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Ned Colburn
THEN SOME TIME LATER
Life is what happens while you are making plans and pursuing other goals!
Ned Colburn was born
Rather than accept a college deferment, he enlisted
in the Air Force on
He graduated from
His military assignments included:
January – April 1951: Basic Training, Lackland
AFB,
May – July 1951:
August 1951 – July 1954: RAF Sealand, Flintshire,
August 1954 – April 1955: Chief of Administration, General Motors Aircraft
Division [Final Inspection & Flight Test
Branch, RF-84 Aircraft Production],
May 1955 – March 1956: Air Force Recruiting Duty,
March – September 1956:
October – December 1956:
January 1957 – November 1958: 1231st
Airways and Air Communications Service [AACS] Squadron,
Air Traffic Control & Flight Facilities Officer. Squadron Administrative Officer.
December 1958 – May 1960: Air Navigation School, James-Connally AFB, Waco, Texas and Electronic Warfare Officer School, Keesler AFB, Mississippi.
Tied for second place in Navigator training and graduated from Electronic Warfare Officer [EWO] school in first place. Escaped SAC and ATC EWO Instructor assignment and received B-66 assignment through 9 Skill Level Escape and Evasion Tactics. See Episode #1.
June 1960 – January 1962: 9th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Shaw AFB, SC. Flew as an RB-66 Navigator for 1 year, and thereafter as an RB-66C Electronic Warfare Officer [EWO].
February 1962 – February 1964: 4440th
Combat Crew Training Wing [C-130], Sewart AFB,
In January 1962, I was instructed to report to Hq 9th Air Force where I was informed of my reassignment to Sewart AFB on a classified project involving Berlin Access. A review of my personnel records revealed that I was the only officer in Tactical Air Command who had been an Air Traffic Controller and was a Navigator and Electronic Warfare Officer -- which were the prerequisites for the assignment.
At Sewart AFB – without the benefit of a Programming Plan – I was tasked to establish the first Aircrew ECCM Program in Tactical Air Command to equip 100 C-130 aircraft with specialized Anti-Jam Navigation & Communications Equipment and train C-130 Aircrews and Air Traffic Controllers in Electronic Counter-Countermeasures [ECCM].
The program involved Operations Contingency Planning, Specialized
Ground and Airborne Equipment, Aircrew and Air Traffic Controller Training in
a Live ECM Environment to insure air access into
Obtained and installed Communications & Radar Jammers for Live ECM Training, Other Specialized Ground and Airborne Navigation/Communications Equipment under the top priority Quick Reaction Capability [QRC] Program that provided procurement acquisition in less than 90 days.
Performed Operational Suitability
Testing of Ground and Airborne Systems at
One high-light of my assignment at Sewart AFB was a call from the Pentagon telling me that I had 24 hours to get my shots up to date, pack my bags, take pencil and paper and head for India to look for jamming.
In 1962 after the Chinese had invaded
Since the Indians insisted that they must have an
observer in the ECM compartment, the offer to send an RB-66C was withdrawn and
I was sent to
February 1964 – June 1965: 42nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Toul-Rosieres AB, France.
EWO Flight Commander. EWO Crew Leader. Squadron Executive Officer. Unit Historian.
July 1965 – February 1966: 25th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Chambley AB, France.
Wing Electronic Warfare Officer – with Additional Duty as: Wing Plans Officer. Wing Training Officer. Assistant OIC, Current Operations. Wing Manpower, Organization & Operations Budget Officer. Wing Historian. See Episode #3.
March 1966 – September 1967: Hq 3rd Air Force, South Ruislip AS, London, England.
Plans & Programs Officer for relocation of U.S. Army and Air Force units from France following Emperor Charles De Gaulle’s edict for the U.S. military to depart France not later than 1 April 1967.
Coordinated with British Ministry of Defence [MOD] to obtain bases in the UK which included Ocean Port Facilities, Munitions Storage Depots and activation of RAF Burtonwood as the U.S. Army materiel storage facility for relocation of Nancy General Depot and Toul Engineering Depot from France to England.
My oldest son [Michael] was born at RAF Burtonwood on 3 July 1954, which made re-activation of the base even more interesting.
An interesting and typical event involving Pentagon Staff Visits to London was chiding by Superior Beings from the CSAF Plans & Programs Division who felt that acquisition of British MOD Facilities should be a simple matter of Pick & Choose from an installations directory that the Pentagon hadn’t bothered to update for over 20 years, with most of the WW-II British Bases listed therein having been returned to farmland and therefore not available for military purposes .
In like manner of the U.S. Congress, Pentagon Staffers enjoyed their frequent visits to London and tour of Great Britain – never contributing anything positive and never failing to muddy the waters. In the Plans & Programs Business, the commonly-used acronym GOYA is not defined but in fact was used in Progress Reports and Requests for Assistance that were submitted to the Pentagon – standing not for the famous artist Goya, but for “Get Off Your Derrieres” and help the Worker Bees in the field get the job done.
After the relocations from France were accomplished, I was reassigned to the Third Air Force Command Post as a Combat Actions Officer with Nuclear Weapons Authentication/Release Authority as 1 of 2 of the required Code Word Officers.
While assigned to Hq 3rd AF, received appointment as a Regular Officer
During my assignment to Hq 3rd AF, I was granted a SSIR clearance with Wartime Duty Assignment to JCS Field Representative Europe, High Wycombe AS, England. Such SSIR restriction precluded my travel within 5 kilometers of a Communist border for 13 years after leaving London, and prohibited my being in Southeast Asia in a ground job or any other capacity.
After flying 105 combat missions in the EB-66C, I was in Bangkok awaiting transportation back to the U.S. when I was handed a TWX notifying the 355th TFW at Takhli that I wasn’t supposed to be in the Southeast Asia Theater of Operations, and to immediately return to the U.S. I had 2 SSIR restrictions, and the agency that monitored such clearances only scanned down in my personnel records file to the first SSIR restriction that could be waived, and missed the 13 year restriction that didn’t allow for early release.
