Letters [email protected]

Lavelle and Schwalier famous military scapegoats, Kimmel, not to be useful and was transferred Your recent editorial “Justice Rejected” Short, and McVay, are so far the same to TAC in 1957, along with many other [March, p. 2] accurately reports that John as for Lavelle and Schwalier: none. fighters. Thus RAF Stations Bentwaters D. Lavelle continues to be denied justice Tom Kimmel and Woodbridge played important roles. in the face of overwhelming evidence that Cocoa Beach, Fla. The principal architect was Lt. Col. John he honorably carried out the orders of his Burns, who led the effort when we were Commander in Chief. It is disappointing Matador and Mace at Bergstrom Air Force Base at Austin, to note that Senator McCain has not fol­ I read with great interest the article Tex., in 1958. I was proud to play a sup­ lowed up on his promise to act quickly on titled, “Victor Alert,” in the March 2011 porting role. the nomination for posthumous promo­ issue of Air Force Magazine [p. 58]. Al­ Lt. Gen. Phil Gast, tion, particularly when one considers that though the author did a good job describ­ USAF (Ret.) his grandfather, Admiral John S. (“Slew”) ing the role that the fighter squadrons Durham, N.C. McCain, is the only other senior officer to played in supporting the Victor Alert effort be promoted posthumously to four-star in Europe, there were several missile Thanks for recognizing those who rank after being fired from his job. organizations that supported the Victor spent time in those alert facilities, McCain had led the fast carrier task Alert requirement during the period of but you did not mention that senior force in the Pacific Ocean Theatre through the article that were not mentioned. enlisted personnel were assigned in the decisive naval battles of World War Rebecca Grant did not even recognize 1968 to manage and operate Victor II with great skill and courage. He took the fact that the TM-76A (MGM-13B) Alert facilities. January 1968, I was the blame, and was denied promotion to Mace missiles of the 38th Tactical Missile reassigned from Wurtsmith Air Force four stars, when Admiral Halsey ordered Wing carried most of the Victor targets Base to RAF Weathersfield as the his forces to stay on station in the face of during the period from the summer of NCOIC of Victor Alert, along with four Typhoon Cobra which bore down on the 1961 through August 1966. (The Mace technical sergeants. We replaced four fleet. It resulted in the loss of 800 men missiles were deactivated in September lieutenants and a captain because of and 146 aircraft. In today’s parlance, of 1966.) There were six launch sites the shortage of officer personnel due Halsey was “too big to fail”; he was a with eight missiles (and later 12 missiles) to the Vietnam conflict. I believe that national figure of great stature. each that stood Victor Alert. Compare that I was the first NCO in USAFE to be McCain died shortly after returning with two Victor Alert aircraft per fighter certified as a Victor Alert duty officer home after the surrender of the Japanese. squadron assigned to USAFE during (VADO). We were informed that we A few years later, he was posthumously that period to get an idea of the portion were the test case to see if we could promoted to the four-star rank he had of the Victor Alert workload carried by perform these duties. richly deserved. Senator McCain briefly the 38th Tactical Missile Wing. Our duties were to maintain the relates the story in his book Faith of our Maj. Robert W. O’Brien, operation center on a 24-hour basis. Fathers. Mrs. Jo Lavelle (age 91) quietly USAF (Ret.) There were only five of us, and we had awaits similar justice for her beloved San Pedro, Calif. to have one man on standby to open a spouse. secondary VA in the event we had to Lt. Gen. Aloysius G. Casey, The article “Victor Alert” I believe has load all of our 70 F-100s in an emer­ USAF (Ret.) omitted an important part of the nuclear gency. This required me to establish Redlands, Calif. deterrent forces in Western Europe in a 10-hour day shift and 14-hour night the 1950s and 1960s. shift. We had an 18-bedroom facility that Air Force Magazine Editor in Chief The tactical missile Matador, TM-61C, was only fully used during a buildup Adam Hebert seemed surprised that was deployed to Germany from 1954 of all aircraft, and we were required to General Lavelle and General Schwalier to 1961, three missile groups strong. It ensure the security and feeding of all have not been treated fairly. was replaced by the Mace TM-76 from assigned personnel. Additionaly, we Perhaps the Navy can offer some