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An Operation Bolo hero honored with a new bridge over Pensacola Bay

by Till Daisd December 24, 2021

In Southeast Asia,
Gen. Chappie James served as deputy commander for operations and later vice wing commander of the 8th TFW. Along with Robin Olds, James formed a strong leadership and combat team, inevitably dubbed “Black Man and Robin.”

The Gen. Daniel Chappie James Memorial Bridge is the name of the new Pensacola Bay bridge, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

The campaign to rename the bridge in honor of the illustrious U.S. Air Force (USAF) general was led by former congressional candidate Cris Dosev, who presented the idea to the Escambia County legislative delegation in December 2019 at a local public hearing ahead of the legislative session.

The idea was well received by local legislators, and Sen. Doug Broxson proposed that Dosev schedule a meeting with his office.

James was the first African American four-star general in the U.S. Air Force. James was appointed as the Commander in Chief of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) on September 1, 1975, a position he held until his retirement on February 1, 1978. In 24 days, he passed away.

James, a veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Southeast Asia War, described his feelings on his experience as an American serviceman as follows: “I’ve fought in three wars and three more wouldn’t be too many to defend my country. I love America and as she has weaknesses or ills, I’ll hold her hand.”

His son, Claude James, stated that the family was in favor of renaming the bridge in the general’s honor.

“It’s a perfect acknowledgment of one America’s greatest leaders and defenders who never forgot where he came from,” the son said. “And throughout his history-making career, he gave credit to his mother’s little school on Alcaniz Street that prepared him to succeed in and love and defend his country.”

Dosev, a former pilot with the United States Marine Corps, claimed that he had always admired James.

“Everyone is talking about the fact that we no longer have heroes to emulate,” Dosev said. “Well, we do. We do, and that hero is Gen. Chappie James. And I think that the community in a large part has forgotten who this man was, and what he did, and that’s sad.”

New Pensacola Bay bridge could be named after Operation Bolo Hero Gen. Daniel Chappie James — *General Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. in front of his McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom in Thailand during the Vietnam War.*

“A statue of James will be erected in the new park near the bridge landing on the Pensacola side,” Dosev added, in addition to renaming the bridge in the general’s honor. Dosev intended to place a static display of an F-4 Phantom II fighter jet behind the statue.

During Operation Bolo in the Vietnam War, James piloted an F-4.

He served in Southeast Asia as the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing’s vice wing commander and deputy commander for operations when he met Robin Olds, an ace pilot, and wing commander, whom he had already known during his time at the Pentagon. The two guys inevitably earned the nickname “Black Man and Robin” for their effective leadership and combat abilities.

Perhaps the pinnacle of their professional collaboration was Operation Bolo. It was an aerial trap designed by Olds for adversary MiGs that had been hitting heavily laden F-105 fighter bombers flying to their targets while dodging US fighter escorts.

Beginning the operation in January 1967 was a force of F-4 fighters posing as an F-105 flight. The F-4s made use of F-105 refueling altitudes, approach routes, airspeeds, radio call signs, and more distinctive indicators. According to Aces and Aerial Victories, the official history of the USAF in Southeast Asia, the F-4s were also given ECM pods for the first time to deceive the enemy’s missile and flak tracking and acquisition radars.

This deception force had four F-4C aircraft per flight. At 3:00 p.m. local time, Olds piloted the first flight and arrived right on target over Phuc Yen, northwest of Hanoi. No MiGs.

Unbeknownst to Olds, enemy ground control had forced a 15-minute delay in MiG takeoffs owing to cloudy conditions.

Then James led Ford Flight, the second group of F-4s. It emerged from the clouds five minutes after Olds, on schedule. The MiGs emerged at that same moment. The subsequent melee may have been the biggest fighter engagement of the Vietnam War.

Three MiGs attacked James’ flight right away. One came from the 6 o’clock low and two from the 10 o’clock high. James unexpectedly found himself flying very next to his opponent as he transitioned from a steep right break to a left bank, in what he subsequently described as a “strange encounter.”

“For a split second, [he] was canopy-to-canopy with me. I could clearly see the pilot and the bright red star markings,” James said in an after-action report. James barrel-rolled to gain separation for attack and fired one Sidewinder. It missed as the MiG broke hard left. But the North Vietnamese pilot had evaded James only to put himself in the flight path of Ford Flight’s No. 2 aircraft, flown by Capt. Everett T. Raspberry Jr. A few more maneuvers, and Raspberry put a Sidewinder up the MiG’s tailpipe.

By the time it ended, 12 F-4s had engaged 14 MiGs, winning seven confirmed battles without losing any.

One of the Vision Pensacola organizers, Pensacola urban planner Alan Gray, supported the idea and created renderings of what the memorial at the base of the Bay Bridge would look like. Alan Gray also submitted the winning design for the new bridge.

The bridge already had a name under Florida law, the Philip D. Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge, thus, it presented one of the remaining obstacles to designating it after James.

After being chosen as the Senate’s president in 1943, Pensacola state senator Beall passed away while still in office. Kirke Beall, his grandson, has fought to maintain the name on the bridge.

Beall did not object, nevertheless, to the bridge sharing a name.

“As long as it’s a good person and they are deserving of it, I am glad to have my grandfather’s name next to it,” Beall said.

“My motivation is to promote Gen. Chappie James,” Dosev said. That’s my motivation… I don’t want the memory of Chappie James to be forgotten.”

Photo by Pensacola News Journal and U.S. Air Force

December 24, 2021 0 comment

History

Mike Adams, the only Pilot who died during the X-15 Flight-Test Program

by Till Daisd December 20, 2021

written by Till Daisd

At a height of around 62,000 feet and a speed of roughly 3,800 feet per second, the X-15-3 aircraft broke up because the weights on it increased above their structural limits

A well-known and important figure in aviation history is the X-15. Its goal was to fly quickly and high, testing the aircraft and putting the pilots through challenges that might later face astronauts. In addition to being the first piloted aircraft in the world to reach hypersonic speeds, or more than five times the speed of sound, it made the first manned flights to the farthest reaches of space. In the 1960s, the X-15 was a crucial tool in the development of spaceflight, and X-15 pilots who flew at altitudes greater than 50 miles were awarded astronaut wings.

