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CULTURE SHOCK |
On a cold, dreary, drizzly Friday (30 September 1977), I arrived at Zweibrucken AB as an Airman First Class Photo Interpreter (PI). I came from Offutt AFB where all aerial photography was taken by things that flew high (real high) and fast (really fast!). We did our jobs in the basement of SAC Headquarters in a relatively pristine atmosphere. That was about to change at Zweibrucken AB, the home of the 26th Tactical Recon Wing which included the 17th Tactical Recon Squadron and the 38th Tactical Recon Squadron. My first assignment was with a new unit called the 26th INY (can't remember what INY stood for), where we were primarily responsible for the development of a new RF-4C imaging system - SLAR (Side-looking Airborne Radar). About a year later, INY was split up with most people going to the 38th TRS. The 17th TRS was disbanded in 1979. |
OUR JOB |
As a photo interpreter, I worked with the pilots when they did their mission planning and wrote reports, but most of our time was spent on the light table looking and analyzing everything the RF-4C could throw at us, including SLAR, infrared, visual, and even electronic intelligence. Our job was to take the film, correlate it with a map so that we knew where we were, look for targets (planned and unplanned), and then compose reports of what we saw-and do it FAST! One of the prototype systems we used to exploit the SLAR missions was called The MARRES (Mary's) system built by Texas Instruments. The other was built by system, built by Goodyear Aerospace, gave us the capability to get "datalink" SLAR imagery in near real time; a revolutionary concept for tactical intelligence! The first time we used this system during a Reforger exercise, we were pumping out target reports to the commanders in the field about 20 minutes after TOT (Time Over Target). The commanders, thinking it was not possible to get real intelligence so quickly, tossed them in the trash! |
OUR REAL JOB |
Our cold war mission was to practice, practice, practice! We had a lot of exercises; Reforger is the one that stands out the most. Reforger was 2 weeks in the spring/summer of long hours, simulated bombings, helmets, and gas masks. It was all taken very seriously. Our REAL cold war mission was classified at the time and I hesitate to say anything about it now, even though the Warsaw Pact no longer exists. Yes, maybe I'm a little paranoid, but I still work for the government so alittle paranoia is OK. :) |
WINS & LOSSES |
While at Zweibrucken, we did have occasional accidents such as one F-4 that decapitated a deer on take-off, one F-4 that had some problems on take-off and rolled off the runway into the infield (see picture), and I think we had a serious bird strike, but my memory is alittle hazy on that one. No one was ever killed due to mission related activities, although, I did lose one friend to a mountain climbing accident in Switzerland (Scott). |
CHANGES... |
I separated from the Air Force in August 1980 and stayed in Germany until November. During that time, I traveled around Europe on a Eurail pass for 2 months and stayed with friends for another 2 months.
When I got back to the states, I started school at Penn State University in the Aerospace Engineering program. I ignored one professor's evaluation of my potential, who told me to "get out of engineering" in my freshman year, and went on to graduate with honors. Now I work at Wright-Patterson AFB as an aerospace engineer for the Air Force in the Air Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory. I married Krisanne in 1986, and I have 3 children; Nick (13 - the Karate Kid), Sasha (11 - the gymnast) and Samantha (8 - the animal lover). A current picture of me. |
