What They Don't Tell You About Flying B-52s Over Vietnam

From a small farm town in Georgia to the cockpit of a C-7 Caribou over Vietnam, to eleven years flying B-52 Stratofortresses at the height of the Cold War — Buddy Herrington's story is one of the most remarkable we've covered on Ask A Vet. In this episode, Buddy walks us through four years at the Air Force Academy, two tours in Vietnam, a career that touched Guam, the Pentagon, and Space Command, and the unexpected call that led him from the cockpit to the pulpit as a Methodist minister in St. George, Utah.

CHAPTERS:

01:30 Growing up in Alabama & rural Georgia

11:24 The roommate who introduced him to the Air Force Academy

14:47 Arriving at the Academy and basic training

30:20 Graduation — Nixon, and backpacking across Europe

42:18 Pilot training begins

45:29 Learning to fly the C-7 Caribou

50:35 First tour: flying into Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam

1:02:26 Dodging ground fire in a plane with no defenses

1:09:03 The jump from Caribou to B-52

1:12:09 Inside the B-52 "Stratofortress"

1:14:06 Water-injection takeoffs and life on Guam

1:24:16 Aerial refueling — "a planned collision"

1:42:18 The scariest moment: SAM missiles over Hanoi

1:48:23 Alert duty and the Middle East crisis

2:01:01 Looking back on Vietnam and the Wall

2:04:44 Space Command, GPS, and the Cold War

2:10:11 Retiring — and the call to ministry

2:10:47 Flood relief and building community in St. George

2:18:07 Closing thoughts

🎖️ Thank you to Buddy Herrington for his 28 years of service and for sharing his story with us.