It was like an opposing team going to the north end zone in the 4th quarter of a night game. Effing loud.
If you are ever in the Black Hills the South Dakota Air and Space Museum by Rapid City is really neat. Huge number of planes of all varieties. It sits adjacent to Ellsworth, and many of the jets were delivered via the base, then rolled down to the museum. We saw several go off that day. As part of the museum you could sign up for a tour of the base. We had to give up our driver's license about an hour before the bus ride onto the base. When we arrived to the security checkpoint I saw a Mustang with personalized Iowa plates. This Sgt with a no fu**ing around look to him gets on, and asks for two people. They get off the bus, and never got back on. The Sgt comes back on the bus and starts walking down the aisle handing back the IDs, looking each person in the eyes while holding up their ID. I'm the very last person on the bus and he looks at me, I see his firearm on his hip, he says, "Mr. Lucas"? I affirm, and he says, "Go Hawks", and walks back the aisle and off the bus.
Our bus guide was a retired Sgt, and he emphatically told us no pictures on the base unless he approved them, and no pictures of the jets. Nothing we could take would be along a sightline towards the runway. Underground in the missile silo was fine. He laughed a little and told us of course the Russians and Chinese took pictures, but we couldn't. We hadn't been on the base more than a few minutes when we heard a roar and the guide turns around while driving and screams, "NO PICTURES"!!! We watched it roar down the runway and off to the east. 2 more took off while we were on the tour.
The next day we went to the Crazy Horse museum and I was inside watching a movie when I thought I heard thunder. Then I heard more and more, and it kept getting louder. Several of us walked out to see what was going on, and it was a flight of 3 B-1s flying down the valley. Our guide the previous day had told us there are 3 principle flight paths from Ellsworth to their main training grounds over Wyoming, Nebraska. They practice hugging the terrain through those valleys and over the plains to mimic flying under radar coverage.
It was really cool. Super loud.
