The Praetorian Starship The Untold Story Of The Combat Talon

Download or read book The Praetorian STARShip : the untold story of the Combat Talon written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jerry Thigpen's study on the history of the Combat Talon is the first effort to tell the story of this wonderfully capable machine. This weapons system has performed virtually every imaginable tactical event in the spectrum of conflict and by any measure is the most versatile C-130 derivative ever produced. First modified and sent to Southeast Asia (SEA) in 1966 to replace theater unconventional warfare (UW) assets that were limited in both lift capability and speed the Talon I quickly adapted to theater UW tasking including infiltration and resupply and psychological warfare operations into North Vietnam. After spending four years in SEA and maturing into a highly respected UW weapons system the Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) chose the Combat Talon to lead the night low-level raid on the North Vietnamese prison camp at Son Tay. Despite the outcome of the operation the Talon I cemented its reputation as the weapons system of choice for long-range clandestine operations. In the period following the Vietnam War United States Air Force (USAF) special operations gradually lost its political and financial support which was graphically demonstrated in the failed Desert One mission into Iran. Thanks to congressional supporters like Earl Hutto of Florida and Dan Daniel of Virginia funds for aircraft upgrades and military construction projects materialized to meet the ever-increasing threat to our nation. Under the leadership of such committed hard-driven officers as Brenci Uttaro Ferkes Meller and Thigpen the crew force became the most disciplined in our Air Force. It was capable of penetrating hostile airspace at night in a low-level mountainous environment covertly to execute any number of unconventional warfare missions.

Download or read book The Praetorian STARShip written by Retired, Jerry L. Thigpen, Jerry LThigpen , USAF, Retired and published by . This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 1997, while assigned to Headquarters Air Force Special Opera - tions Command, an idea materialized that would ultimately dominate my life for the next three years. As I reflected over 19 years in special operations, I realized just how little I actually knew about the Combat Talon aircraft in which I had spent most of my active duty career. I could cite line and page number from complex technical orders, and I had been qualified as a flight examiner and instructor pilot, but I did not have a clue about the origins of Combat Talon, what operations the aircraft were involved in, or the people who flew and maintained them. Life in a special operations squadron was secretive, where only those with an official "need to know" were read into limited access programs. With the com - partmentalization of information within the squadron, personnel working side by side were often not aware of what other members of the unit were doing. I was convinced that it was the right time to document the untold story of the Combat Talon. The commander of Air Force Special Operations Command was Maj Gen Jim Hobson at the time. As a young lieutenant, he had been assigned to the 15th SOS at Nha Trang Air Base, Vietnam. I felt that if the project were explained to General Hobson, I stood a good chance of getting his approval. In March of 1997 I prepared a staff summary package outlining the Combat Talon Project and forwarded it to Herb Mason, the Headquarters AFSOC command historian. I provided four reasons the Combat Talon Project should be approved. First, I noted that much of the documented history of the weapons system was fragmented and could only be found in the files of private contractors, including Lockheed Air Service (LAS) Ontario and the Robert Fulton Company. LAS Ontario was no longer involved in the Combat Talon program and was scheduled to cease opera - tion in the spring of 1998. The remaining LAS Ontario projects were scheduled to move to Palmdale, California, and join the highly classified Skunk Works program. The company did not plan to move most of its Combat Talon files, preferring to destroy them in place rather than store them at its new location. With the pending decision to terminate the Fulton recovery system for the Combat Talon I, the Robert Fulton Company no longer would provide equipment to the Air Force. Fulton was 88 years young, and his keen mind held a vast treasure of information about early development of the system. His comprehensive files also contained documentation on the Fulton system that was not available anywhere else. These key resources would not be available to future historians. The second factor that I cited centered around recent Air Force reorganizations. Many commands either were combined or redesignated (e.g., Air Force Logistics Command [AFLC] had become the Air Force Materiel Command [AFMC], and whole divisions had been eliminated in the process). At Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, the home of AFMC, the old Air Force Logistics Command Directorate, which managed the Combat Talon program for the Air Force, had disbanded. Most of its records either had been destroyed or placed in long-term storage. The Air Force reorganization was across the board, and a tremendous amount of classified files was being eliminated. Prompt approval of the project would allow access to some of the remaining files, and copies could be made for future research.

Download or read book The Praetorian Starship written by Jerry L. Thigpen and published by . This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the eyes and ears of Jerry L. Thigpen, the story of the Combat Talon sees the light of day. Based on thorough research, with a mind to details, Thigpen tells the story of how the Combat Talon became the weapon of choice in long-range, clandestine operations. Combining the chronological and thematic approaches, this book begins with a historical background that opens with the World War II period and concludes in 2000 after having received many accolades and recording many successful exploits. This is a reprint of this extensive 2001 study.

