It was cool this morning, raining pretty hard, as we here at Tinian had just dodged a Typhoon which had passed just to our South during the night. We knew we would be flying away from the storm on a Northwest heading, so it would be no factor to us except on takeoff. Wind this morning was 30 to 40MPH with an occasional gusts of 50MPH. Wind was beginning to wane, so shouldn't be a problem. One of the things, among many, to be concerned about is the large vertical stabilizer and rudder, which with any wind at All would tend to weather vane you into the wind. No problem as long as nose wheel on ground, but when you reach VR, you have to hold a little or a lot of "downwind" rudder until you break ground, then you let it weather vane if it wants to, because it will climb quicker and accelerate quicker into the wind than "crabbing", holding it straight on a heading.
29 taxiing for takeoff!
Might know, its my time for takeoff as we alternated for training purposes and I had about 200 hours in the 29 by then, so again, shouldn't be a big deal except for that cross wind, which I knew would have to be reckon with. We weighted 122,560 lbs for this mission, which would last for about 14 hours, so we had a 2 hour reserve. I called for full power, "WEP" on at "top manifold" stabilization, called by the FE, then steady down runway, V1,(88 knots), V-2, (104 knots), VR, (120 knots), number being called by the AC! As our nose wheel broke ground, sure enough, she started to swing to the right, I applied a little left rudder, then a little more to keep it straight down the runway, then we broke ground and as soon as we established a "positive rate of climb", I called for gear up and let the bird then swing slightly to the right into the wind and we were soon climbing about 750 feet per minute. The 29 is a "feet on the floor" aircraft, as that big ole rudder will cause over controlling easily and you make all the guys in the bad sick. Nice takeoff, commented the AC, so felt pretty good about that!
Climbing out for a final altitude of 28,000 feet, heading 350 degrees, we headed for Japan and finally the 38th Parallel where we would begin our mission. As we go though 5,000 feet, I call for "crew positions" and everyone checks in OK and the "spooks" entered the "E" room, mounted in the forward bomb bay. Now begins the task of trying to stay awake and pay attention to all the little details which you must think about, keep a instrument scan going, as tops were about 17000, if I recall correctly, monitor engine instruments, even though you have a FE, review all the emergency procedures time and time again. Talk to navigator, double check headings and power settings, take my boots off, (if you bail in water, they fill quickly, so I had made a decision long ago to bail without them over water).
We had been on station for about 4 hours, "station keeping" 20 miles off shore, when suddenly the tail gunner announces, we have 2 boogies 60 miles out and closing! Of course that got everyone's attention, but usually they turned off in about 30 miles or so, so was no concern at this point. In just a short few minutes, tail says they just broke 30 mile and was at 28 mile closing directly at us. AC calls "he's got it"(the controls), orders tail to unlock the tail and begin tracking them. He was refereeing to the G-32 radar operated quad 20MM's that comprised all the defensive firepower we had. We hoped they would pick up a "radar lock" and they would turn away, but they didn't!
By now he had called for fighter escorts from K-8, a USAF fighter squadron, about a 100 miles to our southwest and we were headed in that direction, so help was on the way, but would not get here in time to save our bacon if these two guys was serious. Then they started "S" turning to kill off speed I guessed and tail said , "they are getting in the slot", which would be the normal firing position, if they intended to fire "air to air" missiles at us. AC calls OK, we head 090 degrees towards Japan, as was our intstructions any time "boogies" intercepted us, to let them know or ground based radar operators know, we had no intention of over flying North Korean airspace. We then begin our defensive turns to interrupt their tracking systems, I guess. By now the F-100's were about 30 miles out also and closing fast.
We had been descending all this time in order to pick up speed, but the boogies stayed right with us, about 12 miles back.
AC ordered all "spooks" out of "E" pod, except the one using ASR so we could see what they were doing. They had no way of exiting the aircraft if we had to bail.
Just as quick as they had started tailing us, they turned, I guess having seen or been told of the two 100's approaching them and they turned to the Northwest and lit their burners speed quickly picked up, but the 100's were closing and got as close as 10 miles to them and they started a dive then and their speed really picked up.
After they departed our area, we again turned back to our mission and the 100's turned, came to us and escorted us for about a 100 miles or so and then RTB'd.
MY "puckering" factor was "maxed" out during most of this time to the point you could not have drove a "20 Penny nail" in my rear with a 5 pound hammer.
Later on a few years later, when Congressman Larry McDonald was shot down by the "Russkies", in a Boeing 747, it made me realize how just one little miscalculation, could have put ole ":Tater" in the sea of Japan!
