Pilot's Operating Handbook

one of its primary objectives-to persuade the North Vietna.mese that a reasonable negotiating position is in their best interests. But at least the North Viet- namese have returned to the negotiating table, prob- ably at the urging of the Soviets who reportecUy have been impressed by President Nixon's tough stance in the face of mounting criticism both here and abroad. As to the military effectiveness of Linebacker II, there can be no question. The impact of the twelve- day bombing campaign on North Vietnam's ability to renew large-scale offensive operations in the South is judged to have been equal to that of Linebacker I. That eai;lier bombing campaign in the North lasted from shortly after the start ofNorth Vietnam's invasion of the South at the end of March until October 23- or nearly seven months. Most of those sorties were flown by Air Force and Navy tactical fighters. The vastly more concentrated, more effective Line- backer II was, of course, a result of the increased use of B-52s, hitting target Largely in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. Against heavily defended area targets, such as railroad yards, airfield , mi(jtary upply ites, repair depots, and port facilities, there is no substitute for the massed firepower of heavy bombers. From an operational point of view, the effectiveness of Linebacker II, spearheaded by the B-52s, is not remarkable. There are, however, some remarkable aspects that have been minimized or ignored by most reporters and commentators and by political critics of the effort. First, the B-52 campaign of December has been touted, by people who obviously did not consult the history of a ir warfare, as the heaviest bombing attacks on record. That they were not, though a lot of ord- nance was dropped in a relatively short period. At ~he same time, many of these people have lamented what they call the "devastating" destruction and ' 1 in- sufferable" casualties inflicted by the B-52s. How do these judgments on the weight and casualties of Line- backer II, repeated so often that they are widely accepted as fact, stack up? The exact number of casualties is not known and may never be. Hanoi, not noted for missing any propaganda tricks, ha claimed that 1, 300 person • were killed and 1;260 wounded. Contrast that to the esti- mated 135,000 killed in the February 13-14, 1945, attacks on Dresden by 1,300 RAF and AAF bombers. The remarkable thing is that there were so few casualties in North Vietnam, where many targets were actually within cities or on their outskirts. This is a 4 tribute to the professionalism of USAF aircrews and the quality of their equipment. And to the policy- makers' and planners determination to hold casualties and collateral damage to a minimum. But there is something even more remarkable. Five years ago few airmen would have believed that the SAM defen es of Hanoi and Haiphong could be pene- trat ed repeatedly by heavy bombers without disastrous losses. More than a decade ago, Nikita Khrushchev asserted that ICBM. and surface-lo-air mis iles had made the manned bomber obsolete-a bird on the verge of extinction . Apparently that view was shared by Pr esident Kenne dy and Secretary of Defense Mc- Namara. The notion has gained advocates over the 1 int evening years. That Hanoi-Haiphong is the most heavily defended area in the history of air war is o obvious that it has become a cliche. Those defenses, not attacked since October 23 were probably at their highest state of operational readiness at the start of Linebacker II. Yet, in 735 B-52 orties bet ween December 18 and 30 , only fifteen B-52s were downed by SAMs-a Jo s rate of barely more than two percent. The loss rate of F- .11 ls and other tactical fighters was con ·iderably lower than that. Not one B-52 was shot down or-so far as we can determine-damaged by a MIG, although there were everal MTG attack . During World War II, the av erage of bombers lot to flak and lighters in both major theaters was one aircraft for each sixty-/our sorties. That included tar- gets lightly defended or not defended at all-and there were no effective SAM s. Over Hanoi and Hai- phong, one B-52 was lost to SAMs for each / orty-nine sorties. But World War ll bomber losses on such heavily defended targets as Berlin Scbweiofurt, Regens- burg, and Ploesti (World War U analogs of Hanoi) ranged from ten to thirty percent on a single mission. Skeptics who have downgraded the manned bomber and scoffed at the ne ed for a follow-on B-1, take note. It 's a sure bet the Sovj e ts have. SAC 's aircrews and their B-52s-the only strategic weapon system I: tested in a modern SAM/electronic warfare environ- ment-have proved that they can penetrate SAM and , fighter defenses and hit their targe ts. That is the essence of deterring both nuclear and large-scale con- ventional war. It 's not a bad idea to keep in mind the performance of the B-52 during Linebacker lf-and the far greater operational clout of the B-1 that must replace the aging B-52s-as we watch our numerical superiority in land- and sea-ba ed missiles trickle down the drain. The bomber is not a Phoenix that has risen from the ashe of its obsolescence. It was never obsolete. • AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 RPV: It all started here. On California's Mojave Desert. By a few men with a big idea. Their test bed was often a stripped down Packard. They were called the Radioplane Company. And they flew an unmanned remotely-controlled air- craft in 1939. The RP-4 Drone. The first use: Target Drones. Anti-aircraft gunners in , W.W. 2 practiced on the OQ 2. The first parachute recov- target system. So far we've built 65,000 vehicles. Massive experience. Yet that's only one of the diverse capabilities needed to create the low-cost, advanced- technology RPV systems now being planned. And only Northrop can put all the capabilities together: Airframes of all sizes. Target-seeking sensors, other optical devices. Complex data links using advanced displays and new protective command and control techniques like fast frequency hopping. Airborne computers. Electronic countermeasures. Navi- gation systems. Simulators. And more. More.That about says it. In RPV: Expect more from Northrop. ery system was created. So was the OQ 19, first out of sight drone. And the KD2R-5, still in use in 16 nations. Radioplane merged with Northrop. And in 1955, we devel- oped the Q-4, first supersonic drone. In 1958, the RP-76, first rocket powered drone. With the late Sixties came the MQM-74/ Chukar. First low-cost jet-powered MQM-74/CHUKAR. The first low-cost jet-powered drone. NORTHROP Perfect for retrofit as wel I as new installation, Hoffman's ANS-lOO(V) is a low-cost, reliable kin of the celebrated Hoffman MicroTACAN. Flight tested. Environmentally qualified. Our new MicroTACAN comes complete with a 1,000 hour MTBF. I loff1nan Best of all, our ANS-lOO(V) NavCom SySt ems evolved from existing production programs and the savings have been passed along to you! Reliable, low-cost and easy to install. The ANS-lOO(V). Put that in your plane and fly it! our com ■ ct Microlacan is in production. A Division of Hoffman Electronics Corporation/4323 Arden Dr., El Monte, Calif. 