"Yeff" wrote in message
news:e39syuxonwmm.dlg@lemming_militia.com...
> On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 10:40:25 GMT, Atlanta Ramfan wrote:
>
> > Anyway, remember, these are guys that fixed airplanes for a living,
> > if they were in SAC, a few of them got rides in B-52's and that's
> > where the one of the fellows got a bronze star - kicking out a
> > phosphor bomb that got stuck in a B-52 bay.
>
> My bet is you're thinking of the late Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. John
> Levitow. See
>
No, this wasn't Sgt. Levitow, they taught us about him in basic.

I can't remember our Sergeant's name (he was a Tech Sergeant or
Master Sergeant in the late 70's) but it was nothing like hugging
a live magnesium flare. It was "just" ordnance (and I know absolutely
nothing about B-52's save for their fuel systems - my Dad was
designing them when I was born in Wichita - and a little about their
engines) I'm not even sure of what kind it was - and for that matter
I'm not absolutely sure of the type of plane - but I know it wasn't
a gunship - it was an ordnance delivery system, the guy was
a weapons specialist. For all I know, maybe the bird had been
having problems with that and they took him up so he could see
what was happening.

Anyway, he had to physically extricate the thing from the aircraft.
I'm sure it was live, but nothing like a magnesium flare going off,
and he wasn't injured. The key was to just get the thing out of the
plane. We all thought it was a pretty brave thing to do.

Paul