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As was quite common, a B-52 was inbound from a raid with hung bombs. All roads leading to the runway were blocked and everyone was standing by. The pilot brought that monster in over the bay and set her down on the very end of the runway. With full flaps, he hit the switch for the drag chute. The door dropped open and the chute came out. It was quite a sight to see that bundle tumbling along the pavement behind the aircraft. The 52 used all 12,000 feet of runway, then it went through barbed wire, past a bunker, over ran the E.O.R. and ended up straddling a maintenance road not far from the base perimeter fence.

As time went along we would get a report of conditions before we left the armory each day. We heard of one B-52 that came back with a missile stuck through its back and managed to land safely. There was another one that parked in its reventment and later than night lost a sizeable piece of tail when it fell off.

One aircraft came back three days later. It had a missile detonate under it and they had to make an emergency landing at Danang. I later worked for a maint. guy who was there and he said that if you wanted to see panic, have one of the two most hated aircraft land on a base just south of the DMZ. Almost all fighter maintenance was rerouted to the mortor magnet to get it out of there. They eventually gave up trying to repair its fuel cells and settled with cases of metal tape and a promise of a tanker escort for the trip home, just get out. The runway wasn't built to handle anything that big but because it was so light, they made it off the ground. I don't think they could have done it if they were down even one engine.

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