1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
terrain following utilizing the autopilot. Experience
in SEA and in Europe established the requirement
to fly long and physically demanding
missions at low altitude. The ability to engage the
autopilot while in the terrain-following mode was
designed to give the pilot a break from the continuous
demands of manual low-level flight. The
autopilot pitch monitor disengaged the autopilot
when it sensed a rapid climb or dive command
with the autopilot engaged. The system was designed
to prevent an autopilot-induced hard-over
driving the aircraft into the ground due to autopilot
or other system failures. 44
To eliminate the slowdown requirement for resupply
drops, the HSLLADS was installed on the
MOD-70 aircraft. This modification consisted of
strengthening the fuselage of the aircraft and installing
a second hydraulic cylinder to augment
the opening and closing of the rear aircraft door. 45
Since the days of the Carpetbaggers in World War
II, special operators had looked for a way to perform
airdrops without the slowdown maneuver. If
the aircraft was being tracked by radar or by
other electronic means, a slowdown could compromise
the drop zone and thus reveal to the enemy
the location of the airdrop. Early tactics developed
to confuse the enemy included making multiple
slowdowns to mask the actual drop zone. Although
somewhat effective, multiple slowdowns
put the aircraft at a slow airspeed close to the
ground in enemy territory, thus increasing its vulnerability
and the likelihood of the aircraft being
hit by enemy fire. Multiple slowdowns also complicated
navigational timing because a constant
ground speed could not be maintained, thus making
it more difficult to make exact times as flight
planned on subsequent legs of the route. The
HSLLADS was designed for resupply drops since
physical limitations of the human body would not
permit personnel drops outside the established
airspeeds of 125–150 KIAS.
Aircraft 64-0566 departed Detachment 2 for
the 7th SOS on 5 September, thus beginning a
two-year period of exchanging aircraft among the
three Combat Talon units to accommodate the
MOD-70 output schedule. As the schoolhouse for
the Combat Spear and Combat Arrow units, Combat
Knife was tasked to train aircrews in both the
pre-MOD-70 aircraft and in the new system. As
MOD-70 aircraft were assigned to the overseas
units, training on the older system was discontinued,
and only MOD-70 training was provided for
new crew members.
Detachment 2, 1st SOW Becomes
the 318th SOS
Special Order G-267, dated 3 November 1971,
activated the 318th Special Operations Squadron,
effective 15 November 1971, and assigned the
new squadron to the 1st SOW at Hurlburt Field,
Florida. In conjunction with its activation, Detachment
2, 1st SOW, was inactivated. All personnel
and equipment formally assigned to Detachment
2 was reassigned to the 318th SOS. 46
Colonel Hellier remained as the squadron commander
until 1 December, when Lt Col Valintino
Bagnani Jr. assumed command. 47
The 318th SOS had a long history in special
operations. Originally activated on 1 May 1944
as the 318th Troop Carrier Squadron (Commando),
the 318th was assigned to the 3d Air
Commando Group and operated in the Pacific
theater flying C-47s. Originally located at Camp
MacCall, North Carolina, the unit deployed to
Nadzab, New Guinea, on 26 October 1944. It dis -
tinguished itself during the campaigns of the
Western Pacific, Leyte Gulf, and Luzon. It was
deactivated on 25 March 1946 after the end of
the war. 48 Its proud heritage was displayed in the
pride shown by Detachment 2 personnel toward
the new designation.
When Combat Talon 64-0562 arrived from LAS
Ontario in late September after completion of
MOD-70, unit personnel had been identified to fly
the Category III flight tests. Majors John M. Connaughton
and Harry L. Pannill had been selected
as the two pilots, and Majors John Gargus and
Rethel H. Jones were the two navigators. Gargus
was the primary instructor for the AN/APQ-
122(V)8 multimode radar, and Jones taught the
LN-15J inertial navigation system. All four flyers
had spent much of the previous summer on temporary
duty to LAS Ontario learning the systems.
The first unit terrain-following flight on aircraft
64-0562 occurred on 8 November and was followed
by numerous additional flights that tested
all phases of the new system. On 18 November
the first night terrain-following flight was flown.
On 22 December the second MOD-70 aircraft (64-
0561) was delivered to the 318th. 49 By late December,
three 318th crews had been trained on
the MOD-70 system. 50
When the original 14 C-130E aircraft were
modified to the Combat Talon configuration in
1965, the designation given to the new unconventional
warfare aircraft had been the C-130E(I),
which identified the aircraft as being Fultonintercept
capable. When the aircraft were modified
68