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America's Secret Migs

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America's Secret Migs THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE SECRET COLD WAR TRAINING PROGRAM RED EAGLES America’s Secret MiGs STEVE DAVIES FOREWORD BY GENERAL J. JUMPER © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com RED EAGLES America’s Secret MiGs OSPREY PUBLISHING © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com CONTENTS DEDICATION 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 7 FOREWORD 10 INTRODUCTION 12 PART 1 ACQUIRING “THE ASSETS” 15 Chapter 1: HAVE MiGs, 1968–69 16 Chapter 2: A Genesis for the Red Eagles, 1972–77 21 PART 2 LAYING THE GROUND WORK 49 Chapter 3: CONSTANT PEG and Tonopah, 1977–79 50 Chapter 4: The Red Eagles’ First Days and the Early MiGs 78 Chapter 5: The “Flogger” Arrives, 1980 126 Chapter 6: Gold Wings, 1981 138 PART 3 EXPANDED EXPOSURES AND RED FLAG, 1982–85 155 Chapter 7: The Fatalists, 1982 156 Chapter 8: Postai’s Crash 176 Chapter 9: Exposing the TAF, 1983 193 Chapter 10: “The Air Force is Coming,” 1984 221 Chapter 11: From Black to Gray, 1985 256 PART 4 THE FINAL YEARS, 1986–88 275 Chapter 12: Increasing Blue Air Exposures, 1986 276 Chapter 13: “Red Country,” 1987 293 Chapter 14: Arrival Shows, 1988 318 POSTSCRIPT 327 ENDNOTES 330 APPENDICES 334 GLOSSARY 342 INDEX 346 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com DEDICATION In memory of LtCdr Hugh “Bandit” Brown and Capt Mark “Toast” Postai — 6 — © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is a story about the Red Eagles: a group of men, and a handful of women, who provided America’s fighter pilots with a level of training that was the stuff of dreams. It was codenamed CONSTANT PEG. In a departure from the books that I usually write, this story is not grounded in absolute historical certainties, but rather is an amalgamation of the memories of 31 of a total of 69 Red Eagle pilots whose names appear on the official pilot roster of the 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron (TES), United States Air Force (USAF), between April 1977 and March 1988. In addition, I interviewed six maintainers and several other non-flying Red Eagles. I would love to have had a range of contemporary documents for reference, but sadly many have been lost, others were deliberately shredded in 1988, and those few that were preserved for declassification were burned in a safe when a hijacked airliner hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Simple arithmetic dictates that even the freshest memories were 20 years old when this book was written, and that the oldest have had more than 30 years to dim. This fact is important, because in the course of the 65 hours of taped interviews I conducted and transcribed, there were many contradictions and disagreements about what happened and when, at the hands of whom, and why. Throughout the text I have relied extensively on quotations taken from these interviews, which were conducted in person or over the telephone between January and September 2007. Moreover, there are parts to this story that the USAF and US Navy have yet to declassify. It was always made clear to me that there were rules governing what people could and could not say when talking about this story. I was not going to be given information about MiG operations that pre-dated 1979; the source of the MiGs was off-limits; and a definite no-no was any discussion related to flying MiGs from locations other than Tonopah, the home of — 7 — © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com — RED EAGLES — CONSTANT PEG, situated in the remote Nellis Ranges of Nevada. These rules were enforced without compromise by those who still work for the Air Force, and in particular by Gail Peck and Earl Henderson. I honored all of these restrictions, and never once pushed a line of questioning into prohibited areas. It was instinctive, however, to want to tell as much of the story about the MiGs, and the genesis for the Red Eagles, as I could. The declassified history of CONSTANT PEG would suggest that the MiGs appeared all of a sudden on July 17, 1979. This appearance is the aeronautical equivalent of a magician pulling a rabbit from his seemingly empty hat, but even a small child knows that somewhere within the hat’s lid there must be a hidden compartment. In fact, the US MiGs have a secret genesis that extends back more than a decade to 1968. A lot of that genesis remains classified, even today. With all these elements in mind, I wrote this book in a manner that I think gives the most complete and accurate picture of the tactical applications for America’s MiGs from 1968 to 1988 – there’s more than enough for another book about the technical exploitation of America’s MiGs, but I will leave that for someone else to write. I have