MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
In the Missions Remembered book it describes a mission when a P-51 was modified with a special camera looking down aft of the wing. When the heavy bombers went in to hit a target in Germany the P-51 dove down to 1500 ft, and paralleling the bomber track, photographed the bomb strikes before climbing back up to join the rest of the bomber escorts.
There were a lot of opportunities for disaster in that special mission, including being intercepted by enemy fighters, the notorious German flak, and being hit by the bombs. But over 20 years later a friend of mine did something very similar that proved to be, if anything, even more hazardous.
My friend George worked Public Affairs for the USAF during the Vietnam War. SAC started complaining that there was a lot of coverage of tactical missiosn but almost nothing about the B-52 strikes. So George devised a plan. Arc Light missions were hitting enemy build-ups in jungles and he proposed to photograph one. They would use an O-1 Bird Dog FAC aircraft, be given a sealed envelope with the location of the B-52 strike, and not open that envelope until they were off the ground, in order to maintain OPSEC. So the day of the strike they took off in the O-1, opened the envelope, and found that the strike was at a former rubber plantation. So they flew to that area and the pilot explained they would casually overfly the area of the strike so they could take some "before" photos, then go over to a nearby area and pretend to be interested in something on the ground. When the B-52's bombs hit they would be in a position to photograph the strike, after which they would go over and take some "after" shots.
They proceeded with the plan and were in position when the B-52 bombs started hitting. And then they noticed a string of explosions headed at an angle to the rest of the strike, right at THEM. One bomb went down one side of them and another down the other side. They survived it and decided they'd had quite enough for that day.
There were a lot of opportunities for disaster in that special mission, including being intercepted by enemy fighters, the notorious German flak, and being hit by the bombs. But over 20 years later a friend of mine did something very similar that proved to be, if anything, even more hazardous.
My friend George worked Public Affairs for the USAF during the Vietnam War. SAC started complaining that there was a lot of coverage of tactical missiosn but almost nothing about the B-52 strikes. So George devised a plan. Arc Light missions were hitting enemy build-ups in jungles and he proposed to photograph one. They would use an O-1 Bird Dog FAC aircraft, be given a sealed envelope with the location of the B-52 strike, and not open that envelope until they were off the ground, in order to maintain OPSEC. So the day of the strike they took off in the O-1, opened the envelope, and found that the strike was at a former rubber plantation. So they flew to that area and the pilot explained they would casually overfly the area of the strike so they could take some "before" photos, then go over to a nearby area and pretend to be interested in something on the ground. When the B-52's bombs hit they would be in a position to photograph the strike, after which they would go over and take some "after" shots.
They proceeded with the plan and were in position when the B-52 bombs started hitting. And then they noticed a string of explosions headed at an angle to the rest of the strike, right at THEM. One bomb went down one side of them and another down the other side. They survived it and decided they'd had quite enough for that day.