page_title: Carswell Air Force Base
section_title: B-52 Stratofortress and KC-135 Stratotanker Era
hierarchical_section_title: Carswell Air Force Base / History / Strategic Air Command / Cold War / 7th Bombardment Wing / B-52 Stratofortress and KC-135 Stratotanker Era
caption_attribution_description: English: Boeing B-52D bomber #56-0687 on display at B-52 Memorial Park, Orlando International Airport, Florida (Ex-McCoy Air Force Base).
context_page_description: See: Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base for the current use of the facility.
  see also: Air Force Plant 4 for the government-owned aircraft manufacturing plant adjacent to the facility.
  Carswell Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base, located northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. For most of its operational lifetime, the base's mission was to train and support heavy strategic bombing groups and wings.
  Carswell was a major Strategic Air Command base during the Cold War. It was the headquarters of several SAC intercontinental bombardment wings, equipped with the latest heavy bombers from B-29 Superfortresses; B-36 Peacemakers and B-52 Stratofortresses. The west side of the airfield was home to Air Force Plant 4, a 602-acre industrial complex occupied over the decades by Convair, General Dynamics, and now by Lockheed Martin. The bulk of the Air Force Convair B-36, B-58 Hustler, F-111 Aardvark, EF-111 Raven and F-16 Fighting Falcon fleets were built there.
  With the end of the Cold War, and the subsequent downsizing of the American military, the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended that Carswell AFB be closed by 1994.
context_section_description: On 10 December 1957, the 98th Bomb Squadron was detached from the wing and assigned to the newly activated 4123rd Strategic Wing at Carswell. This would become the first Boeing B-52 Stratofortress unit at Carswell.  The 7th Bomb Wing officially became a B-52 organization with the adoption of manning documents and equipping authorizations on 1 February 1958.
  On 19 February 1958, the 4123d Strategic Wing took possession of the first Boeing B-52 Stratofortress on Carswell. At the arrival ceremony on base the bomber was named "The City of Fort Worth". It was subsequently assigned to the 98th Bombardment Squadron of the wing. Shortly following the arrival of B-52 bombers to the 4123rd Strategic Wing, the unit was moved to new facilities at Clinton-Sherman AFB, Oklahoma. With the acquisition of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, all new B-52 wings would operate with an air refueling squadron to support those bombers.
  As a result, SAC activated the 7th Air Refueling Squadron at Carswell on 1 April 1958, and assigned it to the wing. The squadron would be equipped with the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker later in the year. With the disestablishment of the Strategic Air Command in 1992, the 7th Air Refueling Squadron and its KC-135As were reassigned to the newly established Air Mobility Command (AMC) and the 19th Air Refueling Wing, Robins AFB, Georgia, but remained as Det. 1 at Carswell AFB until the squadron was disestablished later in 1992.  Most of the 7th's KC-135As were retired to AMARG, while 55-3130, the oldest KC-135 then flying retired to the Air Force Museum at March AFB, California.  A few of the 7th's KC-135As were delivered to Boeing-Wichita at McConnell AFB to be converted to the KC-135R configuration.
  In early 1992, SAC was ordered by AFCOS General McPeak to ground all B-52 Tail Gunners and remove the tail guns from all B-52s that were to remain in the USAF inventory.  The 20mm Guns were removed from the Carswell AFB and Minot AFB based B-52Hs, while all B-52Gs kept their quad .50 caliber M-3 BMGs because they were all programmed for retirement to Davis Monthan AFB and its 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309th AMARG).
  In January 1959. B-52s from Carswell were constantly in the air and flying to Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
  On 13 April 1965, the 7 BW deployed its forces to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam to support SAC combat operations in Southeast Asia. Most of the wing's bombers and tankers, along with aircrews and some support personnel, were deployed. At Andersen AFB, the wing flew more than 1,300 missions over Vietnam, and returned to Carswell in December 1965.
  B-52 crews were sent through an intensive two-week course on the B-52D, making them eligible for duty in Southeast Asia. B-52s assigned to combat duty in Vietnam were painted in a modified camouflage scheme with the undersides, lower fuselage, and both sides of the vertical fin being painted in a glossy black. The USAF serial number was painted in black on the fin over a horizontal red stripe across the length of the fin.
  The B-52 effort was concentrated primarily against suspected Viet Cong targets in South Vietnam, but the Ho Chi Min Trail and targets in Laos were also hit. During the relief of Khe Sanh, unbroken waves of six aircraft, attacking every three hours, dropped bombs as close as 900 feet (270 m) from friendly lines. Cambodia was increasingly bombed by B-52s from March 1969 onward.
  Rotational deployments to Guam, and also to U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, Thailand continued on a reduced scale until 1975.  In the 1980s the 7th received several new weapons systems, including modified B-52H aircraft. In 1983, B-52 crews began training with a new weapon system, the SRAM (Short Range Attack Missile) and later, in 1985, the ALCM (Air Launched Cruise Missile). Also, the wing flew numerous atmospheric sampling missions during 1986 and 1987 in response to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident; four B-52H aircraft (s/n 60-0024, 60-0033, 60-0051 and 60-0052) were modified to carry atmospheric sampling pods code-named "Giant Fish".  The
caption: Boeing B-52D-40-BW Stratofortress AF Serial No. 56-0687 on display at the B-52 Memorial Park, Orlando International Airport, Florida. This aircraft was flown to Orlando from Carswell for display at the former McCoy AFB, now Orlando International Airport, when the B-52D was being phased out of the SAC inventory in 1984.
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