2014 Spring Friends Journal Sampler

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The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. Post Office Box 1903 Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433-1903

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FOUNDATION, INC.

Spring 2014 The Magazine of the Air Force Museum Foundation • www.airforcemuseum.com

Featured Articles Remotely Piloted Aircraft: 5 MQ-1 Predator Operations Combat Controller in Iraq 8 Duke Danforth

Gliders of World War ll: 11 “The Bastards No One Wanted” Lt Col Michael H. Manion

Flight Testing the Two-Seat A-10 18 Lt Gen (Ret) John L. Hudson

Fly back to the Early Years of Aviation in the summer Friends Journal The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. is a Section 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization. It is not part of the Department of Defense or any of its components, and it has no government status.

Vol. 37 No.1

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Contents ARTICLES

5

Remotely Piloted Aircraft:

MQ-1 Predator Operations

8 Combat Controller in Iraq Duke Danforth

11

Gliders of World War II: “The Bastards No One Wanted”

18

Flight Testing the Two-Seat A-10

20

“You Want Me to Do What??”

Lt Col Michael H. Manion

Lt Gen (Ret) John L. Hudson

The U.S. Air Force Drone program and Big Safari

Lt Col (Ret) Richard D. Le Doux

DEPARTMENTS

26 Classic Aircraft

Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk

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44

Restoration Update

Sandra O’Connell Minker

45

New Exhibits

46

Activities & Events

The Gibson Girls: The History of the Fighting Falcons

Charles L Day

47

Education

38

That Warm April Day in 1942

50

Reunions

42

53

The Museum Store

31

35

Spirit of the Blue Hen: An Air Force Legacy Spans 70 Years

George M. Suzuki

Balloon Chasing in a Helicopter Maj (Ret) Walt Hoy

Editor’s Notes and Feedback

The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., is a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Friends of the Air Force Museum Foundation membership dues and all donations to the Air Force Museum Foundation paid in 2013 are tax deductible within the limits prescribed by law.

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xxx EDITOR’s

NOTES

In this issue of the Friends Journal we take a look at innovations in warfare which show the U.S. Air Force pioneering new solutions to defense challenges. From gliders in World War II to remotely piloted aircraft flying over Afghanistan today, the Air Force has always relied on innovation to project air power and win wars.

The Doolittle Tokyo Raiders led by Col Jimmy Doolittle are an especially compelling example of innovation in airpower—defined here as adapting existing technology to solve new problems. Seventy-two years after the daring bomb run on Japan by 80 men in Army Air Corps bombers launched off a Navy aircraft carrier, their accomplishment continues to inspire today’s Airmen. Speaking at the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders’ final celebration and toast at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force last November, then Acting Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning remarked that the Raiders were the “epitome of this innovative spirit of airmanship.”

Our feature article is an interview with Col Bryan Davis, commander of the 178th Operations Group at the Springfield, Ohio Air National Guard Base, flying the remotely piloted MQ-1 Predator. “Unmanned” flight has grown to be one of the most useful airpower innovations in modern history. Today’s remotely piloted aircraft—the Predator, the Reaper, as well as the Global Hawk—have become an integral part of today’s force structure, providing assistance during both humanitarian and combat scenarios. It is especially impressive that these platforms were called into action quickly, often while still in the prototype phase, an example of the flexibility that characterizes innovation.

Gliders in World War II are an example of innovation whose lifetime spanned only one war. The first gliders used were simply a by-product of the fragile sports sailplanes used in the decades preceding the Second World War. Although gliders had never flown in combat before then, they represented an innovative solution to the challenge of carrying troops and supplies to the front. Advances in cargo transport technology after World War II made the delivery of cargo, even in austere locales, possible and inevitably closed the door on the U.S. glider program.

The concept of Combat Controllers—embedding airpower-savvy Airmen into ground units to coordinate airpower support for these troops—is another innovation. A former combat controller, Duke Danforth, takes us along on patrol in Iraq to explain the coordination of air assets with ground forces to engage insurgents. The A-10s supporting his mission were using night-attack capabilities tested by Museum Director General Jack Hudson during his A-10 flying days. General Hudson contributed an article on his experience flight testing the two-seat A-10 for nighttime interdiction missions.

Creative employment of drones for reconnaissance predates today’s more advanced remotely piloted aircraft. In his article on the early days of the Big Safari program, Lt Col Le Doux recounts his role in launching and recovering BQM-34 Firebee drones which had been modified to perform reconnaissance missions rather than be used as targets.