clar­ 1961 to 1969. ity to this matter: “Even admitting for the Wilmer Schimke, sake of argument all of the facts alledged, New London, Wis. Do you have a comment about a ... the more important consideration current article in the magazine? in these cases is, ... unapologetically, Your readers might be interested to Write to “Letters,” Air Force Mag­ protection of the established scope of know that in early 1959, the F-101A/C a­­­­­zine, 1501 Lee Highway, Ar­ lington, VA 22209-1198. (E-mail: Presidential power itself.” became the first single-seat fighter to [email protected].) Letters should So wrote Cmdr. Roger Scott in his become operational in England as a 24- be concise and timely. We cannot June 1998 Military Law Review article hour, day-night, all-weather Victor Alert. acknowledge receipt of letters. (Vol. 156, p. 52) “Kimmel, Short, McVay: That was not what the Soviets wanted, We reserve the right to condense Case Studies in Executive Authority, for we were providing around-the-clock letters. Letters without name and Law, and Individual Rights of Military good/bad weather coverage in the event city/base and state are not accept­ Commanders.” they were to attack NATO. able. Photographs can­­not be used A comparison of the results so far The F-101 was procured by SAC or returned.—the editors obtained for requested relief of other to escort the B-47, then determined

8 AIR FORCE Magazine / May 2011 Letters determined the runway to be used and Forgotten Defectors? clouds, shut off all communications, and weather in the target and recovery area. Having read with great interest your headed west. When he was about to run We maintained coding material for substantive article on “Spying on the out of fuel, he spotted a potato field and the aircraft launch and the arming of the MiGs,” I was disappointed in not seeing a decided that he would be worth more nukes and were trained to manually arm reference to a MiG delivered to the West to the West if he could deliver his MiG, a nuke if the aircraft system failed to arm by a Soviet pilot in mid-1967 [March, p. besides himself. He circled the field and the bomb. The senior bomb commander 78]. The pilot in question had planned landed, wheels up, after ripping through and the VADO each were armed with a to defect to the West while stationed in some telephone wires and just barely 45 mm handgun and both had the com­ Czechoslovakia. He planned on doing making it over an irrigation levee. He bination to their separate locks on the so in the course of one of the training/ sat on the plane’s wing, fired his pistol safe. No one person had access to the scramble exercises. However, there were into the air, and finally decided to walk code material or to the aircraft. During an two obstacles to his plan: 1) a lack of out to a road he remembered seeing alert when we received a coded message a detailed map showing areas beyond while circling the field. On the road, he from the command post, we placed the East Germany, and 2) a limited supply saw an approaching old station wagon. pilots in the aircraft cockpit, and upon a of fuel. Nevertheless once his unit was He stopped the driver and asked him: launch order, we broadcasted the launch given the go-ahead—after many delays “East or West?” “West,” replied the message. Before we placed the pilots in and false starts—he dove into some driver. As a USAF Reserve captain, I, their aircraft, they were informed of the runway to be used and the weather in the target and recovery area. On a day-to-day basis, we preflighted all alert aircraft, and on Thursdays we ran up each aircraft. I had an aircraft maintenance NCO, but each aircraft that entered VA came with its crew chief who was required to maintain the aircraft. When we were placed on alert, such as a NATO Tactical Evaluation, we opened a secondary VA and began to build up all available aircraft. The alert usually ran for 10 to 14 days. We placed trucks in front of our nuclear-loaded aircraft to prevent an unauthorized launch when the other aircraft were launched. Upon H hour, we broadcast the aircraft launch message that began the movement of all aircraft. I managed the RAF Weatherfield alert facility for more than two years before being reassigned as the superintendent for wing operations. Six months later, in June 1970, RAF Weathersfield was closed and the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing (20thTFW) moved to RAF Upper Heyford to transition into F-111s. I moved with the 20th TFW and two years later became the senior enlisted advisor to the 20th Air Base group commander. CMSgt. James Jones, USAF (Ret.) Schertz, Tex.

