Left: Air Force Reserve Command supervisors instruct and evaluate a mix of AFRC and active duty crews as they practice loading weapons onto wing pylons on a B-52. The total force integration crew from the reserve’s 307th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and the active duty 11th Aircraft Maintenance Unit are required to maintain certification to be able to handle and load live munitions. Right: Crews use an MHU-83 lift truck to bring a Mk62 Quick Strike mine to the B-52 for loading.
A two-ship heads off into stormy Louisiana skies for the morning launch. In this case the stormy sky was the remnants of Hurricane Patricia heading towards Texas during the author’s visit to Barksdale.
Close-up view of the B-52's Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines, plugged into one of the aircrafts auxiliary power units.
The B-52's front gear can pivot to allow the bomber to make turns, and to crab during take-off and landing. To assist with crosswind take-offs and landings the main landing gear can be pivoted by 20° to either side from neutral.
Nice view of the sheer size of the B-52 as it taxies to runway 15 at Barksdale.
Left: Final adjustments are made as a weapon is slowly lifted into place onto the B-52’s weapon pylon. Right: Once a weapon is in position, crews manually tighten the mounts and fuse the wires onto the bomber. Here an AFRC crewmember makes the final adjustments.
Ground crews prepare a B-52 for practice weapons loading and offloading.
Global Warrior from the 307th BW taxies out to the active runway for take-off.
Crews prepare to board B-52H 60-0035 ‘Global Warrior' for a sortie.
A representative shot that includes one 307th BW B-52 and one active duty B-52 tail of the 69th Bomb Squadron visiting Barksdale from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
Close up of one of the crew's helmets, clearly a graduate of the B-52 weapons school based on the yellow and black strip - the colours of the 340th Weapons Squadron.
A group of 20 aircrew members who reached a milestone in the B-52H Stratofortress by flying a two-ship mission with a combined total of over 100,000 flying hours, on February 18, 2014 from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.
Interior artwork found in B-52H 61-0021. Most B-52s have their nose art replicated inside the cockpit in some fashion.
Throttles up. The pilot slowly eases all eight throttles of the enormous bomber forward for maximum take-off thrust.
On final approach for landing back at Barksdale after a five hour sortie, a relatively short flight by B-52 standards.
The lower deck on the B-52 is the radar navigator station. The radar navigator is the crew member whose role is to identify targets and plot the strikes using the various weapons systems. Here an instructor works with a student navigator.
