1 - The Black Vault

ROAD TO COMBAT TALON II
Photo courtesy of John R. Lewis
The test team that brought Project 46 to the threshold of success in 1989. Standing
left to right: Witherspoon, James Avant, Larry Beattie, Mike Duffie, Bill
Fowler, Gene Koppe, Dave Payne, Tony Walton, Ann Fulton, John Plasko, Russ
Tharp, Dave Tarpley, Frank Sharkany, Bob Underwood, and Bob Almanzar.
Kneeling left to right: Jim Hobbs, John R. Lewis, Tim Kerns, Bob Neal, Don
Nicholson, Denis Freizvee, Robert Fulton, Dee Newberry, Larry Edwards, and
George Adams.
new aircraft were in various states of modifica -
tion, flight testing, or long-term storage. 98 The
available CT I fleet would be tested in late December
when Manuel Noriega created a crisis in
Panama that required US intervention to protect
American lives. For the third time during the decade
of the 1980s, the Combat Talon would be
called upon to deliver special operations forces
into combat to defend vital US interests abroad.
Notes
1. Aircraft Records, AFTO Form 95, aircraft 64-0571,
Combat Talon Archive, HQ AFSOC/HO, Hurlburt Field, Fla.
2. Official Paper, “AFSOC: The Air Force’s Newest Com -
mand,” Lt Col Jerry L. Thigpen, USAF, US Army War College
Military Studies Program (Carlisle Barracks, Pa.: Army War
College, 1991), 37.
3. Col William G. Boykin, USA, “The Origins of the United
States Special Operations Command,” n.d., originally published
as a US Army War College Military Studies Program paper,
“Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict Legislation:
Why It Passed and Have the Voids Been Filled?” (Carlisle
Barracks, Pa.: Army War College, 1991), 2.
4. “AFSOC: The Air Force’s Newest Command,” 38–39.
5. Ibid., 40.
6. History, 2d Air Division, 1 January–31 December 1984,
16th Special Operations Wing historian file, Hurlburt Field,
Fla., vol. 1, I-32 to I-33.
7. Ibid., I-32.
8. Ibid., I-33 to I-34.
9. Ibid., I-57.
10. Ibid., I-46.
11. Ibid., I-50.
12. Ibid., I-49.
13. Ibid., I-33.
14. Ibid., I-85.
15. Ibid., I-86 to I-88.
16. Aircraft Records, AFTO Form 95, aircraft 83-1212.
17. Boykin, 8.
18. History, 2d Air Division, 1 January–31 December
1984, vol. 1, I-93.
19. Ibid., I-93 to I-94.
20. Ibid., I-95.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., I-66 to I-67.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., I-67 to I-68.
25. Ibid., I-68.
26. Ibid., I-14.
27. History, 2d Air Division, 1 January–31 December
1985, vol. 1, 1225.
315