91734 U.S.A./Telephone (213) 442-0123 Telex 677487 Airmail Retirement Policy Changes Gentlemen: Please convey my ap- preciation and congratulations to Maj. Robert W. Hunter on an out- standing article in the December '72 issue, entitled "What's in Pros- pect for Military Retirement." As Major Hunter points out, the mili- tary nondisability retirement sys- tem is about to undergo a revision; some revision is inevitable. Because of the natural human propensity to oppose change-good as well as bad -I believe that an adequate ex- planation of the proposed changes to all service members is essential to • ensure their understanding of Department of Defense actions and to alleviate the concern that I know they will express. The article summarizes the con- ceptual framework in which the recommendations of the DoD Study Group were made. The recommen- dations themselves must be placed in this framework if they are to be ,mderstood and accepted. Only in this framework are the recommen- dations meaningful. Major Hunt er has treaded successfully the thin line between overemphasizing the recommendations and underempha- sizing the context in which they were developed and will be imple- mented. The article indicates a depth of understanding of the proposed rec- ommendations that is exceptionally difficult to obtain in the short amount of time Major Hunter had in which to meet the publication deadline. Other articles of the same quality will ease considerably the task of explaining the new system to all personnel on active duty. With such articles, members will have less trouble keeping-as Major Hunter so well puts it-their "minds open." LT. GEN. LEO E. BENADE, USA Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Washington, D. C. A Leader by Example Gentlemen: I was deeply shocked by the items on page 125 of the December issue and page 22 of the October issue [concerning the death of Lt. Gen. George Simler and Capt. Gil Gillespie in an air crash]. AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 Nine years ago, during the over- seas deployment of VMA-242, I served a period of TDY as officer in charge of a detachment of six A-4C aircraft at Kadena AFB [Oki- nawa]. Besides the primary pur- pose of weapons requalification for the aircrews, we had brought with us one aircraft that had been modi- fied for radar weapons delivery (blind bombing). Our bombing sys- tem needed debugging, calibration, and IFR certification on an instru- mented range, all of which required technical assistance, support facili- ties, and tactical indoctrination far beyond the humble capabilities of our wing. At that time, the 18th TFW, the F-10/'i wing that was the principal tenant at Kadena, was trained, equipped, and fully capable in all- weather radar weapons delivery. Accordingly, I had come armed with a letter of introduction to the commander, which I delivered to- gether with my request for the as- sistance we needed. The commander of the 18th was then Col. George Simler, and he made available to us everything we asked for and more than we expected. The f ad uf the matter is that without the help he provided, we could not have successfully concluded our project. The lesson I learned, and which George Simler personified, is that all of us in our separate uniforms (and how intractably separate some of them are) are serving the same great country. I have since seen this principle understood and prac- ticed by Air Force commanders as a matter of policy. It is one of the things that is right with the United States Air Force. George Simler also personified a principle I learned in Preflight School, and to which I am totally committed, and that is: Leadership by Example. This, too, is a princi- ple I have seen understood and practiced by Air Force commanders as a matter of policy; and it, too, is one of the things that is right with the United States Air Force. Over the years that I have shared duty, mission, air base, club, or whatever with Air Force units and personnel, I have put to quali- fied Air Force officers this ques- tion: How is it that, despite the administrative outrages the Air Force (like all large organizations) perpetrates, you manage to retain, develop, and usefully employ better qualified senior officers in greater numbers than the other services? I have not received a complete an- swer to this question, and maybe this is something your readers and correspondents might be challenged to answer. Whatever the answer is, it is something the United States Air Force has been doing right, and, therefore, something which, amid all the cries for change, should not be changed. Whenever a senior commander is killed in the cockpit, we hear again the dreary Greek Chorus of lesser men reciting th e same bankrupt litany: "What is a general . doing flying an airplane?" Well, I'll tell you what he's doing: he's up front where he belongs, leading by exam- ple, which isn't just the best way . . . it's the only way. Unhappily, the price of . leadership by example is the risk, and every so often somebody loses. When it's some- body like George Simler, we all lui:1e, uecaul:le we have all too f ew like him. But how much worse for Amer- ica if we'd never had him at all? Or never expected to have another like him? What a man like George Simler leaves behind is the right he lived by. He leaves it to the rest of us to keep faith with and to measure up to it. So let's not let him down, and let's not let America down. Let's not change what's right with the Air Force. COL. JOHN M. VERDI, USMCR (RET.) Santa Ana, Calif. C-130 Airlifters Gentlemen: The article in your November '72 issue, "Air Drop at An Loe," by John L. Frisbee, was received by the C-130 airlifters of the Tactical Air Command with great exultation and appreciation for a story that "told it like it really was." Mr. Frisbee's descrip- tion of the professionalism dis- played by the TAC aircrews was 7 Alrma H commendable, notwithstanding his excellent depiction of AW ADS and its growth potential in support of the tactical mission. This article should go a long way in informing the public that the colorful "trash carriers" of past conflicts have been replaced by young airmen dedicated to the use of highly sophisticated, self-contained radars and computers when provid- ing aerial resupply to the besieged ground forces under an intense combat environment. . . . my sincere personal appre- ciation for recording so accurately the heroic deeds of the TAC air- lifters when meeting the challenge ... at An Loe last spring. BRIG. GEN. EUGENE W. GAUCH, JR. Commander Hq. 834th Air Division (TAC) Little Rock AFB, Ark. Guard and Reserve Coverage Gentlemen: Major Hunter's No- vember '72 article, "Employer Sup- port of the Guard and the Re- serve," brings out many valid points on both sides. Having been there, I can state that my present federal job is de facto jeopardized by my Ready Reserve status, especially as to promotion opportunity. I just saw a well-qualified GS-11 get passed over for a twelve be- cause his boss resented his being away on man-days as an Army Re- servist (lieutenant colonel). [The