Your article on Victor Alert did not in­ clude the RB-66 or the RF-4s that stood alert with the same “be off the ground in 15 minutes” requirement. Electronic jamming of enemy radar and photo confirmation of BDA was also important to the overall mission. Fred Mills Sumter, S.C.

Many others also wrote to comment on Victor Alert aircraft or units that were not mentioned in the feature. The article was an overview of the mission and was not intended to be an inventory of all participants.—the editors

10 AIR FORCE Magazine / May 2011 and a fellow reservist, had the unique You did not include another well- Operational Engineering Section (OES), opportunity to debrief him in a safehouse documented incident that occurred in which had the objective of expediting across the Chesapeake Bay. He was the early 1950s. the B-47 to operational readiness. At extremely knowledgeable, cooperative, At that time, I was on a classified Air that time, Fleming reported directly to and brought his logbook with him. Many Force mission on a Danish island out General LeMay, and wrote him a personal years later, [when] I was a colonel, I met in the Baltic Sea. One day, we were monthly letter—always starting with “Dear him in Arlington and gave him a ride surprised to see a Polish MiG fighter Chief”—reporting on the B-47 status. The home while I headed out to Dulles. He circling the island, with wheels down, word in our office was that Fleming had had since married an American girl and canopy back, and wings waggling. At the met LeMay on Okinawa near the end had a family, but to his dismay, was no same time, we noted some Iron Curtain of the war, and when LeMay asked him longer flying. fighters circling off to the east and some what he was going to do now that the Robert W. Parr NATO fighters circing off the west. war was over, Fleming responded that Burlingame, Calif. Since we were on radio silence due to he expected his flying days were over our mission, we began to think a war had for quite a while because of all the sea Mr. Richelson credits the SR-71 and started. Finally, the MiG managed to land and flight time he had just had—including U-2 aircraft with providing information in a pasture, relatively undamaged, and the most carrier landings of any naval on communist MiG fighter deployment. the pilot came out waving some sort of aviator at the time. When LeMay asked In addition to the intelligence provided leaflet. It turned out that he was replying him if he would like to join the Air Force by the SR and U-2 programs, valuable to the US offer of $100,000 to anyone where flying was the main thing, Fleming Photint and Elint data were collected who would defect with a MiG. said yes, and LeMay said he would help by aircraft of the 55th Strategic Recon­ The next day, the island was crawling make it happen. naissance Wing (“The Eyes and Ears of with intelligence personnel, and later, Fleming got me into Air Force flight SAC”). Before, during, and after the Cold they came and took the MiG back to school by flying me in several Air Force War, the 55th was tasked with conducting Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio aircraft—he was an instructor pilot in strategic reconnaissance, on a global for testing and evaluation. about everything we had—and then he scale, along the periphery of Communist Later, the Polish pilot got his monetary wrote a glowing letter to the Air Force Bloc countries. reward and became a US citizen. surgeon general, that got me the waiver During these missions, RB-47, and W. R. Kneller I needed to finally graduate from pilot later RC-135, crews were routinely inter­ Clifton, Pa. training in January 1954. I was, of course, cepted and “escorted” by Soviet, Chicom, terribly, terribly sorry to hear of his early and North Korean fighter aircraft. The Poltava Debacle death in the first B-52 loss. The majority of these intercepts were Although not mentioned in John Maj. Gen. Gerry Hendricks, made by MiG fighters. The close proximity Correll’s article “The Poltava Debacle” USAF (Ret.) of the MiGs to the 55th mission aircraft [March, p. 64], Brig. Gen. Hoyt Vanden­ Alexandria, Va. gave the crew members ample oppor­ berg accompanied Ambassador Averell tunity to obtain excellent photography of Harriman and Maj. Gen. J. R. Deane to the fighters and their configuration while Moscow on Oct. 18, 1943. Vandenberg, giving the “Ravens” (electronic warfare General Arnold’s representative, also officers) a unique chance to intercept was unable to make any real progress Elint data on the various MiGs. with the Russians on shuttle bombing