1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
1966 when the system was new and being certified
for operational use. As the Combat Spear
contingent deployed to SEA, Combat Talon live
recoveries continued there during 1967 and
1968. By 30 September 1968 Combat Spear
crews had performed 29 additional live recoveries,
and the unit continued live pickups until
30 August 1971. 64 No malfunctions were recorded
that resulted in injury or loss of life. After
August 1971 Combat Spear did not make
any more recorded live pickups. In 1973 Combat
Spear converted to non-Fulton-capable “Yank”
aircraft and closed the book forever on the recovery
capability in the Pacific.
After Combat Spear deployed to SEA in 1966,
the Combat Knife unit at Pope AFB was tasked
with training additional crews for the Combat Arrow
unit in Europe and training replacement
crews for the 1968 SEA rotation. Available records
indicate that after the initial six live recoveries
were made in 1966, no other live pickups were
performed by the stateside-based Combat Knife
unit. The school of “no live recoveries for training”
was firmly in control at Tactical Air Command
(TAC) headquarters. Similarly, the European
Combat Arrow unit did not perform live recoveries
after its 1968 deployment to Ramstein AB, Federal
Republic of Germany (FRG). Ironically, it
would be the European unit that championed the
utility of the Fulton system and displayed it as a
primary capability for long-range extraction of
friendly forces from behind enemy lines. It did not,
however, record any live pickups during training
until the late 1970s, when the system again was
utilized for live training recoveries.
In 1978 US Army colonel William H. Tyler,
commander, Special Operations Task Force,
Europe, initiated a request to US Air Force,
Europe (USAFE) for resumption of limited live
pickups for training. Capt John Harbison and
TSgt Buff Underwood, both assigned to the 7th
Special Operations Squadron (SOS) at that time,
put together a presentation for the USAFE/deputy
commander of operations, Maj Gen Robert W. Clements,
and briefed him on the system. At the conclusion
of the briefing, Colonel Tyler asked for
approval to do a live surface-to-air recovery and
was promptly told “no.” Not being one to take no
for an answer, Colonel Tyler postponed any further
requests and vowed privately to do a live
surface-to-air recovery during the next Flintlock
exercise, when he would have operational control
of the 7th SOS. True to his word, Colonel Tyler
authorized the 7th SOS to perform a live surfaceto-air
recovery, and on 23 April 1979 he became
the first person extracted by the 7th SOS utilizing
the Fulton recovery system. A few days later, Capt
Skip Davenport made a second live pickup, extracting
Air Force Capt Bruce Weigel during
Subexercise Schwarzes-Pferd in southern Germany.
For the next three years, live surface-to-air
recoveries were accomplished during the annual
Flintlock exercise by 7th and 8th SOS personnel.
The last live surface-to-air recovery attempt occurred
on 26 April 1982 at Canadian forces base,
Lahr, in southern Germany. A system malfunction
resulted in the release of the person being picked
up, and he did not survive his injuries.
Combat Talon crews assigned to the 7th and
8th SOS continued to maintain proficiency in the
system after a thorough refurbishment was conducted
in the 1985 period. The “no live recoveries
for training” idea persisted, however, and no live
surface-to-air recoveries were ever again accomplished.
In November 1998 the Fulton STARS
was removed from the remaining Combat Talon
Clamp aircraft, and the capability was no longer
available. The STARS had been an integral part
of the weapons system since its inception in
1965. (See appendix A for a list of persons picked
up by the Fulton STARS.)
The Terrain-Following/
Terrain-Avoidance Radar System
Although not as visually overt as the Fulton
STARS modification, the ability of Combat Talon to
fly low level in the TF/TA mode was at the heart of
its unique capability. By 1965 Texas Instruments
(TI) had produced an operational TF/TA radar for
the RF-4 Phantom, which it identified as the
AN/APQ-99. When Project Heavy Chain aircraft
were modified beginning in late 1964, the AN/
APQ-99 was adapted for the C-130E as the SPR-3
and installed in the two assigned aircraft. When
Project Stray Goose kicked off in the spring of
1966, the SPR-3 was further modified by TI to
the AN/APQ-115 configuration and installed by
LAS Ontario on the 14 Combat Talon aircraft.
The original C-130E production radar (the AN/
APN-59B) was removed from the aircraft at that
time.
The AN/APQ-115 remained the primary radar
system on the Combat Talon throughout the 1960s,
but it suffered from a low mean-time-between failure
(MTBF) rate. A low MTBF rate equated to
increased downtime for the radar, with additional
maintenance and parts required to keep the system
operationally ready. The more often a piece of
38