How long were B-52 missions from Guam to Vietnam?

Short answer

Between 12 and 14 hours: from Andersen AFB, on Guam, it was 2,600 miles to Saigon, and the round-trip mission took 12 to 14 hours. The B-52s were first used in Southeast Asia on June 18, 1965, when 27 aircraft bombed a Viet Cong stronghold.

Published: November 1, 2026 · Updated: November 1, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

How long were B-52 missions from Guam to Vietnam?

A B-52 Stratofortress flies near the North Pole

2,600 miles and 12 to 14 hours

From Andersen AFB, on Guam, it was 2,600 miles to Saigon, and the round-trip mission took between 12 and 14 hours. The bombers were first used in Southeast Asia on 18 June 1965, when 27 aircraft that took off from Andersen dropped 750-pound (340 kg) and 1,000-pound (455 kg) bombs on a Viet Cong stronghold. That first Arc Light sortie was flown by B-52F crews rotating in from Carswell AFB (Texas) and Mather AFB (California).

In-flight refuelling, part of the profile

The sortie included an in-flight refuelling before the attack with KC-135A tankers. On that first mission the B-52s reached the refuelling area seven minutes ahead of schedule, pushed by the tailwinds of a typhoon. While waiting for the KC-135As, the first aircraft to arrive flew a circular holding pattern and collided with another that had just joined. It was 19 June, over the sea, about 250 miles (400 km) off the coast at the latitude of the Demilitarized Zone, and two B-52Fs were lost in the collision.

A pattern that would repeat

Everything went wrong on that first mission. There were numerous last-minute changes, a complication that would become familiar in the following years. The other B-52s completed the attack, but the intended target, a Viet Cong battalion, was no longer there when the bombing began.