question] "Why pick _a m~n "'.'h_o plays soldier half the time? legiti- mately enters the mind of an exec- utive with a recently RIFed staff, a hiring freeze, and a geometrically expanding work load. I recommend that AF A press for President Nixon to issue an Execu- tive Order directing the federal bu- reaucracy to encourage participa- tion and positively forbidding sup~rvisors and agencies to discrim- inate in promotion, normal progres- sion and releases for man-day proj~cts. Further, complaint chan- nels (like those for racial prob- lems) should be set up. This is a proper project for AF A. It would help all the services' missions. I also like Major Hunter's article "Comfort Silver." Combat comps are great for morale and reinforce 8 what [I was told in my] first AFROTC class-"The most impor- tant concept I want you to grasp in the next four years is a sense of mission." Three SEA tours validated this. I and most Vietnam vets in the AFRes and ANG are both shocked and frightened by two glaring evils: equipment stripping by the regular AF (witness the recent loss of A-37s and C-130s to the VNAF), and, worse, the tendency of many senior Reservists to regard the pro- grams for their social, recreational, political, financial, and retirement value. I believe that too much Am FORCE Magazine coverage of Re- servists is directed toward politi- cal/morale activities of officers long past combat usefulness. Why not focus on the troops ready to fight? Examples are ANG ADC units on alert TAC troops in Turkey, and Asso~iate crews in SEA. I believe the best recruiting method is to appeal to the deeply ingrained com- petitive instinct in our culture. You'll note that the best units are those with a hard, challenging mis- sion. Also, although I don't believe Father McLaughlin's statistics on casualties I do believe in the rest of that a'rticle ["War in Vietnam -The Myths and the Realities," November '72]. NAME WITHHELD POW Newspaper Gentlemen: ... your [July 1972] articles on the POW WOW news- paper in Stalag Luft I, written by Prof. F. T. Gaumer, has resulted in our receiving five more original issues of the clandestine paper from Col. Wayne C. Bogard, USAF (Ret.), who was in POW camp with me. We certainly thank you. ROYAL D. FREY, Curator Air Force Museum Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio UNIT REUNIONS 11th Bombardment Group (H) The 1973 National Reunion of the 11th Bombardment Group (H) Association will be held in Milwaukee, Wis., July 26-29. For further information con· tact Robert E. May P.O. Box 11 Perrysburg, Ohio 43551 8th Tac Fighter Wing The annual reunion of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing will be held March 2-4, at the Sheraton-Park Hotel, in Wash- ington, D. C. For further information call or write Lt. Col. Carly L. Broadway OJCS/ J-3 (EUMEAF Division) The Pentagon Washington, D. C. 20301 Phone: 202 OX 5-7903/7909 or Lt. Col. R. L. Markey 1111 19th St. (AF/SAGF) Arlington, Va. 22209 Phone: 202 OX 4-8571 62d Troop Carrier Sqdn. The 62d TC Squadron is planning a 30-plus-year reunion in Denver in late 1973 or 1974. A limited gathering in Kansas City in '71 stirred old memories and fostered plans for a longer and larger meeting. Of some 500 squadron members, only 124 have been found again. All WW II members of the 62d are requested to send name and ad- dress to David E. Mondt Box 155 Boone, Iowa 50036 AC-130A/E Gunships The first annual AC-130A/E Gunship re- union will be held in the summer of 1974, in Las Vegas, Nev. All former Spectres, Sandys, and Jolly Greens are encouraged and cordially invited to at- tend. Expect a flyer early in 1973, con- firming specific dates and hotel, along with a request for reservations. Re- I quest names and current addresses be forwarded ASAP to 16th Special Operations Sqdn. Reunion Committee APO San Francisco 96304 366th Fighter Group A group of us want to observe the 30th anniversary of the activation of the 366th Fighter Group with a re- union in Pittsburgh, Pa., in September '73. All former members please send your name and address to Harry C. Hayes 125 West St. Black River, N. Y. 13612 34th Bomb Group Any information pertaining to a reunion to be held by the 34th Bomb Group, 391st Squadron, will be appreciated. James A. Carpousis Department of Physical Education , Northwest Area Elementary School West Douglas and Clinton Sts. Reading, Pa. 19601 388th Bombardment Group (H) The 1973 reunion of the 388th Bom- bardment Group (H) Association will be held in New Orleans, La., date to be selected later. In '74 the Association will again meet in England. Anyone who served with the outfit during WW II and not on the mailing list contact Edward J. Huntzinger 863 Maple St. Perrysburg, Ohio 43551 AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 BCEBNOB/ SCOPB A re lia ble l ightweight, low- cost radar for air-superiority fighter planes is being developed by Hughe s in a multimil l ion-dollar company-funded program. Initially, the system is to be designed for Northrop's P-530. It will have a look-up, look- down, clutter-free display capability. Designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, it will provide the fire control function for the Cobra's guns, missiles, rockets, and bombs. Special emphasis is being placed on minimum maintenance. A new electronics fabrication technique sandwiches a very thin dielectric support - ing an etched stripline center conductor between two thin air-filled sheet metal ground planes stamped in a configuration that assures optimal support and bonding to the dielectric sheet and suppresses undesired parallel plate radiation modes. Used for the corporate feed of large ante nna systems, air-filled strip transmissi on line has proved superior to dielectric-filled stripline in experiments recently completed by Hughes engineers. Air-filled stripline has better electrical charac - teristics and is lighter in weight and considerably less expensive to produce. An AWG-9 Phoenix weapon control system, normally used for launching missiles from the Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighter, has been installed and tested in a shipboard de- fense role aboard the USNS Wheeling, where it successfully detected and tracked multiple targets at both high and low alti tudes from the ship's deck. In multiple target tests, five aircraft were flown in the target area and succes sful ly tracked. The Hughes-built AWG-9 system is unique in its ability to acquire an d tr ack more than 20 targets at the same time, launch up to six Phoenix missiles, and guide them s imu ltaneously. Improved coat ings for ship bo ard el~c tr onic masthead equipment , such as whip anten- nas, rotary joint radar antennas, and waveguides, were described recently by Hughes scientists. The harsh marine environment - - moisture, sun, rain, ice, wind-driven sand and salt spray, and hot, sulphur-laden stack gases -- soon penetrates current- ly used protective coatings, but the four-coat epoxy-polyamide paint system recommen- ded by Hughes is designed to protect masthead equipment for an estimated five years. The Army 's Adv anc ed Att ack Helicop ter ( AAH) progr am has designated the Hughes-built