1 - The Black Vault

ecovery was completed. The AFSOCCENT Rescue
Coordination Center at KFIA received word
from Riyadh that two good parachutes were spotted
after a US Navy F-14 Tomcat was shot down
130 miles inside Iraq. An A-10 pilot was in radio
contact with the downed crew. AFSOCCENT
quickly contacted Jerry Garlington (FOL commander)
at Arar, where a Pave Low helicopter
was still on alert from the previous night. Captain
Trask, an MH-53 aircraft commander, was
alerted, and his crew launched at 0805 into a
dense fog. With two F-15s providing cover, the
helicopter proceeded north in broad daylight to a
position 50 miles north of Mudaysis Airfield and
60 miles northwest of Baghdad. Reaching the coor -
dinates given by the A-10 pilot, Trask and his for -
mation searched the area for the next 25 minutes,
but there was no trace of a survivor. With fuel running
low, AFSOCCENT ordered Trask’s formation
to return to Arar. After landing at Arar and beginning
the refueling process, Trask received word that
one of the A-10s had made visual contact with one
of the survivors. After refueling, the two MH-53s
launched at 1220 and headed back north into Iraq.
At 1340 Trask was relayed the probable location of
the survivor, but to reach the position the Pave
Lows had to cross a major four-lane highway
clogged with Iraqi military vehicles. Finding a gap
in the traffic, Trask’s formation was able to cross
the highway at a 90-degree angle and at approximately
10-feet altitude. Fifteen minutes later Slate
46, the call sign of the downed pilot, called on his
survival radio after spotting the two Pave Lows.
The pilot was in a position 25 miles to the north of
where Trask thought he would be. As the Pave
Lows turned north, Trask’s crew observed a truck
making a beeline toward Slade 46’s position. The
truck obviously had picked up the downed airman’s
radio signal and had homed in on the survival radio.
An escort A-10 quickly destroyed the truck, and
Trask flew directly toward the burning hulk. Not
150 yards away US Navy lieutenant Devon Jones
popped up out of his foxhole and signaled to the
helicopters. Landing on the sandy desert, CCT
and PJ personnel on board Trask’s Pave Low
quickly retrieved Jones, and the aircraft departed
the area with the first AFSOCCENT save
of the w ar. 57
DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM
The first CSAR attempt by the 39th SOW also
began on 21 January, just one day after the 21st
SOS arrived at Batman. The mission was delayed
24 hours when permission to launch the rescue
force was delayed by the Turkish government.*
As a result of the delay, the mission was postponed
until 22 January when permission was finally
received from Turkey, and a large strike
package was launched into northern Iraq. The
JSAR force consisted of two HC-130P/Ns of the
67th SOS, one MC-130E of the 7th SOS, and two
MH-53Hs from the 21st SOS. Fighter support was
provided by a combined F-15 and F-16 escort
package. After launch the two helicopters refueled
from the HC-130P/Ns while still over Turkish
territory and then proceeded into Iraq with the
Combat Talon serving as the command and control
aircraft for the recovery operation. The
downed airmen’s last-known positions were located
in a high-threat area near Baghdad. To provide
a diversion designed to deflect Iraqi attention
away from the downed flyers, the fighter escort
aircraft initiated a diversionary air strike against
the Iraqi defenders. When the two Pave Lows
went in, they attempted to contact the downed
pilots (call sign Corvette 03) by way of radio and
immediately began taking AAA fire. It was apparent
that the Americans had been captured and
that there was a trap set for the rescuers. 58 The
JSAR force departed the Baghdad area and returned
to Turkey without rescuing either of the
two American flyers.
AFSOCCENT forces, augmented by JSOTF
Elusive Concept forces in Turkey, continued to
pull CSAR alert duties for the remainder of the
war. The Corvette 03 rescue attempt was the
only mission flown by the 7th SOS out of Turkey.
For the 8th SOS their PSYOPS leaflet mis -
sion was soon to expand with the addition of
BLU-82B tasking.
8th SOS PSYOPS/Leaflet
Missions during Desert Storm
When the air war began on 16 January, the 8th
SOS already had completed four prewar PSYOPS
leaflet missions. Those missions had been directed
toward Iraqi troops occupying Kuwait City and
the extreme southeastern portion of Kuwait. After
__________
*Although the Turkish government was sympathetic to US requirements, the issue of trade and lost revenues with the shutdown of the Iraqi oil
pipeline made overt assistance by Turkey against Iraq especially perilous. Turkey also shared with Iraq the common problem of the Kurds. Just as
the Kurds had demanded autonomy in Iraq, they had also conducted years of guerrilla warfare against Turkey to gain independence of the eastern
portion of the country. Flight approval and host-nation restrictions had not been thoroughly delineated since the 39th SOW had deployed to
Batman only one day before the 21 January mission. As the war progressed, and the 39th SOW’s presence solidified at both Incirlick AB and at
Batman, more streamlined procedures were developed that eased some of the friction between US forces stationed there and the Turkish military.
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