1 - The Black Vault

OPERATION ASSURED RESPONSE TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM
7th SOS in Europe and with the 8th SOS at
Hurlburt Field.
The 16th SOW received an operational readiness
inspection from 15 April to 29 May 1996. For
the inspection three 8th SOS MC-130Es and four
15th SOS MC-130Hs deployed to Cecil Field,
Florida, along with other wing assets. The 45-day
evaluation was extremely demanding on all participants,
but in the end the 16th SOW received
an overall excellent rating, as did the 8th SOS.
The 15th SOS was given a satisfactory rating,
which validated for the first time its combat capa -
bility in the still-new CT II weapons system. 22 The
CT II had come a long way since the program was
nearly canceled in the late 1980s.
The 8th SOS continued periodically to rotate
aircraft and crews to Brindisi, Italy, and the
unit maintained a vigorous exercise schedule
from home station. In September 1996 Saddam
Hussein once again caused tensions in the Middle
East to escalate when he refused to allow
the UN special commission inspection team access
to key facilities thought to house weapons
of mass destruction. In response to the crisis,
the commanding general of Special Operations
Command, Central (COMSOCCENT) requested
additional forces be deployed to the region to
augment the existing CSAR force. The 8th SOS
was tasked to provide two MC-130Es, and on 10
October they departed Hurlburt Field bound for
the Middle East. With four IFRs en route, the
deployment was planned as a nonstop flight to
Prince Sultan AB, Saudi Arabia. Within 36
hours of tasking, the 8th SOS Combat Talons
had arrived at their beddown location. 23
Although the region did not erupt into an allout
shooting war, the expanded Southern Watch
operation resulted in the approval for UN fighter
aircraft to strike back at Iraqi military targets
when those targets challenged the enforcement of
the no-fly zone. For the remainder of the year, the
8th SOS maintained two Combat Talons in Saudi
Arabia, with at least one aircraft on continuous
CSAR alert in the event of a friendly aircraft
shoot down by the Iraqis.
As the 8th SOS deployed to the Middle East in
September, another significant event occurred for
the squadron. Since its inception in 1965, the Fulton
surface-to-air recovery system had been an
integral part of the MC-130E weapons system. Although
several combat missions were planned
during the Vietnam War era, no actual combat
recoveries were made with the system. By the
1990s SOF rotary-wing aircraft had been modified
with IFR capability that allowed them to refuel
from C-130 tanker aircraft. This capability extended
the range of the helicopter, thus eliminating
most of the need for STARS. The acquisition
of the CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, with its extended
range and ability to land and pick up survivors,
finally eliminated the requirement for STARS altogether.
Headquarters AFSOC determined that
STARS was too expensive to continue to maintain
and moved to cancel the program when it sent a
request to USSOCOM asking relief from the requirement.
Sporadic training continued on the
system for the next 12 months. 24 In its 031722Z
September 1997 message, Headquarters AFSOC
announced that USCINCSOC had finally approved
the termination of the Fulton mission. The
message directed both the 16th SOW at Hurlburt
Field (the 8th SOS) and the 919th SOW at Duke
Field (the 711th SOS) to terminate all training,
maintenance, and equipment acquisition associated
with STARS. 25 Subsequent to the 3 September
message, the last STARS training mission
was flown out of Hurlburt Field, with several
long-time Talon crew members on the flight for
the historic event. With the retirement of the Fulton
system, a long and colorful chapter in Combat
Talon history ended.
The 15th SOS supported numerous exercises
and training events out of Hurlburt Field for
the remainder of 1996. With 10 aircraft assigned,
it was by far the largest of the Combat
Talon units, and its personnel had gained valu -
able experience flying the complex aircraft over
the past three years.
The 711th SOS Employs
the Combat Talon I
At Duke Field 1996 was a year of training and
growth for the 711th SOS. As the New Year began,
the squadron had three Combat Talon I aircraft
assigned and was in the process of certifying
its second combat crew. On 13 February the
fourth Combat Talon (62-1843) was assigned to
the 919th SOW, followed by 64-0561 on 6 March
and 64-0565 on 8 March. For most of the remainder
of the year, the squadron operated with seven
aircraft, with the eighth aircraft (64-0551) being
assigned on 6 December 1996. 26 The squadron
was tasked to establish a minimal Talon I combat
capability by the end of CY 96, and it focused its
efforts on attaining that goal. As the squadron
established its Talon I crew, it drew on a combination
of former squadron members from the AC-130A
gunship and from Talon I personnel separating
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