TOW anti-tank missile as primary armament . Hughes is offering major helicopter prime contractors competing for the award complete fire-control system integration for both missile and gun, gunner's and pilot's night vision equipment, laser target designator, and total ground support. The government of Iran has made its second major purchase of Hughes-built TOW anti- tank missiles from the U.S. Army Missile Command , Huntsville, Ala. Iran plans to deploy TOW with armored infantry, helicopter, and infantry units. The Netherlands, West Germany, and Italy have also chosen TOW, and several other countries are evalu- ating it for both ground and helicopter applications. Creating • new world with electronics r-- ------ ------ --- -, I I ! HUGHES iI I L ------------------J HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY For almost a • under the SKC- ~ ter. Before we talk about putting Kearfott's SKC-2000 computer In your future, we'd like to mention its past. On August 20, 1971, for example, Kearfott SKC-2000 Aerospace Digital Computers were chosen tor the United States Air Force Integrated Navlgation- Satelllte Program. Then in less than a year, SKC-2000 computers were chosen for the Swedish Air Force JA-37 Fighter version of the Viggen. And for the United States Air Force B-1 Supersonic Bomber Program. And by NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center for multi-computer system test and evaluation program. Now, all four are different programs. All have exacting requirements. And in all cases, the SKC-2000 and its price were right. Here's why we 1hlnk it'll be Just right tor you, too. The SKC-2000 digital computer is based on a single data and control bus, and an interconnectlng series of modules. These modules can be quickly, simply and efficiently combined to give you a simplex central computer. A multi-computer. Or a multi-processor. Also, the SKC-2000 offers you large machine architecture that includes floating point arithmetic to insure high order language efficiency. A powerful support software package that includes simulator, assembler, and JOVIAL compiler. And a powerful short instruction set that promotes memory efficiency. Want to know more? Just write us at the Singer Company, Keartott Division, 1150 McBride Avenue, Little Falls, New Jersey 07424 . Or call (201) 256-4000 . If we can do it for them, we can do it for you. SINGERAEROSPACE & MARINE SYSTEMS 11rnower In he N w By Claude Witze SENIOR EDITOR, AIR FORCE MAGAZINE Panmunjom to Paris WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY 5 The 93d Congress is in session, and there is no requirement for any more speculation on its temper. The press and the television tubes are groaning with prognostication, a great deal of it from people with questionable qualifications, and this is not confined to what we now call the media. Only a day ago, on a local television station, a mem- ber of the House of Representatives, a Republican who has been here since 1967, expressed the opinion that Congress will cut off support for the war in Viet- nam, quickly, before our readers get this issue of AIR FORCE Magazine. This man further charged that Richard M. Nixon ordered Henry Kissinger to declare "peace is at hand" last October 26 in order to win votes in the November election. This Congressman held forth for nearl y thirty min·utes in a castigation of our recent conduct in the war, finding crass brutality, conspiracy, and administrative irresponsibility in the executive branch of the government. Well, his congressional biography shows that he was born in early 1938, which means he was a toddler at the time of World War II and a kid with a baseball glove when the late Harry Truman sent Americans off to fia-ht in Korea. He probably has read that bombers killed more than 100,000 persons in Dresden and that Hiroshima was wiped off the earth. Neither of these things wouid have happened if Hitler had not fried to conquer Europe and Tokyo had not sent raiders to Pearl Harbor. There would have been no bloodshed in Korea if the Communists had not decided to challenge the determination of the United States and the United Nations. The pattern has been repeated in Vietnam. We have figures at hand indicating the North Vietnamese have killed or wounded 1,300,000 South Vietnamese civil- ians, which probably includes the thousands they buried alive at Hue in 1968. Nearly 10,000,000 have been made homeless by North Vietnamese military action. They have invaded and devastated large parts of South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. None of these facts was mentioned by the young Congressman, much less condemned. They are equally absent from the spate of editorial rhetoric pouring out of the nation's press this month. Yet all of these distressed people, in Congress and out, now speak of our nation's plight in terms of moral standards, con- demning those of the United States, and condoning those of the enemy. There is legitimate reason to believe that what we have learned from negotiations in the past also should be of use in this hour of pain. The men who closed the book on World War II never anticipated the re- quirement for the Berlin Airlift or the international indecency of the Berlin Wall. Maybe provisions should AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 have been included in the peace to make these outrages impossible. In coming to terms with the North Viet - namese, new and different pitfalls must be avoided. Even Korea had its Pueblo incident. We are intrigued by the absence of any reference to Panmunjom in the millions of words of commen- tary coming forth on Dr. Kissinger's efforts in Paris. The Congressman is .not old enough to remember it; the editorial writers should find it in the record. Ne- gotiations to end the war in Korea started in the summer of 1951. As in Vietnam, the fighting went on as talks got under way. The word from Panmunjom , in November, was that there was hope for an early armistice. Some thought peace was at hand. But there was discord, much of it about prisoners of war. Panmunjom dragged on. Dwight D. Eisenhower wno elected President of the United States in November of 1952, about a year after hopes for ;m early armistice started to fade. According to the official Army history of the war, the new President, like Harry Truman, wanted an honorable armistice. He wrote later that he let the Communists know that if it was not forth- coming "we intended to move decisively without in- hibition in our use of weapons, and would no longer be responsible for confining hostilities to the Korean peninsula." The deadlock at Panmunjom continued. By spring, the pace of the battle was stepped up. The armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. That was about two years after the talks started. Any committee of Congress can find, easily, a num- ber of retired general officers who would accept an invitation to testify about their frustrating, at times maddening, efforts to make sense of the Communist stance during the Panmunjom conclave. A few years from now, Henry Kissinger can give what amounts to - ,Vlde \\' orld Photos The Chaplain leads the House in prayer as 93d Congress goes into session. The war in Vietnam, winding down for many months, still stands as a major factor in coming debates. Powers of the President also will be an issue. 