In the file "crew picture" The guy in the leather flight jacket and the one in uniform is Sgt. James Howard Fults, the gunner instructor. He was on board to give the student gunner, A/1C Gaskey a certification check. Hobbs, the gunner assigned to this crew was off flight duty due to illness. On 30 March, 1961, B-52G SN# 59-2576, call sign Judy 24, accomplished an on time take-off at 6:05 p.m. from Dow AFB, Bangor, Maine. The sortie was an intra Air Force radar scored bombing competition. Judy 24 completed a high altitude bomb run over New York state and turned back south for the air refueling scheduled over central North Carolina, at 31,000 feet, with a KC-135 Tanker based at Seymour-Johnson AFB. After the B-52 was in position behind the tanker and began to close the distance between the two aircraft something went terribly wrong and the pilot lost control of the gaint bomber. A bail-out order was issued but of the 5 who ejected only two survived. The casualties were:

Capt. WILLIAM D. McMULLEN, 36, commander/pilot, Bad Axe, Mich.

Capt. WILLIAM W. FARMER, 29, co-pilot, Wilson, N.C.

Capt. ROBERT M. MORGENROTH, 31, radar navigator, Christiana, Penn.

Capt. GEORGE W. BEALE, 34, competition observer, Bowling Green, Virginia.

Sgt. JAMES H. FULTS, 29, instructor gunner, Tracy City, Tenn.

Airman First Class ROBERT N. GASKEY, 28, Providence, R.I.

The survivors were:

Major WILBUR F. MINNICH, 40, Des Plaines, Illinois.

First Lt. GLEN C. FARNHAM, 25, electronics warfare officer, Loveland, Texas.

The survivors bailed out at 50,000 feet and landed six to seven miles away from the crash site. Major MINNICH, the navigator, suffered a dislocated arm when he bailed out. Lt. FARNHAM complained of back pains but was apparently unhurt.

The two stated that the plane, an eight-engined jet, was on a routine mission from Dow Air Force Base in Maine. Its destination was not revealed.

Minutes before the explosion the plane had attempted to make contact with a KC-135 jet tanker to be refuled in flight.