In total, 199 flights were made by the three X-15 aircraft between 1959 and 1968. It was a collaborative project between the US Air Force, US Navy, and US NASA.

Almost every X-15 flight experienced some sort of technical issue or malfunction; occasionally, there were many issues on a single flight. It is remarkable that during the 199 flights of the whole X-15 program, just one pilot, Mike Adams, perished.

Mike Adams was the twelfth (and last) pilot in the X-15 program, according to John Anderson and Richard Passman’s book X-15 The World’s Fastest Rocket Plane and the Pilots who Ushered in the Space Age.

The Story of Mike Adams, the only Pilot to lose his life during the X-15 Flight-Test Program

Michael Adams, a veteran pilot with six prior X-15 flights, boarded the machine on November 15, 1967, for a mission intended to test a guidance display and carry out several experiments. He had practiced the specifics of this flight in the simulator for more than 21 hours. He descended to 45,000 feet at about 10 a.m. as usual and then climbed to 266,000 feet. After takeoff, an electrical disturbance caused the MH-96 dampers to trip out as the plane rose to a higher altitude.

The dampers were reset by Adams. To more precisely manage the experiments, he then changed the sideslip indicator’s mode to a vernier attitude control mode. In order to see his sideslip during the approach to landing, he intended to reset this back to indicate the yaw angle when returning to base. However, he was unable to see the airplane yawing at a crucial point in the flight as a result of this equipment shift.

After burnout, he experimented with wing-rocking while soaring, and as he neared his max altitude of 266,000 feet, the rocking became extreme. His instrument was accidentally adjusted to show pitch attitude rather than yaw, thus he was unaware that his yaw had drifted to 15 degrees. The aircraft began to yaw violently around 15 seconds later, and Adams informed Pete Knight that “the airplane seems squirrelly.”

He soon after claimed that he was spinning and experiencing strong accelerations. The ground crew was unable to provide assistance since they were mostly unaware of the airplane’s hypersonic spin characteristics. When Adams recovered, he was yawed 90 degrees, flying upside down, and descending at supersonic speed, according to the ground data that was later correlated with the flight data.

The Minneapolis-Honeywell adaptive flight control system (MH-96), which is on and locked in, causes the aircraft to oscillate between its limits, up and down, preventing Adams from correcting his attitude and flying his way home. Adams pulled out of the spin, and he probably would have had a successful landing, but for the fact that the MH-96 was on and locked in. The X-15-3 aircraft broke up at a height of around 62,000 feet and a speed of roughly 3,800 feet per second because the weights on the aircraft increased above their structural limits. In close proximity to Johannesburg, California, it struck the desert floor. There was talk about Adams having slight vertigo; this may have prevented him from seeing the yaw buildup or from resetting the yaw indicator to the yaw setting.

Adams’s death shows the dangers of flight testing a new aircraft in previously untested regions of flight, and of flying experiments in which certain research-data measuring instruments may have caused an electrical disturbance that affected the MH-96 from operating at its top quality and in conditions it was not designed for. All of these factors could have had an impact on the disaster.

Because his flight was above 50 miles high, Adams was posthumously awarded an astronaut rating. Despite being the only accident in 199 flights, the tragedy was a setback for the X-15 program. The disaster had a significant role in the decision to end the X-15 program because the goals for the aircraft had been met. Only seven more flights were scheduled after that.

Photo by NASA

December 20, 2021 0 comment

History

Why the Intruder was the ideal CAS aircraft according to ex USMC A-6 pilot

by Till Daisd December 12, 2021

written by Till Daisd

“During Operation Desert Storm the B-52s heavily involved in CAS missions flew ten-hour missions from Diego Garcia. None had the external racks they used in Vietnam. They carried only 56 500-lb bombs. Two A-6s did more damage than a B-52” Capt Tom Uryga, former USMC A-6 pilot

During the Vietnam War, the Grumman A-6 Intruder served as the “Main Battery” of carrier aviation, and it was still in use by the US Navy and US Marine Corps (USMC) in 1996. The A-6 was still the most effective USMC strike aircraft during Operation Desert Storm (ODS) in 1991 because it was a true all-weather, day/night precision bomber.

Capt. Tom Uryga joined the VMA(AW)-224 “Bengals” in the early spring of 1990. He was an Eastern Washington University graduate. Uryga participated in the early ODS strikes as one of the USMC A-6 pilots;

`In the first part of the Gulf War, we started out with deep strikes on Basra, Shaibah, and Tallil. We’d use a mix [of ordnance], since the weather was shitty; 2000-lb LGBs and 2000-lb “steel nose cone”. We’d try to pickle the LGBs right in the middle of the basket. On the first night of the war we came back with better BDA [Bomb Damage Assessment] than the F-117s had.

`My first mission was with a guy named Rob McCarthy, an RAF Exchange officer, and Tornado navigator. He had absolutely no fear of death — he had flown in the airshow demo team for the Tornado where they do the 100-ft inverted near-supersonic pass. Nothing scared Rob.

`First night we flew, we’re heading into Iraq, and we’re heading into Shaibah airfield. This was the first time we had actually flown with the [navigation and formation] lights out and relied on the green formation lights instead – the lights on every jet were different. Some lights had burned out, which meant you couldn’t tell what was what. You thought you were rendezvousing on Battlestar Galactica because of all the different lights.

`Off to the left side, as we’re crossing the Gulf, you could see the SAM launches and AAA in Kuwait City – huge, holy shit, look at this stuff. Rob’s got his head in the boot, doing updates. We’re getting up there over the salt marshes, and little stuff – red tracers – was arcing below us, with bigger stuff, white tracers, reaching up higher to about 20,000 ft. Then you had some big AAA, big white bursts up at our altitude, but it was less frequent. I think the red stuff was ZSUs – it was disturbing enough, but you knew they weren’t all radar-guided because you didn’t have a lot of radar warning about everything.

