Category: History time

Howdy, all!

The following appeared in the March 2018 issue of the IPMS/Mid-Carolina Swamp Fox Modelers' newsletter, The Newsflash.  It is a subject that I had been researching for a few years, and given that we are approaching the anniversary of the day in 1962 when President Kennedy announced the presence of Cuban missile sites, it seemed fitting to post it here.

********************************************************************

Many of you know that I’m a history geek at heart.  I lived in South Florida for 30 years, and as a result I have an ongoing interest in Florida’s history.  In recent years, I have taken to researching the area during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  And, if you know where to look, you’ll find a load of Cold War history. 

In 1959, a Cuban B-26 Invader left Cuban airspace and established a northerly heading.  It landed hours later in Daytona Beach.  It was never detected nor challenged by any U.S. Air Defense assets.

A year earlier, the U.S. Army had determined that there was a need to strengthen the air defense of the Gulf Coast, and formulated a plan to establish 41 Hawk missile batteries—12 were slated for Florida alone.  But that would soon change…

In October 1962, U.S. Air Force reconnaissance planes discovered the construction sites for Soviet medium- and long-range ballistic missiles on the island nation—the Cubans had allowed the Soviets to base their missiles there as a threat to the U.S. mainland directly.  President Kennedy established his “quarantine” on Cuba, and eventually the Soviets and Cubans backed down.

Meanwhile, Florida became one huge armory.  Assets from all branches of the military were sent to various Florida bases on Temporary Duty (TDY)—some staying for months, others for years.  At the same time, the air defense assets were also stepped up.  South Florida became the scene for various installations of HAWK, Nike-Ajax, and Nike-Hercules missiles.  Many of these installations remained until the early 1980’s before they were stood down, abandoned, and left to the elements…and if you know where to look, you can still see vestiges of them to this day.

The key to finding many of these sites is to know two things: the basic footprint of these facilities, and how many of them have been re-purposed after their military use.  In the case of the HAWK missile batteries, many of them have reverted to local city or county control and have been used as sites for schools, day care facilities, juvenile detention centers, or other educational purposes.  The Nike sites, on the other hand, were largely abandoned and allowed to become one with the scenery.  The reasoning behind this is because while the HAWK batteries were single-location sites (the missiles and guidance packages were erected at the same site), the Nike sites consisted of a launch site and a control site a distance away.  The launch site contained the magazines (in South Florida, these were large hangars the crews called “barns”; in other areas they were underground and hardened against attack).  The control centers contained the radar sites (the Ajax used one type, the Hercules used another) that consisted of control buildings, antenna farms, and radar towers.  The key to both are loop roads.  That’s right—most of these sites were surrounded by a loop service road, and in a survey of Google Maps, they tend to stand out clearly.  Many of these sites have not been totally bulldozed (yet), so their original layout is still visible.  In South Florida, the one exception I have found is the Nike-Hercules site HM-95.  The Launch Site is now the home to the Krome Detention Center and has largely been rebuilt and reconfigured since it shut down in 1979, and the Control Site was recently demolished after years of being an attraction for various groups of ne’er-do-wells and amateur archaeologists.

Initially, many of these sites were deemed temporary, but after the Missile Crisis was resolved, some were made permanent.  Other batteries were relocated to permanent sites.  I’m only going to cover the permanent sites and how they look today.  The images are courtesy of Google Maps.

Finally, a note:  For those who want to do your own “digging”, please note that many of these sites are private property, some of them are restricted, and if caught on site, you will more than likely be arrested and become a guest of the city, county, state, or Federal Government.  They have not been maintained, and are therefore getting run down and quite rickety.  They are usually in pretty remote areas, so if you have an accident, help may not be able to find you.  And, given the fact that this is South Florida, many have become havens for the local flora and, more to the point, fauna—think spiders and snakes and other critters that can be unpredictable, especially when you come tromping in and invading their home.  So, it may be best to visit the sites that are public (HM-69 is now run by the National Parks Service and offers tours) and leave the abandoned sites, well, abandoned.