discussed what I believe to be the likely sources of the MiGs. I have discussed the programs that led to the creation of the Red Eagles in 1977. I have discussed the types of MiGs that I believe were in use. Furthermore, I have mentioned the other location that everybody knows about, but whose name no one says aloud. But I have based such discussions on my own deductions and understandings, providing more details in the form of endnotes where appropriate. There is the possibility that some of the facts may be wrong, but they are as accurate as I can gather. While not everybody who reads this book is going to agree with its version of events, I have done my best to accommodate the many different views and recollections from over the years. This book is written “warts ’n all,” but I stopped short of demonizing certain individuals, and of conveying some of the uglier politicking and disagreements that pervade any squadron from time to time. Instead, I preferred to try and tell a balanced story with an emphasis as much on the people who made it happen as on the actual MiGs. Regrettably, the maintainers closed ranks on me early on, despite many agreeing to be interviewed. Some just did not bother turning up to pre-arranged interviews when I visited Nellis Air Force Base (AFB) in February 2007. They offered no excuse or apology. Others stopped responding to phone calls and email messages. At the time I thought it odd, but as the story of the squadron played out, this behavior became less than surprising. — 8 — © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com RedEaglesLayouts FINAL.qxd 14/3/11 11:10 Page 9 — ACKNOWLEDGMENTS — The reality is that everything you read about in this book happened because of the extraordinary talent and dedication of these maintainers. This book should have given additional exposure to the expertise and sacrifices of the maintainers; since only a handful agreed to be interviewed, their collective role appears to be far less prominent in the text than it actually was. There are lots of people to thank, but none more so than LtCol (ret.) Earl “Obi Wan” Henderson and Col (ret.) Mike “Scotty” Scott, who read numerous iterations of this manuscript and spent tens of hours proofing and offering suggestions. Earl was a stoic supporter of this book from the outset, and he provided me with his office (and car) when I visited Nellis AFB to conduct interviews that he had set up on my behalf. He also gave me his backing, and that helped open doors that had remained shut for decades. Earl’s son, Neil, was also a fine host who helped smooth my visit to Vegas. LtCol (USMC ret.) Lenny Bucko, and Col (ret.) Paco Geisler were also prominent supporters who helped with my research and constantly answered questions without once complaining. I also thank Jerry Bickford, Rick Wagner, Rob Geer, and Brad Fisher, maintainers who lent me their individual support and expertise, but whose stories I was unable to incorporate into the text because of constraints in time and word count. Finally, I would like to thank Col (ret.) Jack Manclark, without whom the 4477th TES would never have been declassified. Jack also gave me his support, putting me in touch with Earl early on, and lending this project a seal of approval that also helped open doors. In addition, I thank the following for contributing their time and energy in helping to make this book possible: Adm John Nathman, R/Adm (ret.) Jim Robb, LtGen (ret.) John Hall, Capt (USN ret.) Cary Silvers, Col (ret.) Phil White, Col (ret.) George Gennin, Col (ret.) Tom Gibbs, Col (ret.) Ted Thompson, Col (ret.) Sam Therrien, LtCol (ret.) Paul Stucky, Col (ret.) Mike Simmons, Col (ret.) Mike Press, Col (ret.) Denny Phelan, Col (ret.) Gail Peck, Col (ret.) Joe Oberle, LtCol (ret.) Bert Myers, Col (ret.) George Tullos, Cdr (USN ret.) Tom Morgenfeld, Col (ret.) “Kobe” Mayo, Col (ret.) John Mann, Col (ret.) Tom Boma, Tony Mahoney, Cdr (ret.) Marty Macy, LtCol (ret.) Jim Matheny, LtCol (ret.) Larry Shervanick, LtCol (ret.) Dud Larsen, Bob Sheffield, Maj (ret.) John Nelson, Maj (ret.) Dan Futryk, Maj (ret.) Bob Drabant, Doug Robinson, Chico Noriega, Linda Jung, Linda Hughes, Thomas Newdick, Tom Cooper, Peter Merlin, and my good friend, Col (ret.) Doug Dildy, who proofread my manuscript and told me what a great guy Mark Postai had been. If you would like to learn more about the Red Eagles, or would like to interact with some of the Red Eagles’ pilots and maintainers, please visit: http://fjphotography.com/constantpeg — 9 — © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com FOREWORD The names are legendary among generations of fighter pilots: HAVE DOUGHNUT, HAVE DRILL, CONSTANT PEG, Red Hats, Red Eagles, and the 4477th. The people are also legends: Frick, Peck, Iverson, Oberle, Manclark, McCloud, Nathman, Ellis.
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