The American crews also were prone to mistakes.

"The B-52s’ multiple jammers were almost all controlled manually, and each of the jammers had three knobs, so the skill of the EW [electronic warfare officer] in manipulating these controls was absolutely vital. Ken Nocito, a G model EW flying the first night, remembered: ‘There were too many knobs to turn. If you have all the time in the world, it is easy to select the correct knob and casually tune the system to cover the radar. But when someone is shooting at you, time is of the essence and there is tremendous pressure. It was not a good feeling to reach up, turn a knob and find out it was the wrong one. It could be a terminal mistake if it happened at the wrong time’"