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Contents Chapter Page DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii iii v FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A WORD FROM THE COMMANDER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix xxiii xxv xxix 1 Establishment of Combat Talon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2 The Combat Talon Weapons System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3 Combat Knife (The Pope Air Force Base Years: 1965–74) . . . . . . . . 59 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4 Combat Spear (The Vietnam War Years: 1966–74) . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 5 Combat Arrow (Europe: 1968–74) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 6 The Son Tay Prisoner of War Raid (1970) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 7 Between the Wars (1975–79) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 8 The Iranian Rescue Mission (1979–80) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 9 Project Honey Badger and Credible Sport (1980–81) . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 10 From Desert One to Point Salines (1981–83) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 11 Road to Combat Talon II (1984–89) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 12 Operation Just Cause (1989–90) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 vii
Chapter Page 13 Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990–91) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 14 Mount Pinatubo to Operation Joint Endeavor (1991–95) . . . . . . . . . 369 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416 15 Operation Assured Response to the New Millennium (1996–2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458 EPILOGUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461 Appendices A Live Fulton STARS Made by Combat Talon Aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . 467 B Partial Summary of Upgrades, MOD-90 Combat Talon I . . . . . . . . . 473 GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 Figure Illustrations 1 Servicing Diagram for C-130E(I), circa 1967 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2 C-130A/B Fulton Skyhook Installation (External View) . . . . . . . . . . 31 3 C-130A/B Fulton Skyhook Installation (Internal View) . . . . . . . . . . 32 4 Miscellaneous Recovery Equipment for STARS-Equipped C-130E . . . . 34 5 Typical Recovery Sequence a. Aircraft Approaches Lift Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 b. Aircraft Engages Lift Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 c. Lift Line Engaged by Parahook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 d. Snatch Block Attached to Lift Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 e. Anchor Clamp Attached to Lift Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 f. Snatch Block and Parahook Removed from Lift Line . . . . . . . . . 36 g. Lift Line Released from Sky Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 h. Lift Line Attached to Primary Winch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 j. Package Retrieved and Stopped at Davit Pulley . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 k. Package Brought Aboard Aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 6 Monopulse Resolution Improvement Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 7 Antenna Scan Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 8 Zero Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 9 Template Shift Due to Gross Weight Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 10 Template Shift Due to an Increase in Flight Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 11 Template Shift Due to an Increase in Negative Flight Vector . . . . . . . 42 12 Template Shift Due to an Increase in Tailwind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 viii
Page 2 and 3: i\1 -■-'^^.■■--y^lEil^peD
Page 4 and 5: The Praetorian STARShip The Untold
Page 6 and 7: This book is dedicated to all Speci
Page 10 and 11: Figure Page 13 Template Shift Due t
Page 12 and 13: Page Col Don Britton, First Command
Page 14 and 15: Page Aircraft 74-1683 Crashes onto
Page 16 and 17: Foreword As a young lieutenant flyi
Page 18 and 19: About the Author USAF Photo Col Jer
Page 20 and 21: The third factor driving approval o
Page 22 and 23: A Word from the Commander We in Air
Page 24 and 25: was changed forever. The US Army Wa
Page 26 and 27: Introduction Welcome to the world o
Page 28 and 29: system, the following three chapter
Page 30 and 31: move was partially driven by the Ai
Page 32 and 33: Chapter 1 Establishment of Combat T
Page 34 and 35: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON coloc
Page 36 and 37: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON Two d
Page 38 and 39: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON immed
Page 40 and 41: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON Life
Page 42 and 43: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON condu
Page 44 and 45: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON Precu
Page 46 and 47: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON were
Page 48 and 49: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON SOG h
Page 50 and 51: Chapter 2 The Combat Talon Weapons
Page 52 and 53: although the early Fulton modificat
Page 54 and 55: THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM tri
Page 56 and 57: THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM Lt
Page 58 and 59:
THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM as
Page 60 and 61:
THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM mis
Page 62 and 63:
THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM F^C
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM The
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM ./
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■ ■-:'■-:;■ ■■..kFTn \
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equipment malfunctioned, the more t
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM top
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM it
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM TEP
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM CRu
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Yank aircraft operating in the Paci
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM Fig
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THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM ly
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TYPICAl TANKER ORBIT PATTERN THE CO
Page 88 and 89:
THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM Not
Page 90 and 91:
PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Once the Stray
Page 92 and 93:
PRAETORIAN STARSHIP 1968: The Estab
Page 94 and 95:
PRAETORIAN STARSHIP ridgeline. John
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP that it was a t
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP terrain followi
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP to intercept th
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP assigned to the
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP making multiple
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Chapter 4 Combat Spear (The Vietnam
Page 108 and 109:
COMBAT SPEAR quarters and were prov
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COMBAT SPEAR f -fpadc khi ai b6 phr
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COMBAT SPEAR The study cited the fo
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COMBAT SPEAR rn nilMirif Piti.r,,!
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COMBAT SPEAR proper crew rest could
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COMBAT SPEAR proper people. Moreove
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COMBAT SPEAR we never intended to e
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COMBAT SPEAR Christmas spirit and j
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COMBAT SPEAR ■ IBDCITI |«'4llH^
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COMBAT SPEAR with good radar target
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COMBAT SPEAR two loadmasters, and t
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COMBAT SPEAR was given up. The crew
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COMBAT SPEAR killed, and 187 were w
Page 134 and 135:
COMBAT SPEAR volunteers shortly aft
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COMBAT SPEAR were provided to SOG b
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COMBAT SPEAR early as January 1970.
