Not the diplomatic thing to do
From Valor Guardians
One of the most entertaining stories about flying the
Blackbird comes from Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., who shares about a
particular mission he flew [according to SR-71 pilot Stormy Boudreaux, Tom
Henichek was Burk’s RSO for that mission] over Lebanon back in 1982 in the book
Skunk Works by Ben Rich.
‘In the fall of ’82, I flew from Mildenhall on a mission
over Lebanon in response to the Marine barracks bombing. President Reagan
ordered photo coverage of all the terrorist basis in the region. The French refused
to allow us overfly, so our mission profile was to refuel off the south coast
of England, a Mach 3 cruise leg down the coast of Portugal and Spain, left turn
through the Straits of Gibraltar, refuel in the Western Mediterranean, right
turn into Lebanon and fly right down main street Beirut, exit along the
southern Mediterranean with another refueling over Malta, supersonic back out
the straits, and return to England.
‘Because Syria had a Soviet SA-5 missile system just west of
Damascus that we would be penetrating (we were unsure of Syria’s intentions in
this conflict), we programmed to fly above 80,000 feet and at Mach 3 plus to be
on the safe side, knowing that this advanced missile had the range and speed to
nail us.
‘As we entered Lebanon’s airspace my Recon Systems Officer
in the rear cockpit informed me that our defensive systems display showed we
were being tracked by that SA-5. About 15 seconds later we got a warning of
active guidance signals from the SA-5 site. We couldn’t tell whether there was
an actual launch or the missile was still on the rails, but they were actively
tracking us. We didn’t waste any time wondering, but climbed and pushed that
throttle, and said a couple of “Hail Kellys.**”
‘We completed our pass over Beirut and turned toward Malta,
when I got a warning low-oil-pressure light on my right engine. Even though the
engine was running fine I slowed down and lowered our altitude and made a
direct line for England. We decided to cross France without clearance instead
of going the roundabout way.
‘We made it almost across, when I looked out the left window
and saw a French Mirage III sitting ten feet off my left wing. He came up on
our frequency and asked us for our Diplomatic Clearance Number. I had no idea
what he was talking about, so I told him to stand by. I ask my backseater, who
said, “Don’t worry about it. I just gave it to him.” What he had given him was
“the bird” with his middle finger: I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage
standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel.’
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=117315
**After Kelly Johnson, who for several years headed Lockheed's Skunk Works.
Awesome story.
ReplyDeleteShould have over flown France to begin with.
What were they going to do????
Yep. A good story, kind of typical for the SR-71. End result shows the French could have done nothing except complain. When you consider that the crew faced much more flight time going the long way, and that much more time in the air for something to go wrong, you have to figure most people would say, "Screw the French." But diplomacy and all that.
ReplyDeleteRight or wrong, I am always going to call the French government "Cheese eating surrender moneys."
DeleteThe French people are starting to show some backbone with the Muslum invasion and the China Wuhan Virus rules.
I have always thought that the reason the French fought so hard against Gulf War II was because they (french officals) were neck deep in fraud surrounding the Oil For Food program.