1 - The Black Vault

THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION
large rubber doughnut mounted on a 463L pallet.
All associated hoses, pumps, and related equipment
were dropped along with the blivet by utilizing
CDS procedures. One option being developed
by JTF planners called for the simultaneous airdrop
of five fuel blivets, which was the maximum
number of blivets that could be carried by the
Combat Talon. The concept was to drop the
blivets so that they landed near each other and
then parachute a small US Army ranger team
into the DZ. The ranger team would then prepare
the blivets for follow-on helicopter refueling. Due
to equipment availability, only one blivet was
dropped at Pope AFB during the initial test.
Brenci’s airdrop marked the first time a Combat
Talon utilizing CDS procedures dropped the
5,000-pound blivet. 27
The ability to air-drop fuel to the helicopters
was only half of the fuel challenge for Talon planners.
The other requirement was to develop
blacked-out, communications-out procedures for
night in-flight refueling operations between the
Combat Talon and the KC-135 tanker. Begin -
ning in December 1979 a KC-135 was deployed
almost continuously to either Hurlburt Field or
Eglin AFB and was dedicated to training with
Combat Talon and gunship aircraft. Before this
time, routine tanker support for the 1st SOW
was extremely limited, with only a few pilots
and navigators being checked out at any given
time. The standard IFR procedure, known as
the point-parallel rendezvous, was modified so
that all radio calls were eliminated. The procedures
were developed during the AC-130H gunship
deployment to Guam. Also, all lights were
turned off on the Combat Talon (except slip-way
lights), and most tanker lights were reduced
significantly. The communications-out rendezvous
came to be known as the overtaking rejoin,
a maneuver that consisted of the tanker flying
over the Combat Talon 1,000 feet above it and
then stabilizing approximately three miles in
front of the receiver at 210 knots indicated airspeed.
The Talon would accelerate to 250 KIAS
and climb the 1,000 feet as it closed on the
tanker. Utilizing position lights on the belly of
the tanker, the Talon would be cleared into position
for the onloading of fuel. Formation (cell)
procedures were also established for refueling
from multiple tankers with multiple receivers.
To provide training for the 1st SOS crews and
the AC-130H gunship crews deployed to Guam,
special KC-135 operating locations were established
at Guam, Diego Garcia, and Wadi Kena.
The 1st SOS sent pilots and navigators on temporary
duty to Guam to fly with gunship crews,
since they were the most experienced in this type
of refueling operation. 28
As each JTF component worked on its own
part of the rescue plan, General Vaught moved to
bring the various air and ground elements together
for a joint training exercise based on the
Night One air-drop scenario. For this first event,
two Talons and one gunship were used for a limited
run-through of the plan. Six US Navy RH-
53Ds were used for the rotary-wing portion of the
exercise. Beckwith and his Delta Force were deployed
from their Camp Smokey training facility
in North Carolina and relocated to specially prepared
facilities at the US Army’s Yuma Proving
Grounds in Arizona. Objectives for the Yuma exercise
included an assessment of helicopter training,
set up of a drop zone, airborne delivery of
fuel blivets near the helicopters already in place
near the drop zone, refueling the helicopters from
the fuel blivets, and demonstra ting the accuracy
of the gunship to participants. 29
On 3 December Brenci and Uttaro deployed
with their crews on Combat Talons 64-0562 and
64-0567, respectively, from Hurlburt Field to
Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. The cover story for
the deployment was that the Air Force special op -
erations aircraft were participating in a US Army
evaluation, a regularly scheduled event that the
8th SOS had been involved with in the past. Nothing
was out of the ordinary for the crews and
maintenance personnel as they prepared for their
nightly missions. Instead of a single blivet drop
like the one at Pope AFB a few days earlier, how -
ever, tasking for the Yuma exercise included airdrop
of five fuel blivets by each aircraft. 30
Talon crews had never dropped five fuel blivets
in the past, nor were they proficient in CDS procedures.
What the Talon community did have was
a group of highly experienced loadmasters who
had grown up in special operations and had a
“nose” for what was right and what was wrong
regarding air-drop procedures. Duke Wiley, Ray
Doyle, Taco Sanchez, Dave Chesser, Jim
McClain, and Ron Thomas were six of the best
loadmasters in the entire C-130 community.
When the blivets were delivered to the MC-130s
at Davis-Monthan AFB, the loadmasters put
their heads together to make sense of the rigging
instructions provided by US Army personnel accompanying
the loads. It didn’t pass their “smell”
test. Their concern was that, once the load began
to exit the aircraft, the blivets would accelerate
189