Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 2.

Aboard our aircraft are USAF Colonel Norman Frisbie and Lt Col Bill Robinson, an Army Green Beret.  Both these gentlemen, we had never met before.  This was most unusual.  Our missions are Top Secret, Code Word.  We can’t even acknowledge to people what level of code word our missions are—literally, even the code word itself is classified.  These guests must be special. 

For this mission, we knew something was up even at Okinawa, pre-flight.  Our pre-mission crew rest was not normal—it was out of synch and to me it felt like a surprise.  The crews that were assembled for the pre-mission briefing were not our normal crew combinations—in fact, there were two RC-135Ms being pre-flighted and launched, a primary and a backup.  This was an indication to all that something really significant was going to happen tonight.

Now, Colonel Frisbie positions himself centrally among all our battle stations, plugs in his headset, calls our attention to himself, and addresses us all on our intercom.  He introduces himself and proceeds to brief us.  Normally, we’ll “roll” (roll tape on our reel-to-reel to record for later analysis) on every intercept of interest, but he and our AMS (Airborne Mission Supervisor) explain that we are not to waste effort on that tonight.  We shall strictly look for enemy signals that might engage any of the aircraft related to this raid.  We must detect 1.) any references to low-flying aircraft/helicopters 2.) any references to Son Tay [“Sỏn Tây”] and 3.) any references to POWs [“Tù binh”].

Our 6-Op, Bruce McClelland and I look at each other: we are supporting a first-ever POW rescue mission deep in the heart of North Vietnam, near Hanoi.  I don’t know what possibly could have been more exhilarating!  We are ready to help in any way we can.

Colonel Frisbie was a key planner of the raid and is the alternate commander, reporting to Brigadier General LeRoy Manor, the commander of this mission.  General Manor will monitor everything, real-time, at the “Tactical Air Control Center—North Sector” on Monkey Mountain, near Da Nang Air Base.  We are the airborne command post for the Son Tay Raid.

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

Click Here:  The audiobook is now here.