Starting with the HAWK missiles, there were four sites around Miami and Homestead:  HM-12, HM-39, HM-59, and HM-84.  There were also four HAWK Batteries around Key West International Airport and Naval Air Station Key West. 

HM-12:  The battery known as HM-12 was located on SW 87^th Avenue in the Cutler Ridge area.  The location now houses a school, one of the many uses these sites have served after they were vacated.  Part of the original site has been left to nature, but one of the service loop roads remains.

 

HM-39:  The HM-39 site lies approximately three miles east of the Homestead-Miami Speedway and three miles southeast of the Homestead Air Reserve Base on SW 334^th Street and SW 102^nd Ave.  Like HM-12, it is now occupied by a school – in this case, a day care facility.  It is largely used by employees of the nearby Turkey Point Nuclear Facility.

 

HM-59:  HM-59 was located along SW 424^th Street, just west of U.S. Highway 1, south of Homestead in unincorporated Miami-Dade County.  It is currently used as a Juvenile Residential Facility (“Reform School” back in the day).

 

HM-84:  HM-84 lies in the Goulds area of West Miami-Dade County.  It is now being used as a nursery.  Most of the area in and around Goulds has become farms and nurseries.

 

Now, let’s take a look at the Key West HAWK sites.  The following image was taken from the Keys History site, and shows the locations of the batteries.  Key West International Airport is on the left, NAS Key West is to the right.

 

Alpha Battery:  This is how Alpha Battery looks today.  It is now the site of the U.S. Army Special Operations Underwater Operations School.  The footprint is unmistakable.

 

Bravo Battery:  Also known as the Little Hamaca site, it is located on the property of the Key West International Airport.  It is rather decrepit these days, but again, the footprint is a dead giveaway of the site’s past.  The FAA has a communications site and has erected several antennas there; otherwise it is much as it was when it was built.

 

Charlie Battery:  Charlie Battery lies east of the NAS Key West runways.  It appears to be overgrown, but there has been a movement in recent years to rehabilitate the site and use it as an RV park.

 

Delta Battery:  Delta Battery is almost due north of NAS Key West.  It, like Bravo, is a bit on the tatty side these days.  A NOAA Doppler Radar is on site (the white ball on the lower left hand side of the photo) and the site is used for Special Forces training.  Again, note the footprint.

 

The MIM-23 HAWK Missile was a medium range Surface-to-Air missile built by Raytheon.  A more mobile missile than the Nike Hercules, it was also more compact due to the advances in electronics that led to miniaturization of the components.  It saw U.S. Army and USMC service from 1960 until 2002.  Other users include Israel, Turkey, Greece, and Iran (who modified some to be carried on its F-14A Tomcats!).

The best model kit of the HAWK is the new 1/35 scale AFV Club kit.  It is well detailed, and per the online reviews, it fits very well.  Next down the order would be the new Dragon kit, also in 1/35 scale.  For the die-hard masochists, there’s always the Revell-Renwal kit in approximately 1/40 scale.

Now, let’s examine the Nike sites.  They were designated HM-01 (later HM-03), HM-40, HM-65 (later HM-66), HM-69, and HM-95.

HM-01 started as a Nike Ajax site in Carol City, to the northwest of Miami.  Later, when the missiles were changed to Nike Hercules, the designation changed to HM-03.  An interesting tidbit on this site:  My last apartment in Florida was about 5 miles as the crow flies from the launch site, and 8 miles from the control site.  Here’s how they look today:

The control site for HM-01/HM-03 is a vacant lot, but still has the characteristic appearance of a Nike control site.

The launch site for HM-01 is located near NW 67 Ave (Flamingo Road) and the Florida Turnpike, just south of the Broward/Miami-Dade county line.  The layout is typical for an above ground Nike site.  The three cleared areas are where the barns stood that held the missiles.