11 Airpower in the News a repeat performance. On the basis of this chapter in the history of the Korean War, it is not unreasonable to give Dr. Kissinger more credit than he is allowed these days by his critics in Congress and the press. The peace effort aside, the new Congress promises to give President Nixon more than moderate trouble if the Paris peace talks are not productive, and swiftly. If Paris is not another Panmunjom, the chief executive can be home free, and the decision of the electorate last November justified. But if Paris is Panmunjom, and if Mike Mansfield, Senate Demo- cratic leader, carries out his threat to act if "peace by negotiation" is not realized, there will be new problems. The outcome at Paris is the most important single factor in relations of the White House with Capitol Hill. Probably most vital, if Paris is Panmunjom, the Defense Department budget faces new jeopardy, and the enemy knows it. There is already firm information that military installations and personnel face cuts. And that Elliot L. Richardson, the new Defense Secre- tary, has a talent in management that will facilitate the changes to come. Within a couple of weeks, the Administration will uncover the Fiscal 1974 defense budget, expected to total more than $80 billion, up about $4 billion from Fiscal 1973. Most of this money is scheduled to pay for manpower. Of weapon systems already on the track, the only one that will get close scrutiny is the Navy's Trident missile submarine project. Another Navy matter, that of the F-14 fighter and the financial plight of its manufacturer, Grumman Aircraft Corp., is certain to get an adequate airing. The political pressures in this area are considerable. The draft is scheduled to expire on June 30, and the Pentagon is due to have plans ready for conversion to an all-volunteer force by that time. The House Armed Services Committee, it is rumored, may try to give the President authority to reinstitute the draft whether he wants it or not. Somehow, it is hard to dodge the indications that the 93d Congress is the one that will come to grips with the fact that the Defense Department's part of the federal budget is not where real savings can be made. It is the Appropriations Committees of both houses and the Senate Finance Committee where the critical debates will take place. Social programs, whose costs have skyrocketed in recent years, will get new attention. The election results being what they are, neither Congress nor the White House has a mandate. At the moment, it looks as if there is an inevitable bitter con- flict ahead. Peace in Vietnam, if Paris is not Pan- munjom, can change all that. The Lavelle Case, Again The House Armed Services Investigating Subcom- mittee has published a report on its findings in the matter of alleged unauthorized bombing raids in North Vietnam. The conclusions are less critical of Gen. John D. Lavelle, former Commander of the Seventh Air Force, than they are of the system and 12 the Defense Department. The General, in fact, comes out as something of a hero. For the Pentagon's hierarchy, there is a stern rebuff for the fact that the committee was denied access to information-specifically, the text of the Rules of Engagement-that the Congressmen considered essen- tial to their investigation. The report says the law of probabilities suggests that General Lavelle is not a man who would do things certain to bring him dis- honor and disgrace, and: "It is not necessary to catalogue all of the prob- abilities which might be examined; but they extend from possible tacit approval of General Lavelle's ac- tions by his superiors, to possible civilian direction of the bombings. Vigorous denials by those who pos- sibly were involved could neither be corroborated nor refuted without a review of all relevant documentary evidence. Such a review, however, was impossible when the Department of Defense refused to make that evidence available to the subcommittee. How much of that evidence might still be available is questionable, for the incredible secrecy with which some DoD representatives have surrounded this case suggests that the files may have been thoroughly sanitized." Then, there is an implication: "It has been suggested by DoD that, at least in- itially, the secrecy which it imposed in this case was imposed to protect General Lavelle from embarrass- ment. But having just summarily relieved him of his command, reduced him in rank, and caused him to retire, it is difficult to understand how either the Air Force or DoD could have added to the General's embarrassment. Therefore, one might be excused for entertaining an uneasy feeling that someone other than General Lavelle" could be receiving the benefits of this secrecy." The House hearings were held last June . 12 and were partially covered in this space in the August issue of AIR FORCE Magazine. There 'Yas an executive session held that aft ernoon, the transcript of which was released with the report, after deletions were made by the Defense Department. It is a revealing document, ignored, for the most part, by the same newspapers that made a cause celebre out of the Lavelle case. It was in the closed meeting that the subcommittee got some of its most important infor- mation. This left the group with the conclusion that General Lavelle must bear responsibility for false reports filed in connection with at least four strikes. But, the report adds quickly, the subcommittee under- stands how this happened in an atmosphere where the enemy had a license to throw the first punch. The General testified that after the North Viet- namese netted their GCI radars with their SAM missiles, it was reasonable to assume the enemy de- fense system was always activated. The rules of en- gagement said sites could be attacked only when activated. It was General Lavelle's opinion that the SAMs were activated any time he had pilots over North Vietnam. He also told of an instance in which a reconnaissance photo showed a clear road inter- section. Another photo, taken twenty minutes later, revealed a missile on a launcher, ready to go, in the same intersection. That would give the Seventh Air Force considerably less than twenty minutes to find out, the hard way, that the rules of engagement had been activated, too. Under these circumstances, it seemed sensible to carry out planned strikes. AIR FORCE Magazine / February 197,3 The point was brought out that an enemy MIG fighter , or the GCI dil' ecting it to a targ et , could be hit if the MIG was "ho tile." The subcommittee had some inter est iJ1 whether or not there i su ch a thing as a friendly :MIG over North Vietnam, but th er e was no ontiofactory 3ns,,,e r. Gen l:'ral L~v P. llP. ni lat ed an incident in which a MIG fired three mi siles at a flight of B-52 bombers, and missed. "This bothered me," he aid, because he had inadequate radar cover- age of the field where the MIG took off. The following testimony was heavily censored for security