JIM SANDERS wrote:
> 
> > I caught your message about  your career and B-52s.  I would like to
> > ask you a few questions about that another day.
> 
>      Any time.. Just ask.. 
Jim..
I was a kid on the farm in Saskatchewan in 1956/57.  I clearly 
remember one spring, March I think, when each late afternoon around 
4:00 PM, the clear prairie air would be marked by a high-altitude
contrail originating in the U.S. and streaking directly overhead on a 
360 deg track toward the arctic, finally disappearing over the distant 
northern horizon.  Then after 10 minutes or so, another contrail could be 
seen on the southern horizon, following the first flight.  Several flights 
per day, maybe 5 or so, would pass over, and the pattern continued for 
about two or three weeks, if I can recall correctly.  The contrails in the 
clear spring air were a real source of amazement to us, as we had only heard 
about jets, let alone actually SEEN one.  All the kids in the one-room 
country school would discuss the contrails the next day, as most were 
straight while some days the trails may have been distorted by the jetstream, 
of which we knew nothing.  Mostly they were south/north straight and true,
although I do recall a few had kinks (mid course correction).
These flights were undoubtably B-52s.  I saw my first up-close B-52 in 
the South Korean War Museum in Seoul.  Awesome machine.  Looked like 
it may have had a tail gunner, as there seemed to be a passageway to the 
rear.  The public wasn't allowed inside the plane, so it was hard to tell.  
Do you know of these north-bound flights in that cold-war era?  
Were they supplying the DEW line?  Can you shed some light on them?
~Mitch
... nfx v2.8 [C0000] ...  ********  wr.michelson@encode.com
--- QScan/PCB v1.17b / 01-0313
---------------