 

HM-40:  The HM-40 site is located off Old State Road 905 on North Key Largo.  This site is largely overgrown these days.  The native fauna is slowly taking back the sites.

The HM-40 Control Site.  On the left side of the photo you can see the hexagonal tower platforms that were built for the guidance radars (LOPAR and HIPAR), almost covered by the trees–the towers are some 40 to 60 feet tall.  To the right you can make out some of the site’s buildings, many of which still remain intact. 

And here’s how the HM-40 launch site appears today.  You can make out the loop road serving the launchers.  The rectangular lake alongside the side was a result of the Army Corps of Engineers efforts to provide fill for the launch site.  You will see that in several of the former missile sites in South Florida, and again around the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville—they would dig fill to make a mound, put a telemetry station (or, in this case, missile barns) on the mound, and let the hole fill in.  The fishing around the sites in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge adjacent to the Space Center is particularly good, if you don’t mind sharing your fishing spot with alligators…

 

HM-65/HM-66:  This site is located southwest of the Homestead-Miami Speedway, and is not consistent with the others in construction.  The launch site is to the left in the photo, and the control site is in the center-right.  It was initially a temporary Nike Ajax site, and was later allocated Nike Hercules missiles and moved to Key Largo to the site designated HM-40.  Notice the lack of radar towers and the proximity of the control site to the launch site, typical of the temporary sites erected for the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Why am I including this one?  Well, in 1963 the site was leased by Aerojet General (the same people who brought you the Standard Anti-Radiation missile used by Wild Weasels) and used as a rocket motor test site for the space program.  If you get curious, look up the Aerojet Dade Rocket Facility here:  https://www.abandonedfl.com/aerojet-dade/ .

It is a neat story in and of itself.

 

HM-69:  Of all the missile sites in and around South Florida, this is the one in the best material condition.  Located in the region of the Everglades known as “The Hole in the Doughnut”, it is farthest away from the inhabited area of southwest Miami-Dade County. 

This is the former HM-69 Control Site.  It is now the Daniel Beard Research Center, featuring new buildings.  The roads around the building are a mix of new and old.

And here is the launch site, complete with the three barns standing intact.  This site is being run by the National Parks Service, and tours are available from December through April.  There is an actual Nike Hercules missile on site that was restored to near new condition.  Like the Titan at the Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley, Arizona, this was a missile used for training and was never fueled. 

 

HM-95:  This site is located in western Miami-Dade County along the road known as Krome Avenue.

The control site buildings, as I alluded to above, have been demolished.  All that exists of the site now are the concrete pads and foundations.  There is no news as to what will become of the site, but I imagine the city or county will find a use for it.

And, finally, the HM-95 launch site.  The footprint of the upper complex, where the launch barns and launchers were, shows the typical layout of a Nike site, but a lot of construction over the years has altered the landscape to a degree.  The butterfly-shaped buildings in the lower complex are the new detention buildings.  This facility was used to house Cuban refugees from the Mariel Boatlift after it was found that the Tent City erected under I-95 in the Little Haiti area of Miami wasn’t adequate, nor were any of the others—they were too close to the population center, and woefully undersized and understaffed for the number of people housed there.  The decision was made late in 1980 to consolidate everyone at the missile site, which had been in use by the Army up until the fall of 1979.  At first, they simply moved the tents from Miami to Krome Avenue, and eventually erected the buildings you see here.  The Detention Center is still in operation today.

In model form, one used to be limited to the ancient Revell and Renwal kits of the Nike Hercules and Nike Ajax.  However, here's a news flash:  Freedom Models now offers a Nike Hercules in 1/35 scale.  I have to get one, I think…and perhaps they will see their way clear into a Nike Ajax, too!

