Were bombers in the air over Dallas Nov 22, 1963?

[Myra Bronstein]

Myra: No there were no bombers on any matters pertaining to JFK going to bomb Dallas if the abort team was successful. I think I know where this story came from. Following is background:

Carswell Air Force Base is located in Fort Worth and sometimes the approach to that SAC base was over and near Dallas Love Field. (Dallas was sometimes used as a bombing training run for SAC B-36 and later the B-47 Strato Fortress out of Carswell) and you could see them circling high overhead as they made there practice bomb runs.

In 1963 the B-47 and the fairly new B-52 used the 'Oil Burner' route over Dallas on their training Bombing runs. One day in November, two days before the Dallas affair, one of the B-47's had an emergency (fire in the Bomb Bay) and requested to land at Dallas Love Field. One problem, it had an atomic bomb on board. The aircraft flew low over and around Dallas for over three hours to burn off fuel and put out the fire, before it was cleared to continue to Fort Worth. The aircraft was routed north from the metro city of Dallas and made its approach to Carswell from the N/E which was north of Metro Fort Worth.

Some people in Dallas remembered that event and quickly read it into the JFK assassination. It was many years after the JFK that the pilot Col. Joe Walker and co-pilot Capt Jess Murphy told an inquiry at Carswell about the emergency fire over Dallas, which had happen two days before the assassination. From there the rumors started.

Thanks Tosh. Interesting episode and timing. I wonder how often an emergency of that nature occurs.