October 1967 – November 1968: 41st Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, Takhli Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand.
Assistant Squadron Electronic Warfare Officer. EWO Crew Leader. Instructor EWO and Flight Examiner. Assistant OIC, Awards & Decorations Section.
December 1968 – September 1970: Hq, Air Force Communications Service, Scott AFB, Illinois.
Served as Command Electronic Warfare Officer, with primary duties as Program Manager for the Berlin Communications Electronics Control Center [BCECC] and in establishing ECCM programs for Air Traffic Controllers and Communications Personnel.
7 years after first becoming involved with Berlin Access, I presided over the update of the Specialized Air Traffic Control, Communications and Navigation Ground Equipment at Templehof AB, Berlin, Germany that had been installed in 1962.
One interesting task was to justify keeping the Berlin Communications-Electronics Control Center [BCECC] under operational control of Air Force Communications Service versus its take-over by Hq USAFE or AF Security Service when the BCECC inadvertently out-scooped Security Service, ASA and other primary intelligence gathering agencies in detecting and correctly assessing the 1968 Soviet military buildup in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Such lapses by Security Service, ASA and other primary agencies precluded adequate warning for implementation of U.S. Contingency Plans to conduct a show of force or take other actions to get the Russians to back down and withdraw from Prague.
It was more than interesting to sit through meetings at the Pentagon with my EWO counterparts on the other side of the table as JCS & CSAF Representatives as we debated the situation -- and then get together in the evenings as the long time, good friends that we were.
Thankfully, Credible Comet had just been implemented to define and amplify on who in the intelligence community was responsible for a specific function and expanded upon the various tasks, roles and missions of HUMINT, COMINT, SIGINT and ELINT – with definitions of ECCM, ESM etc that clearly justified keeping the BCECC in Air Force Communications Service in its dual role as an ECCM/ESM Facility.
One positive development was the upgrade of the BCECC, the Air Traffic Control system and specialized Communications and Navigational Aids at Templehof to Current State-of-The-Art Technology, which had been deferred since the BCECC was considered by JCS to be the most advanced Communications-Electronics Facility in existence – which it was at the time of its installation in 1962, but had become outdated.
A multi-million dollar upgrade was paid for by German Government Counterpart Funds – which the Pentagon was unaware of and decreed that the update had to be delayed for 3 years which was the earliest that approved USAF budget could be made available, even with an overriding priority.
CMSgt James Van Dyne had spent 10 years in Berlin as an Air Traffic Controller and was aware of the fact that the German Government was required to provide special funds for the maintenance and upkeep of Allied Forces in Berlin. When we queried the Pentagon Plans & Programs Staff and asked why they didn’t use German Counterpart Funds, they admitted they had never heard of such funds.
The system upgrade included relocation of the Berlin Communications Electronics Control Center [BCECC] into a bombed-out area on the top floor of Templehof AB that Hitler had designated as a 2000 seat restaurant – which was never completed. Using German Counterpart Funds and with priority implementation, the upgrade of the BCECC, procurement and installation of latest state-of-the-art Communications, Air Traffic Control Equipment and Ground Navigational Aids was completed in only 18 months.
While at Hq Air Force Communications Service, I was involved in several classified JCS/CINPAC projects that were a real challenge in developing the capability of broadcasting secure radio warnings to U.S. Military and Civil Aircraft during times of pending MIG Intercept, Meaconing and Voice Intrusion with false navigational signals and bogus Air Traffic Control Instructions. For details, see Episode #4.
September 1970 – May 1975: Lowry Technical Training Center, Denver, CO.
Commander, 28th & 30th Student Squadrons.
Director, U.S. Air Force Department of Photography & Audio-Visual Training.
Deputy Commander, Student Group.
Retired 1 May 1975 after 24 years active duty. General Charles [Buck] Pattillo presided over my retirement ceremony. Lieutenant General Charles Pattillo and his twin brother, Major General Cuthbert Pattillo were members of the first Air Force Thunderbird Aerial Demonstration Team.
It was my honor to have my best friend, Lt Colonel William Stanley Davis, retired in the same ceremony. Stan Davis was a Good Ole Boy from Camilla, Georgia who at age 19 entered pilot training during WW-II and flew P-51s with Chuck Yeager. I got to see Stan Davis just before his death in Panama City, Florida in 1998.
In 1971, I received my General Contractor, Electrician and Plumbers Licenses, formed a partnership and built 5 apartment buildings in Arvada, Colorado while still on active USAF duty.
When all my partners left town, I thought I had to stay in Denver to baby-sit
the apartments, so I put in to retire 2 years to the day after pinning-on Lt
Col.
I only had just over 18 years commissioned time when I retired with 24 years active duty. As a consequence, I didn't stay around long enough to be eligible for 0-6 - which is one of my regrets, along with not getting to go to the EF-111 which would have been my next assignment
I planned to stay in Colorado forever, but much to my surprise in 1978 found
myself back in Kansas where we bought 3.5 acres of land in the edge of my hometown
[Plainville], drilled 2 water wells and now have an oasis that looks like Kew
Gardens in London -- at least part of the year when its not 110 degrees or minus
40!
We decided to simplify our lifestyle, learn new skills and be near my parents
in their old age. My Father passed away in 1986 at nearly 88 years of
age – and my Dear Old German Mother turned 103 on 5 March 2002. Her mother
was born near Cologne, Germany and came to the U.S. as a young girl.
Being raised in Western Kansas with lots of good, old-fashioned German Discipline and DIN [Do It Now] work ethics made 14 weeks of Air Force Basic Training seem like a real vacation. For some reason, I never considered Work as a dirty four-lettered word, and thank my parents for teaching me not to shun long hours of manual labor or getting one’s hands dirty.
We live on a dead-end road, and have Absolute Peace,
Quiet & Security. Enjoy and appreciate it more and more each day.
Eventually, a too large house and the acreage will be more than we can
handle, and we'll have to make some major changes.