There are several websites that cover the Homestead-Miami Defense Area.  A few of them are:

The general Nike Missile history site has a little of everything.  Dig around; you will find copies of tech manuals for your research and reference delight:  http://nikemissile.org/

Ed Thelan’s site, a veritable treasure trove:  http://ed-thelen.org/

The Park Service’s page for HM-69:  https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/historyculture/hm69.htm

Don Boyd’s South Florida site, with lots of pictures: http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/memories_missile_bases

Keys History’s bit on HM-40: http://www.keyshistory.org/KL-NikeSite.html

Another story on HM-40: http://www.thebohemianblog.com/2016/01/wmds-in-the-florida-keys-the-abandoned-nike-missile-site-hm-40.html

Another Nike site: http://www.nike252.org/

A general overview of the Homestead-Miami Defense Area: http://www.themilitarystandard.com/missile/nike/homestead-fl.php

Keys History’s HAWK Missile page: http://www.keyshistory.org/Hawk-KWMissiles.html

Another look at one of the HAWK batteries on Key West: https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2010/03/hawk-missiles.html

A great page on the HAWK batteries on Key West:  http://www.missilesofkeywest.com/

This just scratches the surface.  I encourage all of you to poke around and see what else you may find.  Be curious.  Be resourceful.  And never stop learning.

****************************************

That's all I have for today.  Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

Howdy…

I was on the road again for the past two weeks.  The phrase "It's said the West is nice this time of year" is certainly true–nighttime lows in the high 50's, daytime highs in the mid- to high 80's…

————————————————————————————————————————-

I had occasion to speak with a high school classmate a few weekends ago.  That 20-minute phone call stirred up such a rush of nostalgia that it prompted me to bat out a six-page missive that was originally intended to be posted here as a follow-on to my last post.  The more I wrote, the more I decided that the piece was more for me than it was for anyone else, and has been filed away in my folder called "Personal Musings". 

In effect, it was an essay on history–my history.  And I think it is good to go back and visit history, whether it is your personal history (either through memory or some sort of journal), as well as events that shaped the world around you.

 

I grew up in a small suburb of Ft. Lauderdale called Lauderhill.  The family moved there in August of 1971.  At the time,  Lauderhill was only starting to grow on the west side of the Florida Turnpike, and we were there to see the beginnings of it.  Now, I didn't know squat about history then–I wouldn't take an interest in history for another year or two.  All I knew was that the folks on the East side of Lauderhill had been there for a while, while most of us on the West side had only recently arrived–from other areas of the city, from other areas of the county, and, like us, from out of state.

I had a lot to learn.

As time marched on, I started to be aware of the events around me.  My first real knowledge of a historic event had to have been the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis.  I didn't fully understand what was happening, but I know the story I was seeing captivated me.  I didn't really understand the significance of the events until I was a few years older, then it took on a whole different meaning to me.

The next event I recall would have been the 1973 Yom Kippur War.  Why?  The Oil Crisis.  It was a direct result of the war.  Again, I still didn't understand the strife between the Arabs and Israelis back then.  I soon would, and again, my mind was opened up to the vast amount of history that I did not yet know.  1974 saw Watergate and the Nixon resignation.  1975, the evacuation of Saigon.  And so on…

It was about then that I started to make a conscious effort to learn history.  On my own, no prompting.  I read books.  Lots of books.  Fiction?  Nope, don't need it.  I wanted the straight dope, the real stuff.  For some unknown reason, my interests focused initially on the Second World War.  More specifically, they focused on the air war from 1935 until 1945.  I ate the stories up.  I read all the books I could.  I asked for–and received–Edward Jablonski's massive tome "Airwar" one Christmas, and read it from cover to cover over Christmas break.  (If you've never heard of it, it was initially a four-volume set.  The version I received was all four volumes bound into one book.  It is a big book!) 

