1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
process. Events beginning just after midnight on
20 December 1989 would provide the proof that
US special operations forces, working closely with
a large conventional force, had matured significantly
since Desert One. The Blue Spoon OPORD
was renamed Operation Just Cause for the execution
phase of the plan.
The 8th SOS Deploys
to Lawson AAF, Georgia
The 1st SOW was a blur of activity by Monday
morning, 18 December, when the 8th SOS crews
were alerted and reported to the squadron. By
0900 there were five crews ready to brief in the
8th SOS squadron briefing room. (During the previous
night, the requirement for a fifth crew materialized,
and it was put in crew rest for the
Monday morning show.) The 20th SOS, along
with US Army MH-47s, was in the process of deploying
to Panama. The 9th SOS at Eglin AFB
was tasked to refuel the helicopters and to provide
SAR support over the Gulf of Mexico during
the helicopter deployment. The 8th SOS was
tasked to provide backup tanker support if the
9th SOS experienced an aircraft abort. Two 8th
SOS Talons were placed on alert for the backup
helicopter refueling mission. Two other MC-
130Es, along with the three Just Cause mission
crews, departed for Lawson AAF, Georgia, at 1100
local. The 9th SOS successfully completed the helicopter
refueling mission, and the two alert Combat
Talons were subsequently released to join the first
two Combat Talons in Georgia. They departed
Hurlburt Field and arrived at Lawson AAF during
the late afternoon on 18 December. At 1500, a mass
aircrew briefing was held at Fort Benning, Georgia,
which was adjacent to Lawson AAF and the home
of the 75th Ranger Regiment. The crews were given
as much information as was available on the objective
area and on possible threats to the aircraft. At
the briefing the 8th SOS crews learned that their
objective was Rio Hato Airfield and that their mission
was to airland elements of Task Force Red Romeo
utilizing NVG airland procedures. With information
in hand, the planners and crews sat down
to put together the assault package plan. An intelligence
update and an in-progress review were
scheduled for 2100 that evening, leaving no time
to spare. 20
Most of the crew members from the 8th SOS
had participated in the recently completed JRT 90-
1 and were familiar with the task. Throughout the
evening additional SOLL I and SOLL II C-130
crews arrived from Pope, Dyess, and Little Rock
AFBs. Most of them also had participated in the
JRT. At the 2100 briefing, there were 20 SOLL
crews and five Combat Talon crews in attendance.
A mission planner began the briefing by announcing
that the US president had signed the execute
order for Operation Just Cause, which signified
to all attendees that the mission was a go. The
Rio Hato air assault force was divided into two
packages—a 15-ship C-130 air-drop package that
was scheduled to drop at H hour and a five-ship
NVG airland package that was made up of the
three 8th SOS Combat Talons and two Popeassigned
C-130 SOLL II aircraft. The airlanding
was scheduled 35 minutes after the parachute assault.
After the 2100 briefing, planners and crew
members assigned to the two packages continued
to refine their mission plans. The five-ship airland
package was ready to brief back its mission by
0200 on 19 December. With some questions still
not answered by planners during the brief back,
the crews went into crew rest at 0300. 21
Four MC-130Es and five Combat Talon crews
deployed to Lawson AAF for Operation Just
Cause. After final mission planning, only three
Combat Talons (plus a spare aircraft) and three
augmented crews were required. Thigpen and
O’Reilly had the difficult task of deciding the final
makeup of the three mission crews. Because of the
anticipated extended crew duty day for the mission
(more than 24 hours), additional crew members
were moved from Ted Korver’s crew to the
three mission crews. The following 8th SOS augmented
crews were finalized during the mission
planning phase on 18 December. (Crews 1, 2, and
3 flew the Rio Hato AB assault mission on 19/20
December 1989. Ted Korver deployed to Howard
Crew 1
(Talon
64-0567)
Crew 2
(Talon
64-0562)
Crew 3
(Talon
64-0572)
Thigpen Davenport Gallagher Korver
Spare Crew
Gregor O’Reilly Batts English
Abbott Prior Harstad – –
Ross Cochran Strang – –
Weiler Franco Reynolds Kersh
Ammons McCabe Inkel Aldridge
Bouressa Crisafi Tagert Pearson
Alaniz Bonn Vonsik DeBoe
Gorczynski Long Tremblay Fleming
Pies Dunn Gillian – –
Bonck Boulware Balok – –
Harris Ballerstadt Foster – –
Wilcox Crayne Joy Corlew
Brackett Hickman Clark Bohannon
Doyle – – – – Gallo
Fox – – Linder Gobbi
Cribbs Sobell – – – –
322