We are totally self-sufficient, if need be - with 2 wood/coal burning fireplaces
that centrally heat the house if the gas furnace goes out, with a whole house
back-up electrical system and an over-abundance of food from a big garden. Did
all this 24 years ago, and yet a lot of Professing Christians accused me of
being fearful of Y2K and not having faith in God to provide.
After designing and building my retirement home, I then went to Saudi Arabia
to pay for it. Worked the first year for the Tumpane Company who used
to provide support services to all the AF installations in Turkey, and was contracted
to Northrop in Saudi Arabia when I worked for Tumpane.
I then became the Director of Support Services Planning & Control for Northrop
in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, followed by 5 years in Jeddah with Saudi Arabian
Airlines, first as a Flight Crew Ground Instructor and then as Assistant Manager,
Flight Safety Training.
Having a Commercial Pilot License paid off in getting hired by Saudia. It was
quite an experience, with Pilots from 75 different countries and Flight Attendants
from 135 countries. Saudia operated all the way to Indonesia in the Pacific
to the US and Europe, with the latest fleet of aircraft. We had 1500 Pilots
-- only 350 of whom were Saudis.
Enjoyed the Jet Set Travel Benefits of Reciprocal Pass Privileges with over100
other airlines, through whom we received reduced rate tickets at 50% to 90%
discounts. My wife and I traveled completely around the world with a fist-full
of tickets that only cost us $350 each, got 50% off on hotels and auto rentals
and had First Class Travel on Saudia aircraft.
Saudia paid for my youngest son [Chris] to attend St. John’s Military Academy,
and for my daughter [Teresa] to go to High School in Salzburg, Austria.
She then plagued me until age 21 for airline tickets to see the world.
My oldest son was a missionary in Papua New Guinea with Wycliffe Bible Translators
for 13 years. Thanks to cheap airline travel, I was able to visit him
3 times while he was there.
Left Saudi Arabia in March 1984, returned to the U.S. and started my own company,
primarily to provide financial support for Christian and Other Humanitarian
Outreach -- mainly in Southern India where we are the sole supporters of a Native
Itinerant Evangelist whom I met in Saudi Arabia in
1978 [Bushmi "Paul" Sudarsanam].
In 1994, my wife and I formed Paraclete Foundation as a non-profit corporation to provide financial support to Paul Sudarsanam in India, through whose ministry 7000 Hindus have come to Christ over the last 10 years. By contrast, I can count on one hand the number of Americans whom I have seen make a sincere profession of faith in the last 30 years
Looking back, the Air Force was the best thing that ever happened to me – thanks
to the high caliber of people you could trust and count on as life-long, blood-brother
friends. My only regret is that I didn't stay for 32 years, which I could
have done as an O-5 with my enlisted time -- or 35 years had I become eligible
and promoted to O-6.
Ned Colburn is the Founder & President of Conquest International Corporation which heads Conquest Affiliates, an association of more than 40 U.S. & Foreign Companies that work together as a Select, Top-Quality International & Interdisciplinary Team in providing Equipment and Commodity Sales, Planning & Programming, Turn-Key Design & Construction, Facilities Operation and Maintenance Support Services to Foreign Military and Government Agencies, Commercial Companies, Educational, Health Care and Other Institutions.
Mr. Colburn has been actively involved in Business Development, Management, Marketing and Sales since 1971, having formed and operated 4 companies that engaged in:
Ned Colburn established and ran 2 Small Disadvantaged Businesses for associates of his who engage in the sale of Natural Gas & Other Commodities, and in Training & Support Services Contracts under the various Federal, State & Local Government Set-Aside Contracts for Minority Business Enterprises.
Mr. Colburn’s military career was widely varied, encompassing: Squadron & Deputy Group Commander. Plans & Programs. Procurement. Personnel Administration. Air Force Recruiting. Air Traffic Control & Flight Facilities. ELINT [Electronic Intelligence]. Electronic Warfare. Reconnaissance and Transport Aircrew Duties. Flight Operations Services. Communications and Electronics Operations & Maintenance. Program Manager, Berlin Communications-Electronics Control Center [BCECC]. Technical Writing. Aircrew, Technical & Professional Training. Director, U.S. Air Force Department of Photography & Audio-Visual Training.
His civilian work experience includes: Flight Crew Ground Instructor and Assistant Manager, Flight Safety Training, Saudi Arabian Airlines [Saudia], Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Director Support Services Planning and Control, Northrop Aircraft Services Division, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Manager, Employee Orientation & Training, then Director of Planning, Tumpane Company, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Chief of Administration, General Motors Aircraft Division [Final Inspection & Flight Test Branch, RF-84 Aircraft Production], Kansas City, Kansas.
Until recently, Mr. Colburn was an Active General Aviation Pilot. He is a licensed General Contractor, Electrician and Plumber.
Mr. Colburn’s business internet sites are: www.conquestinc.com and www.NaturalPureWater.com
Escape & Evasion from SAC and ATC EWO Instructor Duties
By Ned Colburn
I graduated in May 1960 from Electronic Warfare School at Keesler AFB. At the time, I had been in the Air Force for 9 years, had served overseas tours in England and Japan, and wanted to avoid SAC like the plague since I had no desire to be a 20 Year Homesteader and only getting a further glimpse of the world from 30,000 feet during B-52 Chrome Dome Missions that lasted 24 hours.
Since assignments were made by class standing, I made certain that I graduated first in my EWO class so I would have first pick of assignment.
In 1960, Virtually 100% of the graduates from the EWO school at Keesler AFB, Mississippi were going to SAC B-52s – when to everyone’s surprise, most of the class immediately ahead of me received RB-66C assignments to the 42nd TRS at RAF Chelveston, England. For my class, this dashed all hopes of any assignment other than to the B-52.
With SAC having manpower priority, any assignment other than SAC appeared impossible – until, lo and behold, the assignments for my EWO class included 2 at Shaw AFB in the RB-66C, with all others to the B-52.