All of this, of course, fed my interest in making models of all those airplanes I read about.  When NBC started airing the show "Baa Baa Black Sheep", I wouldn't miss an episode.  I had seen a photo of the F4U Corsair earlier and thought it was the coolest airplane I had ever seen.  Those of you who sat through my "Every Model Tells A Story" seminar at the 2016 IPMS/USA National Convention know that finding the "best" model kit of a Corsair became my Great White Whale until about 1981, when I finally laid hands on the Otaki 1/48 scale kit…

Growing up, I was fairly good in school.  I had the good fortune of being able to suck up information like a sponge and manage to retain it for quite some time.  I was especially good at the Liberal Arts stuff–writing, social studies, history–and I was good working with my hands.  On the pure science and math side of the ledger, I did okay, but if you'll recall my post of a few years ago titled "1984", it couldn't quite carry me through Aeronautical Engineering.  At a crossroads, my mother reminded me of something that I will never forget.  She told me, "Your dilemma is that you have Technical hands and a Liberal Arts mind." 

She was, of course, correct.  As I considered my path forward, I thought of switching to a History major.  But, here's Mom again, reminding me that History majors do one of two things:  Teach or work at museums.  For peanuts.  (My wife, whose undergrad degree is in History, has also reminded me of these facts…)

As much as a career as an historian intrigued me, I fell back on my Technical hands and studied avionics, earned my degrees, and have worked in the industry pretty much ever since.  Even when I got laid off in 2009, while I poked around looking at Master's courses in history, I knew that the Siren named aviation would come to me, calling me back into the fold… 

Then came last year.  Actually, August of 2015–the time we were told that the company was moving the shop from Columbia, and that we could move with it if we wanted to, with everything that entailed.  And once again, I began poking around, looking at Master's programs in History.  This time, I came to the conclusion that should I head down that road, I'd be 70 years old before I paid off the loans, and would be thrown right back to the bottom of the employment totem pole, making peanuts.  Every now and then I still think it would be a cool thing to do, but the mortgage and light bills pull me back to reality.

By the way, my selected field, had I actually enrolled?  Middle Eastern History of the 20th Century.  It fascinates me.

Instead, I'm exercising my Liberal Arts mind in another way, writing technical documents to support avionics modifications programs.  That's what has seen me traveling back and forth to Arizona.  That's what's paying my bills.

But I still have that undying curiosity for all things history.  It is, to this day, reflected in the books I like to read, in the models that I build, and the places I go.  I've written before how I was on an aviation museum kick back in 2012/2013.  My last post spoke about how I finally paid a return visit to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson.  For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you see it in my posts–most of them have some historical tidbit that I toss out to people, hoping they'll bite on the nugget and go read further.  

Why?

I just find it, well, cool.

What frustrates me is that I don't see a whole lot of young folks who have the same curiosity.  For anything, let alone history.  It came as a breath of fresh air when a Facebook friend posted that her son wanted to teach history. 

There is hope for us yet.

—————————————————————————————————————————-

While in Mesa, I was able to catch a few hours of ModelZona 2017 at the Commemorative Air Force's Falcon Field location.  I thought it funny when I started to bump into people I know, one after the other, within minutes of entering the venue…I was having a difficult time trying to see the show itself!

I thought it was a nice show–not having been there for the whole show, what I did see was well-run.  There was a lot of great work on the tables, too many for me to recall right now.  Probably the most interesting model I saw was a scratchbuilt 1/48 C-54.

All in all, it was an enjoyable break from work.  Thanks and congratulations to the Craig Hewitt chapter of IPMS/USA for putting on such a fine event.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Speaking of model shows, mark your calendars now for the South Carolina Scale Model Mega Show, to be held on Saturday, 23 June 2018, at the Bluff Road Armory in Columbia.  It will be a jointly-hosted show between the AMPS Central South Carolina Wildcats and the IPMS/USA Mid-Carolina Swamp Fox Modelers.  Details to come…

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

 

24 April is another one of "those anniversaries" that are vivid in my memory.  I'll elaborate the "why" later, but first let's cover the "what"…

In late 1979, the Ayatollahs came to power in Iran, sparking what was then called a "student uprising".  During that uprising, the Shah, a man put into power in the early 1950's by a U.S.-led coup, fled the country.  He was, during his reign, a tyrant–he would do his best to keep the common Iranian down while also doing his best to see that the rich Iranians got richer.  At the time he left the country, he was also ill–he was suffering from cancer, a malady that would take his life soon after.