`About this time Rob pulled his head out and said, in typical British fashion, “I say, Tom, it appears those blokes are shooting at us.” “No shit, Rob. Put your head back in the boot.”

After weeks of deep strikes and related operations, according to Rick Morgan’s description in his book A-6 Intruder Units 1974-96, on February 20 Marine units switched to Battlefield Air Interdiction (BAI) as their primary function in order to prepare for the ground assault. The employment of “Kill Boxes,” which were latitude and longitude grids where FACs, familiar with their assigned zone, would call in aircraft to target Iraqi army units as they were located, was crucial to the success of this mission. As the enemy forces realized they had little chance of escaping the Allied air force, the process proved lethally effective and contributed to their eventual mass capitulation.

Former USMC A-6 Pilot explains why the Intruder was the perfect CAS Aircraft — A U.S. Marine Corps Grumman A-6E Intruder from Marine all-weather attack squadron VMA(AW)-224 Fighting Bengals on the flight line at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina

During the last several days of Desert Storm, Capt. Uryga piloted a number of BAI sorties;

`The Air Force called the Kill Box missions CAS – what we Marines called CAS the Air Force called crazy!

`The B-52s [heavily involved in Kill Box operations] flew ten-hour missions from Diego Garcia. None had the external racks they used in Vietnam. They carried only 56 500-lb bombs. Two A-6s did more damage than a B-52. They just salvoed the entire load in one pass. Their BDA pictures showed mile-long strips of closely spaced craters, usually laterally displaced from their targets [largely due to 100-knot high-altitude winds]. Carpet-bombing made a lot of noise but didn’t hit much.

‘The typical Hornet load was four or six Mk 82s or Rockeyes. Without tankers, they had about ten minutes of time-on-station [TOS] in Kuwait. They made one pass, dropped two bombs, and then went feet wet to a tanker, gassed up, came in, and dropped the rest, before going home and getting credit for two combat missions on one flight. Pretty cheesy way to earn air medals. No [Marine] A-6 ever saw a tanker, yet we had more than 40 minutes TOS, even in northern Kuwait.’

The Intruder’s outstanding endurance made it a firm favorite amongst the Marines fighting the war on the ground. One FAC attached to the infantry was an EA-6B NFO, who stated post-war; `Our first three choices for CAS aircraft were, No 1, the Intruder, No 2, the Intruder, and No 3, the Intruder. It had plenty of bombs and enough gas to stick around. The Hornets had less of each, and as for the Harriers, if we didn’t have a target ready for them when they checked in they almost always went right back to the tanker.’

Photo by U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy

A-6 Intruder Units 1974-96 is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

December 12, 2021 0 comment

History

The Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui rocket-powered interceptor, the Japanese Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet

by Till Daisd December 1, 2021

written by Till Daisd

On July 7, 1945, the prototype J8M1 Shusui made its one and only powered flight at a high cost

Germany and Japan came to an arrangement in late 1943 wherein the latter would provide its Axis ally with a prototype, blueprints, and motors for the ground-breaking rocket-powered Me 163 Komet interceptor. Japan was also to receive further technical data pertaining to the aircraft’s production process. Both the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force (IJNAF) and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) expressed a strong interest in developing licensed versions of the Me 163 to aid in preventing anticipated B-29 Superfortress bombing raids of the Japanese home islands by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

Remembering the Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui rocket-powered interceptor, the Japanese Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet that never was

Japanese military attachés bought a license for a Walter HWK 109-509 rocket engine from the Germans for 20 million Reichsmarks after learning about the Komet and its potential. Despite these agreements, Japan encountered obstacles in getting a full Me 163. On March 30, 1944, the Japanese submarine RO-501 sailed from Kiel, Germany, bound for Kobe, Japan, with a disassembled model and its rocket engine. On May 13, 1944, U.S. Navy ASW aircraft flying out of the escort carrier Bogue sank RO-501 in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Additionally, when the USS Sawfish (SS-276) sank the Japanese submarine I-29 off the Philippines on July 26, 1944, the Me 163 technical data, blueprints, and engines loaded into the I-Boat were also lost.

Due to these setbacks, as described by Mark Chambers in his book Wings of the Rising Sun, the Japanese were compelled to create their own Komet using a general Me 163 instruction manual that IJNAF engineer Cdr. Eichi Iwaya had acquired. The resulting aircraft, given the IJNAF’s J8M1 Shusui (“Sharp Sword”) and the IJAAF’s Ki-200 designation, was going to be made by Mitsubishi. The Yokosuka-based 1st Naval Air Technical Arsenal also produced the Walter HWK 109-509 engine in the Japanese nation.

Three J8M gliders, known as the MXY8 Akigusa (“Autumn Grass”), were also built by the Arsenal to gather fundamental aerodynamic and handling data for the rocket-powered aircraft. On December 8, 1944, the MXY8 successfully conducted its first flight over the Hyakurigahara airport, with Lt. Cdr. Toyohiko Inuzuka serving as the test pilot. By that time, Japanese engineers had created the 3,307lb thrust Toko Ro.2, their own version of the Walter HWK 509A rocket engine. Last but not least, the J8M1 was to be equipped with two 400-rpm 30mm Ho-155 cannons.

On July 7, 1945, the prototype J8M1 made its pricey first and only powered flight. After a successful rocket-powered takeoff, Lt. Cdr. Inuzuka jettisoned the undercarriage dolly, and the aircraft rocketed upward at a 45° angle. However, the engine shut off as the plane ascended to a height of 1,300 feet, forcing the J8M1 to stall.

