USAF SR-71 Kadena Operations

1968 

• #978/Article#2029 was the first aircraft to deploy to OL-8 on 08 March 1968, piloted by Buddy Brown and RSO Dave Jensen.
• #974/Article#2025 was delivered to OL-8 on 13 March 1968 , piloted by Bob Spencer and RSO Keith Branham.
• #976/Article#2027 was delivered to OL-8 on 15 March 1968, piloted by Jerry O'Malley and RSO Ed Paine.
• Habu's Jim Watkins and Dave Dempster taxied #980 to the end of the runway at Beale AFB three times as a backup aircraft for the deployment. They then boarded a KC-135Q model refueling tanker for a slow ride to Okinawa.

Det 1 had Four Detachment names from 1968 to 1990
They are:

OL-8

OL-8 was established in March of 1968.
This followed SAC's designation for Reconnaissance Overseas Locations
RSO Dave Jensen designed the OL-8 patch

OL-RK

OL-8 became OL-RK on 30 October 1970.
OL-RK stands for "Operating Location - Ryukyus"... a chain of islands in which Okinawa is situated.

OL-KA

OL-RK became OL-KA on 26 October 1971.
OL-KA stands for "Operating Location - Kadena".

Det 1
OL-KA became Det 1 in August of 1974.

For 16 years it remained Det 1 until the SR-71 fleet was retired in 1990

Det 1 Retirement Patch

SR-71's First Combat Sorties Out of Okinawa

• The First combat mission was scheduled for 16 March, 1968 but cancelled due to weather.

• On 18 March #978 was to fly the first scheduled Operational Mission but diverted into Ching Chuan Kang (CCK), Taiwan due to adverse weather. #978 returned to Det 1 on 23 March, 1968.

• On 19 March #976 was next scheduled but did not fly that day.

• On 21 March 1968, USAF SR-71 #974 flew the First Operational sortie over Vietnam, piloted by Jerry O'Malley and RSO Ed Paine. Upon return to Kadena Jerry O'Malley found the base fogged in and diverted to CCK. This first mission revealed enemy emplacements around Khe Sanh, Vietnam that had previously been undetected. The battle of Khe Sanh ended two weeks after this sortie was flown.

• The second flight with aircraft #976, was also flown by the same crew on 10 April 1968. Upon descent from 80,000 feet, both engines flamed out. Colonel O'Malley succeeded in restarting both engines at around 20,000 feet. After refueling, the flight continued on to a normal landing at Kadena. This flight led to the Blackbird's nickname the "Lead Sled".

• One week later, Pilot Buddy Brown and RSO Dave Jensen flew the third Operational sortie into North Vietnam. Upon descent from altitude, the left generator was lost and both engines flamed out. A restart of both engines was accomplished and the aircraft landed at Takhli RTAFB, Thailand. Maintenance crews from Kadena flew in and performed the repairs. The aircraft returned uneventful to Kadena AB.

• The fourth flight was also flown by Habu's Brown/Jensen. Again as they descended from altitude, they experienced a generator failure with a double engine flame out. Engine restart was successfully accomplished and the aircraft again landed at Takhli.

• On 19 April 1968 #974 was piloted by Jim Watkins and RSO Dave Dempster for the fifth operational mission. Descending from altitude they experienced a double engine unstart and flameout. Jim Watkins finally solved the flameout problems by holding the RPM's a couple hundred higher than check-list as he brought it out of afterburner. (Editor's Note: MSgt Ronald J. De Lozier, at that time was Assistant Crew Chief on #974. He states that the problem was related to fuel control scheduling. These flameouts occurred due to unusual outside air temperatures that was not the norm for this part of the world. A reschedule of the fuel controls solved the problem.)

• On 25 May 1968 #978 was piloted by Don Walbrecht and RSO Phil Loignon launching out of Kadena for their first Combat Flight over Vietnam. The flight was not without incident but returned to Kadena uneventful. They subsequently flew a total of eight operational sorties from Kadena.

• On 26 July 1968 #976 was piloted by Major's Tony Bevacqua and RSO Jerry Crew in an operational mission over Hanoi, North Vietnam. This flight was the first time that a SAM had locked on and fired upon a Blackbird. The crew knew they had been fired upon by two missiles and after flying a return track over the same area, no additional SAM's were fired. Landing was uneventful at Kadena. The Terrain tracking camera recorded the SA-2's launches and later evaluation revealed the nearest missile exploded about one mile behind and away from #976.

