50 years ago, ’66, I landed at Clark AB PI and asked the crew van driver taking me to the 8th Sqdn HQ who won the race.  From Travis AFB  to Anchorage  then great  circle  rt  over night , NW 707 crossed dateline and refueled in Tokyo so was next day there. Now just needed to learn how to dive bomb with iron stuff, strafe and level pass with Napes and head 21 days later for the fighting 800 mi cross S China Sea. Piece a cake! 200 missions and 15 mo later they let me go home to another job had never done, teach pilots and navs how to orbit just off Thud Ridge N Viet and jam radars! One training device was an ultrasonic water table to simulate radar return and the ridge contour used was a nickle. I’d had no radar at all in SEA. Lot of the world I can still recognize by the scope picture but S & N Viet, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia I’ve never seen but by eyeball. Not exactly useful stuff in the mine biz much underground.

But an odd thing, 321 Bob and I agree the opening gold mines in Viet/Laos karst mtns have greatest danger in OUR unexploded weapons from that era. He’s gone back I didn’t. Few reasons for them, usual fusing was both nose and tail and it either held or released wires run thru the fuse. Want contact instant bang hold both wires & let separation distance prop spin arms both and if a bit after it buries go with tail only. Some reason to use jettison area off coast release both wires ( little electric switch hook ) and simply sinks. NEVER land with them bombs at all possible. Better just leave it all and watch it hit water 1st a good distance away if too banged up to trust a landing. Have someone do a check all stores are gone than can belly in. Live crew can always fly another plane and reason we ran out of B-57s by ’70. Nastiest tho was time delays you want to bury self and go off much later. Had a vial of acetone to slowly eat a plastic plug at a steady rate after armed. Always used a close up bomb nose check so if it smelled like banana oil had a serious need to get it off to a far safe area to dearm. Made for itchy anus until you got them all safely away.  Sometimes the switchology got it all wrong and a dud for them to use against us later. Times bomb loader screwed up as well. I once found an arm wire did NOT run thru the nose fusing prop. Would spin arm 1st time bomb door opened so first good jar might just go BOOM! all she wrote. Is a young man’s game so there’s a great need to grow old in your own time. 8