“Catching” the drone in a CH-3 helicopter required skill and courage. Author Walter Hoy describes his own helicopter missions supporting Minuteman Missile Guidance System high-altitude balloon launches out of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Sandra O’Connell Minker presents a unique story about the connection between a World War II unit and the 709th Military Airlift Squadron in Dover, Delaware. The 709th is currently the only reserve unit flying the C-5M Galaxy, the largest airlifter in the U.S. Air Force inventory. Though separated by seven decades and enormous changes in aviation technology, the current squadron shares an interesting history with the 709th Bomber Squadron which flew the Flying Fortress.

April 18 is the anniversary of the Doolittle Tokyo Raider. In honor of that, we share a firsthand account of the impact of their raid on the Japanese mainland. Author George Suzuki recounts the event from his unique vantage point as an eighth-grade Japanese boy in a Tokyo middle school in his article, “That Warm April Day in 1942.”

Our April is finally warming here in Dayton, bringing a burst of visitors and new activity at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Plans underway to create educational tools and space in the planned fourth building are an innovative use of our iconic artifacts and history. In this way the Museum is pioneering its own solution to the challenge of educating the next generations on the legacy of courage, success, and innovation in the United States Air Force.

Editor

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Friends Feedback “We Have to Punch!”

The article “We have to punch” in the winter Journal was very interesting and informative, and there is one additional piece of information everyone should be aware of. When you enter Edwards AFB through the main gate, the first large building you see on the flight line is the Benefield Anechoic Chamber. This facility is large enough to contain and test any aircraft in the USAF inventory for electronic emissions and susceptibilities and was named for Doug Benefield in honor of his years of service in flight test.

David Matthews, CMSgt, USAF (Ret) Fairborn, Ohio “The Second Life of an F-106A” A lot of great stories in the winter Journal! As a former field program officer for the F-106 aircraft and the Convair division of General Dynamics I was deeply involved in the manufacture, flight testing and introduction of this bird to the first three squadrons. I would like to correct one statement made by Lt Col Paul Mather in his wonderful article on the F-106A.The F-106 A and B models were built entirely in San Diego at AF Plant 19 and trucked to Lindbergh Field where the first flights occurred. The birds were ferried to AF Plant 42 Palmdale for acceptance flights and upon completion, were delivered to the scheduled squadrons.

Norman Keith Encinitas, California The XB-70 Your winter “Cold War” issue really hit home with me!

My time as a pharmacy tech at the Wright-Patt Medical Center from 1966 to 1969 could sometimes be very exciting, but THE highlight had to be that cold, windy February afternoon when the XB-70 came in from Edwards. At work dispensing meds from the outpatient pharmacy one day, the phone rang. It was the ER Chief asking for our Chief, Sgt Price. I heard Price say “Noooo S***! Be right there!” Then he hung up and said to me, “Wanna see the B-70 land?” We grabbed our coats; told the other techs we’d be right back; raced down the hallway to the ER; jumped into the back of a waiting ambulance; tore over to the flight line (siren & lights blaring & glaring) where we had been cleared to a spot on the tarmac. Ten minutes later that bird came in for a low & slow fly-by; circled and landed for the last time. In 1960s slang: What a trip! The only “bummer” was that I had no camera with me. God bless and thanks again.

This issue is awesome, especially the articles on the XB70. In 1969 my dad was stationed at Scott AFB and needed to drive to some meetings at Wright-Patt AFB. Of course a chance at seeing the Museum for two young sons was a great offer that we took him up on. What an awesome time for two brothers to spend a day at what the Museum was even then. The highlight was our dad taking us to the flight line and seeing the XB-70. An awesome and unforgettable memory of time with my father and big brother and the planes we are in awe of to this day.

David Boyd Fredericksburg,Virginia

Boyd

The XB-70 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, circa 1969.

A quick note to tell you how much I enjoyed reading the feature articles on the XB-70. This was really the best issue yet. The XB-70 that crashed (#20207) participated in an Air Show held at Carswell AFB, the only appearance of an XB-70 away from Edwards other than the flight to the Museum. It was the most awesome flying machine that this old SAC pilot has ever seen.

I and another pilot performed the B-52/KC-135 air refueling fly-by during the same air show. A reader of my book Jet Age Man, Bob Fleer, had taken pictures at the air show, including one of our air refueling. Bob was just a boy then, but later became a USAF pilot that included a stint in the Thunderbirds during the period they had the catastrophic loss of all four T-38s.

Earl McGill Tucson, Arizona See next page for Bob Fleer’s photos of the XB-70, #20207, at the 1966 Carswell AFB air show.