I had successfully proven myself to be a 9 Skill Level Escape & Evasion Artist in avoiding SAC by graduating at the top of my class – only to find that I faced an even more overwhelming obstacle in trying to avoid being drafted into staying at Keesler AFB as an instructor in the EWO School.
My carefully recited rationale fell on deaf ears, and the only way they would agree to set me free was via the ultimatum of convincing 3 others in my class to volunteer to remain at Keesler as instructors in the EWO School. I managed to coerce 2 of my classmates into remaining as instructors [Don Gilbert and Paul Wright] -- and, having failed to produce a third instructor, it appeared that there was no way for me to escape becoming an ATC EWO Instructor.
After several sleepless nights, either luck or divine revelation showed me how to generate the magical third member of my EWO class to remain at Keesler as an instructor so I could go to the RB-66C at Shaw AFB.
There were Academic Wash-Backs and Administrative Wash-Backs – with the system designed to keep any class from having more than 10 members, which corresponded to the number of operating positions on the Multi-Engined Sub-Supersonic TC-54 aircraft that was used for EWO training.
An individual in the class ahead of mine had been Washed-Back Academically, resulting in 11 students in my class. To solve the Over-Manning Problem, an absolutely outstanding guy with an Electrical Engineering Degree volunteered to be Administratively Washed-Back to the class behind mine. I don’t recall his name.
The guy who was Academically Washed-Back into my class ended up being Academically Eliminated from the EWO course – leaving only 9 students in my class.
The obvious solution to provide 3 EWO instructors from my class was to Administratively Wash-Ahead the Electrical Engineer who was then in the class behind me. After scratching their heads for a while, the decision was made to resort to the never before employed procedure for resolution of such problems via Administrative Wash-Ahead. In the end, everyone was blissfully happy – again proving the validity of “Nothing Ventured -- Nothing Gained”.
No doubt, I would have thoroughly enjoyed working with the stellar instructors in the EW School, but it just didn't fit in with my career objectives at the time.
By Ned Colburn
In 1963 after the Chinese had invaded Tibet and India, the Indian Government experienced jamming in all frequency bands from HF to X-Band and requested the USAF to send an RB-66C to India to locate the source of such jamming.
Since the Indians insisted that they must have an observer in the ECM compartment, the offer to send an RB-66C was withdrawn.
In lieu thereof, I was given 24 hours notice to get my shots up to date, pack my bags at Sewart AFB, Tennessee, take pencil and paper and head for India to look for jamming.
Since this involved the first U.S. military presence in India following WW-II, a Select C-130 Crew was dispatched from Dyess AFB to haul me to India – with enroute stops at Hq TAC and the Pentagon for a briefing and then on to Palam Airport [New Delhi, India] via Torrejon, Spain and Incirlik, Turkey.
At Hq TAC, Jerry Sensabaugh took me aside behind some file cabinets, and whispered: “What is Jack-Ass Jamming?”
I told him I had no idea – and we concluded that we must have been asleep and missed something in Electronic Warfare Officer School the day they taught about Jack-Ass Jamming. Jerry went on to explain that the Generals kept referring to “Jack-Ass Jamming” that had been detected in India, and Jerry had no idea what sort of jamming it was. To avoid embarrassment, he was hopeful that I could shed some light on the subject.
After arriving in India, I was reviewing a file in the Air Attache’s Office when I came across a report made by General Gordon Graham who had been flying near Tibet when he experienced interference on UHF that sounded to him like “Jack-Ass Jamming”.
I immediately sent a TWX to Jerry Sensabaugh explaining the origin of Jack-Ass Jamming as the best verbal description that General Graham could come up with -- obviously due to its characteristic “Hee-Haw Sound”. At least Jerry and I had a good chuckle, and were relieved that Jack-Ass Jamming had been created by General Graham and wasn’t something we missed in class.
The trip to India was eventful in all too many ways – one of which was the permanent grounding of the Select C-130 Crew.
Instead of prescribed crew rest, the C-130 crew was told to haul me straight to India, and about 18 hours into their duty day, we launched from Andrews for Torrejon, Incirlik and New Delhi with scarcely more than a series of refueling stops enroute.
After landing at Palam Airport, we were directed to a taxi-way that was only wide enough for the Miniature Gnat Fighter Aircraft and the left wing of the C-130 struck a tree. The aircraft commander wisely recommended that I erase my name from the crew list in the Form 781 – which saved me from being permanently grounded along with the Aircraft Commander, Co-Pilot and Navigator.
Since we were under USAFE operational control, the USAFE Commanding General [Gabriel P. Disosway] flew to New Delhi, had a tent erected at Palam Airport and while I sat under a tree out of the hot scorching sun and watched, General Disosway called the C-130 Aircraft Commander, Co-Pilot and Navigator into the tent one by one to chew them out and permanently ground them.
C-130E 62-1863 sat on the ground at Palam Airport for nearly 6 months until a wing could be fabricated on the C-130 production line and flown to India.
When the ferry crew arrived to return the repaired C-130 to Dyess AFB, they were presented a cargo manifest that consisted of an elephant, a rhino, several tigers, some monkeys and several hundred birds that had been given to Jacqueline Kennedy during a recent visit to India.
Since neither myself nor Paul Harvey were available to provide “The Rest of The Story”, the U.S. News Media reveled in uncovering yet another supposed waste of tax-payer's money by the USAF in sending C-130E 62-1863 to India just to haul the animals and birds back to the USA for Jacqueline Kennedy.
Did I find any jamming in India? Yes – as a matter of fact, even before arriving in India.
As we left Iranian airspace and flew down the Persian Gulf and turned for Bombay, I looked at the navigator’s scope and saw 2 distinctive areas of jamming. I asked the navigator to get Direction Finding Bearings on the jamming and a fix every 2 minutes. I took our Position Coordinates and DF Bearings and plotted them on a WAC chart on a foot locker in the cargo compartment, and found that they pin-pointed in Afghanistan and in the water just off Karachi, Pakistan.
