Cold War heroics of 'Speedlight Delta' crew recognized

The Kitsap Sun ^ | Jan 24th, 2001 | Tom Philpott

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Leo, that would be impressive to just about everybody.I only saw one fly and they were ferrying it to a museum a long time ago and it was impressive all by itself.What a memory you have there.

[PIF]

My stepfather was in the AF at the time and mentioned the monitoring to me - how he found out I don’t know. He was a bombardier in WWII - Ploesti was one of his missions - real life “Catch 22” for him - got many medals, including DFC.

[Western Phil]

-I would not have wanted to be only 20 miles away when Tsar Bomba went off.-

You would likely still be about 20 miles away from where it went off.

[texas booster]

You would likely still be about 20 miles away from where it went off.

Great point. Thumbs up!

And that would mean that the Russkies would know what we knew ...

And my kids wouldn't be.

[bravo whiskey]

Thanks. Both are going in this month’s model clubs newsletter. I have a close friend who was the GIC of the Intel back of the RC-135. He has some fun stories.

[LeoWindhorse]

Yes , well thanks . Dad was stationed st Forbes AFB , after a 3 yr + TDY to RAF Fairford ,England , where my early childhood occured . At Forbes we lived in base housing , which not far from the flight line. When I wasn’t out in the Kansas field catching turtles and snakes I was watching those beautiful aircraft come & go.We were the home of Gary Powers too I think. And important element of SAC was strategic recon. So many entire air crews were lost in the Cold War . The nation never knew . But I heard whispers.

[LeoWindhorse]

My dad was USAAF in WW2. 9TH AF 386 BG . England,France & Belgium, from June’44 to June ‘45. He was a personal friend of Curtis LeMay . Years later , in retirement, the would get together for lunch & coffee once in awhile and talk over old times out at March AFB , where they’d both go to shop for food at the BX . I got to meet LeNay once . Very impressive gentleman.