A glimpse of the past: Minot hosts 69th BS tail gunner family

Published Sept. 26, 2013
By Senior Airman Stephanie Sauberan
Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- The wife and son of former B-52G Stratofortress tail gunner, Lee Persing, experienced a unique opportunity, Sept. 18 - 20, when they visited up close the aircraft that left such a profound impression in the life of Lee.

Lee was a tail gunner who served with the 69th Bomb Squadron in the late 1980s, at Loring AFB, Maine. During his service, Lee's received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his support during a bombing mission on the first night that B-52's flew into Iraq, during the Gulf War. In 1992, Lee had to find another career after the Air Force did away with B-52 gunners due to improvements in long-range air combat weapons such as air-to-air missiles, which made such defenses on the B-52 obsolete.

Wanting to remain a part of the flying world, Lee cross-trained to become a Flight Engineer on the HH-53 Pave Low Helicopter.

However, Lee's dream of flying was destroyed when a drunk driver crashed into him, while he was driving outside Kirtland AFB, N.M. His back was shattered, leaving him hospitalized for weeks.

"He had a back implant put in, but he still couldn't handle the gyration of the helicopter," Robbin said.

Despite his injuries, Lee still wanted to serve. He became a member of Air Force Space Command, working missile defense and satellite tracking.

After 19 years in the Air Force, Lee medically retired in 2005, when he began to develop the beginning stages of Lou Gehrig's disease. After a difficult seven-year battle with the disease, Lee passed away in March 2012.

Staff Sgt. Harley Houser, 54th Helicopter Squadron noncommissioned officer in charge of training, made contact with Robbin through Scott Maloney, a retired Air Force Master Sergeant, former 69th BS B-52G tail gunner and mutual friend. Maloney discussed with the Houser the idea of having Lee's family visit the reactivated 69th BS that had meant so much to Lee. The visit would enable the family to see the B-52 up close. Lee's son, Brennan, had never had a close up view of the airframe his father had flown in.

Despite years and often generations, the Air Force community remains tight knit, said Houser. Airmen share a sense of camaraderie that transcends time.

"Airmen who are enlisted aircrew make up a small community and helping each other is a big deal," Houser said.

After more than a year of planning, and with the help of approximately 35 individuals, including commanders and family friends, the tour for the Persing family became a reality.

Brennan traveled two days with his mother, and more than 1,600 miles from Alabama to Minot, to learn more about the plane his father had flown in and loved for such a large part of his life. Robbin was eager for her son to see the reactivated 69th BS.

As part of their tour of Minot AFB, the Persing family was able to not only see the exterior of the 60-year-old aircraft, but also go inside and see a piece of history that will remain active for years to come.

Over its 60 years of service, the mission of the B-52 has undergone a transformation from a heavy focus of long range conventional bombing with tail gunner support, to becoming an integral part of the United States' mission of nuclear deterrence, as a leg of the nuclear triad.

Brennan grinned from ear-to-ear as he recounted his favorite things about the B-52, stating that he was one of very few children who would ever get to be inside of one.

"It was really cool to sit in the pilot seat," Brennan said excitedly. "I couldn't even see out of the windows, and when we walked under the plane everyone had to duck except me."

For Robbin, seeing her son in the electronic warfare officer's seat, which is located next to the section of the B-52 where Lee would have worked as a tail gunner, was an experience that she described as haunting. Nevertheless, she stated that the eeriness of the scene was a positive one and brought back happy memories of her time with Lee, as well as of her father who also served in the Air Force.

"The Air Force has changed a lot since Lee was in," Robbin said. "I think that things always evolve, and the changes I have seen over the years have been good ones."