Nelson P. Hayes Jr. Los Angeles, California

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Friends Feedback In 1966, when I was a high school senior, I took photographs of the #2 XB-70 at an Air Force Association (AFA) air show at Carswell AFB in Texas, where my family lived at the time. My Mom, understanding my excitement about such things, wrote a note excusing me from school that day. The big bird flew by Ft. Worth and made a turn around the Dallas skyline before returning to Carswell. On the first pass it flew high down the runway, clean, with its wingtips tilted down. Then it returned for one gear-down low approach followed by the landing. I took the gear-down shots just off the south end of the runway, then raced back onto the base to watch it taxi in. Although the Open House began the following day, there was quite a welcoming crowd waiting on the ramp, including actor and reserve general, Jimmy Stewart.

My buddy Charlie Yates and I were able to get close even though the first day of the air show was open only to AFA members, because we were both Air Force dependents. My heart racing, I was able to walk all around and under that exotic airplane. That was quite a day for a young fellow desperate to become an Air Force pilot. Later both Charlie and I attended college together, became career fighter pilots, squadron mates, and remained life-long friends.

Bob Fleer Washougal,Washington These photos were taken by 17-year-old Bob Fleer with his Yashica Lynx camera, with a 1.4 lens.

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XB-70 #20207 at the 1966 Carswell AFB air show.

Combat Controller in Iraq Duke Danforth

D

uring my Air Force career, I spent 18 years in special operations, including 10 deployments to Southwest Asia. For 16 of these years, I was a combat controller with Air Force Special Tactics. On a number of missions, I was designated the lead joint terminal attack controller (JTAC). Combat controllers possess a number of capabilities we bring to the fight, including our certification in controlling close air support, or joint terminal attack control. This capability was established to embed airpower-savvy Airmen into ground units to coordinate airpower support for special operations units.

In 2005 I was part of a special operations task force staging out of Al Asad Airbase in western Iraq. We kept up a high operational tempo, expecting to hit a target every night. Even in bad weather we usually had enough targets with actionable intelligence that we could find one within range of our helicopters that wasn’t affected by the weather. It was a good time to be a Special Operations Forces (SOF) combat controller, and even in the short four years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, we’d seen a lot of advances on the battlefield. I was on my fifth deployment at this point and had been able to watch the transformation to the point that we expected to have jets overhead with advanced targeting pods—pods with advanced sensors to assist aircrews with threat detection and precise targeting—and precisionguided munitions.

On this mission we’d launched toward Al Qaim, which was a major foreign-fighter entry point into Iraq.

These foreign fighters then generally travelled along the Euphrates River into Baghdad, receiving support along the way. This Western Euphrates River Valley corridor, or WERV as we called it, was always rich in 8

Friends Journal • Spring 2014

targets for us; the odds on whether the enemy would surrender or put up a fight was really a flip of the coin.

Combat is always serious business, and while we might appear flippant about it to outside observers, we were a highly motivated, highly trained force of competent professionals who didn’t mind if adversaries chose to engage rather than surrender.

Our target this mission was a foreign fighter financier who lived in a small enclave with about a dozen buildings.

Most were residences, with the occasional barn to house farm equipment they used when they weren’t supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s latest shenanigans. Normally we’d take along a small force of Army Rangers who would provide security and target area containment while we isolated and engaged a target.

On this mission the threat was low enough and there were enough other demands that the Rangers had their own objective, and our assault force would provide our own security. Having air support overhead always made that a less daunting task.

Prior to stepping to the helicopters, we had airborne reconnaissance (a Predator or other remotely piloted aircraft) over the target area, so we had a good idea where our high value individual (HVI)—the financier—was located in the enclave. We launched, had an uneventful flight in, and landed a small distance from the enclave, far enough away to provide some standoff from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, but close enough for just a short patrol to the target building. At this point our overhead reconnaissance was joined by an AC-130 gunship and a flight of two A-10s. Not only does this arrangement give the ground force commander (GFC) and JTAC a handful of sensors to provide excellent situational awareness (SA) about whether our presence has been compromised, it also gives us immediate options to solve any tactical problems that might arise.

As we moved toward the target building and posted

Combat Controller in Iraq

security and overwatch positions, three individuals left one of the buildings and started walking to a field. They appeared unarmed, and other than the fact that they were taking a walk into a field at about 2:00 a.m but not using flashlights, they wouldn’t have gotten a second look.

Our GFC was confident our overwatch teams could sort out any immediate problem, and I was confident I could employ the gunship quickly if needed. The guys walking to the field were of greater concern than the potential of a guy walking out of a door somewhere with a rifle. It’s a bad day for the enemy when you have an AC-130 hitting you with 40mm and 105mm rounds, while a two-ship formation of A-10s is rolling in with 500-pound bombs, 2.75” rockets, or 30mm strafe.

USAF

The A-10 was designed to be able to land on unimproved surfaces, an important capability for supporting special operations forces.

The GFC made the call that we would conduct an explosive breach, meaning we would penetrate the compound and buildings using C4 explosive charges.

