Andersen Air Base

Andersen Air Base - Guam

UPDATED: 28 Dec 04

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Stories of Andersen Air Base - Guam will be posted here. Links on this page will take you to the many things of interest concerning the base.

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In August of 1972 Terry Moore and most of the 7th Bomb Wing from Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam. There were close to 200 B-52D and G models on the island to support the bombing campaign over Vietnam. Sixty-Six sorties were flown each day. They stayed until the end of the war.

A B-52 loaded and ready to go.

A special thanks to Terry Moore for the above photographs.

Units	Other Information

The following narrative of B-52 operations from Guam is graciously provided by Darrell Johnson. If have have anything to add to the account please contact the webmaster at the mailbox at the bottom of any page.

B-52's Over Vietnam

I was stationed at Robins AFB and Crewed Tankers. I was assigned to the 19th Bomb Wing which came under the 42nd Air Division at Barksdale and at that time was the 2nd Air Force. My first TDY was under Constant Guard II at Kadena AFB where I was assigned to do Phase inspections on all the 135's that were in Southeast Asia at that time.

I rotated back to the states in Nov of 72 and then returned to Guam in support of Bullet Shot II in Dec 72. Actually arrived for the first day of what we called the 11 day war. I was assigned to Crew aircraft 0100 which is the D model that stayed on Guam as a static display.

I worked on North ramp 1 and was housed at Marlboro Village. We rode the bus to the base and the cattle car to North ramp. 0100 was one of the D models that actually flew the last bombing mission over Vietnam . That flight actually had a General that flew the mission and it and two other D models had shark teeth painted on the lower nose just forward of the crew entry door just for the mission. Once it returned we recovered it that night and I got a picture or two prior to going off shift. When I returned the next day the shark teeth were removed from the aircraft.

The Last Bombing Mission

All the information that I could get over the internet about 0100 was that the last bombing mission over Vietnam was its last mission prior to being retired. Not True. It and other older D models were grounded due to cracks in the wings for several months while other D models flew back to the states for a wing modification under the Pacer Speed program. A few months later 0100 and some the other D models started flying bombing missions again over Laos and Cambodia . This became an on again off again thing for several months.

In June 73, I rotated back to the states again but returned back to Guam and North ramp 1 and aircraft 0100 in July 73 ( like I had never left). This time I was housed at Tin city on the base and by this time the bombing missions were almost finished. We stayed there and worked our 12 hours shifts same as before with 7 days on days and then 7 days on nights.

Sometime around Aug 73 the G models started to go to the Alert Pad to pull Hard alert. This went on until a Russian Bomber tried to fly over the Island and the Navy sent up fighters to escort him away from Guam . During that time the Alert horn also went off several times and the Bombers also did a taxi out to the end of the runway.

Within a month the G models started coming off of alert and the D models started to replace them so they could rotate back to the states. 0100 was one of the last D models to go on alert and I spent over 36 hours straight getting the bugs out of the aircraft to put it on alert. Once it was up and on alert I went to the Alert Pad to catch some Zs and from there was informed that I had 3 hours to get my things together and get on the freedom bird. I left most of my personal things there to make the plane back to the states.

0100 also was one of the only bombers to ever shoot down a Mig while on a mission.

During my time TDY it seems that the Bases that sent most of their troops over was Barksdale, Robins, Seymour Johnson, Westover, and Carswell. There were other bases with troops over there but most of them were toward the end of the last TDY. They were March, Minot, and Loring.

O100 was replaced years later with another D model that was commissioned as 0100. The original 0100 was towed back to North ramp 1 and cut up where the jungle covered up most of the aircraft. Most of the North ramp area was destroyed by a Typhoon and I understand that they also saved part of it.

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