Pilot's Eye Patches for Nuclear Weapons #aviation

F-4 pilot John Barry describes how eye patches would be used to protect airmen in case of a nuclear explosion.

Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum:

[richardpowell]

Also whenever they scrambled nuclear bombers they never told them if it was real or just a drill. So every time they had to think "this is it

[robster]

Imagine having that on your resume.

“Certified to carry nuclear weapons”

[nobodyspecial]

In the 1960s in Europe, my mom found the eyepatch in my dad’s flight suit and he had to sit her down on the bed and get real serious and tell her what it was all about because he was standing alert several days a week

[badguy]

The B-52 crews, in a nuclear combat strike, would pull down the window shades in the cockpit that would seal off the cockpit and crew from any bright light coming in from an explosion. If, for any reason they had to lift the curtain or "peek" around it, they would have to wear the eye patch in the event a nuclear bomb went off while they were looking out.

[donmitchell]

The glass in your your auto-darkening welding helmet was originally designed to shield the eyes of nuclear bomber pilots.

[gsmdo]

RAF Buccaneer pilots and navs had eyepatches for this reason. Fitted in quite well with the name of the aircraft...

[smoketinytom]

Kinda reminds me of the warning the RAF Vulcan pilots gave their families. If you saw them taking off in, get in the car and go to Scotland.

[VioletNights]

I love how we've come full circle from pirates to sky pirates with nukes.

[incomingincoming]

Castle Bravo explosion blinded men through closed eyelids, and some ppl recall seeing the bones through their hands.

[davidcantwell]

Never heard about the patches, but I did know about the curtains in a B-52.

[landrum]

Former US Navy here 86-92. Our pilots and BNs also had eye patches in case the enemy used laser dazzlers. The exposed eye would be injured and blinded but the protected eye would allow them to finish the mission and get home.

[jeffhartwig]

Living in The Netherlands, back in the 60's, my papa served in the Dutch Air Force part of NATO, he calculated wind patterns for best effects of dropped nukes. He finally told me this when he was around 75 years old, he said he hated that job. Miss you Pap rip.

[bikerdude]

Maybe this is true in the fighters, but the bomber pilots wore the eye patches so that when they drew the flash curtains as they entered the combat zone they didn't have to wait for their eyes to adjust to the dark to see their instruments. Actually, the same reason pirates wore them on occasion, too, so they could have their night vision ready for fighting in the dark ship holds after boarding a ship.

Source: I've watched several of the actual SAC training videos that directly address this. ie. Straight from the horses mouth.

[shlless]

eye patches work for any profession you enter from light to dark areas. like on a ship like pirates had since no indoor lighting. went from on the deck to darkness inside. eye patch will help.

[billcarson]

That’s some “thankfully the gods blessed me with another” warrior shit right there.

[Raven.flight]

Another thing that people don't know, is that pilots certified to carry nuclear weapons would not say 'sir' to their commanding officer, they would say "Arrr"

[timothyreed]

F-4 pilots were stationed in Germany. They wouldn't have enough fuel to make it back after dropping nukes and were expected to eject over the Arctic waters. The hope was nuclear war hadn't gotten too bad, too quickly, to be able to retrieve these pilots via different navy vessels or helicopter. With the water being as cold as it was, it would have been a suicide mission with single digit odds of being rescued and the pilots knew if they were ever deployed that they weren't coming home. My grandfather, who had this job, said it was more or less something that you would volunteer for, but if they didn't have enough pilots, they would order some to do the job. They didn't have to order any of them to be ready and willing to do whatever was necessary. They also had a pretty comfortable life while waiting for the order to go die. He hated what they had him doing in Vietnam, dropping napalm on villages full of women and children, but he still took on the responsibility to go die for his country if necessary.

[dananderson]

Everytime we had to check the catalytic filter on the B52, environmental had to come out and make sure no radiation was leaking from it... Because you never knew what that plane has done or flown through. That extra step was actually in our tech data. (For those that don't know, air conditioning is taped from the engine exhaust.. The filter removes all smells, radioactive particles and everything else filters are supposed to filter out.)

[jumpercable]

When you live in Australia and you hear some one greet you with Good Eye.

[JordanWeber]

Thats it, Im tinting my fighter jet windows.