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The saga of the BUFF continues; another notable wing at which the B-52 was deployed is the 93d Bombardment Wing (Heavy), Castle Air Force Base (AFB), CA. The airfield now known as Castle AFB was at first named Merced Army Air Field in September 1941 at its construction, and trained aircrew before WWII began to involve the US. The 93d Bombardment Group began back in WWII flying B-24 Liberators and was a key part of defeating Axis powers in Germany. This wing became one of the earliest bomb wings organized under Strategic Air Command (SAC). In fact, when WWII ended, all but two bombardment groups deactivated—the 93rd and the 509th Composite Group (best known for conducting the first and second--and hopefully only--nuclear combat mission ever) were all that comprised SAC in 1946 at its establishment. For more info on the 509th, see Feelin’ BUFF 44: Key B-52 Wings: 509th Bombardment Wing, Pease AFB, NH.
The base was named later for Brigadier General Frederick W. Castle, a WWII aviator who heroically saved the lives of his crew in a fatally battle-damaged B-17 on Christmas Eve 1944 over Belgium, and was killed in the aircraft’s mid-air explosion. General Castle was notable in that he was promoted to the rank he held at his death at only 36 years of age, one of the youngest general officers in WWII. Castle was leading the largest airstrike operation of the time from England during the Battle of the Bulge, totaling almost three thousand aircraft. In January 1946, Merced Army Air Field was renamed Castle Field in his honor.
The 93d started the postwar era at Castle Field, California flying B-29 Superfortress aircraft, and was designated 93rd Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy in 1947. In 1948, “Field” was dropped to signify the birth of the Air Force, and Castle Air Force Base (AFB) was born. The B-50 Superfortress (a beefy version of the B-29) replaced the B-29s by 1948, but that same year the enormous B-36 Peacemaker aircraft was deployed in SAC, which caused a wing designation change to “Medium,” as only B-36 wings were designated “Heavy.” Castle added refueling in 1950 with KB-29 tankers, and KC-97s in 1953; four years later in 1957, the KC-135As arrived.
The 93d was a propeller-driven aircraft wing until 1954 when the jet-powered B-47 Stratojet arrived, but the B-47s tenure at Castle was short. Just over a year after the Stratojets arrived, the new production B-52B Stratofortress was delivered, making Castle the first SAC wing to receive a BUFF. The June 1955 assignment of the first combat BUFFs also came with a redesignation of the wing back to “Heavy” status. The B-47s shared Castle’s airfield with B-52s until 1956, one of few bomb wings with both types of bombers. Thus began a long, storied history at Castle with B-52s. Castle was a combat wing, but was principally assigned a critical mission—the training of SACs B-52 aircrews. When one training squadron proved insufficient to keep up with the demand, aircrew training expanded into three squadrons, and the original training squadron was changed to train ground crews to maintain the BUFF. This gave Castle the nickname of Stratofortress College. The BUFFs came in numerous models, so when the D-models started rolling off the Boeing assembly line in 1956, Castle had some assigned. E models arrived in 1957, F-models in 1958, and the early B-models served at Castle until 1965 when they were retired. G-models first arrived from other wings in 1966, and H-models arrived from other assignments in 1974. Over the years, Castle had some of nearly every BUFF model deployed, save for the experimental A-model and the C-model!
Since Castle has a prominent history in the BUFF world, it is only natural that they entered themselves into the record books as well. Just over a year following the first B-models’ assignment at Castle under Operation QUICK KICK, four Castle B-models and four Loring AFB C-models joined forces to non-stop fly the perimeter of the North American continent, a 13,500 mile flight with in-flight refueling. The most impressive feat Castle BUFFs completed was a five-jet 1957 nonstop global circumnavigation lasting 24,235 miles in just over 45 hours, including five aerial refuelings per jet—the 1949 B-50 flight to do the same thing took more than twice as long to complete. One B-52B from the record flight was called Lucky Lady III—lucky indeed! The record stood for nearly three decades until 1986 when an ultralight civilian aircraft did the same feat, unrefueled.
Castle remained a training powerhouse and combat wing until the fall of the Soviet Union, and the dissolution of SAC in 1992. As SAC inactivated, Air Combat Command assumed control, but not for long; the base was deactivated in 1995.
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To find this cache, calculate the coordinates from the information in this listing.
N 48° AB.CDE W 101° FG.HIJ
A= Year Merced Army Air Field was renamed for General Castle XXXN, A=(N-4)
B= Year General Castle was killed in action, XXXN B=(N-4)
C= Year B-47 Stratojet first arrived at Castle, XXXN C=(N-0)
D= Year first B-52Bs arrived, XXNX, D=(N+2)
E= Year final B-52Bs were retired, XXNX, E=(N-2)
F= Year B-52Hs first arrived at Castle, XXXN, F=(N-3)
G= Total miles circumnavigating North America under Operation QUICK KICK, XX,NXX miles, G=(N+3)
H= Total miles circumnavigating the planet in 1957, XN,XXX miles, N, H=(Nx1)
I= Total aerial refuelings required to complete global circumnavigation in 1957, (number only), I=(N+2)
J=Year SAC deactivated and Air Combat Command assumed control of Castle, XXNX, J=(N-0)
http://www.strategic-air-command.com/wings/0093bw.htm
http://www.strategic-air-command.com/bases/Castle_AFB.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Air_Force_Base
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Walker_Castle
Dorr, R. & Peacock, L. (1995). Boeing’s Cold War Warrior: B-52 Stratofortress. London, UK; Osprey Aerospace.
https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Inside-DOD/Blog/Article/2091499/the-air-force-made-the-1st-nonstop-round-the-world-flight/