reasons, but the mes sage come s through that he t ook steps to get the required information-with what he called "quick check recce"-and used it one n·ight when both B-52s and an RC-135 with tw enty people aboard were thr eatened. There was a strik e, and it was succes ful. An enemy radar was put out of action. To Gen eral Lavelle this was protective reaction. Under the ru l es of engagement, it was not . , and now is Army Chief of Staff (see "Airpower in the News, " Novernbe1· '72 ). In th e House tran cript, General Lavelle testifies that " General Abrams was aware of this air defense buildup. He w as aware that in prepar ation for this inva io.n they had brought down [c en ored] missile ites in o this area. He wa aware they had netted their radars with the missiles. He was aware that there was a radar-guided and electro-optically guided ... triple A down there. He was aware that I told him in that kind of environment if we are going to get these targets, we have to plan-we can't go in and hope to get them. "Now as far as hi being awar of ea ch one spe cifically, I don t trunk so. A to his hav ing knowl- ed ge of any of the reports, that is way below the de tajJ he would ret in on. I am positiv e he had no knowledge of any reports.'' Th ere has been considerable di scus sion, particularly at later h ea rings held by th e Sen ate Armed Services Committee, 011 the knowledgability of Gen. Creighton W. Abram with regard to th e unauthorized raids. General Abram s was the US commander in Vietnam, Did this mean his superior in Saigon or anywhere else knew he was giving approval to missions not authorized by the rules of engagement? "Some of these strikes my superior absolutely knew," the General replied. "I just don't want to say ... he knew all of them." ■ h ayw rd Pres Jack Anderson, the nationally syn- dicated columnist, recently had a feature article in Parade, the Sunday magazine distributed by newspapers all across the country. It was titled, "The Privileges of Rank in the Pentagon." Here is a typical paragraph. In the Pentagon's private din· ing room, Army generais dine royally in leather-cushioned chairs. The day we visited, their menu included salmon cro- quettes and bearnaise sauce, braised lean ribs of beef, Por- tuguese skinless and boneless sardines, chilled clams, Mexican omelettes, asparagus spears, sherry and chocolate snowballs. The portions were generous. The price per meal: $1. (Nearby, on the same floor, in the public dining room; Gls pay $1.20 tor a hot pastrami sandwich served with cole slaw, potato chips and a pickle slice.) The management of the Pentagon food service, in response to a query, had no excuse to offer for the up- holstery on the chairs or the prosaic menu. It was disclosed that there is no $1 lunch in the Flag Officers Din- ing Room, such as Anderson de- scribed. The price quoted for a hot pastrami sandwich is the one paid AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 by flag officers and executives. A G.I. can buy the same sandwich in one of the cafeterias for eighty cents. All of the foods listed by Anderson as serverl tn thP. gP.nerals and admirals are not on the menu, and certainly not all included in any one lunch . At other points, Anderson, who is rated as a big muckety-muck in news- paper circles, has a number of errors in his article. He says the Pentagon "maintains special rented limousines for co·n- gressional chairmen." This is not true. He says rented limousines are used to take officers to football games and inaugural events. The Defense Department insists this does not take place. After implying that the taxpayers buy the wardrobes of flag officers, he declares that "tax- payers spend a fortune just clean- ing the clothes of their generals and admirals." Officers, of course, pay for their own clothes and pay their own dry-cleaning bills. Anderson finds that generals and admirals "dwell in lavish quarters," none more impressive than the homes at Fort Myer, near the Pentagon. As a matter of fact, the provision of quarters or a quarters allowance is as old as the Republic and fixed by an act of Congress. In the Washing- ton area, they are not lavish. Many were built in the 1930s, some dating back to the Civil War. T he Anderson article is illustrated and the caption material keeps pace well with the standards of accuracy set by the author. One caption says a second Cadillac is kept available for the Defense Secretary, in case something goes wrong with the first one. This is not true. There is a leased sedan, not a limousine, main- tained as an auxiliary car. It is not for emergency use, but to carry the Secretary when security conditions make it prudent to avoid an official car. The Secretary of Defense is a member of the cabinet; in the event of a national crisis, he might be the rrtost important member of the cabi- net. Another caption depicts "Penta- gon elite in leather-cushioned chairs" in a dining room. The room photo- graphed is not a private mess. It is the same room used almost daily by the Pentagon press corps and other members of the public. The caption says a meal costs $1, which is incor- rect. Anderson, recognized by his peers as an "investigative reporter, " has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize and is lionized at luncheons by such prestigious organizations as the Na- tional Press Club. 13 A rosnace world By William P. Schlitz ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, AIR FORCE MAGAZINE - Wide World Photos 1'he mr ec ka ge of a B-52 bomb u, above, lies scar111re d about a mile from U-Tapan Airfield i11 Tlwilmul 11/te r it crashed 011 ,,pproad1. F o 11r of its crew were kill ed a11d two i11j11r ed. Th e air craft ll'as hit 011 a mission 01•er Nor1h Vi e111am, where fi/1 ee 11 of tlw big bomb ers wer e lo.1·1 d11ri11 g lh e D ece mber bombing campaign , Lin eba cker II . A racliopholu, right , br oadcast f rom Ha11 oi a 11d picked 11/J in Tok yo depi cts " SAM gro1111d-10-air missil e .rit e mu/ its crew 111/111 what appear.1· to be part of a des tro yed B-52. For cm editorial co11c erni11g the effectii •e11 ess of the bo mbi11 1: C(l111pai1: 11. see p. 4. WASHINGTON, D. C., JAN. 15 It remains for future historians to analyze the wisdom of the recent bombing campaign in Vietnam north of the 20th parallel. It can be expected that contro- versy will long rage over Presi- dent Nixon's decision to initiate the action and whether or not the sought-after political objectives-if attained-were worth the cost. At this juncture, however, one aspect of the bombing of targets in the North seems clear : from a strictly military point of view the bombing campaign was a success, despite the losses of aircraft and men and much to the surprise of critics of US airpower. For the rationale underlying this conclusion, see the editorial by Ex- ecutive Editor John L. Frisbee on page 4. *On December 22, an earthquake of major magnitude all but leveled the Nicaraguan capital city of Managua, killing thousands and leaving most of the rest of the pop- 14 ulation without homes, food, or water. Thirty-three hours later, the first US Air Force relief aircraft had landed at nearby Las Mercedes