Maj, George V. Back, during his three-month stint in Moscow. USAF (Ret.) In 1969, when a student at the National Navarre, Fla. War College, I had lunch with Ambassa­ dor Harriman at the Fort McNair officers I am reminded of the North Korean club. We discussed, inter alia, the all- MiG-19 that landed at Suwon AB, South around frustration with the foot dragging Korea, late one morning in early 1983. of the Soviets, and I remember well his I was a young SEFE briefing up an in­ comment that the Russian experience strument check when one of our pilots was likely a valuable one for my father, ran into the 25th Squadron ops yelling, as he obviously gained insight into the “There’s a MiG over the field!” The whole Russian psyche that was useful later squadron turned out with their Kodaks during the Cold War. in time to see a MiG-19 fly under the Maj. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg Jr., 51st Fighter Wing DO and his wingman USAF (Ret.) who were on short final for a formation Tucson, Ariz. landing. They broke right and left and the MiG pilot coolly pulled a nice and tight Dear Chief closed pattern with the ROKAF 20 mm I was very surprised and pleased to firing away until they saw his gear, flaps, see your article on Col. Pat Fleming—my and flashing landing light. ROKAF quick- boss, benefactor, mentor, and the person reaction APCs stopped him midfield, and that got me into Air Force flight school we went on alert two hours later. We got [“The High-Intensity Life of Patrick Flem- to see the airplane the next day (“Is that ing,” March, p. 74]. really the landing gear indicator sticking Because of a last-minute accident, I out of the wings?”). I saw the same jet was the only member of my 1951 West 25 years later on display at the National Point class entering the Air Force who did War Museum in Seoul. not go directly to flying school. I ended Col. Al Allenback, up on-the-job training in maintenance USAF (Ret.) at MacDill Air Force Base, where I was Montgomery, Ala. picked up by Colonel Fleming’s B-47

AIR FORCE Magazine / May 2011 11 Letters

BUFF Memories brations from the six aircraft literally outstanding civilian eye surgeon and Thanks for the 5th Bomb Wing photo shook the car. It was the most exciting an admin officer who was president of montage [“Never-ending Stratofor- visual experience of my career in the a bank. We had pilots who jumped from tress,” March, p. 46]. It was like seeing Air Force and one I will never forget. an airline cockpit into an F-16. You might old friends after many years, and for Michael Lee be surprised at the number of enlisted me it’s been quite a few. I served in the Hernando, Miss. folks with college degrees. Air Force from 1967 to 1970, and my I suspect that few regular Air Force first and only assignment after basic As an old BUFF driver with the 19th squadrons could match the experience training was Travis AFB, Calif., then BW(H) at Homestead, it is important level of the average Guard unit. So, home to the 5th. We shared the base to note that back when the H still had Sergeant Thomas, if there is a stigma, with the 60th MAW, and our B-52s and “stingers” in the back, the gunner was it is in the eyes of those who have not KC-135s took up not only space at the situated in the main crew compartment bothered to learn about the whole Air west end of the field, but also the three and operated the guns remotely, unlike Force. alert pads directly across from the the A through F models. SMSgt. Harold A. Fulton main terminal/tower. Travis was—and Dick Blair USAF (Ret.) still is—the entry/departure point for Vienna, Va. Wooster, Ohio military travel to the Pacific and Far East theaters, and during the Vietnam Total Force I read with great interest your section War, it was an extremely busy one. Every now and then I read a letter of “Letters” in each magazine. It was I was one of only 1,400 Air Force that I am convinced is either a “thought shocking to me to read an undirected illustrators at that time, and based at starter” or a “put on”; retired Master comment in your April issue. Travis under then-Colonel Richmond. Sergeant Thomas’ is certainly in that I refer to the comment by one Drew My office was in the headquarters category. I suggest this because anyone Thomas. I take very grave exception to building next to his, and seeing the who reaches E-7 must certainly know his comments, from start to finish. I prefer BUFFs in the photos brought back better than his comments indicate to not even mention his rank. memories. One of the most vivid was [April, p. 6]. I completed most of my enlisted the day