National Affairs: Sweeney's Bombers

When trim, black-browed Major General Walter Campbell Sweeney Jr., 44, led his flight of three B-47 Stratojet bombers up from Southern California's March Air Force Base one day last week, many airmen on the field scarcely bothered to watch. But in "Cam" Sweeney's 15th Air Force headquarters, top officers were already settling themselves down to a long watch over his radio traffic.

Fifteen hours later they heard the end of the story. Sweeney's bombers, after two air refuelings over the Pacific, had landed in Japan and set a point-to-point jet flight record of 6,700 miles—more than the round-trip distance from some Strategic...

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