thanks i really enjoyed it.

Personally I never saw a Blackbird take off, just heard them while staying at the Q at Mildenhall, but I did see countless launches of the RB-57 while stationed at Yokota. I was an enlisted swine back then and a weapons mechanic. We did a lot of EOR (end of runway) arming and dearming the Thuds, and every day the RB's would take off. You could see them lift off, fly a few feet AGL for a little and then rotate to probably over 60 degrees. They were always out of sight by the time they got to the end of the runway. They too wore space suits. Heady stuff, that.

Thanks JJ,

My 12 year old was completely engrossed....now it's off to the library with him.

You're welcome. There's a copy of The Untouchables, one of Brian Shul's books, for sale right now. Only problem is it's going for $450. Not too steep for a FedEx Captain like you, but for the rest of us, well, you know. Anyway, if your (I assume) son is interested, have him Google "author Brian Scul", because that'll get him headed in the right direction.

A good friend of mine knows Brian and is sending me an autographed copy of The Untouchables. Maybe I'll suffer from memory loss and forget to return it.

JJ

What years were you at Yokota?

There are some great photos hanging in the Wing Headquarters there that show the base/runway from overhead from the late 50s onward.

Very interesting to see how all the housing, runway, and ramps there changed as the mission changed/evolved over the years.

why are his books so expensive? I take it that there aren't many of em'

September of '66 through May of '68, then to Phu Cat AB, RVN.

I just checked Amazon and they start at $79.95 for a used copy. Many listed from $100-130. Sounds like an interesting read.

As a C-130 driver deployed to EGUN in 1989, I stood on the ramp of my Herc across the taxiway from the Sled sheds. That early morning, I heard the roar of the Buick start carts, then the hanger doors opened up. The SR-71 taxied out, straight for MY fine Lockheed product, then swung onto the taxiway towards the runway.
Passing so close to me, the jet looked surreal, almost as if drawn by an enthusiastic child imagining his first spaceship. That despite knowing how technically advanced it really was!! What a sight. What a sigh.
With little delay at the hold short, the jet turned to the active and powered up. Shortly, it was gone. Time to breath again, and time to come back down to the fabulous four fans of freedom, trueing out at 280, on a good day.

There is a bit of a mislead in this story (I think)...Congress shut off funds in the early 90's but brought back 2 (I think) in the late '90's...Sept. 30, 1999 (or 2000, I forget), I had just landed my mighty, mighty KC-135R at Edwards AFB, CA in preparation for some of the first F-22 refuelings ever when I was standing on top of the airstairs watching and F-16 make a low pass, as soon as he was near the numbers, an SR-71 I hadn't noticed began it's takeoff roll...as the SR-71 passed through about 500', he was already ahead of his F-16 chase plane that had a mile head start 30 seconds ago (yes I know the F-16 could have gone mach 1.5+ if he needed to)...cool but nothing remarkable I thought to myself until the LtCol from Edwards that was greeting us said, "Make a note boys, that is the last time the USAF will ever fly an SR-71" ...took me a minute to figure it out...FY 00 was starting the next day and the Congress supplied no funds for the Blackbird that year...I know NASA continued to fly one or two (and rumor has it that the CIA did as well) but I'm pretty sure, I saw the last USAF flight of an SR-71, takeoff...