1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
operations mission. All turrets, except the tail turret,
were removed from the aircraft, leaving the
aircraft unarmed and incapable of self-defense. A
parachutist’s exit was made where the belly gun
turret was originally located. Resupply bundles
were mounted on bomb racks inside the bomb bay,
thus allowing the bundles to be dropped like
bombs over the drop zone. Aircraft were painted
black, and a crude HTR-13 obstruction-warning
radar was installed to warn the crew of approaching
terrain. Later Combat Talon aircraft would be
equipped with a highly sophisticated radar allow -
ing low-level, adverse weather terrain-following
operations. The major flaw in the B-29 employed
in the special operations role, however, was that it
had been designed for high-altitude precision
bombing, not low-level airdrop. Over the drop zone
at drop airspeed, the aircraft was near its stall
speed and was difficult to maneuver. 35
A B-29 assigned to the 580th ARCW conducted
trials at Eglin AFB, Florida, during the summer of
1951 to determine if the aircraft could be used to
extract personnel utilizing the prototype Personnel
Pickup Ground Station extraction system. The test
aircraft was modified with a 48-inch diameter
opening in place of the aft-belly turret and with an
elongated tailhook at the rear of the aircraft. The
system was similar to the one adopted in 1952 by
Fifth AF for the C-47s of the Special Air Missions
detachment in Korea. The tests proved technically
feasible, but the project was dropped for the B-29
aircraft due to aircraft size and safety considera -
tions of flying it so close to the ground. 36
The solid black B-29s flew long-range leafletdrop
missions over northern Korea. PSYWAR
“leaflet bombs” were loaded with various forms of
PSYWAR materiel and then airdropped from high
altitude. An altitude-sensitive fuse opened the
container at a predetermined set altitude, dependent
on premission forecast winds and desired dispersal
patterns. On 15 January 1953 a 581st ARS
B-29, with the wing commander on board, was shot
down 12 miles south of the Yalu River in far
northern Korea on a leaflet-drop mission. Radarcontrolled
searchlights illuminated the unarmed
Superfortress, and “day only” MiG-15s shot the
aircraft down. Surviving crew members were imprisoned
by Chinese communist forces and were
put on trial in October 1954. Not until 4 August
1955, two years after the Korean War Armistice,
were the surviving crew members released from
Chinese prison. 37
At the direction of the 315th Air Division commander,
the 581st ARS C-119s provided limited
airlift support to FECOM’s Korean operations
throughout 1952. Beginning in 1953, however,
the C-119s were employed in Southeast Asia in
support of French operations in Indochina. Supplies,
including ammunition, vehicles, and barbed
wire, were delivered to Haiphong Airfield in everincreasing
quantities. When US presence in Indochina
could not be publicly escalated, plans were
developed to utilize 581st personnel in a discrete
support role. Refurbished C-119s, under French
markings, were flown into Indochina by 581st
crews, and French C-119s were flown out for depot
repair at Clark AB. Instructors from the 581st
were also tasked to train CIA-employed Civil Air
Transport (CAT) civilian aircrews in the C-119.
American support for the French only prolonged
the inevitable fall of the former colonial power. In
May 1954, the French were defeated at Dien Bien
Phu, thus ending 100 years of French colonial
rule in Indochina. 38
In October 1954, after being downsized to a
group in September 1953, the 581st was relocated
from Clark AB, Philippines, to Kadena AB, Japan,
where it continued reduced operations out of
that location for the next two years. In September
1956, the group was officially deactivated, thus
closing a chapter in special operations history in
the Pacific. 39 * * * * * *
Photo courtesy of Apollo’s Warriors
Picture depicts ARS C-119 in French markings. Squadron
supported US interest in SEA during the early
1950s.
In July and September 1952 the 580th ARCW,
which had been stationed at Mountain Home AFB
since its activation, embarked its support personnel
by way of ship to North Africa for its initial
deployment overseas. Assigned B-29s flew out of
Westover AFB, Massachusetts, with a planned refueling
and overnight crew rest stop in the Azores
en route to Wheelus AB, Libya. The C-119s and
SA-16s, with a much shorter range than the B-
29s, took a northern route through Iceland, England,
and Italy before arriving in Libya. 40
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