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- "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog" -

          Named after Elvis Presley's famous song, truly "there ain't nothin' like a Hound Dog!" An air-to-ground attack weapon, the Hound Dog was the precursor of today's well-known "cruise missile." The Hound Dog had a range of over 700 miles, carried internally a megaton class W28 warhead, and, most remarkably, during takeoff could fire its jet engine to assist a B-52 in lifting its heavy load.

          One of my first tasks as a 463 was applying prodigious amounts of lead tape and aluminum foil to the Hound Dog's fuzing unit to make it impervious to EMP. Later, I worked double-shifts to "redeploy" the obsolete Hound Dog on already-slated-to be-retired worn out "high-tail" D-model B-52's, all so that the combination could then be withdrawn from service under agreements made with the USSR in the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks. I've always assumed they did the same thing, of course, throw away old weapons they no longer wanted as part of the public face of "making the world safe from nuclear war."

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