Flying from the Black Hole: The B-52 Navigator-Bombardiers of Vietnam

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, execu...