1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
launched from US Navy aircraft carriers over the
Gulf of Tonkin would hold their attention. He
also had a backup capability aboard the Talons
that would seriously degrade the GCI controllers
if any MiGs launched. For the mission to be a
total success, however, surprise was essential for
both the ground force and for its supporting aircraft.
Range C-2 and Barbara
By the time Colonel Simons arrived at Duke
Field on 3 September 1970, Colonel Blosch and
Major Franklin were well on their way to having
their dissimilar formation procedures refined and
ready for the joint phase of training. There was a
lot going on at Duke Field at the time, so the
addition of the raiding party and the coming and
going of mission aircraft went virtually unnoticed.
Other special forces personnel and air commandos
from Hurlburt Field were transiting Duke
Field and were working with soldiers from the
nearby US Army ranger camp. To the casual observer,
the raiding party was just another group
exercising on the vast Eglin AFB range. Weeks of
preparation already had been expended getting
the force selected and ready for the training
phase. For Colonel Simons and his men, it was
time to get down to business. 37
Early in the planning process, General Blackburn’s
feasibility study group had recommended
construction of a full-scale mock-up of the Son
Tay Prison compound. The mock-up would be
used by Colonel Simons’s assault force during rehearsals
and would replicate terrain features
found in the North Vietnamese prison camp. Colonel
Simons wanted a realistic replica built, but
counterintelligence personnel cautioned against
such construction. A detailed structure inadvertently
could reveal the actual objective to members
of the raider force, or a casual observer could
possibly draw the correct conclusion and figure
out what was going on. A remote site on the Eglin
AFB range, site C-2, was chosen as the ground
force training area. Controlled access to the site
eliminated the casual observer threat, but overhead
Soviet satellite imagery could not be eliminated.
A Soviet satellite passed over C-2 twice
each day, and often there were two such satellites
in orbit. A permanent, detailed mock-up could not
be constructed, yet Colonel Simons could not rehearse
his assault plan without one. 38
Mission planners and Colonel Simons agreed to
construct a mock-up that could be dismantled
when the Soviet satellites were overhead. Target
cloth and 2-by-4 studs were used to replicate
walls of buildings. Doors, windows, and gates
either were painted on or cut into the cloth. The
2-by-4s were mounted into holes in the ground,
and when the structure was removed and rolled
up, covers were placed over the holes to eliminate
the outline of the structure. Large trees were dug
up and replanted to conform exactly to those
found at Son Tay. Thus, when the helicopters flew
into the mock-up, the pilots’ view was the same as
it would be for the actual operation. When set up,
the mock-up replicated the prison itself, right
down to the foliage pattern found there. 39
To provide even greater detail for the assault
force, a model of Son Tay Prison, code-named Barbara,
was constructed by the CIA. Barbara was
built to exact scale based on reconnaissance photographs
taken by US satellites and SR-71 aircraft.
It was tabletop size and replicated the terrain,
fauna, flora, and the prison itself. An optical platform
device was used to view any part of the
model. The device could be placed anywhere in
the model and, through a series of mirrors, would
reflect a horizontal view as though the viewer was
actually standing on the ground inside the compound
itself. Barbara provided an early version of
what later would be called virtual reality. Ground
forces spent countless hours on the model and
were able to memorize every detail of the prison,
including locations of the prison cells, North Vietnamese
Army officers’ quarters, and the main
gate (in daylight or darkness). 40 A second model of
the bridge and surrounding terrain near Son Tay
Prison was also built that had similar characteristics
as Barbara.
On 9 September Colonel Simons and his men
began their training on the mock-up. By 17 September
night training was in full swing, including
operations with the assault force helicopters.
On Monday, 28 September, full-scale joint training
began, using all parts of the mission previously
practiced separately—low-speed, lowlevel
helicopter/Combat Talon formation, FLIR
operations, napalm and flare drop, and ground
force assault on the mock-up. Three objective
area rehearsals were made each day, followed by
three more each night. On Tuesday, 6 October, a
full-scale dress rehearsal was held at C-2. The
rehearsal included a 687-mile low-level flight
over the southeastern United States, which mirrored
the route to be flown in SEA. Exact times
were flown, and the assault force employed live
munitions on the Eglin AFB range. General
Blackburn and Colonel Mayer flew down from
148