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Topic: Operation Linebacker II

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	Operation Linebacker II
		Operation Linebacker II Operation Linebacker II operations were initiated on 18 December 1972 and were directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to continue until further notice.
		Navy tactical air attack sorties under Linebacker II were centered in the coastal areas around Hanoi and Haiphong.
		Between 18 and 22 December the Navy conducted 119 Linebacker II strikes in North Vietnam.
	www.globalsecurity.org /military/ops/linebacker-2.htm (1028 words)

	Mrs. Ruland's US History Class Project -- Timeline of the Vietnam Conflict (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Operation Linebacker II begins, which is commonly referred to as the "Christmas Bombings".
		Operation Homecoming started bringing the prisioners of war back into safety upon their realease from North Vietnam.
		Operation Frequent Wind was the US evacuation of South Vietnam in the final days.
	home.comcast.net /~mlruland/stugallery/USHist/vietnam/1972-1975.htm (190 words)

	Operation Linebacker II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Operation Linebacker II was a U.S. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial bombing campaign conducted against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) during the final period of the American commitment to the Vietnam Conflict.
		The operation, conducted from December 18 to December 30, 1972 (hence its unofficial nickname - the "Christmas Bombings") saw the heaviest bomber strikes of the Southeast Asian conflict.
		Linebacker II was a resumption of the Linebacker bombings conducted from May to October, except that the emphasis of the new campaign shifted to attacks by B-52 Stratofortresses rather than tactical fighter aircraft.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Operation_Linebacker_II (3366 words)

	Fifty Years of the B-52
		This was a disadvantage in combat; during Linebacker II operations in 1972, nine Ds were hit by SAMs but were still able to land.
		In 1958, the B-47s had reached a peak with about 1,360 in operation, but their numbers declined rapidly thereafter, and most were out of operational use by late 1965.
		The second was Operation Linebacker II, when in 11 days of bombing, B-52s smashed the defenses of Hanoi and Haiphong and forced North Vietnam to negotiate peace in Paris.
	www.afa.org /magazine/Dec2001/1201buff.asp (4285 words)

	Vietnam War United States Air Force History
		Chapter II discusses the period corresponding to the Kennedy administration, when both government and military officials grappled with adjusting to a "new kind of war," the origins of counterinsurgency strategy (of which civic action was a part), and the efforts to apply this strategy in Vietnam.
		Described is the impact of LINEBACKER II on those in command, plus those in operations, maintenance and support who undergirded the effort, and the crewmembers.
		Operation Linebacker II operations were initiated on 18 December 1972.
	www.paperlessarchives.com /vw__usaf.html (4535 words)

	Air Power:Linebacker II Bombing Raids
		Operating from Andersen AFB, Guam and later U-Tapao Royal Thai Air Base, the B-52 was a major component of many operations including Linebacker and Linebacker II.
		It is marked as it was in 1972-73 when assigned to the 474th Tactical Fighter Wing during Linebacker II operations in Southeast Asia.
		Hiroshima and Nagasaki symbolized America’s nuclear might to the Soviet Union, Linebacker II was to impress the Communist nations with America’s strength.
	www.centennialofflight.gov /essay/Air_Power/Linebacker/AP41.htm (1534 words)

	The Decisive Use of Air Power (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Because there were only 12 hours of visual conditions during the operation, the airmen aimed the bulk of their ordnance by nonvisual techniques such as radar and Loran.
		Linebacker II cost 27 aircraft (15 B-52s)and 43 crew members listed as killed or missing in action, 41 captured, and 33 recovered.
		Linebacker II was not, and could not be, decisive in the Vietnam War.
	www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil /airchronicles/aureview/1987/werrell.html (5875 words)

	Downtown: The Combatants
		By Linebacker it was 3:1 or more and the strike aircraft themselves had become a small components in a large machine designed to deliver bombs on the target.
		Operation Linebacker II is considered an operation launched by Strategic Air Command (SAC).
		Only later in Linebacker II, when SAC arranged for the entire force to attack from separate directions and be on and off the target in a very short period of time, were the SAM crews foiled.
	www.airbattle.co.uk /d_combatants.html (2996 words)