Download or read book The Praetorian STARShip - the Untold Story of the Combat Talon written by Jerry L. Thigpen and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FROM THE FORWARD: As a young lieutenant flying tactical C-130s at Langley Air Force Base (AFB), Virginia, in the spring of 1967, I heard one Friday night in the Officers ' Club that Tactical Air Command (our parent command) was looking for four C-130 copilots to transfer to Pope AFB, North Carolina, for training in a Top Sec ret C-130 squadron designated Combat Knife. That had to be more exciting than haul ing trash, I thought. The following Monday I volunteered, and within a few months I was on my way to Pope AFB. This led to an exciting Air Force career flying the most versatile C-130 ever produced—the Combat Talon. Jerry Thigpen's study on the history of the Combat Talon is the first effort to tell the story o f this wonderfully ca pable m achine. T his w eapons system has performed virtually every imaginable tactical event in the spectrum of conflict and by any measure is the most versatile C-130 derivative ever produced. First modified and sent to Southeast Asia (SEA) in 1966 to replace theater unconventional warfare (UW) assets that were limited in both lift capability and speed, the Talon I quickly adapted to theater UW tasking, including infiltration and resup - ply and psychological warfare operations into North Vietnam. After spending four years in SEA and maturing into a highly respected UW weapons system, the Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) chose the Combat Talon to lead the night, low-level raid on the North Vietnamese prison camp at Son Tay. Despite the outcome of the operation, the Talon I cemented its reputation as the weapons system of choice for long-range, clandestine operations. In the period following the Vietnam War, United States Air Force (USAF) special operations gradually lost its political and financial support, which was graphically demonstrated in the failed Desert One mission into Iran. Thanks to congressional supporters like Earl Hutto of Florida and Dan Daniel of Virginia, funds for aircraft upgrades and military construction projects materialized to meet the ever-increasing threat to our nation. Under the leadership of such committed, hard-driven officers as Brenci, Uttaro, Ferkes, Meller, and Thigpen, the crew force became the most disciplined in our Air Force. It was capable of penetrating hostile airspace at night, in a low-level mountainous environment, covertly to execute any number of unconventional warfare missions. The highly trained, disciplined Talon I crews led the invasions of Grenada in October 1983 and Panama in December 1989. The long-range “pathfinder” capability of the Talon I's made them the indispensable choice for these classic airfield seizure operations. In Desert Storm the Talon Is reverted to their Vietnam psychological warfare role by dropping millions of leaflets over Iraq and Kuwait. Additionally, they dropped eleven 15,000-pound BLU-82B bombs. Today the Talon I largely fulfills the penetrating tanker role, which includes the low-level penetration of hostile airspace and electronic countermeasures (ECM) protec tion for combat search and rescue rotary-wing forces. The Talon I has earned its place in history as the forerunner of modern Air Force Special Operations. Today both the Talon I and Talon II continue to infiltrate, exfiltrate, and resupply friendly forces around the world. The Talon I has recovered packages and people with the Fulton Recovery System in virtually every theater, and both aircraft have dropped every conceivable object off their ramps, from motorcycles to 15,000-pound bombs. Because of the capabilities of the versatile MC-130, and the extraordinary men and women who unselfishly support its mission of vital national importance, the future of Air Force Special Operations is secure.

Download or read book The Praetorian STARShip written by Jerry L. Thigpen and published by . This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the eyes and ears of Jerry L. Thigpen, the story of the Combat Talon sees the light of day. Based on thorough research, with a mind to details, Thigpen tells the story of how the Combat Talon became the weapon of choice in long-range, clandestine operations. Combining the chronological and thematic approaches, this book begins with a historical background that opens with the World War II period and concludes in 2000 after having received many accolades and recording many successful exploits. This is a reprint of this extensive 2001 study.

Download or read book Combat Talons in Vietnam written by John Gargus and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combat Talons in Vietnam is a personal account of the first use of C-130s in the Vietnam War. It provides an insider’s view of crew training and classified missions for this technologically advanced aircraft. Many covert missions over North Vietnam were successful, but one night, John Gargus, a mission planner, oversaw an operation in which the aircraft—carrying eleven crewmembers—failed to return from a nighttime mission. For thirty years, a search for the missing aircraft remained in progress. In the late 1990s, the Combat Talon veteran community at Hurlburt Field in Florida, still uncertain of the full story, decided to dedicate a memorial to the lost crew. When wartime mission records were declassified, Gargus embarked on a long journey of inquiry, research, and puzzle-solving to reconstruct the events of that mission and the fate of its crew. He discovered that the wreckage of the plane had been found in 1992 and that the remains of the crew were being held in Hawaii. Through numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, interviews, and site visits, Gargus sought to answer the question of why it took so long to find the wreckage and, more importantly, why the special operations command units were left uninformed. By 2000, the remains were relocated to a common grave at Arlington National Cemetery at last providing a measure of closure to family, friends, and comrades.

Download or read book The History of Big Safari written by Colonel Bill Grimes, USAF Retired and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2014 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than half a century, Big Safari-modified aircraft have performed dangerous and essential missions to collect intelligence, conduct surveillance and reconnaissance, and engage in special operations missions around the globe in the interest of national security. These state-of-the-art aircraft have been flown, operated, and maintained by men and women whose dedication and commitment have made the world a safer place. In The History of Big Safari, author Colonel Bill Grimes, a retired US Air Force officer, presents a history of this program, which has been in existence for more than sixty years. Born as a special acquisition program in 1952, Big Safari has been in a unique position to save lives by rapidly fielding essential systems with a quick-reaction capability to ensure decision makers on the battlefield and at the Pentagon have timely intelligence to plan and execute operations. Grimes shows how, without a special acquisition program such as Big Safari, the nation's ability to react to evolving dangers and threats would be mired in bureaucracy when timely responses are critical. With detailed cutaway illustrations revealing aircraft modifications and mission equipment, The History of Big Safari also includes photographs, sidebars, and anecdotes. It goes behind the scenes with the men and women who participated in the challenging projects and daring missions. It shares the development of cutting-edge technology and special mission aircraft, as well as the global events that necessitated these once-classified programs. Finally, it provides insight into long-veiled projects, operations, and missions that comprise the world under the purview of Big Safari.