Just as Inuzuka was about to successfully glide the plane back to the airstrip, he collided with a small building close to the runway, causing the J8M1 to crash and catch fire. Inuzuka passed away from his wounds the next day. Until the Ro.2 engine could be changed and the issue fixed, all upcoming J8M1 flights were canceled. When the war ended on August 15, 1945, flight testing was supposed to resume along with the J8M2’s development. Seven J8M1/Ki-200s had been made altogether by that point.

Soon after VJ Day, American occupation forces in Nagoya recovered three J8M1s, which were then transferred to the United States in November 1945. One of them was scrapped at “Pax River,” where two of them were transported for a thorough evaluation. In October 1946, one was moved to the Naval Air Station (NAS) Glenview, Illinois, where it was displayed before being scrapped.

The third Shusui was sent to the USAAF, examined there, and then moved to Hollywood, California, where it was also on display for the public. In 1948, Ed Maloney purchased this airplane from a Los Angeles fairground and subsequently added it to his ground-breaking Air Museum in Claremont, California. Since then, after being restored, it has remained a part of this collection and is now on display at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino.

In 1961, an unfinished J8M 1 was found in a cave near Yokosuka at Sugita. Two years later, it was presented to the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force. The aircraft, which had been abandoned for a long time, was refurbished by Mitsubishi between 1997 and 2001 and is now on exhibit in the company’s museum in Komaki Minami.

Photo by Alan Wilson from Stilton, Peterborough, Cambs, UK via Wikipedia

Wings of the Rising Sun is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

December 1, 2021 0 comment

History

The first Top Gun Graduates to kill a MiG was one of these “Phantom Boys”

by Till Daisd November 30, 2021

written by Till Daisd

Beaulier went after the second MiG, using a ‘lag pursuit’ tactic to give his F-4J Phantom II the correct distance for an AIM-9D shot…

After their MiG-21 shoot-down on March 28, 1970, Lt. Jerry Beaulier (left) and Lt. (jg.) Steve Barkley (sporting his famous mustache) of VF-142 are shown eagerly inspecting a celebratory bottle of champagne, perhaps taken from the carrier battle group commander.

Both men were Topgun grads from the very first class, and Barkley had served as a pilot in the USAF. When he thought back on his many years of working with Jerry, he said, “Being a bit older and possibly more focused on quality and survival, our missions tended to be quite well planned and “by our book.” Nobody ever saw a MiG at that stage of the war, much less get within Sparrow range of a bandit. Despite this, they meticulously planned their strategy for such a situation and conducted numerous BARCAP missions in the hopes of being able to attract a MiG to the surface of the sea.

These Men were the first Top Gun Graduates to score a MiG Kill

According to Peter E. Davies’ account in U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom II Units of the Vietnam War 1969–1973, on March 28, 1970, Beaulier and Barkley were launched in F-4J “Dakota 201” (BuNo 155875) as the replacement spare for VF-142 CO Cdr Ruel E. Gardner in a CAP flight led by CVW-14 commander and F-8 MiG killer Cdr Paul Speer. They carried three external fuel tanks, two AIM-7Es, and three AIM-9Ds in preparation for a prolonged fighter sweep. The flight, which was vectored into MiG-21s by PO White aboard the destroyer USS Horne (DLG-30), the day’s “Red Crown” radar control ship, included a third F-4J with the crew of Lt. Cdr. Gary Hakanson and Lt. (jg.) Dave van Asdlen.

At the 25-mile range, they were cleared to fire AIM-7Es, but Hakanson’s radar was inoperative, and Barkley’s also died as they approached the target, ruling out Sparrow launches. ‘I was really disappointed — the perfect set-up for a head-on shot and no radar! I fought it for about five miles and then gave up’ recalled Barkley. It was later realized that the radar in Speer’s F-4 was also faulty, being limited to a one-mile range.

Beaulier closed after spotting the MiGs 10,000 feet above them. The MiGs dove in their direction as the F-4Js rose to intercept. Beaulier wheeled behind the leading MiG-21, but his F-4 quickly ran out of fuel since he was still towing three external tanks that created drag. The first MiG’s “Atoll” attempt at Speer’s Phantom II was unsuccessful, but Beaulier pursued the second MiG using a “lag pursuit” strategy to put him in position for an AIM-9D hit. The missile’s seeker head wasn’t properly set, yet it still managed to explode inside the MiG-21’s exhaust. We stopped and got a look as the unlucky aircraft fell into the cloud below us at the MiGs’ “four o’clock” position. We never witnessed an ejection, Barkley observed.

Pham Thanh Nam, an inexperienced 921st FR pilot, perished in the collision. As the Rules of Engagement (RoE) at the time prohibited assaults on MiGs unless they threatened a reconnaissance or BARCAP mission, the F-4 crew’s success could not be acknowledged publicly. Eventually, a report was made public that claimed Beaulier’s MiG-21 had been intercepted as it was attacking an RA-5C.

A MiG kill was a significant accomplishment for the F-4 pilots, especially during a period of relatively limited activity on the ground. Successful crews were also honored with specially crafted cakes, widespread media coverage, and congratulations visits with top war managers. Even though aircraft carriers were primarily platforms for attack aircraft, similar praise for successful assault aircrew and missions was uncommon.

Photo by U.S. Navy

U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom II Units of the Vietnam War 1969-73 is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

November 30, 2021 0 comment

History

Why the C-130 is still USAF mainstay of Medevac

by Till Daisd November 27, 2021

written by Till Daisd

The C-130 can immediately abandon its current mission and function as an aeromedical evacuation platform, thanks to its architecture

The C-130 Hercules has been a workhorse of aeromedical evacuation since the Vietnam War and continues to be a reliable platform to transport patients over long distances, enabling Airmen to deliver vital care in the air, support disaster relief efforts, and return warfighters to their families.

The C-130 is a versatile aircraft that was first put into service in 1956 and is ideal for aeromedical evacuation duty. It is regarded as reliable and tough enough for lengthy operations in the theater and can take off from difficult runways.