• Throughout the Det 1's operational missions, Surface to Air Missiles were fired at the Blackbirds in an attempt to bring down one of the Reconnaissance Planes. At times, SAM's were fired in salvos but as "Kelly" Johnson stated: "Over 1,000 missiles has been fired at the Blackbird without a loss of Plane or Crew".  Superior DEF electronics and Habu Crew skills certainly contributed to the success and accomplishment of the Operational Sorties.
• During the 22 years that Kadena Det 1 operations were in effect, Operational missions were flown to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, North Korea, airspace off the USSR and China. In addition, four 11 hour flights to the Persian Gulf occurred during the Iran-Iraq War in 1987 and 1988. A total of 2,410 SR-71 missions were flown from first deployment in 1968 to Detachment 1 closure in 1990.

This vantage point is dedicated to the magnificent SR-71 Blackbird, known worldwide as the Habu-an Okinawan Cobra of black sinister appearance, great stealth and lightning fast strike. The first SR-71 arrived at Kadena Air Base on 9 March 1968 and the last aircraft departed on 21 January 1990. Throughout those twenty-two years, the Habu roamed Pacific skies unchallenged in war and peace to insure the freedom of the United States and her allies. Habu Hill stands as a memorial to the SR-71, the special men and women who sustained its strategic reconnaissance mission and to all people who gather here and know that jet noise is truly the sound of freedom.

The Last SR-71 Flight from Det 1, Kadena AB, Okinawa: 

This video was shot and narrated by Russ Maheras, ECM, 9th SRW. This is the actual 5AM launch on 21 January 1990 of SR-71 #962. Contains crew boarding, engine start, taxi and takeoff. This video is available by special order on DVD. Go to this URL to check it out or order: ./PayPal_Order.htm

1. The Blackbird Kadena operations gave rise to the nickname "Habu". A Habu is the name of a Cobra snake (specifically a Pit Viper) in Okinawa. Because of the sleek "hooded" appearance of the Blackbird, the Okinawan's claimed it looked like a Habu snake. Thus the nickname. Additionally, SR-71 crews are called Habu's.

2. The SR-71's at Kadena was rotated back to Beale AFB, Ca for periodic maintenance and replaced with fresh aircraft approximately every 6 months. On two occasions the departing and the arriving aircrafts were plotted to pass each other at 80,000 feet, one headed for Beale and the other for Okinawa. One aircraft was 5,000 feet lower in altitude. According to the pilots involved, it was one incredible sight to see another Blackbird approach with a closure rate of the two aircraft at over Mach 6!

3. The "Rocket Ride" was an un-refueled mission to the Korean DMZ and return to Kadena AB. The flight lasted only 57 minutes. Habu crews attempted to break each other's record "Climb to Altitude" of 80,000 feet and Mach 3. Mission Recording Tapes verified their attempts. The fastest climb to altitude is held by Lt. Col. Jim Sullivan in 14 minutes.

4. Antics by both crew members and enlisted personnel were quite common at the facility. With the work hard, play hard management principle in effect at the OL, the imagination of most team members ran rampart. A sampling of some of the events that occurred follows:

•     A large White U.S. Navy anchor in front of the Naval facility on Kadena was painted Black late one night. The culprits (Det 1 personnel) 'fessed up and restored the Naval Commander's Anchor to a pristine white the next day. Photos of the event were on display in the Pilots Briefing room for all to see.
• The infamous tie cutting ceremony originated at the OL. In 1968, Maintenance Chief Gornik and his henchmen crashed a party at the Officers Club (celebrating the combat sorties flown by the SR-71) and proceeded to cut the tie of Colonel Bill Hayes (Det 1 Commander) as well as other Habu's in presence. After that evening, SR-71 pilots flying their first combat mission were required to wear a tie on their first sortie. After completion of the mission the tie was ceremoniously cut off by the Chief. Later on the tradition continued to include pilot's flying their first Mach 3+ flight.
• The "Bat Cavers" (Radar-SLR personnel) always left their mark on various facilities at OL's around the world. Det 1 was no exception and stenciled black bats could be found on some of the most illogical locations on base.
• An SR-71 Crew Chief coming to work one morning found a banana dangling from the pitot tube of his Hangar Queen (an aircraft that is down for extensive maintenance).
• At the Det 1 PSD suit-up room, the adjacent Doctors office was converted to a secret bar for use by Habu Pilots, RSO's and other officers after completing mission sorties.