During all the demonstrations, the insurgents demonstrated outside the Embassies of the Western powers.  To this day, I can still vividly remember the chants, "Death to Carter, Death to the Shah!", referring, of course, to President Jimmy Carter and the now-deposed Shah.  At some point, the American embassy was stormed and the workers taken captive.  Ultimately, 52 Americans would be held for 444 days, gaining their release just after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981. 

However, in 1980 President Carter wanted to do more than negotiate, and had formulated plans for a massive rescue mission.  That mission would be called Operation Eagle Claw.  It involved assets from all branches of the military–Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.  It was a complicated plan, too:  An advance mission on 1 April transported one Air Force Combat Air Controller went into Iran and selected the first landing site, called Desert One.  He installed infrared landing lights and took soil samples–he reported back that the site was hard-packed sand.  Three weeks later, the surface had accumulated a layer of fine, powdery sand, unknown to mission planners.

The mission as planned:  Three USAF EC-130E's (call signs Republic 4, 5, and 6) would carry the members of the Army's new elite Delta Force and some 6,000 gallons of jet fuel in collapsible bladders to refuel the Navy helicopters.  Three USAF MC-130E Combat Talon aircraft (call signs Dragon 1, 2, and 3) would carry logistical support equipment.  Eight RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (call signs Bluebeard 1 through 8, located in the Persian Gulf, would rendezvous with the C-130's at Desert One.  Once at Desert One, the Delta Force would embark on the RH-53's and be flown to another remote landing site, Desert Two.  There they would spend the next day.  Come nightfall, Delta Force would drive into Tehran in trucks brought to Desert Two by CIA operatives.  The helicopters would reposition to a nearby football stadium and wait.  Delta force would storm the Embassy and any other holding sites, neutralize the Iranian guards, and free the Americans.  Other members of the ground combat force would destroy power stations to keep the Iranians pinned down.  USAF AC-130 gunships would be orbiting over the area to add close air support, and Army Rangers were to neutralize and capture the nearby Manzariyeh Air Base, where USAF C-141 Starlifters would land.  The ground forces and freed hostages would rendezvous with the helicopters and the football stadium and would be flown to the air base.  They would then board the C-141's and be flown to safety.

That's the mission in theory.  Here's how reality played out…

24 April 1980:  All the aircraft departed from their bases as scheduled.  The MC-130s and EC-130s were able to locate Desert One and land–Dragon 1 was the first in, and sustained damage upon landing.  It was able to offload personnel and equipment and was able to fly out, but would require extensive maintenance afterwards to repair the damage. 

Meanwhile, the RH-53s began to have problems.  Bluebeard 6 had to land in the desert because the crew were getting a warning light that pointed to a cracked rotor blade.  The crew abandoned the aircraft and were recovered by Bluebeard 8.  The rest of the helicopter group was overcome by a haboob, a sudden and severe dust storm frequent to the region.  Bluebeard 5 returned to Nimitz when its flight instruments malfunctioned.  The remaining helicopters arrived at Desert One.  When Bluebeard 2, the last to arrive, landed, they were a full 90 minutes behind schedule.  To make matters worse, Bluebeard 2 had a malfunctioning hydraulic system, leaving only a single system to operate the aircraft.

In the meantime, Army Rangers intercepted and destroyed a truck smuggling gasoline.  This was both bad and good:  the fires lit up the night, but also provided a visual beacon for the helicopter force.  Later, a bus carrying some 44 civilians was stopped and the passengers detained on Republic 3.

