1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
By November of 1979 there were seven Combat
Talon aircraft modified for in-flight refueling.
Four of those seven were assigned to the
1st SOS at Kadena AB. Accordingly, Kyle in -
structed the three planners to develop a deployment
route for the 1st SOS aircraft across the
western Pacific and the Indian Ocean to Diego
Garcia. The 8th SOS Combat Talons would deploy
to Wadi Kena by way of the Atlantic, thus
reducing the signature of so many specialized
aircraft converging on the objective area from
the same direction. By including the 1st SOS in
the operation, however, Kyle had created a colossal
training challenge, with forces literally located
half a globe apart. He had no choice because
the seven IFR-modified Combat Talons
were the only aircraft capable of accomplishing
the mission as envisioned during initial planning,
and Kyle needed them all to succeed. 21
Smith and his Combat Talon planners had a
formidable task, yet they knew that the mission
was possible after initial distances, loads, and fuel
requirements were computed. Although helicopter
refueling options were far from complete, Smith
was anxious to start developing what he knew
would be the most difficult scenario at the objective
area—performing blacked-out landings on an
unimproved airstrip to refuel the helicopters from
the ground. As planning developed Smith received
permission to contact Brenci at Hurlburt
Field and task him to begin developing a blackedout
landing capability. Six days later, after borrowing
NVGs from the 20th SOS, Brenci and his
crew, in aircraft 64-0567, were at TAB-6 developing
those procedures.
Training Begins for Combat Talon
Smith initially tasked Brenci to train two
crews in the blacked-out landing procedure. After
training began on 26 November, additional crews
were handpicked by Brenci and Smith to develop
procedures and to become proficient in NVG landings.
The initial two crews that began training in
late November were as follows: 22
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