I recall the Pueblo incident. I do agree that ths latest should've had fighter escort, especially knowing that the Chinese are antsy and like to buzz US surveillance planes.
I did not know what you said about Powers. I always thought he was downed by a SAM.
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Reminds me of Francis Gary Powers and the U2 incident 20 miles above Russia. Until this day many people think Powers U2 was shot down by a Russia missile. Fact is his plane was sabotaged and a bomb was placed abroad set to go off when he reached the border of Turkey. The story was released on PBS the evening of July 31, 1977 with interviews from Powers, and many others – including the Russian agent who planted the bomb. The CIA and other governmental entities were more than pissed off at Powers divulging what had happened and he named names during the PBS program.
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>Powers was one of the worlds most experienced test pilots. The morning of August 1, 1977 after the PBS program was aired, Powers was flying a TV news helicopter in the Los Angeles area, which ran out of fuel, crashed and he died instantly. I heard the report on the radio on the way to work. Many find it too hard to believe Powers would go up without sufficient fuel and the CIA had no comment.
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>Remember the Pueblo incident? I asked why we took destroyer escorts off of Picket ships the day before the Pueblo incident occurred. All blame was placed on the Captain as I recall – none on Military Policy. If you are going to provide a “service” like this, I think the United States Military owes it to the surveillance crew (I was in Security Service for the Air Force) protection appropriate for the type of situation. The recent case should have had fighter escorts!
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>If fighter escorts were inappropriate then we should not have been placing the lives of these people “In Harms Way”!
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>What is done with the collected data that these military personnel put his/her lives on the line to collect? Well, I call it a game – we are trying to interrogate radar systems and we record all characteristics such as pulse width, burst frequency, rise time, modulation, and many other factors. This information will be different for different types of “threats” like is the radar signal coming from a fixed Search, or Height Finder Radar, a SAM missile, a fighter, are you being tracked, and what is the status of a threat – is a missile about to be launched up your tail pipe? After all possible intelligence is recorded it is brought back and analyzed. If something new is found a contract will be let by the Department of Defense to “build a new system or modify an existing one” and someone will bid on it.
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>After I got out of the Air Force (1967) I went to work for a Defense Contractor and worked on the F-111 radar, and other projects like the Apollo and LEM. I began as an electronic technician and went to engineering college to get my degree. Now, I find myself programming – such is life. Que pena!
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