Bradford Runyon Interview, 5 May 2000

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put a camera in the tail. Well, so at Minot we had the H model, which was built in 1960 and it was their newest plane. Well they put different engines, a whole lot more powerful engines then the other planes had and a gunner still up front but this time he doesn't have a camera, so if you go to war, you just—he just sets the gun so if anything comes in the firing range they just automatically fire. So you know, we didn't have a camera or a gunner in the back of the airplane to look out for us in that direction.
INT:Yeah. So you only had a camera for the radarscope?
BR:Yes. Plus we have our Bombay cameras so, whenever we drop bombs why we can see their impact, and so forth.
INT:So you were first stationed at Minot—what year was that?
BR:Oh, I guess '67. Late '66 or 7.
INT:Okay.
BR:Yeah.
INT:And what were you doing there?
BR:I was co—pilot initially and—
INT:Instructor or?
BR:Okay, well after I was there for a while then they selected me for the standardization evaluation unit, which is—we gave the check rides for other aircrews at our base, so I was an instructor co—pilot at that time.
INT:And why were the B-52's stationed at Minot?
BR:Well this is during the Cold War and then we had nuclear weapons on them so we were—well we had a certain number on alert at all times, and, you know, and different times then we had 'em on alert in the air loaded with nuclear bombs.
INT:So the concern was coming out of—
BR:Out of Russia over the North Pole.
INT:You were tied in with that whole northern tier.
BR:Yes, uh—huh.

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