(Photo by Roger Jacks)

"Hooks Supply Tanks"

Shown is Roger Jacks, Richard Graham, Don Emmons

• A "Typhoon Alert" was a special occasion for members of Det 1. The hangers of course were typhoon proof but the HAM radio antenna (courtesy of CIA) was not and required a major effort to lower to ground level and secure it from the high winds. The enlisted barracks was transformed into a second Class 6 store with enough beer to last a full 90 day tour. The typhoons usually lasted only 3 days but by the looks of the barracks at the end of the siege, the halls resembled a veritable war zone. Of course the white glove inspection followed shortly after to the consternation of all.
• SSgt Jose (Tony) Carrion and others did a midnight requisitioned of a rocket from the Kadena Carnival and put it on top of the bus stop in front of barracks 108. He stated: There were 5 of us drunks but it took a crane to remove it along with 2 S.P.'s and 3 Okinawans.

6. Sortie Mission Objectives was not privy information to everyone in the organization. Those with a need to know, of course, knew that information. One sortie in SR #980 on 27 September 1971 and flown near Russian Soviet Naval exercises in the Sea of Japan near Vladivostok resulted in multiple radar returns and the first ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) signals emitted by the new SA-5 SAM missile. The ELINT "Take" had pulled in 290 different radars but by far the most important was the first elusive SA-5 signals. National Security officials were pleased with the Intelligence garnered from #980's Sortie. With Bob Spencer and "Butch" Sheffield as the crew; #980 developed an engine problem; the engine was shut down and then they diverted the aircraft low and slow into Taegu, South Korea.

• 08 August 1974 to 31 January 1975.............Colonel Thomas B. Estes
• 01 February 1976 to 30 June 1977...............Colonel Gabriel Kardong
• 01 July 1977 to 30 June 1979........................Lt. Col. Robert J. Cunningham
• 01 July 1979 to 25 August 1982....................Colonel Raphael S. Samay
• 26 August 1982 to 30 December 1984..........Colonel Randolph B. Hertzog
• 31 December 1984 to 04 September 1987....Colonel Thomas M. Alison
• 04 September 1987 to 1990...........................Colonel Lee M. Shelton, II

"Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death I Shall Fear No Evil - For I am at 80,000
Feet and Climbing" (sign over the entrance to the SR-71 operating location Det 1)

Wed, 21 Feb 2001 21:22 Ronald J. De Lozier, MSGT, USAF, (Ret) Writes: I noticed a lot of folks were in the program after I left in '72, so I figured I would give some recollections of what things were like in the early days at OL-8.  One thing is we didn't have the "T" hanger when we first went there, it belonged to the spooky folks with "Brand X" (A-11) or (R-12), depending on who you or what you were told.  We were given three hangers, not to far from the F-102 trim pad, which I had the pleasure of watching get torched and melted by a burner run on one of our birds.  The second blackbird to use that pad totally destroyed the blast fence on its' burner run.  The large pink "Q" hut looking hanger was the one we recovered the aircraft in after a mission, the two behind it were used for the primary and secondary aircraft.  We could only taxi aircraft into the one hanger because the other two didn't have doors wide enough for the aircraft to taxi through if need be.  The launch operation went normal for the most part, but we had to hook up a tow bar adapter to one of the main landing gear struts, attach a tow bar to the adapter and hook the tow bar to a G-75 towing vehicle, the driver wore a complete self-contained breathing apparatus under fire protection gear.  We also disconnected the nose gear steering scissors and hooked up a nose gear steering bar.  After engine start and pre-taxi checks were done, the aircraft was backed out of the hanger by the tug and steering was done by the Crew Chief.  When the aircraft was in some semblance of pointing out to the taxi way, the tow bar and adapter were disconnected, NLG scissors were hooked back up, and the aircraft was ready for taxi.  There was a knack to hooking up the steering, the crew chief relayed to the pilot were to turn the steering upper arm, while the guy on the steering bar tried to position the lower steering arm by turning the NLG tires, if the three didn't get it together, the guy on the steering bar would have the bar wrenched from his grasp and would do some fancy footwork to keep from getting whacked by the bar.  We practiced these maneuvers many times at home base, including the backwards towing, but weren't told why until we had to do it at OL-8.  The pink "Q" hut hanger was made out of concrete, and when the aircraft were recovered there, the aircrew had to taxi up a fairly steep ramp to get into the hanger, a little skill on the brakes and throttle were the key in getting up the ramp and into the hanger.  During pre engine shutdown checks in the hanger, the concrete roof would pelt anyone who happened to be in the right place at the wrong time.  One last note about the first group of folks that went to OL-8, it appeared that everyone had a penchant for building miniature Plexiglas pianos during the long mission flights, when not much was going on.  It seemed whenever I went in to the shops or the staff offices, someone had a piano under construction. Regards, Ron De Lozier, CC 974.