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COMBAT SPEAR r esources resulted. A
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COMBAT SPEAR live surface-to-air pi
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served as the squadron’s administ
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COMBAT SPEAR Korean government. 139
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COMBAT SPEAR marked the beginning o
Page 150 and 151:
COMBAT SPEAR 76. History, 14th Spec
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Sembach AB to R
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Combat Talon de
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP June also saw t
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP prisoners of wa
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP and presenting
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP 1973: Combat Ta
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP experienced wit
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Chapter 6 The Son Tay Prisoner of W
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THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID On
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THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID cr
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THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID Tr
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THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID al
Page 176 and 177:
THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID th
Page 178 and 179:
THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID RT
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THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID se
Page 182 and 183:
THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID ob
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THE SON TAY PRISONER OF WAR RAID se
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Chapter 7 Between the Wars (1975-79
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BETWEEN THE WARS Tentatively, the p
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BETWEEN THE WARS be undertaken in M
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BETWEEN THE WARS was established as
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BETWEEN THE WARS From 28 March to 1
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BETWEEN THE WARS The 7575th OG exer
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BETWEEN THE WARS The last half of t
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BETWEEN THE WARS during 1978 the sq
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BETWEEN THE WARS Italy for the firs
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BETWEEN THE WARS SOW CCT member lin
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Chapter 8 The Iranian Rescue Missio
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION shah had
Page 210 and 211:
THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION were oth
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The 1st SOW maintained the four gun
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION Crew 1 C
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION large ru
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION helicopt
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION or barra
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION Since th
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executing the mission. Kyle had jus
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION addition
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION where he
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION the resc
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equired eight and one-half hours of
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The prototype Benson tank was opera
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NVG landings. Because of the short
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION the 1st
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION of the C
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION transmis
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION Photo co
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION Photo co
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION Fleming
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION had land
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION outside
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION ^f5
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION vertical
Page 258 and 259:
THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION a decisi
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THE IRANIAN RESCUE MISSION Notes 1.
Page 262 and 263:
Chapter 9 Project Honey Badger and
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PROJECT HONEY BADGER AND CREDIBLE S
Page 266 and 267:
adar system similar to the Combat T
Page 268 and 269:
Page 270 and 271:
Page 272 and 273:
Page 274 and 275:
Page 276 and 277:
0428 local, made its tactical landi
Page 278 and 279:
Chapter 10 From Desert One to Point
Page 280 and 281:
Talon community. 8 The IFR modifica
Page 282 and 283:
FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES an
Page 284 and 285:
FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES sq
Page 286 and 287:
exercise aircraft on the ground wer
Page 288 and 289:
standard operating procedures for c
Page 290 and 291:
FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES un
Page 292 and 293:
to MAC’s newly formed Twenty-Thir
Page 294 and 295:
FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES se
Page 296 and 297:
FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES an
Page 298 and 299:
plan, Colonel Hudspeth arrived in t
Page 300 and 301:
FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES At
Page 302 and 303:
FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES MA
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for five Combat Talons, Hobson and
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FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES US
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FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES de
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FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES as
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il-u Grenada Firlih Hunlfe^ Fiuil
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FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES th
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FROM DESERT ONE TO POINT SALINES 10
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP five-light syst
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP the total force
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP interest the co
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP operations exer
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP forces in being
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP 1986: The Goldw
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP With rumors swi
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Photo courtesy
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP all on-aircraft
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Dur ing the fol
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP the ORI overwhe
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP H ■ BB a FT-
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP 28. History, 2d
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP ranks to become
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP continued to ve
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP process. Events
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP launch. By 1730
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP USAF Photo Crew
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP spacing between
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP vegetation grow
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Task Force Blac
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP JTF-South force
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP 21. Ibid. 22. I
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Cope Thunder Wi
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP the first night
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Within days of
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP SOW forces lean
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP was “not bad.
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP --7^*—1^, ■
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP ready for testi
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP start of the ai
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Orrell had depl
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP 16 January the
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP Saudi Arabia. H
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PRAETORIAN STARSHIP experts destroy
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Chapter 14 Mount Pinatubo to Operat
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MOUNT PINATUBO TO OPERATION JOINT E
Page 398 and 399:
major eruption occurred. Seismograp
Page 400 and 401:
Page 402 and 403:
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headquarters. For AFSOC McPeak’s
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culmination of years of hard work b
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flew a SOCEUR assessment team into
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Early in the spring of 1993, all th
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Chapter 15 Operation Assured Respon
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OPERATION ASSURED RESPONSE TO THE N
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fuel available at the new location
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Page 486 and 487:
Epilogue 2000 and Beyond: A Combat
Page 488 and 489:
surface will be covered by layers o
Page 490 and 491:
Live Fulton STARS Made by Combat Ta
Page 492 and 493:
Person Date Location Recovery Pilot
Page 494 and 495:
Partial Summary of Upgrades, MOD-90
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—X Band Receiver/Transmitter: On
Page 498 and 499:
Glossary AAA AAF ABCCC ABW ACS AD A
Page 500 and 501:
CTJTF CTMR CTW CV DCS DCSO DIA DMZ
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MATS MC MCAS MCM MEU MFF MFP MIA MO
Page 504 and 505:
SKE SLOG SMM SOAR SOCCENT SOCCT SOC
Page 506 and 507:
Index Aircraft B-17: 2-4, 15, 17, 2
Page 508 and 509:
Far East Command (FECOM): 5-8 Fulto
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