Sunday September 6th, 1970
…exactly 50 years ago today.

Story by USAF Major Ryland “Roy” Dreibelbis, Apple 4

I was stationed at the 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Da Nang Air Base, Republic of Vietnam, when Major Royal Brown and I were ordered to come back from Vietnam to Eglin AFB for some special training. We did not know the real purpose, only that we were going to Eglin to receive some additional operations training that could be implemented in Vietnam.

We arrived at Eglin on Labor Day weekend and were told to attend a meeting on base. As soon as I walked in the room, I realized that this was not going to be a normal training program. Several of the attendees were HH-53 instructors stationed at Eglin who had checked us out in the HH-53. It made sense that they would be at the meeting, as I assumed they would probably be our flight instructors.

But then, one of the officers on the stage told us that this was going to be a classified program and that a classified mission may (or may not) be flown at the end of a preparation effort. The officer added that the mission may involve considerable risk and if there is anyone in the room that does not want to participate, please leave the room immediately. No one left the room.

Those of us who came from outside the local area were told to obtain off base accommodations and to limit coming to the base except for meetings and scheduled preparation flights.

Our operational training began immediately. We started with familiarization flights that included flight line familiarization and a look at the local flying area where most of our future flights would take place. The flights were with instructor pilots that were part of the training staff at Eglin. We soon realized that some of them were actually going to participate in the mission in-country with us.

Read Major Dreibelbis’ full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.