1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
equipped with in-flight refueling, and their updated
ECM equipment made them heavier and
less capable of landing on unimproved airstrips.
For these reasons the 7th SOS was ruled out for
participation in the mission itself, but planners
reasoned that their aircraft could be used to establish
a signature at Wadi Kena.
On 1 January Col Tom Bradley, the commander
of the 7th SOS, was alerted through his
intelligence flight of a pending tasking to begin
operations from Rhein Main AB to Wadi Kena,
Egypt. Beginning on 2 January 1980, 7th SOS
aircraft commenced flight operations into the remote
base. Bradley received permission to brief
his operations officer, Maj Ron Jones, and his aircraft
commanders that the purpose of the new
mission was to support a possible rescue attempt
of the hostages in Iran. Not even Bradley, how -
ever, was briefed on details of the emerging
rescue mission. Operating under a MAC call sign,
7th SOS Combat Talons departed Rhein Main AB
and flew under normal ATC procedures to
Sigonella AB, Italy, where the aircraft landed and
refueled. Bradley deployed a liaison officer, Capt
Dave Blum, to Sigonella AB to coordinate operations
from there onward to Egypt. From Sigonella
AB the Combat Talon crews filed a classified
flight plan or flew “due regard” along the flight
boundary between Greece, Libya, and Egypt, remaining
in international airspace until turning
south toward Cairo. Bradley deployed Capt Art
Rohling to Cairo to serve as the ATC liaison with
the Egyptian ATC facility there. From the time
the Talons penetrated Egyptian airspace until
a rrival at Wadi Kena, the Talons received special
handling by Egyptian ATC. The cover for the entire
operation was that of a combined US-Egyptian
exercise. 51
Once at Wadi Kena, 7th SOS personnel established
liaison with local Egyptian air force person
nel. An exercise program was initiated with
the Egyptian air force that included airborne intercept
training between the Combat Talon and
Egyptian air force MiG-21 aircraft. Missions were
also flown against Egyptian surface-to-air missile
batteries. Additional flights were conducted over
the Red Sea along with low-level training sorties
over the southern desert area of Egypt. As the
Combat Talons flew from central Europe to Wadi
Kena, cargo and equipment to be used by the rescue
force were also moved. Sensitive cargo, including
ammunition for the AC-130H gunship, was
discreetly moved to Wadi Kena and stored there. 52
On the first of April, Bradley was alerted for a
surface-to-air recovery mission, and he quickly redeployed
his two Talons from Wadi Kena to Rhein
Main AB to reconfigure them for the mission. On
2 April the two Combat Talons, along with associated
Fulton recovery equipment, were in place
back at Wadi Kena. On 3 April a CIA twin Otter,
carrying two pilots and Maj John Carney (a USAF
combat controller), flew its mission deep into Iran
to install the covert landing lights that were later
used to guide Brenci and his rescue force of Talons
and EC-130E aircraft to Desert One. In the
event that the Otter could not depart its landing
site or had to set down somewhere else in Iran,
Bradley’s Combat Talon was tasked to extract the
three men by way of the STARS. Bradley deployed
one of his two Talons from Wadi Kena to
Oman International Airport, with Major Janke as
the aircraft commander. Bradley was the first pilot,
and Jones was the third pilot. Landing after
dark the Talon parked on the military side of the
airfield among other C-130s and shut down while
awaiting a call if Carney’s mission ran into
trouble. The twin Otter performed flawlessly and
flew the round-trip mission without a hitch. Before
daylight Bradley and his crew departed
Oman and returned to Wadi Kena without having
to perform the recovery. 53
The 7th SOS remained at Wadi Kena through
the 8th of April, redeploying just in time to participate
in Flintlock 80. The 7th SOS’s participa -
tion in the annual joint/combined exercise continued
as planned so that there would be no suspicion
of anything else going on with the squadron. When
8th SOS aircraft deployed to Wadi Kena through
Rhein Main AB, the JCS exercise continued to provide
cover for the rescue mission. During the Wadi
Kena operation, the 7th SOS deployed two aircraft
and over 100 support personnel for 93 days. Ap -
proximately 95 percent of the squadron deployed
there at one time or another, with 60 percent of
the squadron physically on temporary duty to
Egypt at any given time. As for Bradley, he spent
89 days out of the 93 deployed to Egypt. 54 By establishing
a signature early in the year, the 7th
SOS enabled the rescue force to deploy to Wadi
Kena virtually undetected. No one outside the op -
eration was even remotely aware of the true nature
of the Talon mission.
From the beginnings of Operation Rice Bowl,
the 1st SOS was an integral part of the rescue
mission. All four of its aircraft previously had
received the in-flight refueling modification, a ca -
pability that the JTF planners felt essential to
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