Flying from the Black Hole, Robert O. Harder
Flying from the Black Hole, Robert O. Harder
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Flying from the Black Hole
The B-52 Navigator-Bombardiers of Vietnam

Author: Robert O. Harder

Narrator: Bob Souer

Unabridged: 9 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/06/2018


Synopsis

Air Force navigators and bombardiers have long labored under the shadow of pilots—their contributions undervalued, misunderstood, or simply unknown to the general public. This was especially the case with the non-pilot officer aircrew in the Vietnam and Cold War–era B-52 Stratofortress. Of the six people who operated the bomber, three wore navigator wings—two of those men were also bombardiers, the other an electronic warfare officer. Without the navigator-bombardiers in particular, executing the nuclear war strike plan or flying Southeast Asian conventional bombing sorties would have been impossible. This book reveals who these men were and what they did down in the "Black Hole," a story told by one of their own.

About Robert O. Harder

Robert O. Harder was an Air Force ROTC Distinguished Military Graduate and Strategic Air Command "Cold War" B-52D aircrewman with 145 combat missions during the Vietnam War. A rated navigator and radar bombardier, he also flew nuclear training sorties and stood Pad Alert. A former business executive, he was a commercial pilot and FAA-certificated flight instructor.


Reviews

Goodreads review by HaydenM on November 28, 2021

This book is about the navigator-bombardiers of B-52 Stratofortresses particularly during the Vietnam war. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in aviation, the Vietnam war or navigating however, if you do not have an interest in these thing s, I can see how it would be quite dull. Overa......more

Goodreads review by Charles H Berlemann Jr on March 11, 2024

I thought this book would be interesting to read and it was recommended to me because it talks of the personal experiences of a B-52 crewman during Linebacker. Instead it is a book that not only talks about the history and development of the bomb, the bomber, Curtis LeMay, how a Navigator-Bombardier......more

Goodreads review by George on January 30, 2023

This was a great read! If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a "crew dog", then you won't be able to stop turning pages. I'd always heard rumors about the Linebacker II bombing, but never saw it documented like this in an easily readable form. The text is pretty technical and Harder does......more

Goodreads review by George on January 20, 2023

This was a great read! If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a "crew dog", then you won't be able to stop turning pages. I'd always heard rumors about the Linebacker II bombing, but never saw it documented like this in an easily readable form. The text is pretty technical and Harder does......more

Goodreads review by Edward on November 28, 2019

It is hard to believe a man who pulled a single 4-year tour of duty in th Air Force, could write a book with such detail and accuracy. But by many accounts, it is accurate. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned a lot in the process.......more