Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Rob Wellbaum; last tailgunner retires
Someone sent us a link to The Drive which reports that when US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Rob Wellbaum retires, it marks the end of an era – the era of the bomber tail gunner;
When he first joined up in 1987, the non-commissioned officer had signed up for Specialty Code 111X0—Aerial Defense Gunner.
“I went into the recruiter’s office and asked them what jobs they had for enlisted [personnel] to fly,” Wellbaum recalled in an interview. “My recruiter listed off loadmaster, boom operator, and B-52 aerial defensive gunner. The gunner job sounded like the coolest job out of the three so that is what I applied for.”
For the next five years, he served in that role on a B-52 Stratofortress bomber. This aircraft – more lovingly referred to as the Big Ugly Fat Fellow, or BUFF – was the last in service to even have a tail gun.
The article says that as recently as the Vietnam War, two tailgunners actually shot down opposition aircraft from their station in the tail of the B-52;
“When the target got to 2,000 yards, I notified the crew that I was firing,” Airman 1st Class Albert Moore, who was responsible for the second kill, explained later. “I fired at the bandit until it ballooned to three times in intensity then suddenly disappeared from my radar scope at approximately 1,200 yards, 6:30 low. I expended 800 rounds in three bursts.”
A gunner in another nearby B-52 confirmed Moore had blasted a North Vietnamese MiG-21. This was the last time a tail gunner from any air force scored a kill.
The article reports that the tail guns disappeared from the aircraft in 1992 with the Soviet Union’s demise;
“We knew something was in the works but we weren’t expecting to be cut,” Wellbaum said of the Air Force’s decision to remove the BUFF’s weapons for good and eliminate tail gunners. “However, the Air Force did take care of us and opened up a lot of AFSCs, one of which was flight engineer.”
In total, Wellbaum accumulated more than 1,000 flight hours as a B-52 tail gunner. His last position was as the superintendent of the 15th Operations Group, the flying component of Pacific Air Force’s composite 15th Wing, which is situated at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.
Category: Air Force
All hail, the gunner in the tail!
It’s too bad that job went extinct. The little guys in WWII could be nose gunners or ball turret gunners. All the romance gets swept aside these days.
Actually the nose guns in B-17′ and B-24’s were fired by the Bombardier or Navigator, depending on who was busy. And not all Ball gunners were little guys. There are cases of men six feet tall and taller manning the ball. Most gunners were men of average height for the day. While the pilots got all the glory, it was the gunners that were the heros of the bomber force. Pilots had armor plate while gunners were protected by flak suits that were only effective against small bits of shrapnel. A cannon shell from an enemy fighter could blow a man to pieces. And did.
“Big Ugly Fat Fellow“? Well, that’s one version of what the acronym stands for. (smile)
Congrats CMSgt Wellbaum. Enjoy a well-earned retirement.
Umm, yeah, that was my thought, as well. (grin)
Very interesting. I would have never thought about it since I wouldn’t have guessed they carried tail guns that late. In my own experience as a Marine, an equivalent event was the departure from the scene of the nuclear artillerymen. I’m not sure if any linger on out there, but if so there can’t be many. I was a Lt in 2001 at 2/10 and there were still a few 0812s in the regiment and they were all MSgts. Time will eventually pass us all on, I guess.
Kinda sad. I briefed a lot of B52 and KC-135 crews back in the day.
If I recall correctly, there was a friendly fire incident during the Gulf War in ’91 where a B-52 tail gunner mistakenly engaged a friendly aircraft, and that was the main impetus for the removal of the guns. Too bad.
I think this was the incident I was thinking of. (Wikipedia, so take it for what it’s worth).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-88_HARM
“renamed In HARM’s Way”
That’s awesome. I found a drawing of IN HARM’S WAY, but I can’t see at work because government networks. . .
http://ronin201.deviantart.com/art/B-52-In-HARM-s-Way-319986071
I was stationed at Jeddah, coincidentally I was a maintenance guy on the tail gun system, and they way we heard it from the crew, the gunner was operating his search radar in an area that he shouldn’t have been. (Iraqi systems worked on the same frequencies as ours due to us giving them the equipment back in Iran vs Iraq war days) Missle sheared the back of the plane off from the rear of the drag chute door back.
Plane landed just fine, albeit a bit nose heavy, and they put a big sheet metal patch over the back and flew it to Guam. Don’t believe everything Wikipedia says 🙂
Reads like the other way around: the Phantom engaged the B-52, not the other way around. Radars fighting radars…
Another marker for the end of an era, good luck in your future endeavors Mr. Wellbaum. Kudos on a job well done.
The tail gun on the B52 was surprisingly effective in the jet age. This is because it has a range advantage over the gun on the attacking plane. Both the closing speed and the attack range are amplified by the air speed of the attacking craft.
Tail gunner is shooting with a 600 mph tail wind Attacker is shooting with a 650 mph head wind.
Tail gunner can shoot about a kilometer before the attacker with similar caliber guns.
IIRC in the B-52 the “tail gunner” himself wasn’t actually in the tail, right? Wasn’t it operated remotely from a station inside the fuselage of the bird? That would explain why the report of the downed MiG referred to how it appeared or radar vs the gunner’s eye-witness view.
The D models had the gunner actually in the tail of the plane. I worked G and H model B-52s; the gunner was up front with the rest of the crew. The gunner was the only enlisted guy on the aircraft.
Would like to correspond with Chief Wellbaum. Does anyone know how I can contact him or could someone contact him and ask him if he would contact me?
CMS John (Skip) Bushart USAF Ret