First Person Singular

摘要

I was in a'skintight partial pressure suit, 65,000 feet (plus) over the Baltic Sea, taking bearings on as many Soviet Token radars as I could isolate from the near-continuous raspy whines that inundated my headphones. Far below us, scant feet above the waves, fellow Ravens in an RB-47 of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing were with us on a "high-and-low" effort, to see if our unique ultra-high-altitude presence might elicit some out-of-the-ordinary electronic activity they'd be able to detect and analyze on their more intricate equipment. It was in the early months of 1959, in the midst of the Cold War with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and I was in the back seat of an RB-57D2 of the "Black Knights" of the 4025th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (Light). In front was my pilot, Captain Edward Abrams, Jr. We were part of the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, on temporary duty (TDY) from our home base of Laughlin AFB (Del Rio, TX), flying out of RAF Brize Norton, near Oxford, England. The -D2 model was a vastly modified variant of Martin's B-57 Canberra, with greatly extended wings and a pair of 9,700-lb. thrust Pratt and Whitney J75-P-5 turbojet engines. This deployment was the first for the -D2 (electronic reconnaissance) version of the RB-57D series; the single-seat photographic model had been on suc- cessful tours in the Far East in previous years. When we'd formed at Albany, GA, the electronic-recon aircraft were still being built at the plant in Baltimore, MD.