A quick look at why the C-130 is still mainstay of medevac more than 60 years after its first flight

A photograph from the past shows the YC-130 Hercules on its first flight, which took place on August 23, 1954, from Burbank to Edwards Air Force Base in California. The Air Force’s Tactical Air Command recognized a need for a medium-cargo tactical transport in 1951 and developed the C-130 to meet that need. The C-130 has had the longest continuous military aircraft production line in history because it is still being produced today. The C-130 and its variants have served as a vital aeromedical evacuation platform for the U.S. Air Force for much of its operational history, transporting patients over large distances safely and enabling AE crews to provide care in the air. (Image courtesy of the U.S. Air Force)

This assists in bringing medical expertise closer to the front lines. In the article, Steady and Ready: C-130 mainstay of medevac, Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs Shireen Bedi explains that the C-130’s design allows it to rapidly abandon its current mission and function as an aeromedical evacuation platform.

At Kitzingen Air Base in Germany in September 1970, Red Cross supplies, equipment, and portable hospitals were stockpiled into C-130 Hercules airplanes. As part of Operation Fig Hill, which offers emergency relief and medical assistance amid civil unrest, the aircraft was traveling to Jordan. For a wide range of aeromedical evacuation operations, C-130 aircraft have always been able to fly over hostile and occasionally hostile airfields.

It is equipped with electrical and oxygen systems for aeromedical evacuation equipment, it can be modified to carry up to 74 litter patients and is specifically made to lessen the adverse effects of altitude on patients and medical staff.

On October 23, 1984, at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, a hospital bus parks behind a C-130 Hercules aircraft to take victims of the Pines Hotel fire to the local hospital. At a reunion honoring the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the Philippines, more than 200 World War II veterans and their families were lodging at a hotel in Baguio. Since the Vietnam War, the C-130 airframe has developed a reputation as a dependable aircraft with enhanced patient transport capabilities, becoming a cornerstone of the current AE system.

The C-130 platform has been a cornerstone of the modern aeromedical evacuation system, as the pictures in this post demonstrate. It is being deployed as a tactical, intra-theater aeromedical evacuation platform.

In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 16, 2010, a C-130 Hercules aircraft makes a final approach into Toussaint Louverture International Airport as part of the relief effort that sent critical medical personnel and supplies after the region was struck by a 7.0 earthquake. The C-130 is the Air Force’s most modified aircraft, allowing it to fulfill a range of mission requirements, according to the Air Mobility Command Historian Office. The C-130 is a crucial airframe for disaster response because of its adaptability; when necessary, it can be quickly changed in the field from cargo transport to aeromedical evacuations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Perry Aston)

At Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on May 29, 2014, U.S. Air Force airmen with the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron got ready to unload patients. In all of Afghanistan, the aeromedical evacuation squadron transports and cares for injured and ill personnel. Aeromedical evacuation personnel must set up their work area, which spans nearly the full length of the aircraft’s cargo section, in an organized manner because space is at a premium on a C-130. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez)

On a C-130 Hercules during an emergency flight from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, on February 14, 2010, U.S. Air Force Maj. Debora Lehker, a reserve critical care air transport team nurse, consoles a wounded Canadian army soldier. Members of the Aeromedical Evacuation Team are regarded as flight crew, therefore, in addition to their area of medical expertise, they also need to be knowledgeable about the C-130 aircraft. They must understand how to set up the aircraft to accommodate patient litters and how the electrical systems for the equipment are needed to keep passengers safe while in flight operations. (Courtesy photo)

On March 24, 2017, a C-130 Hercules from Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania, backs up to an ambulance bus from the 60th Inpatient Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, California, during Patriot Delta. The 60th IPTS provided en route patient care and set up the medical manikins as part of the Air Force Reserve exercise Patriot Delta. Through training opportunities like this one, AE crews may learn how to safely and effectively move patients to the back of the plane, provide care while in the air, and guarantee that patients are delivered to the next level of care. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Daniel Phelps)

November 27, 2021 0 comment

History

Recalling the tragic 1983 U.S. attack on Lebanon

by Till Daisd November 23, 2021

written by Till Daisd

Lt. Mark Adam Lange, a member of the A-6 crew, was injured during the ejection and passed away shortly after. After being handed over to Syrian forces, B/N Lt. Bobby Goodman spent many weeks in a detention facility close to Damascus

During the Vietnam War, the Grumman A-6 Intruder served as the “Main Battery” of carrier aviation. It was still in use by the US Navy and US Marine Corps in 1996. The A-6 was still the most potent strike aircraft on a carrier flight deck during the 1983 American attack on Lebanon because it was a true all-weather, day/night precision bomber.

The USS Independence (CV-62) continued after Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983 and eventually replaced USS Eisenhower (CVN-69), which was departing for home. These were still the days when the Sixth Fleet had two carriers assigned, and CV-62 joined USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), which had CVW-3 — the first “dual A-6” air wing — onboard, as explained by Rick Morgan in his book A-6 Intruder Units 1974-96. Vice Adm. Jerry O. Tuttle, a renowned naval aviator with a background in light attacks, served as both the commander of Carrier Group Two and the commander of the Battle Fleet Sixth Fleet while serving as the senior officer on board CV-67.

The collapse of Lebanon, formerly known as “the Paris of the Middle East,” was at the forefront of world events at this time as many parties engaged in violence and disorder while citing various religious reasons. In order to help stabilize a fast destabilizing situation, the U.S. government sent Marines ashore in Beirut out of concern for a much larger battle involving Syria and Israel. To demonstrate the nation’s resolve, it also positioned two carriers offshore.

According to one of Turtle’s staff officers, Lt. Cdr. Joe Hulsey, ‘we had been on constant alert for weeks, with one carrier being in “alert 30” with aircraft fully loaded and crews briefed, while the other flight deck conducted normal flight ops. This changed every 24 hours in order to share the load. The force was ready, having prepared more than 300 potential targets in the region. We had timing and weapons loads planned for all of them, and all of this information was sent up the chain to Sixth Fleet and CINCEUR [Commander in Chief, US Forces Europe] so that they’d know what we were prepared to do. On top of that, we had Jerry Tuttle in charge. He was exactly who you’d want in that position if you were going over the beach.’

