B-52 Aerial Defense Gunner

Operated the tail-mounted defensive guns on the B-52 from a remote station — the last defensive gunners on any US bomber.

The Story

MSgt Tom Lindsey flew the last operational sortie as a B-52 tail gunner on 1 October 1991. CMSgt Rob Wellbaum — who joined in 1987 as an 111X0 — was the last B-52 gunner in uniform. He retired in May 2017. The very last tail gunner walked off the line within living memory.