Upon landing at Palam Airport in New Delhi, I immediately went to the U.S. Embassy and sent a TWX to Hq USAF, Hq TAC and the EUCOM ELINT Center at Lindsey AS, Germany telling them that we had experienced radar jamming enroute to India.
Talk about ridicule and put-down by the Headquarters Staff Weenies, who responded with: “Yeah, Sure! You need to go to Remedial Electronic Warfare School since you obviously experienced mutual interference from the radar of another C-130 in close proximity to your aircraft – there’s just no way that you encountered jamming even before you got to India"
My response was that there were no other C-130 aircraft in the vicinity – and if it had been mutual interference, it would have affected the entire scope and wouldn’t have been directional.
My report was then taken seriously, and an ELINT aircraft from the 7405th Support Squadron at Wiesbaden AB was dispatched to the area – confirmed the jamming site in Afghanistan and jamming from 2 Russian trawlers anchored off Karachi.
The Wiesbaden crew got the Commendation Medal for their discovery – and I had the satisfaction of telling what really went on.
Sort of like the time at Ashiya AB, Japan when a T-33 crashed and I rescued the pilot. After getting him into the ambulance and going to the Control Tower and GCA unit to send the crew to the hospital for the required physical exam following an accident, I went to the hospital with my clothing covered with blood and heard a TSgt mesmerizing everybody with how he had pulled the pilot out of the burning T-33. Nobody asked why I was covered with blood and he didn’t have a drop on him.
The TSgt ended up with the Soldier’s Medal for heroism – and I ended up with satisfaction in knowing what actually happened, which was witnessed by my wife and son. The TSgt arrived on the scene after I had removed the pilot from the T-33 and carried him to a nearby road where the TSgt helped load the pilot in the ambulance.
Back to Jamming in India. With nothing more than aircraft radar, the ARA Homing Adapter for VHF/UHF Radio Receivers and other techniques, I was able to verify jamming from HF through X-Band throughout India that emanated from Russian sites in Afghanistan, from Russian trawlers and from Chinese sites in Tibet.
One of the highlights was landing and taking off at 18,000 feet in an Indian Air Force C-119 that had a miniature jet engine mounted on top of the fuselage.
While in India, I received notice that my approved application for Army Jump School had been cancelled due to a "Higher Priority Assignment" -- which turned out to be a normal rotation back to the RB-66 at Toul-Rosieres AB, France.
Transfer of 42nd TRS from Toul-Rosieres AB, France to Chambley AB, France
Onward Deployment to Takhli RTAB, Thailand
By Ned Colburn
In planning for the conversion of the 10th TRW [RAF Alconbury, England] to the RF-4C Photo Reconnaissance Aircraft, the original planning was to keep the RB-6C Electronic Reconnaissance and B-66B Brown Cradle Jammer aircraft – and “Moth-Ball” all the RB-66B Photo Reconnaissance aircraft at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona.
The search began for a new home for the 42nd TRS. Encouraging rumors abounded that the squadron would be relocated to Ramstein AB, Sembach AB or other highly desired location in Germany -- with all the amenities that were non-existent on USAF bases in France.
Our optimism about relocating to Germany was suddenly shattered, when the decision was made to move us 30 miles down the road to Chambley AB, France – which was even more remote and primitive than Toul-Rosieres AB. The only available Government Housing at Chambley AB was 8’ x 30’ trailer houses that were less than desirable to say the least.
Chambley AB was one of many Dispersed Operating Bases [DOB] that were built in the early 1950s to recover aircraft that had to divert from their home base – and to provide USAFE/NATO augmentation, such as in 1961 when several Air Force Reserve F-84 and F-86 units were called to active duty and deployed to France on Operation Stair-Step in which 9th TRS RB-66C and WB-66D aircraft provided escort and navigation via Labrador, Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland to Scotland.
The small group of USAF personnel who were assigned to maintain the Dispersed Operating Bases in France were essentially Tourists in Uniform on Permanent Three Day Pass – who felt it was an imposition to require them to go back to work full time and earn their pay checks.
The Dispersed Operating Bases [DOB] in France were financed by American Taxpayers with the U.S. Government footing the bill for French companies to perform the actual construction – no doubt by edict of His Royal Highness Chuck De Gaulle -- with a newly graduated PhD, 24 year old peach fuzz faced kid who (mis)represented the U.S. Department of State in negotiating the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and French Governments.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who supposedly supervised the building of the USAFE/NATO air bases in France didn’t do their job – no doubt due to fixation on the Local Damsels, or being bribed and paid-off in French Wine, Bread & Cheese. At Chambley, we made the startling discovery that the French had only poured 50% of the concrete that the engineering plans called for. This fact wasn’t evident during the time that lighter weight fighter aircraft operated from Chambley, but the weight of the B-66 caused the thin concrete in the taxi-ways and ramps to break-up – and the runway to break and sink into the ground from the heavier landing weight of the B-66.
In addition to all the wrongs and injustices dealt to the U.S. Uniformed Military everywhere that they served overseas, the poorly negotiated Status of Forces Agreement between the USA and France required U.S. Military Personnel to pay Personal Property Tax to the French Government. If such taxes were not paid, the French would shut off all utilities to American households -- no Gas, Electricity or Water.
Another amusing thing the French would do is periodically go on strike and completely shut-down their Air Traffic Control Service – with nothing provided whatsoever. Civil and Military aircraft were simply on their own to hopefully avoid collisions. We felt safer without French Air Traffic Control than with it and all its needless restrictions and impossible requirements.
Due to conflicting Air Traffic Control procedures that still exist in some areas of the world today despite the efforts of ICAO and other regulatory agencies to standardize the system, the French required all aircraft on their side of the German/French border to be at an altitude 1000 feet lower or higher than on the same airway in German airspace.
This meant that if you were flying at 32,000 feet headed for France from Germany, that the very microsecond you passed into French airspace you immediately had to be 1000 feet higher or 1000 feet lower to avoid a violation of French Air Traffic Control Rules. Rather difficult to hit the “Hold Button” to stop and suspend the aircraft in mid-air -- and then make a Vertical Elevator Descent or Ascent in transitioning to the French ATC System. The French ATC Regulations were obviously promulgated by someone who didn’t know which end of an airplane goes through the air first – and clearly illustrates what is meant by: “It doesn’t have to make sense – it’s just our policy”.
