What about Bob Ericson justifies his induction into the South Dakota Hall of Fame?

Daniel Webster defined a patriot as one who loves, supports, and defends his country and its interests with devotion; so defines the life of Robert James Ericson.

Robert James (Bob) Ericson was a South Dakota native and American patriot who dedicated his life to the service of his country. Following graduation from Yankton College in 1951, Bob enlisted in the United States Air Force and began his professional career as an F-84 pilot with the USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC). During the period of 1951 to 1956, he was stationed at bases in Alaska, Maine, and Oklahoma where his principal mission was to defend the nation from nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.

In 1956, Bob was quitely recruited to work with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a top-secret reconnaissance program begun just the year before. The aircraft which he was subsequently to fly for the next thirty years was known militarily as the U-2 Spy Plane. Developed by what is now the Lockheed Martin Corporation, the U-2 was designed specifically for high-level surveillance and reconnaissance missions in the thin upper atmosphere up to 70,000 feet (13.25 miles).

At the time, the primary objective of the U-2 Program was to gather photo reconnaissance information over hostile and restricted geographies, most notably the Soviet Union. During the period of 1957 – 1960, Bob was stationed primarily at Incerlik Air Force Base in Adana, Turkey and flew numerous missions over the Soviet Union, photographing Soviet Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and nuclear weapon sites. Code name for the project was “Operation Overflight”.

Bob flew the last successful flight over the Soviet Union on April 9, 1960. Three weeks later, his fellow pilot and good friend Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile, thus launching an international incident and escalating Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Francis Gary Powers was subsequently arrested by Soviet authorities; tried and found guilty of espionage; and sentenced to ten years in prison. In February of 1962, the United States Government arranged for his release via a spy exchange with KGB agent Rudolph Abel.

Following his involvement with “Operation Overflight”, Bob continued to fly U2 missions over a number of countries including The People’s Republic of China, North Viet Nam, and Cuba. Reconnaissance photos from his flights over Cuba in 1964 provided evidence that the Soviet Union had established nuclear missiles directed at the United States on the island. On October 22, 1964, President Kennedy announced a maritime blockade of the country, thus heightening tensions with the Soviet Union. Six days later, the Soviet Union announced that it would withdraw its missiles from the country, thus de-escalating a nuclear show-down with the Soviet Union.

In December of 1970, Bob retired from the Air Force and began working as the head of U2 operations at the noted Lockheed Skunkworks in Burbank, California. During this period, he flew missions on behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) – Sioux Falls, SD. When he ended his flying career in 1980, he had recorded more than 4,300 U2 flight hours. Bob’s lifetime of service was not only critical to the safety of our state and country, but his activities played a big part in our nations history!