Up until around December 1, when the carriers got orders to stand down from constant alert, the hair-trigger state persisted. Then, at around 03:30 on the morning of the third, a Flash order from Sixth Fleet arrived with a four-hour time on target (ToT) for carrying out strikes against six particular targets in Lebanon. The staff initially thought the order had been sent inadvertently, but as voice and message traffic emerged between the ships and Sixth Fleet, it became clear that “somebody” much higher had ordered military action without giving a damn about what it would take for the operational forces to actually carry it out.

The right ordnance was not loaded, the crews were not briefed, and the aircraft were not ready or correctly spotted on the flight deck. Additionally, only one of the six designated targets had really been prepared by the ships, and the other five were brand-new and were thought to have no military significance. While the ships rapidly woke up, it was confirmed that the ToT was an absolute that had to be met, which led to an all-hands effort to carry out their orders.

What followed was a disaster.

Remembering the ill-fated 1983 U.S. strike on Lebanon — Vought A-7E Corsair II aircraft of attack squadrons VA-15 Valions and VA-87 Golden Warriors of Carrier Air Wing Six (CVW-6) line the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62) in December 1983. The carrier was operating off the coast of Lebanon in support of the multinational peacekeeping force in Beirut. In October 1983 Independence took part in the invasion of Grenada.

Kennedy launched 12 Intruders, of which seven were from VA-85 and five were from VA-75. Independence also put five Intruders up in the air, along with several KA-6Ds (from VA-176). Along with the Tomcats and Prowlers from both carriers, the ‘Indy’ A-7Es also participated. Due to time constraints, ammunition loads were sometimes limited for their intended targets, Syrian tanks, and AAA sites in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border. Only one Kennedy Intruder managed to escape with a full bomb load. At middle altitude at dawn, aircraft lost contact with the ground and were quickly surrounded by missiles and AAA. The sky was replete with infrared-guided weapons that were immune to the Prowlers’ magic, while EA-6Bs seemed to render any radar-guided SAMs useless.

Buckeye 556 (BuNo 152915), the only Intruder that was fully loaded, had to work hard to keep up with the rest of the formation. Both B/N Lt. Bobby Goodman and pilot Lt. Mark Adam Lange were present on board. As aircraft attempted to dodge the SAMs rising from the ground, the sky was flooded with flares and infrared decoys. A Syrian 9K31 Strela-1 or Strela-2 infrared-guided SAM shortly struck “Buckeye 556,” most likely. Lange soon passed away from wounds sustained during the crew’s ejection from the aircraft. Goodman was handed over to Syrian forces and subsequently jailed for several weeks not far from Damascus. After a flurry of diplomatic activity, including Reverend Jesse Jackson’s attendance, he would be freed.

The Intruders and Corsair IIs delivered weapons through the hail of fire, with VA-176 particularly dropping 25 Mk 82s, 23 Mk 83s, and 30 Rockeyes on its designated targets.

While flying VA-15 A-7E “Active Boy 305” (BuNo 157468), CAG-6 Cdr. Ed. Andrews assumed control of the search and rescue operation for the downed Intruder. He was shortly struck by an infrared-guided SAM himself and was forced to eject. He was later picked up by a helpful fisherman and transferred back to the U.S. Navy. A VA-15 Corsair II called “Active Boy 314” (BuNo 157458) was also struck, but its pilot was able to board Independence and make a full recovery.

Here's how A-6 Intruder crews dodged SAMs and MiGs in the skies over Vietnam

As stated by Lt. Cdr. Hulsey, ‘even six more hours would’ve made all the difference in the world, but they wouldn’t give it to us. We found out later that the source (presumably out of Washington, D.C.) didn’t even get the time zone conversion right in the message, which cost us at least two more hours to prepare.’ As the saying goes, ‘Success has a thousand fathers while failure dies an orphan.’ In this case, it is still unclear who chose the target and ToT. Even though the bombing results were deemed “effective” in official reports, there was a rapid and long-lasting bitter taste of the strike on both ships and across carrier aviation. Professionally, the incident was regarded as nothing less than a failure. As a result, several modifications were made, including the establishment of “Strike U” at Fallon to create and disseminate more successful air wing tactics.

Photo by U.S. Navy

A-6 Intruder Units 1974-96 is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

November 23, 2021 0 comment

Cold War

A crewless RAF Tornado flew away after the Navigator ejected himself and his pilot from their serviceable aircraft

by Till Daisd November 23, 2021

written by Till Daisd

We may only imagine the front-seater’s feelings as, from his parachute, he watched his Tornado disappear over the horizon

The following article contains excerpts from Group Captain Ian Hall’s story titled Blind and Deaf which appears in Ian Hall’s book Tornado Boys.

Over the years, there have been all sorts of odd instances of aircraft being left without the optimum number of crewmembers. I recall a Phantom navigator ejecting, believing his aircraft to have some kind of terminal unserviceability, only for the fault to rectify itself and for the pilot to return to base solo. Early in the Harrier’s life in Germany, a pilot suffered a catastrophic power loss following a compressor stall.

Try as he might, he was unable to clear it, so was left with no option but to eject. As he floated down in his parachute, you may imagine his surprise when he saw his Harrier merrily accelerating away. Presumably, the rocket efflux from the ejection seat had restored order to the airflow through the engine intake. As soon as he’d returned to earth, our sharp cookie phoned base from a nearby farmhouse to inform them that an unmanned aircraft was now powering its way around Germany.

As you would imagine, this caused consternation; would it crash onto a city? So much so that the authorities considered launching a QRA Lightning to shoot it down. But, given that it was impossible to predict exactly where it would land after being shot down, this option was discarded. Eventually, the wretched aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed happily without any catastrophic consequences. The staff recommendation after this? If pilots have time, they should shut down the engine before ejecting.