We used to joke that if we lost all navigation aids when flying at night that we could map read from the abundance of lights on the German side of the border – and virtually totally darkness on the French side.
Pre-Planning the Move to Chambley AB.
As previously mentioned, the initial plan was to only keep the 42nd TRS RB-66C Electronic Reconnaissance and B-66B Brown Cradle Jammer aircraft – and Moth Ball all of the RB-66B aircraft that the 10th TRW had at RAF Alconbury, England and in the 19th TRS at Toul-Rosieres AB, France.
The 25th Tactical Reconnaissance Group was activated 1 July 1965 at Chambley AB, France – with the 42nd TRS as the only flying squadron in the group.
As of 1 July 1965, 25th TRG Key Personnel included:
Colonel Jack Fancher: Group Commander
Lt Col Smith L. Von Fossen: Deputy Commander for Operations [DCO]
Major Edward Kendrex: Chief, Current Operations & Command Post
Captain Ned Colburn: Group ECM Officer. Asst Chief, Current Operations. Group Training Officer. Group Plans Officer. Group Manpower, Organization & Operations Budget Officer. Group Historian.
Captain Don Harding & Captain Kenneth Nellermoe: Pilot Standardization/Tactical Evaluation
1st Lt John Davis III and 1st Lt William Crofoot: Navigator Standardization/Tactical Evaluation.
Captain Fritz Mahrholz, Group Intelligence Officer
Captain Earl Pontius, OIC Electronic Intelligence [ELINT] Processing Center.
42nd TRS Key Personnel:
Lt Colonel Noble McSwain: Commander, 42nd TRS.
Captain Robert Gallihugh: Executive Officer, 42nd TRS.
1st Lt Earl Wiese: Asst Executive Officer, 42nd TRS.
Rather than Moth Ball the airframes, the decision was made to retain the 19th TRS RB-66B Photo Reconnaissance aircraft. Effective 1 October 1965, the 25th Tactical Reconnaissance Group was redesignated as the 25th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, with both the 42nd TRS and 19th TRS assigned to the 25th TRW until its deactivation on 22 August 1966.
The 19th TRS moved from Toul-Rosieres AB, France to Chambley AB, France on 1 October 1965, with Lt Colonel Robert Hoyt as the 19th TRS commander.
Shortly after becoming a wing in 1965, the 25th TRW was ordered to deploy 6 B-66 aircraft and 8 crews to Takhli RTAFB, Thailand with departure in 48 hours to provide additional ECM Reconnaissance and Active Jamming capability in support of the Fighter-Bomber Strike Forces operating over North Vietnam.
With few exceptions, virtually every aircrew member in the 42nd TRS volunteered to go to Southeast Asia, knowing that their families would have to return to the U.S. from France on their own.
I volunteered to go to Thailand, but was told by Colonel Von Fossen that higher priority required me to remain in France working for him in Wing headquarters. I told Colonel Von Fossen that I had more time as an EWO in the B-66 than anyone else on base – and I felt I could be of more service in Southeast Asia than in France. He laughed and refused to let me go to Thailand.
A couple months later, I was selected to transfer to Hq Third Air Force in London to serve as the Project FRELOC Action Officer in planning and obtaining bases and facilities in the United Kingdom for the relocation of U.S. Air Force, Army & Navy units from France to Great Britain.
My path next crossed with my truly good friend, Colonel Von Fossen, in 1967-1968 when he was in Hq 7th Air Force Operations in Saigon and I was flying combat missions with the 41st TEWS at Takhli RTAFB, Thailand. Colonel Von Fossen repeatedly threatened to transfer me to 7th AF to work for him in operations.
A couple amusing high-lights in the Planning and Deployment from Chambley to Takhli.
Colonel Charlie Faletta was the USAFE Director of Operational Plans who called Chambley late one Friday night to inform us of the decision to send 6 aircraft and 8 crews to Takhli AB, Thailand – to depart Chambley within 48 hours.
The specified route was via Spain for qualification in Air-to-Air Refueling [AAR], then across the USA and on over the Pacific to Takhli Royal Thai Airbase, Thailand. The phone rang, and I spoke to a Colonel at Hq SAC KC-135 operations who wanted to verify the particulars of the deployment and AAR qualification enroute. He began by asking me to confirm that we were deploying 8 RB-66B Photo Reconnaissance Aircraft from RAF Alconbury, England to land at Moron AB, Spain after rendezvous with the tankers to hopefully qualify some of the B-66 pilots before landing at Moron, instead of having to fly additional sorties.
When I told the SAC Colonel that the 6 aircraft were B-66 ECM aircraft based at Chambley AB, France, he exploded with expletives, followed by his condolences for the mere underlings who are victimized by the likes of Colonel Faletta [USAFE Operational Plans] who had chosen Chambley AB for our relocation from Toul-Rosiers AB – and who continued to adversely effect us in numerous ways from his unawareness of the USAFE Basing Posture, or a couldn’t care less attitude. The Colonel Faletta Story is a book in itself.
The next amusing episode in preparing for the deployment to Takhli AB, Thailand occurred when the 8 aircrews were assembled to receive an Intelligence Briefing on the Electronic Order of Battle [EOB] that would be encountered over North Vietnam.
When the briefing was concluded, Colonel Fancher [25th TRW Wing Commander] asked if there were any questions. The only hand that went up belonged to Major Art Smith, who asked: “Why haven’t we ever been briefed on the USAFE Theater Electronic Order of Battle – and only just now on the Southeast Asia Electronic Order of Battle?”
