Was the Mockup taken down each night?

Air Force, Army,

Tuesday Sept 8th, 1970


The Green Berets are constructing the Mockup at Eglin AFB…

…exactly 50 years ago this week

Multiple books and historians perpetuate an inaccurate story that we took the Mockup down every day. The concern was that the Soviet reconnaissance satellites passing over Eglin AFB each day might be able to determine what we were planning.

But I can clear up the misconception—we never took it down.

It is true that we were concerned, but those concerns were satisfied by a simple experiment (simple if you have an SR-71 Blackbird at your disposal.) An Air Force reconnaissance aircraft took some high-resolution photos for us while the Mockup was installed. Those photos proved that the Mockup could not be seen clearly enough by even the best high-res imagery.

I can tell you as one who constructed it and who used it for months: From the time that we arrived (Wednesday September 2nd) on through at least the end of our time at Aux Field #3 (November 16th), we did not take down the Mockup.

(Also see Sgt Robert Hobdy’s and Sgt Pat St. Clair’s explanations of this in Appendix 4 of Who Will Go.)

This photo was taken by a USAF reconnaissance jet to help in the determination that we WOULD NOT need to take down the Mockup. The photo was taken from an aircraft northwest of C-2 looking to the southeast. (Photo provided by John Gargus.)

Read Sgt Terry Buckler’s full story in Who Will Go.

Click Here:  The book.