Things went without a hitch and the team entered and

started clearing the structure. Usually I would enter at the end of the assault force, making my way to the rooftop where I had a commanding view of the area and good radio communications with my aircraft. But because the three guys we’d noted earlier had now started digging in the field, I stayed outside with the GFC so I didn’t risk losing my communication link as I went through the building. In short order the gunship was able to identify weapons being pulled out of the ground, so I went hot with the gunship and they quickly eliminated this emerging threat. About that time we had two additional individuals leave two separate, close-proximity buildings.

One started moving between buildings, angling away from the target building, and one moved off through a small vineyard.

Meanwhile the “target secure” call had gone out over our team’s internal radio communications. We had positive identification of our HVI, and at that point we progressed into sensitive site exploitation. The Hogs (A-10s) had already sorted out the two enemy runners, and we assessed the guy in the vineyard as our primary concern. One of our teams started moving in that direction, and the team leader switched to my fighter control network to get vectors. I had the A-10 mark the first runner. One of the advantages of that capability was both the aircrew and our ground team fought with night vision goggles (NVGs), so we both could track the designated targets. Now that everyone monitoring the enemy runner had good situational awareness of the target location, the team leader only had to monitor my network for target updates from the pilot, and I could freely direct my airborne assets.

Tracking a guy at night through a vineyard, even on NVGs, can be a bit of a challenge, especially when you know he might have a rifle, pistol, or hand grenade.

With eyes overhead, infrared illumination, and night vision goggles, it was definitely a good night to be the Americans. As it turned out, when the enemy was able to clearly hear the pursuit of our team, and it was obvious that he wasn’t going to get away, he produced a handgun and pointed it at the sounds he was hearing, which of course was the direction of our team. A handful of rifle shots resolved that tactical problem.

USAF

A heavily armed AC-130H gunship provides close air support, air interdiction, and force protection.

By this time sensitive site exploitation was complete and we had nothing to indicate a need to flex to another building for anyone or anything of significance. There was always the chance there were more adversaries around, but we had achieved our

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Combat Controller in Iraq

objective. Since we certainly didn’t have a force on hand to properly isolate the enclave and conduct a thorough cordon-and-search kind of operation, we began our movement to our exfiltration helicopter landing zone (HLZ).

The Hogs had rejoined as a flight at this point, maintaining awareness on the second enemy runner.

The second enemy runner had moved away from the enclave by now and was moving out through a different field than where his compatriots had gone earlier. The ground force commander concluded that we didn’t have any compelling reason under the rules of engagement (ROE) to engage this last guy. ROE exist for a reason.

On the off chance he was a guy caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, who was just trying to avoid a fight and get home, there was no reason to engage a non-combatant. We agreed if we had to come back the next night because he came up on the target list somehow, well, we’d be back.

The gunship covered us until the last helicopter departed the HLZ and we headed back for some early breakfast, debrief, and prep for the next night.

military freefall jumpmaster, military tandem master, and combat diver. He jumpmastered the first combat freefall for Special Tactics, established the first Special Tactics unit weapons and tactics program, and developed the Combat Air ForcesSpecial Operations Forces immersion initiative. He also wrote the concept of operations to validate landing A-10s on dirt and unimproved runways and worked the first A-10 dry lake landing in over 20 years. Shortly before retiring, he found “Mrs. Right” and now enjoys the challenge of being a husband and father—two things the Air Force never trained him to do.

Author dedicates this article to Combat Controller Scott Sather, killed in action 8 April 2003 during a raid on K2 airfield in Iraq. Sather was a member of the 24th Special Operations Wing and “one of the finest combat controllers the USAF has ever produced.”

Danforth

Do You Have a Story for the Friends Journal?

Danforth

Author prepares to tandem jump with 600-pound equipment bundle in training in 2004.

Duke Danforth was a combat controller with ten combat deployments and three combat jumps. His last 11 years were as a member of the 24th Special Operations Wings where, as an instructor, he helped combat controllers and Joint Tactical Air Control Party members earn their joint terminal attack control certification. Danforth was also a static line jumpmaster,

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We love to hear from our Friends of their firsthand accounts of military service and combat. Our goal is to be able to present a variety of Air Force related stories from all eras in which the U.S. Air Force or its predecessors played a role.

If you or someone you know has a personal experience you think our readers would find interesting, please consider submitting a story to us. Writers with all levels of experience welcomed! Contact the editor at 937-656-9622 or pcoale@afmuseum.com with any questions you may have. The typical Friends Journal article is 3,000 words maximum, and includes three to five photographs. Your photos will be returned.

Submit manuscripts and photos to: Air Force Museum Foundation, Friends Journal Editor, P.O. Box 1903, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433. Or email it to pcoale@afmuseum.com