With all the aircraft that would arrive on scene, COL Charlie Beckwith (commander of Delta Force) was at a dilemma:  Mission plans clearly stated that if there were any fewer than six helicopters, the mission was to be aborted.  The Navy flight crews, all too well aware of what a total loss of hydraulic pressure would do to a Sea Stallion, decided that Bluebeard 2 was to be shut down and taken off the mission.  This left five helicopters to continue, one less than the plan called for.  Discussions between commanders on scene and in Washington led to the decision to abort the mission.  Bluebeard 2 was to be left, and the aircraft were to return to base.  The civilians from the bus were released, but the bus was disabled.

And this wasn't the bad news.

The helicopters needed to be refueled from the EC-130's.  Republic 4 was also low on fuel, and had already transferred its bladder fuel to the helicopters.  It was now at a point where it needed to depart immediately if it had any hope of getting home.  In order to do so, the aircraft needed to be re-arranged.  Since the ground had that ankle-deep layer of powder, the easiest way to move the helicopters was to air taxi them.  Bluebeard 3 had to be moved in order to get Republic 4 and Bluebeard 4 repositioned–Republic 4 to depart and Bluebeard 4 to refuel from another EC-130.  A USAF Combat Air Controller began to marshal Bluebeard 3 away from Republic 4, but as the helicopter became airborne it caused a huge dust cloud to form and also caused the CAC to start to move away from the helicopter.  Being the helicopter pilot's only visual reference, he tried to maintain a constant distance from the CAC, not knowing that the CAC was being blown over by the rotor wash.  Shortly, the main rotor of Bluebeard 3 contacted the tail surfaces of Republic 4.  Both aircraft caught fire.  Republic 4 still had residual fuel in the bladder tanks.  The flames spread quickly.  Eight American servicemen were killed that night on the Iranian desert, five airman from Republic 4 and three Marines from Bluebeard 3.  Along with the loss of life, we lost many classified documents on the RH-53s that were abandoned when all hell broke loose.

It was a debacle.  There is no other word for it.

So, why do I recall the events to this day?  One, I had the day off from school–it was a teacher workday, I think–and remember waking up to the news.  As a kid of 16, I couldn't understand how my country could fail this miserably.  I was old enough to recall the Vietnam War, and the trials and tribulations attached to it.  I thought that was bad enough, but now here we were again, embarrassed in the eyes of the whole world.

As I got older and started to become more worldly (in other words, I not only got older, I got wiser as well), I came to learn that there were outside circumstances that were attached to our involvement in Iran.  The moral of the story is as Jack Ryan told Captain Ramius in "The Hunt for Red October": "It is good to know a little about one's adversary, don't you think?"

In the years following Eagle Claw, the military revised procedures for their anti-terrorist and Special Forces.  Procedures were put into place for better inter-service cooperation and better intra-branch cooperation.  Better equipment was devised and purchased.  Better training was implemented.  The culmination of all this was evident during Operation Desert Storm…

If you want some homework, I'd suggest trying to find a copy of Steven Kinzer's "All The Shah's Men".  The book covers the ouster of Mohammed Mossadegh and the return of the Shah to power.  Also, The Atlantic published a good article on Operation Eagle Claw.  Educate yourself on the history of our world, you might be surprised what you learn.

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another.  I bid you Peace…

 

 

In addition to being Tax Day here in the U.S., 15 April is also the anniversary of what is now being called "The first shot in the International War on Terror."  I'm speaking, of course, of the 1986 bombing raid on Libya, otherwise known as Operation El Dorado Canyon.

For those who don't recall life before MTV, a PC in every home, and satellite television, here's a capsule history for you to chew on.  In the late 1970's and early 1980's, Libya's leader, Muammar Al-Gadhafi, started expressing anti-Western and anti-American sentiments to the world.  One of the things he did was to declare the entire Gulf of Sidra as Libyan territory, while the rest of the world respected the international standard of 12 nautical miles as the limit to territorial waters.  The United States Navy would conduct operations there, and in 1981 two Libyan SU-22 Fitters tired to intercept two F-14A Tomcats of VF-41.  They came out on the short end of the deal; the Tomcats handily dispatched both Libyan aircraft.