Thu, 1 Mar 2001 19:35 Ron's Recollections (Continued):

There are two more OL-8 stories that come to mind, both having to do with the Security Police at Kadena. The first, I was with A1C Steve Reiser at a local watering hole, and we overheard this conversation between two SP's. "Hey, man, you know those blackbirds." "Yeah." "Well they go into outer space and orbit" "Man, that's BS" "No!!! Man, I've been standing guard over in that area, one taxied out and took off, three days ago and it just got back today. I've been checking out the tail numbers, and it's been gone all three days!!" "Really." "Yeah, and the same pilots were in the aircraft that were in it when it landed." Steve and I were trying really hard not to fall off the chairs from laughing so hard. Neither of us had the heart to tell these guys that the aircraft had a problem and went to another base for repairs. We Just let them believe some of the mystic that went with the territory.

Story #2. This actually happened at the T-Hanger on night shift. During a lull in the operations, there wasn't much to do after servicing the primary and secondary birds, some of us were turned loose, others had to stay until mid-shift came in. We were checking out some fun things, like putting drip pans on the three wheel carts, a chair in the drip pan and having pushing races, one guy would sit in the chair, tow bar for the front wheel steering in hand, and and another person would push, we had drag races? from hanger one to hanger four. Someone suggested putting a brake cooler on the drip pan and use it like a pusher prop swamp buggy. So we put some shot bags over the legs of the brake cooler to hold it down in the drip pan, and a chair in front of it. A length of .051 safety wire served as a throttle cable. So tiller (tow bar) in one hand, throttle in the other, and we lit off the brake cooler. It took a while to get up to speed, we ran out of room going to hanger 1 to hanger 4, so we tried going around the T hanger. No good, we couldn't turn the cart without it turning over and spilling driver, chair, brake cooler, shot bags and drip pan on the ramp. It made a lot of noise. We wondered what would happen (how fast could it go), if we didn't have to turn. As I was the senior member on the shift, I approached the SP's on duty with a maintenance problem: We just finished an overhaul of the engine on the brake cooler and we needed to check it out under load. You may have seen us trying to get it up to speed in the hanger, but there's just not enough room. Do you think we could get your roving SP and his truck to help us out? We need a flat run with an exact amount of weight on the cart for the brake cooler to push and reach 35 MPH. If it doesn't reach that speed, the engine will have to be replaced. The guard got on the radio and had the rover come and talk to us. I again explained the drill, we would be coming out of the center of the hanger on the cart with the engine at full throttle, go through the entry control point, down the taxi way, as fast as the propeller would allow. Could he accompany us, with his light flashing to clear the way. I would be in the pickup truck, monitoring the speedometer to insure we got up to speed. The rover was more than helpful, he told us he would have all light flashing and siren if needed. I told him the lights would be enough. We took the cart all the way down the leg of the T to supply, fired up the engine and taxied up the hallway at full throttle, past the maintenance shops, the stairs, through the engine/sheet metal shop and out the center doors. With lights flashing, the SP truck led us down the taxiway. We went the whole length of the taxiway to the end, almost. In our exuberance, we forgot about stopping the fool thing. The driver who shall be nameless, burnt off the soles of his boots dragging them to try and stop, he eventually got it slowed enough to turn the cart at the edge of the taxiway and was unceremoniously dumped off in the grass. We loaded the cart, chair, drip pan, shot bags and cooler in the back of the pickup and triumphantly convoyed back to the hanger with the SP rover and all its' lights flashing. Later in the tour, I heard of one of the maintenance controllers had gone down the stairs to the break room and heard this tremendous racket coming down the hallway, he peeked down the hallway, saw what was coming, turned around and went back up the stairs. Needless to say, we only did this one time, to my knowledge. And we attained 40MPH!!! The things that can happen while not on day shift!!

Fri, 13 Apr 2001 09:35 Ron's Recollections (Continued): 

When #969 first came to OL-8/RK, in the winter of 1969, Major Tom Schmittou, RSO, on the ferry flight asked if I could put something on the tail for him. Of course, I could, I was the swing shift Crew Chief and I could do anything I wanted, as long as the Crew Chief O.K.'d it. He asked for a regular tabby cat with the words "TOM CAT'S KITTEN" under it. It took me about 3-4 days of playing with a 3' x 4' piece of stencil paper to get an
outline drawn. I ended up with a yellow tabby cat, black stripes and yellow eyes. I didn't think it was all that great, but everybody else seemed to like it. It was still on the aircraft when I had to rotate back early because of a medical emergency at home base. As was the rule, I couldn't take any pictures of my handiwork. So the picture is just in my memory banks. I sure wish I had broken the rules in that area!!! 

Ron De Lozier, MSgt (Ret)

Email: namba209@4dcomm.com

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