That time a crewless RAF Tornado flew away after the Navigator ejected himself and his pilot from their serviceable aircraft

The Tornado wasn’t exempt from similarly unfortunate events, and a notable occurrence derived from one of the aircraft’s foibles. Not for nothing was it known as the ‘electric jet’, and one of its primary systems was the CSAS — the control stability augmentation system. This was designed to make an airframe that was somewhat unstable into a flyable machine. But when the CSAS failed it was a real handful.

Early in the Tornado’s career crews became aware of occasional unexplained control inputs, and after a while and a bit of data analysis, these perturbations pinned down to the CSAS reacting to transmissions from radio masts. So much that low-flying charts began to sprout avoidance circles around the worst of these — known as HIRTAs — high-intensity radio transmission areas.

A chap on my squadron had previously fallen victim to this, in combination with another of the jet’s peculiarities — its command ejection system. The Tornado has a system whereby, in just such an eventuality (it was designed primarily with combat damage in mind) the nav may eject both crewmembers. But pilots are a conservative bunch and enabling this system had not, at that time, been standard, practice.

Naturally, that event prompted much head-scratching, and its aftermath caused a change in procedure, with the command ejection system subsequently being enabled as a matter of routine. But the law of unintended consequences was never more apparent than in my friend’s accident. One fine day he was trundling happily down through Germany at a low level when he became aware of a USAF A-10 Thunderbolt crossing his nose at fairly short range. Short enough to cause him to take evasive action. His trusty back-seater, surprised by this violent maneuver, glanced out of the window. Spying a large transmission mast nearby he assumed that the CSAS was being interfered with and that the jet was out of control. Whereupon he decided that the only way was out, and without further ado, he pulled his yellow and black handle.

That time a RAF Tornado made an emergency landing at F-117's top-secret Tonopah Air Force Base

It now is the standard operating procedure, his command ejection lever had been selected to ‘both’ — so his pilot followed him out in short order. We may only imagine the front-seater’s feelings as, from his parachute, he watched his perfectly serviceable Tornado disappearing over the horizon. Whether or not the A-10 pilot claimed a kill, we may only surmise. But the lesson from that accident was obvious; technology is a marvelous thing, but crewmembers still needed to talk to each other.

Photo by Kate Yates, BAe Heritage Centre and Mike Freer – Touchdown-aviation via Wikipedia

November 23, 2021 0 comment

History

Carmine Vito: the only U-2 pilot to fly above Moscow

by Till Daisd November 9, 2021

written by Till Daisd

“I learned later that the Soviets launched at least five fighters to intercept my flight. Two planes took off initially. The lead plane aborted takeoff ran off the runway and exploded. The wingman went through lead’s flames and then bailed out. Two more airplanes scrambled and were refueled in the air. Those airplanes got lost or collided. The pilots bailed out. A fifth plane scrambled but couldn’t find the tanker. He was lost and never found to this day,” Carmine Vito, the only U-2 pilot to fly over Moscow

The first flight of the original U-2A, which Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works built with total secrecy, took place in August 1955. The president and other U.S. decision-makers received crucial intelligence about Soviet military capacity during the first flights over the Soviet Union in the late 1950s. Its employment was kept a secret until Francis Gary Powers’s U-2 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on May 1, 1960, when it was conducting a reconnaissance trip over Soviet territory.

The only U-2 pilot to fly directly over Moscow was Carmine Vito, one of the original six pilots trained to operate the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft for the CIA. His journey, which the pilots referred to as a “hot flight,” was the third operational flight into a possibly hostile country, as explained by Eric Hehs in his article Carmine Vito: U-2 Pilot for Code One Magazine. On June 20, 1956, Carl Overstreet made the first U-2 flight of its kind. East Germany and Poland were included in the mission.

After that, on July 4, Hervy Stockman flew over Soviet territory, traveling as far north as Leningrad to photograph naval shipyards and then west to the Baltic States to photograph bases for jet bombers. Marty Knutson, Glen Dunaway, and Jake Kratt piloted the fourth, fifth, and sixth missions. All were successful.

The story of Carmine Vito, the only U-2 pilot to fly over Moscow — Early U-2 pilots had to resign their military commissions before joining the CIA as civilians, a process they referred to as “sheep dipping.”

“The Russians launched planes to intercept Overstreet on the first flight,” notes Vito. “But they couldn’t reach him.” Soviet radar also picked up Stockman’s flight. Many MiG fighters sprang into action to intercept him as well. The intercepts, like earlier flights, were unsuccessful. Soviet fighters were unable to get close to the necessary height to bring the soaring U-2 down.

When the orders to fly came, Vito’s selection for the Moscow mission was more a result of chance than of planning. Twelve hours before takeoff, headquarters would generally send an alarm message to the Wiesbaden U-2 detachment. Normally, the message arrived before 5:00 p.m. The ground staff and pilots prepared for the flight throughout those twelve hours. The aircraft, engine, and cameras underwent ground inspections by teams from Lockheed, Pratt & Whitney, and Kodak. To combat the effects of rapid decompression, pilots put on their specialized partial pressure suits and breathed pure oxygen (the bends). Before being granted the all-clear to take off, U-2 pilots had to spend at least two hours “on the hose” to expel nitrogen from their blood.

“Without a go signal from headquarters, everyone headed for the club after five that evening,” explains Vito. “On that particular weekend, the 4th of July, most everyone was celebrating. When the late go came down from headquarters, I was the only one who had had only one drink. So, even though our order of mission flights had been predetermined by drawing straws, I was selected for the mission.”

After recalling this specific U-2 mission for 46 years, Vito is unsure if he is speaking from true memories or memories of earlier descriptions. Whatever the case, he recalls the fireworks display that kept him up that night and the required steak and egg meal the next morning. “They always fed us steak and eggs before a flight,” he says. “I didn’t want steak and eggs at two in the morning, but they were on the checklist. So I had to eat.”

