Audiobook9 hours
Flying from the Black Hole: The B-52 Navigator-Bombardiers of Vietnam
Written by Robert O. Harder
Narrated by Bob Souer
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Air Force navigators and bombardiers have long labored under the shadow of pilots-their contributions undervalued, misunderstood, or simply unknown to the general public. This was especially the case with the non-pilot officer aircrew in the Vietnam and Cold War-era B-52 Stratofortress. Of the six people who operated the bomber, three wore navigator wings-two of those men were also bombardiers, the other an electronic warfare officer. Without the navigator-bombardiers in particular, executing the nuclear war strike plan or flying Southeast Asian conventional bombing sorties would have been impossible. This book reveals who these men were and what they did down in the "Black Hole," a story told by one of their own.
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Reviews for Flying from the Black Hole
Rating: 4.666666625 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
12 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very good review of SAC operations, moreover, I felt like I was with the crews.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5brilliant, similar to The Right Stuff in terms of how it is written, and narration was great
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a great read! If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a "crew dog", then you won't be able to stop turning pages. I'd always heard rumors about the Linebacker II bombing, but never saw it documented like this in an easily readable form. The text is pretty technical and Harder does a good job of translating the jargon--but, I think the book's audience is largely a niche audience. And, author's appreciation for BGen Sullivan, who laid his career on the line for the crew dogs and FUBAR tactics, is admirable. Further, the Linebacker II kefuffles onlined here, made me relate to the 1991-2 USAF reorganization when CSAF McPeak, AND Jack Chain, CINCSAC, both career fighter pilots, made SAC disappear--after a 20 year wait. As a -135 navigator, I always subscribed to the "sister in a...than a brother in a BUFF" theory. However, this book brought back memories and gave me greater appreciation for those who flew in the hole on the big ugly... . Hat's off!