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B-1 Lancer take off at night with afterburners


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As a young kid back in the sixties my parents and I visited my sister and brother in law in Kokomo Indiana.  He was in the Air Force and stationed at the SAC Bunker Hill air force base renamed Grissom in the late sixties.  Some how he got us on the base and we got to see B58 Hustlers take off at night with full after burners.  Quite a show and made your body shake.  Made an impression on a teenage boy.  To my brother in law it was not a big thing it happened almost nightly.
 

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One of the most visually beautiful things I have ever seen was at Iwakuni, Japan.  Another Marine and I were "running the airfield" (jogging around the perimeter of the air field... about six miles IIRC) about 2100 hours on a brittlely cold December night.  We had started across the south end of the main runway when a half dozen F-4 Phantom fighters began "touch-and -go" runs, two planes at a time side by side.  :o

 

They'd come in , touch down, and hit the after burners.  The planes would take off and go around for another run.

 

Now, Iwakuni is right on the water and the humidity is always near 100%.  The heat from the afterburners heated the humidity in the air to steam and it instantly refroze into crystals which were lighted by the afterburners.  The effect was crystals of flame sparkling like bright little Christmas lights....by the Jillion.  They followed the planes until the burners were shut off and the the next pair of planes did their run.

 

We stood there for about ten minutes until the perimeter patrol guys came by and ran us off.  We saw eight passes before they made us leave for "safety and security reasons."

 

Spikes of crystalized fire flying through the night chasing those planes is something I'll never forget.

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the first night of the air war during Desert Storm one of my best friends was near a runway in Saudi. he said he watched fighters taking off in groups of four. they were loaded down with armament.  they used afterburners to get airborne then went to the tankers to top off their fuel. He said you would never see anything like that again. Go Air Force

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