Hey Jack,
After our discussion about Gen. Stewart and the B-58 and B-52 missions
in Vietnam, I dug around for a coupla days on the web to see what I
could come up with. I found at least 4, what I would call "core-sites" or
"archival posts",that stated Stewart had "flown" the '52 and '58 in 'Nam....and bunches of statements that "spider-webbed" from those.
One of the "cores" was Aerofiles, of all things! Not that I find Aerofiles an
impeccable source, but one would think that with all their "site-hits"
as a quick reference guide...that they would have edited that misinfo rather easily! If I was really curious I guess I could find out who the originator was...but I'd rather spend the time sending some E-mails trying to rectify these errors within the "core-sites". As far as I will venture into
speculation is that it is all a result of poor grammar, punctuation and
Jimmy Stewart "lore". There also are photos or photo renditions
of a '58 in camo... more grist for the mill...
One site was maintained by a veteran Air Police, stationed at Ubon, Thailand. He stated that among other listed craft that he protected, one
of them was the B-58. He did have a fascinating account of "sapper" incursions into the Ubon perimeter, with photos...but no '58 photos!
In another occasion there was a POW-siting report, where townspeople
identified the POW's bomber from an aircraft recognition book...as a B-58!
I was starting to think the B-58 was the greatest "stealth bird" ever!
All these '58 sitings in "Nam, but never a photo! ( Not really, I smelled a
rat) The Hustler could never carry a worthwhile bombload and in the early days the Smart/Weps just weren't there yet....but I did entertain the possibility that they may have filled in or tested as an EW bird because of it's advanced electronics(for the period).
So I e-mailed Lt. Col. BJ Brown(ret) this afternoon, former B-58 jock(among other things!), he graciously replied this evening that there were
NO B-58's that sortied in Vietnam! He has a Hustler website with most of the other Hustler sites linked off of it...Hustlers Hangar
http://home.centurytel.net/Hustler1/
Col. Brown stated in the mail that.... [ Jimmy Stewart and a LOT of
dignateries showed up at Carswell to get their 'dollar ride' in the Hustler.
They all wanted that Mach 2 pin. Everyone but LeMay. ]
I'm probably stating the obvious to you guys, but it wasn't to me.