air- port, bringing in a team of Air Force personnel to set up contin- gency control operations for the massive airlift that was to follow. Soon, Military Airlift Command C-5s and C-141s were landing regu- larly, unloading nearly 2,000,000 pounds of emergency supplies in the first two days of the operation alone. All six MAC wings partici- pated in the relief effort. They brought in everything from a com- plete hospital unit from Fort Hood, Tex., to Water-purification gear from the Canal Zone. Some 400 US citizens were evacuated aboard re- turn flights. Involved in the Managua relief operation were MAC personnel and aircraft from Dover AFB, Del., Charleston AFB, S. C., McGuire AFB, N. J., Travis AFB, Calif., McChord AFB, Wash., and Norton AFB, Calif. So experienced has the Air Force News, Views & Comments - - "'icle Worl,1 Phutos become in reacting to natural dis- asters that such large-scale under- takings as the Nicaraguan relief effort are looked upon logistically as almost routine. *There is a very gracious and in- teresting lady now living in the city of Taipei to whom some of our readers may owe their lives. She is Charline Chable Ferrera, known as the "French Lady" in the Republic of China, where she is in business designing high-fashion clothing. During World War II in France, Charline saved thirty-two Allied personnel by hiding them from the Germans and helping them to escape. In an interview with Andrew Headland, Jr., of Pacific Stars and Stripes , Charline described how she was denounced to the Germans by a fellow countryman and was taken into custody while trying to flee across the Pyrenees into Spain. It all ended happily, however, when the Spanish Maquis broke her out of a Toulouse prison during a raid. AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 She spent the last several months of the war hiding in a Paris sanc- tuary provided by the French underground. But the time spent in jail in Toulouse was not the first imprison- ment suffered by Charline. Earlier, she had been jailed on suspicion of having sheltered US airmen at her country estate, some thirty miles from Paris. For her courageous service, Charline was awarded the Freedom Medal, the US's highest civilian award for bravery and one of the few bestowed on a foreign national. The award, signed by General Eisenhower on behalf of President Truman, hangs in her study in Taipei. Charline is noted for other than her war work and current design ability. She was champion high diver of France in 1934 and is a noted linguist, speaking eight lan- guages. Charline's fondest wish is to hear from those Allied airmen whose paths crossed hers so briefly but significantly back in the war years. Her address : Miss Charline Ferrera No. 9 Lane 25 Shuand Chen G Street Taipei, Taiwan *Passeugen, Lrnveling around the country by commercial airliner these days are being subjected to unprecedented security procedures. Directed by the President, the new "emergency" rules imposed by the FAA are intended to stem the wave of skyjackings that have plagued the airlines over the past several years. USAF has selected Fairchild Industries' A-JOA to meet its re- quirement for an A-X close- support aircraft. The company will build an initial order of ten for R&D pur- poses. AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 With battl e .f/reamers as <1 dramatic backdrop, the Joint Chiefs of Staff pose for fl portrait. They are, from left, Gen. Cr eighton W. Abrams of the US Army; the Air Force 's Gen . John D. Ryan: the Navy's Adm. Thomas H. Moorer , who is currently Clraiml{/11 of the JCS; Adm. Elmo R Zumwalt, tire Navy's colorful and controversial head 111011 ,· ""d Gen. Rob ert E. C11shma11, who occupies the top Leathern ec k slot ns Co111111m1da111 of 1h e US Marine Corps. General Abrams, who previously com111a11ded all US forces ill Sou//reast Asia, was co11{irmed as Army Chief of Staff by the Se11nte 011 October 12, 1972. They call for airport operators to station armed local law-enforcement officers at passenger checkpoints during boarding and reboarding by passengers. Also, all passengers must undergo electronic screening as a condition to boarding. As well, all carry-on items accessible to passengers dur- ing the flight must be inspected be- fore the passengers may board. All 531 of the nation's airports that serve scheduled air carriers are affected by the new rules, plus "all foreign airports at which pas- 3cngcro board ochcduled US carrier flights." At these puiu Ls it is ex- pected that the foreign govern- ments will provide law-enforcement support similar to that given for- eign carriers operating in the US. "If this expectation is not met," the FAA said, "the burden for arrang- ing such support will fall on the individual carrier." The Department of Transporta- tion, responsible for assuring com- pliance of airline and airport opera- tors with the security regulations, has purchased 1,100 '.'!alk-through and 1,185 hand-held detectors and is prepared to acquire enough addi- tional screening devices to equip all airports, it said. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Ben- jamin 0. Davis, Jr., who heads up DOT's airline security program, said that the new breed of hijack- ers are "unequaled in their ruth- lessness .... Where a simple screen- ing of passengers might have rlP.tP.rn~d hijackers in the earlier stages of this period of aerial pi- racy, we now must be ready to forcefully stop them at the board- ing gate." In a related matter, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALP A) passed a resolution calling for the elimina- tion of overseas hijacker sanctu- aries and the implementation of a stringent program to combat hi- jacking effectively in the "immedi- ate future." It threatened to cease airline service in the face of fur- ther air piracy and said it would also seek the cooperation of the In- ternational Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations to attain its goals. * The C-5 transport, the subject of a great flap of controversy as to cost and performance when the first of these giant aircraft went opera- tional three years ago, has earned an "outstanding performance" eval- uation by the Air Force. "The facts are there," said Gen. Paul K. Carlton, MAC Commander. 