When I enlisted in the USAF in June ‘71, my first job choice was the only enlisted flying job available. Defensive Fire Control in the B-52.
This would have had me leaving Tech School, to my first assignment in Dec. 71.
Right about the time the BUFFs started getting whacked.
Fortunately, they asked if I’d rather go into Nuke Weapons school in Denver.
So, by Dec. 72, I was working on MMIII, Mk 12 Re-entry Systems at VAFB, CA, working operational test flights, rather than bouncing around the back of a BUFF, over Vietnam.
another group of pictures of the crew shotdown Dec, 1972
operation linebacker.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=24056