The Bloody 340th: Blytheville's B-52s At War

By Stephen McMillion

The Bloody 340th is the personal account of a Strategic Air Command B-52 crew as it stood nuclear alert during the Cold War and flew some of SAC's most daring and dangerous missions in Vietnam.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304543141

Book preview

The Bloody 340th

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The Bloody 340th

Blytheville’s B-52s at War

by Stephen McMillion

A Blytheville AFB B-52 EWO

Copyright © 2024 by Stephen McMillion

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be represented in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles, reviews, and scholarly journals.

Cover design by Stephen McMillion

ISBN  978-1-304-54314-1

First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 

To the courageous men of the 340th Bomb Squadron wherever and whenever they served.

Preface

There’s no talking about the America of the nineteen sixties and seventies without including the Cold War and the Vietnam War in the discussion.  They sucked the air out of everything and defined life itself for more than a few of us.  Without them, I’d never have found my way to the 340th Bomb Squadron at Blytheville Air Force Base, Arkansas.  Never have sat awaiting the go-code in a nuke-laden B-52 with its engines running.  Never have made late-night bombing runs around Hanoi with the missiles and MiGs flying.  I’d have missed it all and lived my life in peaceful bliss.

A lot of stones must be laid along the path to war before hostilities begin.  The path to the Cold War, for instance, began with the Second World War and staked major mile markers at Yalta, Potsdam, Berlin, Eastern Europe, Los Alamos, Hiroshima, and the nascent U.N. before branching off to Korea, Vietnam, and the conflagration of conflicts that followed. The air base at Blytheville was part of it too, and so was everyone who ever served there.  We all laid stones that helped complete the path of history.  Stones that remain there to this day.

Nuclear Alert

I’d been in the Air Force for nearly two years before my orders directed me to Blytheville AFB, a large Strategic Air Command (SAC) base that, at the time, was named after the Northeast Arkansas town that hosted it.  After three months of Officer Training School at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base, fifteen months of Navigator and Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) training at Sacramento’s Mather Air Force Base, a short stint at Survival School at Spokane’s Fairchild Air Force Base, and three months of B-52 upgrade training at Merced, California’s, Castle Air Force Base, I was hoping to call Blytheville my home for quite a while.  It wasn’t in the job description, but I was ready to stay put.

I didn’t enlist in the Air Force in 1969 to be a navigator-rated Electronic Warfare Officer on B-52s.  It just kind of happened.  I only joined because, back then, you either enlisted or got drafted into the Army, and with the Vietnam War having just suffered through its bloodiest year to date, I had no stomach for an infantry job.  I went to see the Air Force recruiter even before I graduated from college, and after meeting all physical requirements and passing the Air Force Officer’s Qualification Test, I was delighted to be accepted.  The Vietnam War seemed far away then, and I thought it would surely be over before I found my way there.

I probably wouldn’t have chosen the B-52 either had I a choice.  Big bombers hadn’t crossed my mind, but my Electronic Warfare class was offered nothing else.  Selecting a base from a short list of SAC bases we knew nothing about was our only option, and I picked Blytheville because I figured it must have a decent climate and wasn’t too far from my Chicago-area hometown.  It was a fortuitous pick, but there I was just the same, cruising down the highway toward Blytheville, Arkansas, and the experience of a lifetime.

I reported for duty with the Strategic Air Command’s 97th Bomb Wing, 340th Bombardment Squadron Heavy on November 30, 1970, and felt ready to fly after a good night’s sleep in the Transient Officer’s Quarters.  Blytheville's B-52Gs were a more modern version of the bomber than the F-models I’d upgraded in at Castle, though, so I couldn't fly solo right away, and ground school, simulator practice, training flights, and check rides filled my schedule for several months.

I didn’t know it then, but the Air Force base at Blytheville had a long and storied history.  Constructed in 1942 on 2,600 acres just northwest of Blytheville at a time when the town’s population was about 11,000, the then-Blytheville Army Airfield served as a twin-engine medium-bomber pilot training base for the Army Air Force’s Training Command and then as a troop carrier training facility for the Continental Air Forces during World War Two.  It was turned over to the city of Blytheville then and didn’t become active again until the Cold War and subsequent expansion of the U.S. Air Force created a need for it in 1953.  The Air Force needed 3,800 acres to service the runway requirements of the big jets coming online then, and after purchasing the extra land, it got to work.  All was ready by mid-1955, and with the arrival of the Tactical Air Command’s 764th Bombardment Squadron, an outfit of B-57B Canberras from Utah’s Hill Air Force Base, the newly-renamed Blytheville Air Force Base was open for business.

By 1958, the Air Force decided it had other uses for medium-range tactical bombers like the Canberra, so they left Blytheville and the Strategic Air Command took over.  SAC’s 97th Bombardment Wing arrived from Biggs Air Force Base in Texas on July 1, 1959, and before January 1960 came to an end, the B-52Gs of the 340th Bombardment Squadron lined the tarmac.  The 97th was ready for war then, and with the arrival of a squadron of KC-135 refueling aircraft in 1962, it became virtually self-sufficient.

As a full-fledged combatant in the Cold War, Blytheville AFB was tasked with retaliating against the Soviet Union should it attack the U.S. or one of its NATO allies.  It was uniquely equipped to do so too, since each of its B-52Gs could carry four nuclear bombs in its bomb bay plus two lesser ones in Hound Dog Missiles under its wings.  Indeed, several fully loaded B-52s were on ground alert at all times in case they were needed,