	B-52 Stratofortress information - Search.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		It was operated by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and was used for drop tests of various research aircraft until its retirement on December 17, 2004.
		The zenith of B-52 attacks in Vietnam was Operation Linebacker II, which consisted of waves of B-52s (mostly D models, but some G's with less jamming equipment and a smaller bomb load) bombing Hanoi.
		In Linebacker II, fifteen B-52s were shot down, and in all, seventeen were destroyed in combat during the war.
	c10-ss-1-lb.cnet.com /reference/B-52_Stratofortress (4525 words)

	LinebackerII
		As it turned out, one of the valuable side effects of Linebacker II was the boost in morale it brought prisoners as they saw their Communist captors tremble at the explosions and realized that at long last, the United States was fighting the war as it always should have been fought.
		As Linebacker II operations unfolded, a number of critical elements played a role in the execution of the attacks, including routes, spacing, altitudes, bomb loads, and basing.
		The result of Linebacker II was exactly what had been predicted by those who had advocated full application of airpower against North Vietnam: a military victory.
	www.afa.org /magazine/Nov1997/1197lineback.asp (2912 words)

	Naval Aviation 1970-80
		The Firebee II had been developed by Ryan Aeronautical Company under contract to the Naval Air Systems Command and was designed to maneuver at greater speeds and altitudes than the standard Firebee target previously in use.
		31--Constellation and Enterprise operated on Yankee Station together during the month until 10 December when the latter was unexpectedly directed to transit to the Indian Ocean where she operated as flagship for the newly formed TF-74 for the possible evacuation of U.S. citizens from East Pakistan in connection with the Indian-Pakistani war.
		Operation Homecoming, the repatriation of U.S. POWs between 27 January and 1 April, began and NVN and the Viet Cong released 591 POWs.
	www.history.navy.mil /branches/avchr10.htm (21376 words)

	Invert Radar Operations
		Operations was staffed with three crews, identified as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, working three 10-hour 'days' (6am - 4pm), three 14-hour 'nights' (4pm - 6am) then off on three-day break.
		The operator positions were arranged in four rows of three radar scopes, descending from the Senior Director and Crew Chief positions of the Battle Staff section on the highest (back) row, moving down, past the Weapons positions, to the Surveillance positions at building floor-level down front.
		The S-band radar operated at a frequency of 2700 to 2900 MHz.
	home.att.net /~c.jeppeson/invert_ops.html (2553 words)

	Selected Excerpts from "12/72," Operation Linebacker II from TPG-Atlanta
		Dick Rynearson was the pilot of a B-52 G flying from Guam during Linebacker II.
		He was in the "Hanoi Hilton" during Linebacker II, and was released on February 12th, 1973.
		If there was a single hero of the Linebacker II it was General Sullivan, a man who exhibited real moral courage - the willingness to express unpopular views and say what needs to be said.
	www.teleproductiongroup.com /12_72-lived-it.html (3165 words)

	B-52 Story - Last Man Out of a B-52 - Flight Journal Magazine (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		During Operation Linebacker II, Capt. Myles McTernan was a navigator aboard the B-52 Ruby Two, which was flown by Lt. Col.
		Gerald Wickline’s experienced B-52 crew from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas flew a pair of Linebacker II missions and destroyed a railroad yard on the north side of Hanoi and the Phuc Yen Airfield northwest of the city.
		On January 3, 1973, just three days after his last Linebacker II mission, Wickline was ordered to strike the industrial and agricultural center of Vinh on North Vietnam’s main north-south coastal highway and on the rail line midway between Hanoi and the South Vietnamese city of Hue.
	www.rccaraction.com /FJ/articles/b-52/b52_1.asp (1482 words)