Vito went through Krakow, Poland, before continuing to Brest and Baranovici in Ukraine. On his trip to the Soviet capital, he continued along this east-northeasterly course while flying over Minsk.

The mission began in bad weather. “We had about 200 feet of visibility on the ground,” recalls Vito. “The sky was clear at 3,000 to 4,000 feet, but I had undercast halfway inbound.” The weather cleared as Vito followed a railroad line from Minsk to Moscow. At an altitude of more than 66,000 feet, he listened to Peter and the Wolf, a Russian musical composition with narration, transmitted from a Soviet radio station. Small mosaic fields from the collective farms passed below him. “Those fields reminded me that Russian farmers tilled the land by hand,” he says. “I couldn’t get mad at people who work that hard. I was never mad at the Soviet people themselves, just at their government.”

Vito’s mission carried him directly over Moscow and the vast array of recently constructed air defenses that encircled the city in three concentric circles at a distance of twenty, forty, and sixty miles. The metropolis was hidden by a hazy sky. “My bubble burst,” Vito recalls. “I thought, Gee I came all this way for nothing. But the filters on my camera cut through the haze. A year or so later, I learned that the resulting film picked up some remarkable detail.”

A CIA history of the U-2 claims that Vito’s flight captured photographs of the Fili airframe facility, where the Soviets were constructing their first jet bomber—known to the West as the Bison—as well as a bomber arsenal in Ramenskoye, a rocket engine plant in Khimki, and a missile plant in Kaliningrad. He turned north toward the Baltic coast from about east of Moscow before turning back south toward West Germany.

“I learned later that the Soviets launched at least five fighters to intercept my flight,” says Vito. “Two planes took off initially. The lead plane aborted takeoff ran off the runway, and exploded. The wingman went through the lead’s flames and then bailed out. Two more airplanes scrambled and were refueled in the air. Those airplanes got lost or collided. The pilots bailed out. A fifth plane scrambled but couldn’t find the tanker. He was lost and never found to this day.” Vito never received credit for five aerial victories. “After all, I never fired a shot,” he says.

On his way back to West Germany, the Canadian radar came on the air: “Lone Ranger, this is Tonto. Keep heading the way you are going. You have twenty-two minutes to touchdown.”

“I knew they were talking to me because they had the best radar around and had picked us up on previous flights,” recalls Vito. “But U-2 pilots had to observe complete silence on the radio. To this day, I wish I could have replied, ‘Ti Ee Kemosabe.’”

Vito logged over 450 hours on about 65 flights in the U-2 between 1955 and 1959. In the first U-2C at Edwards AFB, he made his final flight. In August 1960, he left the CIA’s U-2 headquarters.

Photo by Lockheed Martin

November 9, 2021 0 comment

History

The death of the legendary A-10 Warthog’s father

by Till Daisd October 28, 2021

written by Till Daisd

“There was a major in the Air Force… He saw the first couple of ones. He said, ‘Geez, that thing is as ugly as a warthog.’ And it stuck,” Elliot Kazan manager for the development of the A-10 Thunderbolt II

The person popularly recognized as the Fairchild Republic A-10’s founder passed away. In the 1970s, Elliot Kazan oversaw a group of roughly 500 employees as they created the renowned Warthog. He was 90.

According to Newsday, sepsis-related complications caused Kazan’s death on August 9.

According to his family, Kazan was raised in Queens and attended Polytechnic University to study aeronautical engineering, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1949 and a master’s degree in 1950. After a brief stint at Boeing, Kazan accepted a position in Farmingdale with the Republic Aviation Company, which ultimately changed its name to Fairchild-Republic.

While employed there, Kazan was appointed project manager for the creation of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, also known as the “Warthog” due to its bulky and ungainly appearance.

“There was a major in the Air Force… He saw the first couple of ones,” Kazan told Newsday in 2003. “He said, ‘Geez, that thing is as ugly as a warthog.’ And it stuck.”

In October 1975, the first A-10A produced was delivered to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. In the 1970s and 1980s, more than 700 A-10 Thunderbolt II airplanes were produced. In September 2007, the upgraded A-10C achieved initial operational capability. The U.S. and its allies have found great value in the combination of its vast and diversified ordnance load, lengthy loiter time, precise weapons delivery, austere field capability, and survivability. The aircraft is equipped with a seven-barrel GAU-8/A 30mm Gatling gun, with a maximum rate of fire of 3,900 rounds per minute, which can be used to take out tanks among other targets.

“He heard one guy after another say to him, ‘That plane saved my life. It was full of holes and it still flew me back safely,” Kazan’s wife of 55 years, Dorothy, said. “It was the love of his life, that airplane.”

Kazan was even more devoted to his family, which included his two daughters, according to relatives.

“He would work 16 hours and he would come home and there was no running and hiding or anything like that… He would have the girls out sleigh riding,” said his son-in-law, Stephen Kazan, who took his family’s name. “He was a dad first and an engineer second… He was one of those guys who got it right.”

Photo by U.S. Air Force

October 28, 2021 0 comment

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Lt. Mark Adam Lange, a member of the A-6 crew, was injured during the ejection and passed away shortly after. After being handed over to Syrian forces, B/N Lt. Bobby Goodman spent many weeks in a detention facility close to Damascus

We may only imagine the front-seater’s feelings as, from his parachute, he watched his Tornado disappear over the horizon

“There was a major in the Air Force… He saw the first couple of ones. He said, ‘Geez, that thing is as ugly as a warthog.’ And it stuck,” Elliot Kazan manager for the development of the A-10 Thunderbolt II

In Southeast Asia,
Gen. Chappie James served as deputy commander for operations and later vice wing commander of the 8th TFW. Along with Robin Olds, James formed a strong leadership and combat team, inevitably dubbed “Black Man and Robin.”