06/29/09

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B-52 static aircraft to be dedicated to Operation Linebacker Crew

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. -- The B-52 Stratofortress static aircraft display at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, will be dedicated to the crew of another B-52 which was shot down over North Vietnam during Operation Linebacker II in December 1972. The ceremony will take place on 24 July 2009.

On 26 December 1972, Capt. Robert Morris, a Missouri native, piloted his B-52, call-sign Ebony-02, to the Giap rail yards and delivered the ordnance on target. During the post-target turn, the aircraft was hit by one of 30 surface-to-air-missile sites in the vicinity and exploded in mid-air. Captain Morris and Major Nutter J. Wimbrow, electronic warfare officer, were killed.

Miraculously, the other  four  Ebony-02 crew members, 1st Lt. Robert Hudson, co-pilot, Captain Michael LaBeau, radar navigator, 1st Lt. Duane Vavroch, navigator, and TSgt James Cook, gunner,  escaped the aircraft, and became POWs.

The B-52 display, located near the Arnold Gate, was repainted with Captain Morris' name under the crew compartment and the names of his crew members on the lower portion of the fuselage.

Following a moment of silence in remembrance of the sacrifice and heroism of the crew of Ebony-02, a B-52 will fly over the ceremony signifying the aircraft was lost.

For further information, please contact the Office of the Historian, 509 Bomb Wing, at 509BW.HO@whiteman.af.mil