1 - The Black Vault

THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION
or barracks). Also on board the lead Talon were
some 50 rangers who were responsible for aircraft
defense and for any required mopping-up action.
The second and third Talons also carried similar
numbers of soldiers and vehicles that were assigned
to neutralize remote areas of the airfield.
The number two Talon would land and turn off
midway down the runway and taxi back to the
approach end for download. The number three
aircraft would stop midway down the runway and
offload its assault package. With minimum spacing
between aircraft, a three-ship package could
be on the ground within one minute of the landing
of the first aircraft. With practice, the rangers reduced
their exit time to 10 seconds, a feat that
was somewhat remarkable considering the fact
that the entire operation was conducted without
lights. 38 Also complicating the operation was that
not all participants had access to NVGs. The
three pilots and the flight engineer, along with
the two loadmasters, each had a set of the PVS-
5s. The rangers were limited to providing NVGs
to the jeep drivers, motorcycle drivers, and about
one in 10 of the foot soldiers. There simply were
not enough NVGs for everyone to have a pair. For
the aircrews, the problem of external IR lighting
for NVG blacked-out landings had still not been
solved, resulting in several hard landings during
training operations.
The fuel bladder that had been test-flown at
Davis-Monthan AFB in early December had
been transported back to Hurlburt Field, and
8th SOS loadmasters and flight engineers had
worked to develop a system that could be used
to refuel the helicopters. The problem with the
bladder was that it lacked pumps and hoses to
connect it to the helicopters at a safe distance
from the C-130 aircraft. To partially eliminate
this problem, the bladder system was rigged
through the aircraft refueling system, and by
utilizing the aircraft’s fuel pumps, fuel could be
transferred through a hose to the helicopter.
With this Rube Goldberg setup, the bladder
proved that it could do the job. 39
During a midmonth visit to Hurlburt Field to
see how the Combat Talon crews were progressing
in their training, Vaught viewed a demonstration
of the bladder system that the 8th SOS had
been working on. A Talon successfully pumped
fuel to a 20th SOS helicopter, and Vaught was
somewhat pleased with the results. He authorized
a full-blown effort to locate and manufacture the
correct pumps, hoses, and fittings necessary for
the system to work at its optimum. Effort was
also initiated to find fuel-trained airmen to operate
the system. Vaught also ordered another joint
exercise to be conducted at Yuma. New helicopter
crews had been selected after the blivet drops earlier
in the month, and Vaught wanted to see them
in action. 40
On 15 December the 8th SOS deployed its
three NVG crews to Norton AFB, California, in
preparation for the upcoming Yuma exercise. Kyle
had a new observer for the exercise—Turczynski
from the 1st SOS. Blacked-out NVG landings
were still sometimes rough, with the external IR
illumination problem not fixed. During the first
night’s operation from Norton AFB, the Combat
Talons flew to NAS Fallon to practice blacked-out
landings. The moon was partially full, and the
landings went well. With Kyle observing the operation
from the control tower, one of Vaught’s
special assignment guys delivered to him a roll of
black IR paper that Vaught had sourced from CIA
stocks. It turned out to be the same IR paper that
Oliver had purchased from Polaroid a few days
earlier. Kyle wasted no time in contacting Detachment
4 and was pleasantly surprised to learn that
Oliver was nearly finished with the landing lightring
modification. 41
At Yuma Vaught wanted another blivet drop to
further validate the capability. For this event, five
blivets were dropped, along with a tractor (called
a mule), which was used to move the blivets to
their refueling location near the helicopters. The
drop went perfectly, with Beckwith and his men
helping to round up the blivets in the dark. The
whole operation was still time-consuming and tedious
work, and Beckwith did not like it. 42
When the Talon arrived back at Norton AFB,
Kyle called Detachment 4, and Oliver and Kindle
deployed in short order. It wasn’t long before the
dual-ring attachment mechanism that Oliver’s
team had been working on was attached to the
aircraft along with a sandwiched piece of IR pa -
per. The following evening, the new lenses were
tested with NVGs, and they worked perfectly.
Kyle found, however, that the IR paper was susceptible
to heat from the landing light, burning
through the thin paper in about a minute. The
glass was also prone to break. Tempered glass
would eventually be used to eliminate the glassbreakage
problem. The IR-modified aircraft departed
Norton AFB and headed for Yuma for
blacked-out landing practice. When the landing
lights were turned on, it was like landing in daylight
on the NVGs. Yet, the light could not be seen
by the naked eye. As soon as the aircraft touched
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