	Linebacker II (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		During Linebacker II, many of the policy constraints were lifted allowing for greater military influence upon the military strategy.
		In spite of deficiencies in the doctrine of the time, Linebacker II was more firmly rooted in best practices than had been Rolling Thunder.
		The Linebacker II and Rolling Thunder Operations demonstrate the consequences of not having a sound doctrine in executing military strategy.
	www.iwar.org.uk /military/resources/aspc/text/strategy/lb2.htm (238 words)

	Operation Arc Light
		Operation Arc Light was the code name given to the use of B-52 strategic bombers in Southeast Asia.
		After World War II, even into the nuclear era of Massive Retaliation, the Air Force had maintained an interest in the use of heavy bombers in a conventional role.
		In addition to bombing missions against enemy base areas, the B-52's were used in a close support role in major battles including the Ia Drang Valley and the siege of Khe Sanh.
	www.cc.gatech.edu /fac/Thomas.Pilsch/AirOps/arclight.html (448 words)

	The Vietnam War > University Without Walls Spring 2004
		Operation Linebacker I and II On April 6, 1972, the U.S. began air strikes against North Vietnam in response to the Easter Offensive.
		This operation, known as Freedom Train, was followed from May to October with Linebacker, a major air interdiction campaign.
		Linebacker II did what Nixon wanted: It left both sides eager for a settlement.
	www2.skidmore.edu /uww/vietnam/linebacker.htm (326 words)

	Written Memories Part II
		In all, through the course of the 11-day operation, I think seven bombers from Utapao and eight or nine from Guam were lost to the enemy SAMS.
		When I was given the opportunity to ask a question, I asked him what those days and nights were like during Linebacker II when the B-52s filled the skies over Hanoi with more conventional explosive power than had ever been seen in any war in history.
		Shortly after the 11-day Linebacker II operation ended, it was my time to rotate back to the States.
	cohojohn.tripod.com /thailand/id7.html (2899 words)

	Review of Nixon's Vietnam War
		Kimball's discussion of Operation LINEBACKER II, the famous "Christmas Bombing" of December 1972, is brief but very sound.
		Surely the reason was that portraying LINEBACKER II as the limited and restrained operation it actually was, would have contradicted the image of ruthless brutality that Nixon was trying to project.
		They knew that their city, unlike most German and Japanese cities at the end of World War II, Pyongyang at the end of the Korean War, or towns like Vinh and Dong Hoi at the end of Lyndon Johnson's Operation ROLLING THUNDER, was still standing when Nixon's bombing ended.
	www.ess.uwe.ac.uk /GENOCIDE/reviewsw49.htm (1252 words)

	Boeing B-52
		The B-52's longevity is marked by the fact that it is con- ceivable that a grandfather, father, and son could have all served as B-52 crew.
		In Linebacker II, fif- teen B-52s were shot down, and in all, seventeen were destroyed in combat during the war.
		During Operation Desert Storm, B-52s de- livered 40% of all the weapons dropped by the coalition forces.
	www.aviationtrivia.homestead.com /_B52.html (7461 words)

	Ship's History
		Operation LINEBACKER II was borne thereof and the four Gearings of DesRon 15 were called into action as counter-battery ships for an intense, extended assault on the logistics and infrastructure of North Vietnam.
		For the first few months of LINEBACKER II, Rowan would usually accompany three other ships in night attacks of the Ho Chi Minh Trail or associated transshipment points where we would provide suppression against shore based counter-battery while the other warships shot up the target with their "superior" 5"/54's.
		I was the electrician's mate on the emergency boards and I had an engineman to assist in the operation of the diesel that powered the 100 kW emergency generator.
	tin-can.org /bpacker.htm (3345 words)

