Know your Andersen history: Linebacker II Published Dec. 3, 2007 By Dr. John Treiber 36th Wing Historian ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Football fans know that linebackers are large men who make up the second line of defense. Despite their size, linebackers are quick and agile, qualities necessary for seeking out and tackling running backs, blocking and covering receivers, or if possible, disrupting the offense's backfield before the play can even get started. Linebackers, then, make or break the defense and woe to the ball carrier who receives the linebacker's crushing blow. It was apt, then, that in 1972 planners seeking a way out of the Vietnam War named two operations after such a formidable figure. They also knew that then-President Richard Nixon was a tremendous football fan and would understand the allusion. It should be pointed out that Linebackers I and II were simultaneously offensive and defensive; i.e., US forces attacked the North to defend the South. Therefore, the name likely arose as much from the linebacker's defensive nature as his power and ability to make key plays. The original Operation Linebacker was first dubbed "Freedom Train," launched starting in early April 1972 in response to the so-called Easter Offensive when the North Vietnamese Army invaded South Vietnam. At that time fourteen divisions, made up of more than 125,000 NVA troops that were supported by hundreds of tanks and artillery, poured across the DMZ and the Laotian and Cambodian borders into South Vietnam. In many instances the attackers overwhelmed South Vietnamese forces, successfully taking a provincial capital and much of the territory near the DMZ. It was the largest military invasion anywhere since the Korean War, dispelling once and for all the black pajama-clad NVA "freedom fighter" myth. On May 10 Freedom Train was renamed "Linebacker," and for the next few months Navy, Marine, and Air Force aircraft (along with the South Vietnamese Air Force) sustained a campaign into North Vietnam that ultimately forced a retreat of NVA troops from the captured territory. The Americans did not, however, bomb targets at the capital of Hanoi or the major port city Haiphong. Those would have to wait until Linebacker II got underway. Linebacker I was successful, and by early October the threat to South Vietnam had subsided. On October 23, as a sign of goodwill, the Americans ceased attacks beyond the 20th parallel in hopes that North Vietnam would finally negotiate seriously. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger even stated that "Peace is at hand." Unfortunately, the Americans misread the North Vietnamese completely. North Vietnam stalled while waiting for the new American Congress to take office. Congress, you see, was poised to simply end the war by cutting off funding, and North Vietnam understood this. The Nixon Administration, realizing that its time was limited and the enemy was not acting in good faith, was forced to resume bombing in a new operation called Linebacker II. It would be a defining moment for Andersen AFB. From December 18 to 29, with Christmas Day as the only break, B-52s out of U-Tapao, Thailand and Andersen proceeded to obliterate all remaining North Vietnamese military targets. America, quite simply, had had enough with North Vietnam. Most impressive, one might argue, was that the operation actually came together as planned. It is difficult to imagine now, but unlike the Thailand-based bombers with their direct four-hour flights to targets, Guam's B-52s took off weighing a maximum 452,000 pounds and then flew a circuitous 3,000-4,000 miles over open water toward Southeast Asia. Next they cut directly into North Vietnamese airspace, one of the most heavily defended locations in the world at the time. The longest round-trip flights of the campaign were 8,200 miles and more than eighteen hours long. Worse, despite flying at tremendous heights, the B-52s were in range of North Vietnam's plentiful Surface to Air Missiles, which ultimately downed fifteen of our bombers during the campaign - a 2 percent loss rate. The most arduous night was December 20 -- the third night of Linebacker II operations -- when North Vietnam launched more than 220 SAMs that knocked six B-52s out of the sky. Apart from pilots the other crewmen in the B-52Gs had only their instrument panels as a view for the droningly long flights. We can scarcely imagine the contrast between levels of boredom and terror experienced on each flight. While there is not enough space for every detail, statistics from Linebacker II are sobering. At the operation's peak there were 155 B-52s on Andersen's flightline, and it is said that it took five miles of ramp space to park them all. Overall, there had never been such a large concentration of combat-ready B-52s at any time or any place. Consequently, Andersen's population swelled to at least 12,000, with some sources claiming 15,000. Airmen were crammed into every possible nook and cranny at Andersen, including a tent city affectionately called "Canvas Courts" and a non-air conditioned temporary barracks facility known as "Tin City" where living conditions were generally miserable. The barracks at Andy South were utilized, and naturally all off-base hotel space was filled to capacity. Because of the losses sustained on day three, Andersen B-52s did not fly missions every day of the campaign, nor was every mission of equal magnitude. Nevertheless, Andersen was responsible for 55 percent of the total sorties, no mean feat considering the distance and logistics involved. Overall, B-52s from both bases dropped 15,000 tons of bombs on 34 types of targets, destroying or damaging 1,600 military structures, and eliminating an estimated 25% of North Vietnam's petroleum reserves and 80 percent of its electricity producing capacity. In short, the Air Force meant business. In the wake of Linebacker II, imports at the main harbor of Haiphong dropped precipitously from 160,000 tons per month to 30,000. In a futile attempt to stop the American onslaught the North Vietnamese launched somewhere between 884 and 1,242 SAMs. Clearly a lot went on in the eleven days of Operation Linebacker II. From a logistical perspective it is surprising that everything came together so well, whether in terms of food production, housing, transportation, maintenance and everything in-between. Incredible as it may seem, there were 5,000 maintainers deployed to Andersen for Linebacker II. On the operations side, B-52s out of Guam required multiple precisely timed in-flight refuelings by KC-135s which flew over 1,300 sorties out of Thailand and Okinawa, making the tankers, along with maintenance crews, the unsung heroes of the campaign. It also helped that Navy and Air Force fighters and electronic warfare aircraft participated by dropping chaff, jamming radar, and attacking SAM sites, while Navy ships tracked SAMs and stood by to rescue downed pilots (as did HC-130s and HH-53s). Finally, Air Force SR-71s provided invaluable reconnaissance data. The operation was a total force effort. Linebacker II is considered a great success by many -- proof that intensive, strategic bombing can and did bring about desired results. In this case the eleven days of sustained destruction brought North Vietnam to the negotiating table (and, as some have argued, to its knees) once and for all. Equally important, the victory allowed America to pull out of Vietnam with some dignity intact. It also led to the release of our POWs held in the Hanoi Hilton and elsewhere. Overall, despite some strategic missteps and the tragic loss of fifteen B-52s, the operation was executed as planned. The efforts of the U.S. Air Force, and Andersen, had changed the course of the war. Those interested in learning more about Linebacker II are encouraged to attend the annual memorial ceremony marking the 35th anniversary of the campaign, and to read the Air Force's official day-by-day account of the operation entitled Linebacker II: A View from the Rock, available at the base library, or on line as a PDF file at the following Air Force web site: https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil.