1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
USAF Photo
Crew 3, Operation Just Cause. Standing left to right: Vonsik, Reynolds, Gallagher,
Balok, Linder, Foster, and Joy. Kneeling left to right: Inkel, Tremblay,
Harstad, and Clark. Not pictured: Batts, Strang, Tagert, and Gillian.
amount of fuel each Talon had to take to complete
its primary airland mission, depart Rio Hato, and
either land at Howard AB for additional fuel or
refuel with another tanker en route back to
Hurlburt Field. Gallagher was second on the
boom, and he received his computed minimum
fuel. Thigpen was the last to hook up to the single
tanker. He knew that his secondary mission, after
airlanding his rangers and STS personnel,
was to set up a ground FARRP at Rio Hato to
service helicopter gunships supporting the ranger
assault. Consequently, he elected to onload all
remaining fuel available from the tanker, which
was about 5,000 pounds more than his planned
on load. Thus, number two and number three
Talons received slightly less than their planned
on load while number one onloaded 5,000 pounds
more fuel than was originally planned. If all went
according to the premission timetable, and Thigpen
landed at his scheduled time, he would have
to dump the excess fuel before landing to stop in
the available runway. During the recent Blue
Spoon JRT, however, the ranger air-assault operation
had taken more time than planned, and
the follow-on airland mission was delayed until
the runway was cleared. There was a good
chance, Thigpen reasoned, that the formation
would have to hold and wait for the runway clear
call. The extra fuel would allow the lead Talon to
hold for an additional hour and then still be able
to deliver the planned fuel to the helicopter gunships.
The IFR operation was extremely challenging
for the three Combat Talon crews, being in
and out of the weather throughout the entire operation.
Visual contact was lost several times between
the formation aircraft, but the operation
was successfully completed. Departing the tanker
refueling track, the three Talons began their
climb back to 18,000 feet and continued south.
The two SOLL II C-130s had closed slightly on
the three Talons during the refueling operation.
The number five aircraft, which had to return to
Lawson AAF for repair, was still behind schedule
but was catching up to the rest of the formation
as it flew south. 26
As the formation neared the northern coast of
Panama, the three Talons began their descent to
500 feet above the water in the terrain-following
mode. The two SOLL II C-130s descended to approximately
1,000 feet above the water and flew
modified contours once over land. Coastal penetration
was near Point Mauseto, Panama, with
three low-level legs planned before the initial
point for Rio Hato. From the time the formation
descended to its low-level altitude, it was in and out
of the weather until landing. When the lead Talon
passed the Panamanian coastline, for som e unknown
reason, the ALE-40 flare system activated,
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