Inside the Airborne Command Post, part 5

Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 5.

Our RC-135M is for Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) and, particularly, Communications Intelligence (COMINT). It is designed to intercept virtually anything transmitted into the airwaves, from taxi cabs to tanks, walkie-talkies to facsimile, Morse code to radar signals, tactical airfield communications with aircraft (TACAIR) to Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) and SAM sites.

Behind the “front end” crew’s cockpit is a compartment fully decked out as an electronics workshop manned by the two Airborne Maintenance Technicians.

Then comes the main compartment filled with COMINT linguistic technicians. I’m at the front, on the other side of the wall from the AMTs.

Next you come to the 7-Op, the TACAIR operator. The job here is to monitor the enemy’s air activity. Each North Vietnamese airfield has its radio frequencies used by their Air Traffic Controllers to communicate with their aircraft and pilots. We are so personally familiar with these controllers and pilots that there are many of them that we recognize by their voice alone, even before anyone states the individual’s call sign. Often, we know the name of the pilot, where his home station is and what type of aircraft he is qualified in, and we glean a little about his personality.

[NOTE: Hognose Silent Warrior by George F. Schreader, a former 6990th 7-Op, lists many of the top North Vietnamese pilots and the details we knew about them, through our Combat Apple missions. By the way, “Hognose” is a term of endearment. See the photo at the end of the final episode.]

Centrally located is the “#1” position, which is the Airborne Mission Supervisor (AMS). He has constant secure communications with battle commanders on the ground in Vietnam and elsewhere. He coordinates all the activities of our crew.

Tonight, each of us will describe what he’s hearing to the AMS who, in turn, will relay warnings to the US aircraft and report the situation to Colonel Frisbie who is on an open line with General Manor.

The next workstation is the 6-Op, which tracks AAA and monitors the flow of troops, vehicles and equipment (with a special focus on the Ho Chi Minh trail). They are hearing the North Vietnamese making regular reports about the arrivals and departures of troops and materiel at truck stops and troop stations (“binh trạm”). Our tactical aircraft planners are constantly basing interdiction strike decisions on this intel from our 6-Op stations.

At the very back, at positions 15 and 16 are the two Electronic Warfare Officers (EWOs) who are responsible for defending the RC-135 itself from threats such as missiles and enemy fighters.

The RC-135 pilots, navigators and EWOs are officers, all from SAC (Strategic Air Command). The rest of us are enlisted men from the USAF Security Service (later called Electronic Security Command).

All this sensitive electronic equipment has to be kept dry and temperature-controlled to prevent overheating. My position, just aft of the maintenance compartment, is quite warm right now. Conversely, the aft end where the EWOs are typically too cold. Some of this is due to the aircraft’s slightly nose up attitude in level flight. Heat rises, cold sinks. Often, I unzip my flight suit down to my waist and operate in my t-shirt. In the back, the EWOs are wearing some of their winter equipment. Coffee spilled on the floor back there sometimes freezes!

This three hours during which the helicopters are flying from Udorn to Son Tay must seem extremely long for a helicopter, but we are used to this—and we are busy this entire time.

We understand our Combat Apple missions to be the world’s longest combat missions at this time. Very often our duty day is about 24 hours, arriving two and a half hours before takeoff and then post-mission briefings keep us an hour and a half after landing. Our squadron had one mission in which the flying time alone was more than 23 hours! You may be surprised to hear that there is often very little break time during the flight for certain operators. After your flight, you are scheduled for post-mission crew rest, but then it’s back to work at the secure facility translating, decoding and analyzing the intel take from other crews.

We linguists specialize in a variety of COMINT tasks. Some of our guys who are newer to the mission run positions employing massive tape decks that have at least eight tracks simultaneously capturing eight different intercept signals. These recordings will be broken out as separate tracks when back on the ground and translated/decoded for future action by intel briefers.