1 - The Black Vault

MOUNT PINATUBO TO OPERATION JOINT ENDEAVOR
the one used during Desert Storm. From July to
September daily radio broadcasts from the 193d
SOG Commando Solo aircraft were conducted to
unsettle Cedras and his followers and to cause
them to peacefully transfer control of the government
back to President Aristide. In early September
the Combat Talons of the 8th SOS were
tasked to begin leaflet drops over the island.
Poole had been the commander of the 8th SOS
since the spring of 1994, and his Talon crews
were highly experienced in delivering leaflets after
their combat experiences in Desert Storm.
The squadron’s first leaflet drop was targeted at
the capital city of Port-au-Prince during the night
of 9/10 September 1994. Departing Hurlburt
Field the crew first flew to Pope AFB, where the
leaflets were onloaded along with mission support
personnel from the 4th PSYOPS Group. The
leaflets were to be dropped from an altitude of
5,000 feet, making drop ballistics critical in ensuring
that the leaflets fell on the target area as
planned. Poole was one of the two crew naviga -
tors responsible for determining the CARP, and
he queried the Army PSYOPS personnel regarding
the weight and fold of the leaflets. He was
told that the leaflets were printed on 50-pound
paper stock and were folded for autorotation during
descent. Using this information the 8th SOS
crew computed the release point and finalized
mission details before departing Pope AFB en
route to its first KC-135 IFR. After receiving its
programmed fuel, the Talon proceeded on to the
objective area and maneuvered to its planned
CARP location over Port-au-Prince. After dropping
the leaflets the crew accomplished a second
IFR and recovered back at Hurlburt Field. Postdrop
assessment revealed that most of the leaflets
had missed the target and had landed in the
water near the city. To determine why the leaflets
missed, the crew reviewed the entire drop
sequence and the calculations used to determine
the release point. During this process planners
discovered two contributing causes for the missed
drop—the leaflets were not configured in the
autorotating mode as told to the crew prior to
departing Pope AFB, and secondly, the crew discovered
that there was a continuous wind shear
near the surface that blew the leaflets wide of
their mark. The low-level wind shear was characteristic
of the objective area and was unknown to
the crew before the drop. The fold of the leaflets
and the wind shear combined to degrade drop
accuracy. 126
First Contingency Employment
of Combat Talon II
On 13 September the 15th SOS was tasked for
its first leaflet drop into Haiti, which was the
first combat mission flown by the squadron since
its missions into North Vietnam during the late
1960s. It was also the first contingency tasking
for the CT II weapons system. Lovett* chose
Crew 1, commanded by Major White, to plan and
fly the mission. Members of Crew 1 were Major
White, Colonel Lovett, Captain Kellogg, Major
Gantert, Captain VanDerHoven, Captain Fallert,
Sergeant Clevenger, Sergeant Sloan, Chief Master
Sergeant Sanchez, Sergeant Fredricksen, Sergeant
Fine, and Sergeant Ochoa. 127
White’s crew planned the mission on 14 September
for execution the following night. With
knowledge of the previous 5,000-foot leaflet drop
by the 8th SOS crew, the 15th SOS looked at the
possibility of a nonstandard low-altitude leaflet
drop. Review of the threat (including AAA and
small-arms fire) convinced the crew that a drop
from 500 feet above the ground was feasible. To
ensure accurate wind data and to minimize warning
to the Haitian defenses, the ingress was
planned over the Gulf of Gonave at an altitude
that varied from 50 to 200 feet above the water.
Two passes over Port-au-Prince were planned at
500 feet. The first pass would begin with a coastal
penetration just east of the Haitian naval base
located on the southwest edge of the city. After
coast-in, the aircraft would make a sweeping turn
to the northeast, dispensing leaflets over the eastern
and southern portions of the city. The second
pass would begin after completing a wide turn
to a westerly heading in the valley northeast of
the city. 128
With the mission planned White’s crew entered
crew rest for the next evening’s mission. On 15
September, at 2121Z, the CT II departed
Hurlburt Field en route to Pope AFB to onload
the leaflets and 4th PSYOPS Group personnel.
The profile was similar to the previous 8th SOS
mission, with two KC-135 tankers required to refuel
the Talon II. Just before takeoff from
Hurlburt Field, White learned that a 40 mm AAA
gun had been moved to a ridgeline overlooking
Port-au-Prince. The planned coastal penetration
point was in range of the AAA. Quickly figuring
the depressed angle of the gun barrels, the crew’s
EWO (Fallert) determined that the gun could not
accurately fire on the aircraft until it was out of
__________
*Lovett was the 15th SOS/CC and was also designated as the airborne mission commander for the mission.
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