An 18 year old sitting in his gunner coffin, Marlboro Red freshly lit and itching for some action..
🇺🇸 The B-52 bomber sitting by the front gate of the Air Force Academy has a confirmed MiG-21 kill.
Christmas Eve, 1972. North Vietnam. Operation Linebacker II was underway.
Riding in the tail of a B-52D nicknamed Diamond Lil was 18 year old Airman Albert Moore. His job was tail gunner and he manned four .50-caliber machine guns.
He spotted the blip on his radar. A North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighter was closing in from behind, climbing rapidly.
Moore tracked the interceptor on his radar scope, waited until the jet was within 2,000 yards, and held down the triggers.
Seconds later, the crew of a trailing B-52 confirmed it over the radio: the MiG was engulfed in a fireball and falling from the sky. Over 800 rounds went downrange.
In the entire history of aviation, a B-52 bomber has shot down an enemy fighter jet exactly twice. Albert Moore became the last aerial tail gunner in American military history to score a kill in combat.
Today, cars drive past that exact plane at the north entrance of the Air Force Academy in Colorado, completely unaware the gate guard is a certified MiG killer.