Colonel Fancher’s reply was: “Art, if you could ever stay awake, you would have heard many briefings on the Electronic Order of Battle”. In a previous assignment, Art Smith had been flying Classified Border/Overflight Reconnaissance Missions of communist countries, and quite literally found the 42nd TRS mission to be so boring by comparison, that he had a habit of falling asleep -- even during a Flight Check along the East German border. A thorough medical exam at the USAF General Hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany found absolutely nothing wrong with Art Smith -- except Probable Boredom. More about the Legendary Art Smith and Special Missions will be forthcoming.
The 6 B-66 aircraft deployed right on schedule – with the 2 additional crews in a transport aircraft – headed for Moron AB, Spain.
Several of the B-66 pilots became AAR Qualified enroute to Moron AB. Others required an additional sortie or two – and 2 of the pilots failed to qualify after several AAR sorties, and got to fly to Thailand as passengers. With Necessity as The Mother of Invention – and motivated by the consequences of running out of fuel – both pilots became proficient in Air-to-Air Refueling on the way to North Vietnam on their very first combat mission. Names are not available upon request – since both are well known to their fellow aviators -- in particular a Cocky, Swaggering Little Guy whose flying experience prior to the B-66 was limited to that of an Air Training Command Flight Instructor, who got vertigo if there was a little scud in the traffic pattern. Amazing what one can achieve when their derriere is literally exposed to SAMS, AAA, IR Missiles, unfriendly terrain and deep wet water below.
Selection of 25th TRW Staff
Several months before the 42nd TRS departed Toul-Rosieres AB, France for Chambley AB, France, the Advanced Cadre of 25th TRG personnel arrived at Toul to become familiar with the current mission tasking, to meet and select the personnel they wanted for the Group Staff.
Colonel Jack Fancher [Commander, 25th TRG] and Lt Colonel Smith Von Fossen [Deputy Commander for Operations, 25th TRG] made the personnel selection decisions.
In typical fashion, the Brown-Nosed Politicians swarmed around Colonel Fancher and Colonel Von Fossen – unendingly and everywhere -- especially in the Officer’s Club where even the Tee Totalers and those of High Moral Values and Religious Holier-Than-Thou Prohibition of Alcoholic Libations were at the head of the line trying to buy booze for the 25th TRG Advanced Cadre.
The Endless Undisguised Brown-Nosing went on for a couple weeks in quest of an imagined easy job as a Group Staff Officer. When Colonel Fancher and Colonel Von Fossen realized that my name had repeatedly come up as someone they should have on the Group Staff, they asked that I be pointed-out in the crowd at the Officer’s Club – only to be told that Ned Colburn wasn’t in the club, but since it was only 10 PM on a Friday night, that I most likely was still in the 42nd squadron trying to catch up on Officer Effectiveness Reports, correspondence and other administrative workload as the Squadron Executive Officer.
Colonel Von Fossen left the club, drove across the base to the 42nd squadron and walked into the Administration Section where he introduced himself and informed me that I was going to be the Group Electronic Warfare Officer [EWO] – and that I could continue working late every night at Chambley in my additional duty as Assistant Chief, Current Operations and as the Group Training Officer and Plans Officer until personnel manning would permit the Training & Plans positions to be filled by someone else. At that, he said “Good Night”, turned and walked out of the building.
This sudden and unexpected turn of events created lots of frustration in the politicians who had campaigned for the jobs -- only to find that on an unsolicited basis without any political posturing, 1 person instead of 3 or 4 had been selected to fill several Group Staff positions. In retrospect, my unexpected selection was solely due to my reputation of voluntarily working overtime to take care of back-logged workload and meet dead-lines -- versus the talkers who shied away from any additional duties in the squadron, and if they weren’t flying, disappeared for the day immediately after the 7 AM briefing.
Through Absolute Bare Bones Manning at Group level, the 42nd TRS was enabled to maintain C-2 Operational Capability instead of dropping to C-3 status – with the manpower shortage compensated for by the Group Staff working endless hours of overtime, which no one in the 42nd TRS was aware of despite the brightly illuminated Group Headquarters where the midnight oil was being burned 7 days a week.
Several of the most disappointed 42nd TRS Pilots, Navigators and EWOs who had failed to be selected for Group Staff jobs conspired to do everything possible to make our jobs harder in Group Operations. One of my most vocal distracters was Captain Leslie [“Les” or “Don”] Sims, an EWO who was extremely frustrated by my selection to serve on the Headquarters Staff of the now 25th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing.
When EWO manning in the 42nd TRS permitted further assignments to the Wing Staff, Colonel Von Fossen asked who the best qualified, hardest working EWO was in the 42nd TRS – to which my immediate reply was “Les Sims.” Les reported the next day to work with me in Wing Operations. Halfway through the duty day, Les asked if he could talk to me in private – apologized for his past obstructions and said he had no idea how much workload and difficult circumstances we faced as the result of severe undermanning at Wing level.
Les Sims was small in physical stature, but one of the biggest men in the universe when it came to admitting his mistakes, apologizing and making up ten-fold in return. We immediately bonded like Blood Brothers and were inseparable from that time onward, until Les died the day after Christmas 1977 from a heart attack.
When Colonel Robert Hoyt arrived at Takhli AB, Thailand to replace Colonel Harrison Lobdell as 355th TFW DCO for B-66 Operations, Colonel Hoyt practically threw his arms around Les Sims and me since there were only 6 EWOs in the 41st TEWS and 42nd TEWS who had previous experience in the B-66 [Bill Starnes, Les Sims, Ned Colburn, Tom James, Arnold Wade and Edward Breck – who was killed in a motorcycle accident near Takhli].
Les Sims and I were dubbed Mutt & Jeff [Tall & Short], and the subsequent antics that Les and I got up to in the Takhli Officer’s Club made Colonel Hoyt grimace on more than one occasion – turn his back so he couldn’t see and have to put an end to our shenanigans, or Colonel Hoyt would just walk out of the club knowing that we were going to be capable of flying and getting the job done the next day.
Shortly after Les Sims came to work with me on the Wing Operations Staff at Chambley, I was reassigned to London. As with my unsolicited assignment to Wing Operations, the same consternation and castigation occurred when I was selected to transfer to Hq 3rd Air Force in London to obtain bases and facilities under Project FRELOC for the relocation of the U.S. Military from France to the UK per the edict of Charles De Gaulle to evict the U.S. Military from France with a deadline of 1 April 1967 to relocate elsewhere.