Colonel Richmond walked into I am a retired Guardsman who man­ career in a four percent career field. I my office and asked if I’d like to go with aged to end up with seven stripes, three had received my line number for master him. “Yes sir, I would,” I answered, and of which I earned in the regular Air sergeant in my twelfth year, but refused the two of us drove across the runway Force. Does this mean I am a “half-real” promotion and left active service to obtain to a spot just to left of the alert pads veteran or just a “semi-vet”? The pos­ my college degree. where three of our B-52s stood con­ sibilities are endless. In this category, Later, I chose to join the South Dakota stantly ready. I find myself associated with such Air National Guard. I took a reduction Atop a bluff overlooking the base, famous draft dodging, like-to-dress- in grade, but chose to serve anyway in Colonel Richmond parked the car and up-in-uniform types as Jimmy Doolittle, that capacity. Later, after going through shut off the engine. And we sat there. Ted Williams, Tex Hill, Jimmy Stewart, basic training again, I accepted a com­ I finally asked, “What are we doing?” and of course, Harry Truman. There is mission. I served another 13 years in Colonel Richmond responded, “Just some sort of a problem in calling us various Guard units, but retired from my wait and watch. I want you to see this.” draft dodgers and peaceniks since we original Guard unit. Mr. Thomas’ opinion Suddenly klaxons all over the base no longer have a draft. that the negativism towards Guard and sounded, and we were in the beginnings Without going into a lot of detail, Reserve personnel was based on their of an unannounced ORI (operational it’s worth noting that Reservists and lack of patriotism and dedication is way readiness inspection). Alert crews Guardsmen must meet the same techni­ out of line, and very untrue. streamed from their building into the cal proficiency standards as the regu­ To question the loyalty or integrity of three planes on the pads and started lars. We also have to pass the same Guardsmen or Reservists is outlandish, the engines, while at the same time, ORI and MEI inspections. We attend the let alone in very poor taste—unworthy of three KC-135s were spooling up. same basic training and the same tech any member of the service. It is also very Within minutes, the three B-52s were schools and must pass the same tests unfortunate that Mr. Thomas continues staged at the end of the runway as the for AFSC upgrades. The only difference to exclude the Guard and Reserve from three KC-135s were lining up across is that we draft dodgers and peaceniks his professional military, and classes from them, waiting to take off. do it on weekends and on our own time. them as draft dodgers and peaceniks. I’ll never forget the sight nor experi­ I don’t know the statistics, but an awful Such nonsense. ence again the feeling watching three lot of those I served with had prior ac­ I guess such comments about “real fully armed BUFFs leaving the runway. tive duty and often with more than one veterans” isn’t really worth discussing; When the first plane was approximately enlistment under their belt. I have served in both services for about halfway down the tarmac, the second Among those I served with during the same time and am every bit a vet­ began to roll, followed by the third, my Air Guard time were electronic eran of both. once No. 2 had reached the same techs with associate and bachelor’s As for his opinion about disturbing spot. The first bomber rose into the degrees in engineering—we had a 702 weekends and going to camp, I can California sky, slowly gaining altitude. (admin) who was a Ph.D. candidate; only say while he was enjoying his 30 The second, once airborne, banked we had security police who were civil­ days a year paid vacation, I was us­ immediately to the left, out of the first ian police officers or DEA agents. We ing my two weeks vacation to fill my plane’s exhaust, and the third pulled to had a first sergeant with a graduate military obligation. I also might add that the right—black smoke filling the sky degree in counseling and people in my 26+ years of service earned me as evidence of their leaving. finance with accounting degrees, just a retirement paid at the 15-year rate. Then the same was repeated by the to name a few. I once worked for a Lt. Col. Douglas Jones, three KC-135s. All during this time, two star who was dean of a college USAF (Ret.) the noise was deafening, and the vi­ and with a flight surgeon who was an Sibley, Iowa

12 AIR FORCE Magazine / May 2011