When Wars Ran Cold
(This is a pre-edited version of a column written for the 11-3-13 "Williamson County Sun".)
BY C. WAYNE DAWSON
In the fall of 1962, First Lieutenant John Hopper (now Lt. Colonel, retired) strapped himself into the co-pilot’s seat of a B-52G bomber shortly after nightfall at Fairchild Air Force Base Field in Washington. He fired up eight gigantic Pratt & Whitney engines, then, with the pilot, throttled them into a full throated roar. Lt. Hopper was beginning the most important event of his Air Force career, the Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) bombing and navigation competition.
1961 was a tense year for military and civilian alike. The nation’s confidence had been shaken by the Soviet Union beating America into space by the launching of the Sputnik satellite orbiting the earth in 1957.
In 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Vice President Richard Nixon in part by decrying President Eisenhower’s allowing a “missile gap” to open up between the US and the Soviets. The period was described as “the Cold War” because the two powers did everything possible to thwart one anothers' military goals without resorting to all-out war, something that seemed possible at any moment.
Great pressure was put on the men in the military to be combat ready and one step ahead of Russia.
It was under these circumstances that Lt. Hopper and the plane’s crew, the competition’s youngest, squared off against 7 others from the 2nd, 8th, and 15th Air Force. The purpose of the contest was to demonstrate SAC’s ability to fly under war-time conditions.
The B-52s were required to fly routes unknown to them before the contest and to use celestial, rather than instrument navigation until they descended for a low level bomb run.
As they neared their targets, ground defense people did everything possible to jam their electronic equipment and complicate their task. Lt. Hopper’s crew rotated with another over the week of the contest; after it ended, the two teams were declared winners.
The accomplishment was considered so noteworthy by the Air Force that most of the winning participants received promotions.
Col. Hopper decided to join the Air Force shortly before graduating from high school after several officers addressed his class about opportunities in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).
“The people at SAC really knew how to fly and have a good time,” he said. “I said, ‘this is for me!’”
Graduating from the University of Tulsa in 1957 as an ROTC officer, Lt. Hopper attended flight school at Moor Field in Mission, and Laredo, both in Texas, and graduated in November of 1958.
By the mid 1960s, the Pentagon was on the verge of scrapping the B-52D model Then Viet Nam heated up and (by now) Captain Hopper was called to serve on one of these bombers in Thailand.
Arriving as a staff officer, he flew as an airborne commander over a formation of 6-9 planes.
“Originally, when we ran missions over South Vietnam, we had to fly 4 1/2 to 5 hours to get there because we didn’t have permission to go over Thai territory,” he said. “We had to go out into the open sea and swing around Cambodia. By 1968, when the diplomats fixed things we got permission to fly direct, it took 2 ½.”
He says his wing was so busy it flew the same number of missions per week those at home flew in a month.
When General Westmoreland, commander of military operations in Vietnam made his farewell tour in 1968, he had nothing but kudos when he addressed the B-52 pilots, Colonel Hopper said. “That really rankled our competitors in the Army.”
Things were not always so serious for Col. Hopper, especially when he flew a route around Canada and the Great Lakes. Once, when they sighted an ore boat on Lake Superior, the crew decided to have a little fun and circled around the ship.
“We flew in low toward them and opened our bomb bay doors as if we were going to dump ordnance on them,” he said with a laugh. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the expression on their faces.”
BY C. WAYNE DAWSON
In the fall of 1962, First Lieutenant John Hopper (now Lt. Colonel, retired) strapped himself into the co-pilot’s seat of a B-52G bomber shortly after nightfall at Fairchild Air Force Base Field in Washington. He fired up eight gigantic Pratt & Whitney engines, then, with the pilot, throttled them into a full throated roar. Lt. Hopper was beginning the most important event of his Air Force career, the Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) bombing and navigation competition.
1961 was a tense year for military and civilian alike. The nation’s confidence had been shaken by the Soviet Union beating America into space by the launching of the Sputnik satellite orbiting the earth in 1957.
In 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Vice President Richard Nixon in part by decrying President Eisenhower’s allowing a “missile gap” to open up between the US and the Soviets. The period was described as “the Cold War” because the two powers did everything possible to thwart one anothers' military goals without resorting to all-out war, something that seemed possible at any moment.
Great pressure was put on the men in the military to be combat ready and one step ahead of Russia.
It was under these circumstances that Lt. Hopper and the plane’s crew, the competition’s youngest, squared off against 7 others from the 2nd, 8th, and 15th Air Force. The purpose of the contest was to demonstrate SAC’s ability to fly under war-time conditions.
The B-52s were required to fly routes unknown to them before the contest and to use celestial, rather than instrument navigation until they descended for a low level bomb run.
As they neared their targets, ground defense people did everything possible to jam their electronic equipment and complicate their task. Lt. Hopper’s crew rotated with another over the week of the contest; after it ended, the two teams were declared winners.
The accomplishment was considered so noteworthy by the Air Force that most of the winning participants received promotions.
Col. Hopper decided to join the Air Force shortly before graduating from high school after several officers addressed his class about opportunities in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).
“The people at SAC really knew how to fly and have a good time,” he said. “I said, ‘this is for me!’”
Graduating from the University of Tulsa in 1957 as an ROTC officer, Lt. Hopper attended flight school at Moor Field in Mission, and Laredo, both in Texas, and graduated in November of 1958.
By the mid 1960s, the Pentagon was on the verge of scrapping the B-52D model Then Viet Nam heated up and (by now) Captain Hopper was called to serve on one of these bombers in Thailand.
Arriving as a staff officer, he flew as an airborne commander over a formation of 6-9 planes.
“Originally, when we ran missions over South Vietnam, we had to fly 4 1/2 to 5 hours to get there because we didn’t have permission to go over Thai territory,” he said. “We had to go out into the open sea and swing around Cambodia. By 1968, when the diplomats fixed things we got permission to fly direct, it took 2 ½.”
He says his wing was so busy it flew the same number of missions per week those at home flew in a month.
When General Westmoreland, commander of military operations in Vietnam made his farewell tour in 1968, he had nothing but kudos when he addressed the B-52 pilots, Colonel Hopper said. “That really rankled our competitors in the Army.”
Things were not always so serious for Col. Hopper, especially when he flew a route around Canada and the Great Lakes. Once, when they sighted an ore boat on Lake Superior, the crew decided to have a little fun and circled around the ship.
“We flew in low toward them and opened our bomb bay doors as if we were going to dump ordnance on them,” he said with a laugh. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the expression on their faces.”
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