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Some things the article talked about: 1. It could not land in a cross wind because of the tandem landing gear configuration. Landing was, in fact, limited to a maximum 15-knot cross wind component. 2. In the "coffin corner" (maximum altitude, maximum load), they stated there was only a 6-knot spread between a high-speed buffet and a low speed stall. This was somewhat an exaggeration. It was necessary to stay alert under those conditions, but it could be handled. The complete article did cause some apprehension, but no one asked out.  

I had been promoted to Captain while at Mather. At Lake Charles, we formed a crew of three Captains, since the pilot and co-pilot held the same rank. The official makeup of the crew was Aircraft Commander, Pilot, and Aircraft Observer, but was normally referred to as pilot, co-pilot and navigator.

We spent most of our time, in the beginning at Lake Charles, spinning our wheels, since few B47's were available for flights. After we were settled, and Joyce and Bill started school, we were notified that we would go to Wichita, Kansas for ground and flight training for three to four months.

We sub-leased our house, took Joyce and Bill out of school, and drove to Wichita. We rented a furnished house and got school squared away. When we went to the base, we were told that the flight training had been canceled and we would get only 30 days of ground training. So, after a month, it was back to Lake Charles to get back into the house and back in school. We made a couple flights with an instructor pilot at Lake Charles and were basically told we were on our own from then on.  

I will detail some of what we did as a B47 crew over the next three years:  

Except for practice bombing, this plane was designed to carry one bomb (atomic) Each crew was assigned a specific target and a miniature target was made up from all available information, for use in an ultrasonic trainer. When this miniature target was under two feet of water in the trainer, it showed up on the radarscope in what was, hopefully - the same, as the real target would look. Most target information was classified and was kept in the vault when not in use.

The plane was often referred to as a "one way" plane. This was because of the fact that the distance to most assigned targets was such that there was little chance of getting back to the tankers before running out of fuel. An in-flight refueling would be made on the way over, but the tankers could not go beyond a predetermined point. (Our first assigned target was close enough, but our later one was questionable.) This meant going through two survival courses, one summer and one winter, to practice escape and evasion methods and living off the land.  

The first of these courses (summer) was near Shreveport, Louisiana. We were given a little dried meat. Potatoes and onions, and were expected to catch some small animals and fish during the five days. However...we could hear truck traffic on the other side of the trees and some of them appeared to stop. We figured there must be a station near. On the fourth day, three of us decided to check it out. Our reasoning was that we were expected to do anything to survive and escape. Anyway, we took off and found that there was indeed a station and by chance they had barbecue sandwiches. We ate one of these and took one with us to eat prior to reaching the camp area. To top it off, the next day (the last day of the course), the instructor said everyone deserved some extra rations. The three of us, of course, said "no thanks", we would stick it out.  

The winter survival course was in the mountains near Reno, Nevada. We were provided with complete winter gear, including snow shoes, and taken by truck to an area that served as base camp. We spent five days there picking up points on how to find food and points on how to avoid capture. We made short excursions out of the base camp with the "enemy" (instructors) trying to capture us. If you were caught you had to spend time in the "phone booth". It was actually a vertical box much like a phone booth. However, it was too short to stand up in and too narrow to sit down. I never got caught.

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