Tensions continued to escalate through the early 1980's.  In 1986, the LaBelle discotheque was bombed; three persons were killed (two of them American) and a few hundred were injured.  Investigations pointed to the Libyans as the driving force behind the bombings, so President Ronald Reagan gave the approval to bomb targets inside Libya.

The original raid was planned to use only U.S. Navy assets, but the target list expanded quickly and by the time it was close to being finalized, it was realized that there weren't enough Naval aviation assets to do the job.  So, the operation was expanded to include F-111F's from the 48 Tactical Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath and several of the then-new EF-111A Raven Electronic Warfare aircraft with the 20TFW based at RAF Upper Heyford. 

In order to make the shortest flights possible, the Aardvarks and Ravens would have to fly through French, Spanish, and Italian airspace.  All three countries refused to allow the overflights, so the mission was planned to fly around the Iberian peninsula and along the coast of North Africa before striking their targets.  The longer flight path would also require a tremendous amount of tanker support, which added more complexity to an already complex mission.  In late 1985 Operation Ghost Rider, a simulated attack against targets in Canada, was flown by F-111E's from the 20TFW to prove the various aspects of such a long mission; the lessons learned were passed along to the Lakenheath group.  (Trivia:  Libya could have been the combat debut of the F-117, but the plans were scotched because the Pentagon didn't want to let the Stealth cat out of the bag should something bad happen…the Wobbly Goblin's combat initiation would have to wait for Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama.)

As the various groups of aircraft flew in to their target areas, the Libyans became aware that something was up (it is also widely believed that they were tipped off), and some of the anti-aircraft batteries started to return fire.  Reports vary, but as the Karma cell of F-111F's exited the target area, the aircraft with the call sign Karma 52 (F-111F S/N 70-2389) was lost.  It was not confirmed until all of the aircraft marshaled at their assigned tanker, but nothing changed–Karma 52 was missing.  The crew, Captains Fernando Ribas-Dominicci and Paul Lorance, were listed killed in action during the raid.  Stories have varied over the years, but it is fairly certain that the airplane was hit by AAA and the crew ejected.  Due to the altitude, it is presumed that the escape module parachutes did not fully deploy and the capsule hit the water hard.

After denying that they held the remains of the crew, the body of Ribas-Dominicci (initially identified as those of Captain Lorence) was returned to the family via the Vatican in 1988.  An autopsy performed showed that Ribas-Dominicci had minor injuries and that the cause of death was drowning.  The remains of Captain Lorence are still unaccounted for.

So, why the interest in this one-time, one-night raid?  Well, in short because it is still such a mystery.  What actually happened to Karma 52?  Did they indeed get shot down, or did the airplane somehow fail?  Did the crew eject?  If so, did the capsule fill with water and sink, taking Captain Lorence to a watery grave?  Was the crew unconscious after the escape module landed?  Did Captain Ribas-Dominicci exit the capsule and then drown?  And, finally, what happened to Captain Lorence?  Stories have circulated that the Libyans have both pilots' flight suits and helmets, plus parts from the aircraft, in Gadhafi's home in Tripoli.  Where are those artifacts now? Surely, somebody has the answers–but with the events in Libya over the past few years I fear that the answers–many of them, at least–have died with Col. Gadhafi and other members of his leadership council.

Also, in my years in aviation, I have come to be acquainted with more members of the Aardvark community than any other.  My interest in the F-111 goes back to when I was a kid.  The airplane was just plan old neat to me–then and now.  The 'Vark is gone now, retired after Operation Desert Storm, but the stories of the F-111 and her crews live on.

And so, every year on 15 April I stop and remember the loss of two Americans, crewmen on an F-111 flying a mission that, it was hoped, would stop Libya's terrorist activities.  Whether or not we accomplished that is up to history.  In any case, Gadhafi is gone now, Karma indeed caught up with him.

As always, thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.