ROAD TO PERDITION

KEEPING THE PEACE THE OLD FASHONED WAY WITH VINTAGE B-52 BOMBERS

Emerging from the cotton fields of northwestern Louisiana in the early 1930s, Barksdale AFB has grown into a major source of revenue and employment for the Ark-La-Tex (Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas) region. It currently provides employment for almost 9000 military and civilian employees and this includes approximately 1600 Air Force Reserve personnel. It was On 5 December 1928, that Shreveport was selected as the location of a new 22,000-acre airfield, the world's largest airfield at the time. It was to be named in honor of Lt. Eugene Hay Barksdale, Air Corps, who lost his life on 11 August 1926 while flight testing an observation-type airplane over McCook Field, in Dayton, Ohio.

Beginning in 1931, about 150 men and 350 mules were used to grade the new landing field and more than 1400 acres of cotton land were plowed under and planted in Bermuda grass. The dedication of Barksdale Field was held on 2 February 1933. Today, 20,000 acres of the base are used for recreation and as a game preserve. As a key Air Combat Command base, Barksdale has a pivotal role in providing a large part of the USA's deterrent force.

The "Mighty Eighth" Air Force of World War Two fame is headquartered at the base, which is home to the 2nd Bomb Wing and associated units and the Air Force Reserve's 917th Wing. It is also home to the Eighth Air Force Museum, one of twelve Air Force Field Museums under the USAF Museum System and is managed by a museum director who reports to the 2nd Bomb Wing Commander. With more than 26 aircraft, vehicles and over 1500 historical artifacts, the museum's Air Force mission is to preserve the material heritage of Strategic Bombardment. The museum's mission ensures that the material history of Barksdale AFB, the 2nd Bomb Wing and the Eighth Air Force has the ready means of preserving the past and present for the future.

The 917th Wing was originally formed as the 917th Troop Carrier Group on 17 January 1963 at Barksdale. As the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly conversion began on 13 April 1971, the group was reassigned to the 434th Special Operations Wing. On 26 April 1972, the unit was redesignated the 917th Special Operations Group, with Tactical Air Command as the gaining major air command. The unit was redesignated the 917th Tactical Fighter Group on 1 October 1973. When the A-37B was eventually phased out, the group converted to the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Due to Air Force restructuring in June 1992, Tactical Air Command was combined with SAC (Strategic Air Command) to form Air Combat Command. The 917th Tactical Fighter Wing joined Air Combat Command and "Tactical" was dropped from its name. On 1 October 1993, the 46th Fighter Training Squadron was deactivated when the active duty Air Force took control of all fighter replacement training. The 93rd Bomb Squadron was activated and the 917th became the first unit in Air Force Reserve history to acquire a strategic mission when, in December 1993, the Wing accepted the first of eight B-52Hs.

Incredible as it now sounds, the B-52 (YB-52 49-23115) first flew on 15 April 1952. All told, Boeing at Wichita and Seattle produced 744 examples of the High Altitude Plough, Aluminum Overcast, or, as it has universally become known, the Buff (Big Ugly Fat F****er). The B-52 came to symbolise America's nuclear defense posture in the Cold War with the Soviet Bloc, which rapidly became one of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). SAC was at first entrusted with the safe-keeping, management and use of America's nuclear arsenal. Gradually, SAC went first to a 33-percent alert posture in its bomber force, meaning that one-third of its B-52s, B-47s and B-58s were permently on ground alert, ready every night or day of the year for an instant response to an alert horn, ending in a heavyweight takeoff in 15 minutes or less. In 1958, the growing concern about the Soviet ICBM capabilities caused SAC to initiate Operation Head Start by placing a portion of the B-52 force on continuous airborne alert.

In March 1959, the Chromedome program, as it was known, was expanded to all operational B-52 wings. Chromedome ceased in 1968 after a B-52 carrying four hydrogen bombs crash-landed on Greenland. The B-52 was used in South-East Asia 1965-73 and remained important even after Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) had assumed the primary responsibility for the deterrent at home.

The B-52G was the most numerous sub-type, some 193 being built exclusively at Boeing Wichita from October 1958 to February 1961. In 1959, SAC included 488 B-52s in its total inventory of 1854 bombers and by 1962 SAC included 69 39 B-52s in its fleet of 1595 bombers. Deliveries of the B-52H had began in May 1961 and the 102nd and last B-52H (610400) was officially delivered to SAC (4136th SW) at Minot AFB, North Dakota, on 26 October 1962. The B-52H could carry eight nuclear free-fall bombs internally and can carry twelve AGM86B ALCMs externally, with provision for eight more ALCMs, or gravity weapons, internally. Beginning in june 1990, B-52Hs could carry twelve AGM-129A Advanced Cruise Missiles (ACM) with a nuclear warhead. Later, AGM-129Bs fitted with conventional warheads were introduced and modifications permitted eight more AGM-86Bs to be carried internally. Alternatively, B-52H models carry conventional weapons including bombs up to 2000-lb, air-dropped mines, cluster bombs and AGM-142A Have Nap missiles or eight-twelve AGM'84 Harpoons in underwing clusters.