane had. We got lucky- - - -some guys didn't make it back home! The B-52D that's on display at the Air Force Museum in Ohio is one I worked on back then- - - -don't remember if I flew on it, but I watched some of those battle damage patches getting installed!
Jerry
In mid '68 we were launching six B-52D models twice a day a similar bomb load. Plus we had around 60 KC-135 tankers that were re-fueling our B-52s as well as the ones from Guam. We also took care of the autopilots and compass gear on the "Chipmunk", "Hog Nose", the Q model tankers that refueled the SR-71s and other "special" model 135's. Busy place.
Jerry: I went back and looked at the resume I wrote just after getting out in February of 69. You were right, Lear did make the KC-135 autopilot. Kearfott made the N-1 compass system and Kollsman made the AstroTracker.