Despite my having volunteered – and being turned down by Colonel Von Fossen to go in the first group that deployed to Takhli AB, Thailand -- the rumbling of the malcontents now became that I had somehow finagled an assignment to London to avoid going to Southeast Asia. Once again, Sour Grapes from those who considered WORK a dirty 4 lettered word, and never had it dawn on them that the way to get ahead in the AF and not get passed over for promotion – is go to WORK! The machinations of such people resulted in my coining a third category of Air Force Officer: Regular. Reserve. ROAD [Retired on Active Duty].
When I got to Takhli, I discovered a fourth type of Air Force Officer. Regular. Reserve. ROAD. Temporary. Serial Numbers were preceded with FR [Regular] or FV [Reserve]. Upon noticing a FT serial number in the Aircraft Form 781, I asked the Major what FT stood for -- and was informed that he was a Temporary Officer which was a brand new category that had been created to get maximum additional mileage from the carcass of Regular Officers who had received the mandatory number of pass-overs for promotion. Rather than be discharged without having completed a SEA Combat Tour, such passed-over Regular Officers were retained on Temporary Active Duty to serve a tour in Southeast Asia and be retired when they stepped off the airplane at Travis AFB, California -- if they survived their combat tour.
The same policy applied to Reserve Officers who had received the mandatory number of pass-overs for promotion. Sorry – you can’t be promoted, we don’t want you, but won’t turn you loose until you complete a combat tour.
To the credit of every one and all who were in this category, without exception they flew their combat missions without complaining or dong things half-heartedly. The only thing that came close to revenge was by a Reserve Officer who was passed-over for Major and was going back to Missouri to raise pigs. Despite admonitions and threats of courts-martial, he so thoroughly wrung-out an EB-66E in his End of Tour Fly-By that the left side of the aircraft looked like a wash-board. He will remain forever embedded in posterity in a photograph of a Grinning Cheshire Cat Charlie B______, standing by an obviously warped EB-66E.
By Ned Colburn
While assigned to Hq Air Force Communications Service, I was involved in several classified JCS/CINPAC projects that were a real challenge in developing the capability of broadcasting secure radio warnings to U.S. Military and Civil Aircraft during times of pending MIG Intercept, Meaconing with false navigational signals and Voice Intrusion via false Air Traffic Control Instructions.
One such project evolved from the intercept and shoot-down of a U.S. Commercial Aircraft by Russian MIGs north of Japan where the U.S. had a Passive Electronic Intercept Site on an island just off the Siberian coast with the entire episode heard by our Intercept Operators who were forbidden to break radio silence under any circumstances since such transmissions would be detected, with the intercept site located and overrun by the Russians.
To provide radio warnings, the solution was to run a submarine cable along the ocean floor to another island several hundred miles away from which it was safe to broadcast a coded radio warning to U.S. Civilian Aircraft and Contract Carriers and not compromise the source of such warning information. The Covert Listening Site used the submarine cable to send a warning message to the other island – who, in-turn, relayed the coded warning to the endangered aircraft via HF, VHF and UHF.
Another interesting project was to develop procedures that went beyond the Normal KAC Authentication Procedures in countering Navigation Aids Meaconing and Voice Intrusion on ATC channels as incoming transport aircraft approached South Vietnam from the ocean.
False Radio Beacons, VORs and TACANs were being encountered to steer transport aircraft away from Saigon toward the mountains, and Bogus Air Traffic Control Instructions were being broadcast by someone who falsely answered the initial radio calls from inbound aircraft as “Saigon Center”, using a stolen current KAC Authenticator when challenged.
The ploy went very smoothly when the initial call to Saigon Center was made by an inbound aircraft that was outside the radio range of Saigon – with the Bogus Operator replying as “Saigon Center” and directing change to an alternate radio frequency that was not normally used by Saigon Control. Upon establishing contact on the new frequency, the aircraft was given bogus descent instructions that were designed to run the aircraft into a mountain during IFR conditions.
We developed an Enhanced Authentication System and procedures that precluded the loss of any aircraft, and later determined that the Bad Guy was a Vietnamese Controller who worked for the USAF in Saigon Center but engaged in off-duty employment trying to run aircraft into mountains. He did so from the far side of a mountain that blocked his radio transmissions from being received by Saigon Center while he responded as Saigon Center and issued false ATC instructions.
I gotta say, Ned, that the section on key personnel at Chambley lacked one essential element. Maintenance. From Col. "Black" Jack Fancher on down, the 25th TRW was blessed with outstanding talent. The DM was Col. Joseph Secino, one of the best officers I've had the pleasure to serve under. He later became a "troubleshooter" within USAFE. Lt. Col. John Clegg was Maintenance Control OIC. He was soft-spoken with a keen mind and was very effective in the daily maintenance effort. Maj. Chet Diolanti was my boss, a no nonsense officer, who taught me the basis of the way the tactical air force maintained aircraft. (And, not the SAC way.) The NCO's in the QC shop kept me honest and taught me a lot in the process. My flight test engineer was Tsgt. Jon Kelly, another outstanding individual and a natural aircraft engineer and crewmember.
When I got to Chambley, Lt. Col. Von Fosson told me Col. Fancher wanted to see me. I was offered the Quality Control job in maintenance. My lack of experience was brushed aside. "You'll learn," said Col. F. And, anyway, I got to run flight test. One thing for sure, you can't work in QC without learning a lot about the aircraft in question. I went on, laterally, to run QC for the 26th TRW and the 355th TFW. Later on I was sent to SAC as maintenance control OIC at Grissom. This proved to be the nightmare everyone said it would be, and I only lasted one year.
Did you ever hear about the double flame out we had over Etain on a test hop? Another B66 story. Again, thanks for sending me the life and times of Ned C, boy EWO, a very interesting saga.
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