	NPS Archeology and the Vietnam War
		ordered Operation Linebacker II, round-the-clock strategic bombing of the North Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, in an effort to force the North to a cease-fire.
		The aircraft in question was carrying 114 500-lb bombs when it began its approach into Hanoi late on the night of December 22, 1972.Sixteen B-52s were lost during operation Linebacker ll.
		All wreckage was examined by a U.S. Air Force life support technician in an attempt to identify the aircraft in question.
	www.cr.nps.gov /mwac/vietnam/case1.htm (255 words)

	Operation LINEBACKER II Day 1 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Operation LINEBACKER II began on December 18, 1972, 3,000 sorties, 11 days, and 40,000 tons of bombs penetrated the most concentrated air defense of the war.
		As a result of this order Operation LINEBACKER II was executed.
		During the first evening of Operation LINEBACKER II the North Vietnamese launched 164 SAMs at the B-52 bombers.
	members.aol.com /dpoole1272/home/day1.htm (1392 words)

	Benjamin D. Foulois: In The Beginning (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The squadron's pilots tried gallantly to carry out reconnaissance and liaison missions, but operating at relatively high altitudes (about 10,000 feet) over the mountainous terrain of northern Mexico was too much for their underpowered planes.
		To compound the situation, as operations started on February 19, the nation was hit by some of the worst winter weather in its history.
		Because of that and the air arm's poor showing in the airmail operation, MacArthur probably felt he had no choice but to approve what the Air Corps called "Project A" The Boeing-built XB-15 did not fly until 1937, and subsequent flight tests showed that it was too large for engines available at the time.
	www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil /Foulois/chap23.htm (10368 words)

	GuamPDN.com \| Assignment Guam 2005 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Later that year Operation Linebacker II got underway when, on December 18, 1972, 87 B-52s were launched from Andersen in one hour and 43 minutes.
		Often called the “11-day war,” Linebacker II led to the renewal of the Paris Peace Talks and, on January 28, 1973, the signing of a cease-fire agreement with the government of North Vietnam.
		The post-Vietnam period brought a return to routine operations at Andersen, with B-52s on the ramp throughout the 1980s and the base remaining a vital overseas platform for carrying out the USAF’s mission of global deterrence.
	www.guampdn.com /guampublishing/special-sections/aguam-2005/af-1.htm (1009 words)

	The History Place - Vietnam War 1969-1975
		- Operation Lam Son 719, an all-South Vietnamese ground offensive, occurs as 17,000 South Vietnamese soldiers attack 22,000 NVA inside Laos in an attempt to sever the Ho Chi Minh trail.
		As a result, Nixon orders Operation Linebacker II, eleven days and nights of maximum force bombing against military targets in Hanoi by B-52 bombers.
		President Ford now orders Operation Frequent Wind, the helicopter evacuation of 7000 Americans and South Vietnamese from Saigon, which begins with the radio broadcast of the song "White Christmas" as a pre-arraigned code signal.
	www.historyplace.com /unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html (5665 words)

	Steve Ritchie, Phantom Pilot, Vietnam Ace
		The whole operation was closely controlled by an EC-121 radar picket plane, which operated over Laos, and the cruiser USS Chicago, underway in the Gulf of Tonkin and operating under the call-sign Red Crown.
		The second of two books on the Navy's Phantom II MiG killers of the Vietnam War, this book covers the numerous actions fought out over North Vietnam during the Linebacker I and II operations of 1972-73.
		Drawing on primary sources such as surviving Phantom II aircrew and official navy documentation, the author has assembled the most precise appraisal of fighter operations involving US Navy Phantom II units and those elusive MiGs ever seen in print.
	www.acepilots.com /vietnam/ritchie.html (2654 words)

	Warrior Handbook of Cadet Knowledge
		A-10/OA-10 Thunderbolt II The A-10 and OA-10 Thunderbolt IIs are the first Air Force aircraft specially designed for close air support of ground forces.
		Operation Vittles, the Berlin Airlift, begins and ends on Sept. 30, 1949.
		The first Boeing LGM-30F Minuteman II ICBM unit, the 447th SMS at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., is activated.
	www.geocities.com /iveta11ex/cadet (1809 words)

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