(ArtKramr) wrote:

Sad story. I hope he got his well deserved Air Medal. We only needed 5 missions
for an Air Medal. We had one guy shot down on his 5th mission but he got his
AM. I wonder what the rational was for 25 missions in B-52's? Buff driver can
you clarify?
Arthur Kramer

It wasn't prejudice against B-52s. It was a simple reflection of
threat levels. In SEA, the criteria was 10 mission over North Vietnam,
20 missions "in-country" (South VN, Laos, Cambodia) and 25
"combat-support" missions--typically in-country air-lift, but also
country transit missions like Arc Light.

If you check the combat losses for B-52s, they were very low-threat
until Linebacker. The only combat losses experienced for most of the
Arc Light campaigns were mid-airs between B-52s (arguably a result of
poor judgement).

The heavies really earned their Air Medals when Linebacker II started,
and then got credit for one AM for every ten sorties. They also earned
a lot of DFC's and Silver Stars during those eleven days of Christmas.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (ret)
***"When Thunder Rolled:
*** An F-105 Pilot Over N. Vietnam"
*** from Smithsonian Books
ISBN: 1588341038