15 Aero space wor ld "We've given the plane a job to do, and she's performed it admirably. The praise of the crews who fly her attests to an enviable record. We in MAC are pleased with her accom- plishments. She flys cargo that no other mode of transportation can carry. Our airlift force of the '70s truly gives the United States a strategic mobility unsurpassed by any nation," General Carlton de- clared. In pure airlift capability, the C-5's muscle is awesome. Recent jobs: hauling the Skylab mobile lab for a test during Apollo-17; carry- ing the 62,000-pound Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle, the first time the first-stage booster and the upper- stage booster have been transported aboard the same aircraft; airlifting the heaviest payload ever recorded -two M-48 tanks weighing a total 196,000 pounds. Within a year of leaving the pro- duction line, one C-5 logged more than 1,800 air hours during 347 flights. This work load included twenty-two round trips to SEA and twenty-seven to Europe. *In late December, the Navy's F-14 Phoenix weapon system tracked four separate jet drone 16 targets, launched four missiles, and guided them simultaneously to "hits," the first four-missile fir- ing ever attempted. The Phoenix system, designed to fire six missiles at one time, is being tested aboard the Navy's new F-14 Tomcat at Point Mugu, Calif. In a related activity in Decem- ber, an AWG-9 Phoenix weapon control system was tested aboard a ship and "successfully per- formed the shipboard fire-control mission," Hughes Aircraft Co., developer of the system, said. The test included high- and low- altitude tracking of multiple tar- gets. The system is designed to track up to twenty targets simul- taneously. Also at Point Mugu, a "Har- poon" antiship missile developed by McDonnell Douglas for the Navy scored a bull's-eye late in December in its first test launch against a target ship. Fired from a P-3 Orion aircraft, the Harpoon Col. Thomas E. C Ufford straps into an F-4 Phantom prior to a missio11. A native of Washi11gto11, D. C., Colonel Clifford com- mands the 52d Tac- tical Fighter Wing, Spangdah/em Air Base, Germany. He is the only black wing commander in USAF. leveled off at low altitude and at subsonic speed picked up its tar- get via the missile's active radar seeker. The 1,100-pound missile is powered by a turbojet engine (built by Teledyne CAE), after a solid-propellant booster is used during the first part of its flight. * For its part, the Air Force has also met with some notable suc- cess on the gunnery range. It has demonstrated the feasi- Maj. John E. Mantei, of the 4750th Test Squadron, Tyndall AFB, Fla., has been instrumental in testing a computing gunsight that has made it feasible to mount a Gatling gun in the F-106's missile bay. bility of mounting a 20-mm Gat- ling gun in the missile bay of the F-106 Delta Dart. The entire en- terprise-dubbed "Project Six Shooter"-hinged on the ability of a team of military and civilian ex- perts to design and build an ef- fective computing gunsight. First test firings using the new gunsight began late last summer over the Gulf of Mexico and were the responsibility of the Air De- fense Weapons Center, Tyndall AFB, Fla. Maj. John E. Mantei, of the 4750th Test Squadron, flew twenty- seven missions with the new gun- sight and reports that results were highly satisfactory. "A total of eight fiber-glass aerial tow tar- gets, theoretically not designed to be destroyed by 20-mm ammuni- tion, were shot out of the sky," the Major explained. The high-water mark of the program, however, came when Major Mantei blasted a highly maneuverable, free-wheeling Fire- bee drone. Chasing its target through a series of four-G turns, the F-106, at speeds up to 500 knots, finally cornered the Firebee in a tight turn and destroyed it. It was the first gun kill of the elusive Firebee in an air-to-air chase. According to Major Mantei, "The gunsight we tested is unique and has future potential way be- yond present gunsight concepts. It enables the pilot to aim accurately AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 Aero space world aL a larget under any condition3. It greatly increases the flexibility of armament for the F-106." *Eradication of the parasitic screw- worm in various areas of the Carib- bean may not sound like such a great accomplishment, but the eco- nomic implications could be enor- mous. Known mostly in tropical areas, the screwworm fly lays its eggs in or on warm-blooded animals and is responsible for the destruction of millions of dollars worth of meat animals each year . It can also harm man. Working with Department of Agriculture veterinarians, person- nel and aircraft of the 1st Special Operations Wing, Hurlburt Field, Fla., engaged in a civic-action proj- ect that brought about the total de- mise of the parasite throughout the Virgin Islands and reduced inci- dence of the pest in Puerto Rico and neighboring islands. The technique used during the project was to disperse specially bred sterile screwworm flies, which stop the natural reproduction cycle by mating with fertile native flies . The resulting eggs will not hatch; the females mate only once. The sterile flies, developed at Mission, Tex., by the USDA, were flown by 1st Special Operations Wing C-123 aircraft under con- trolled conditions to Ramey AFB, 1nde11 to Advertisers Puerto Rico. They then were trans- ferred to the wing's U-10 aircraft for dispersal over the test areas . A subsequent USDA survey in dicated that the Virgin Islands were com- pletely free of the pest. *The Air Force has designated two lightweight fighter prototype aircraft as the YF-16 (General Dynamics) and the YF-17 (North- rop Corp.). Last April, each com- pany received a contract to build two prototypes ( see p. 46 for de- tails). The YF-16 is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Fl00 turbofan engine, has an under- fuselage inlet, single vertical tail, and forebody strakes. The YF-17 is powered by two General Elec - tric YJl0l turbojet engines, has a twin tail, highly sweptwing lead- ing-edge extensions, and under- wing side fuselage inlets. Both aircraft are slated to fly in early 1974. The prototypes are being built to determine the feasibility of de- veloping a small, lightweight, low- cost fighter; evaluate advanced technologies and design concepts; determine aircraft capability; and establish operational utility. No production commitment has been made. *Attendance at USAFE's Race R.elat.innR Aw;:irP.nP.RR Reminars passed the 10,000 murk in mid- December. The seminars, mandatory for all military personnel and con- ducted during duty hours at bases throughout USAFE, were initiated in January 1972. The twenty-hour ) AiResearch Mfg. Div., Garrett Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover III Hoffman Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Hughes Aircraft Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Leigh Instruments Ltd., Avionics Div. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover II Lockheed Aircraft Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 McDonnell Douglas Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover IV Motorola Inc., Government Electronics Div. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Northrop Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Pentagon Federal Credit Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Singer-General Precision Inc., Kearfott Products Div. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Sperry Rand Corp., Sperry Flight Systems Div. . . . . . . . . . . . 20 and 21 United Technology Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Vought Aeronautics Div., LTV Aerospace Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 ATTENTIONIAll Army I Air Force t :s::::~Many Military Connected Lifetime Benefits, Including The Opportunity To Jo in Pentagon Federal credll Union You're probably eligible to be- come a member of Pentagon Federal Credit Union, one of the most respected, fastest-growing credit unions in the world. Join now, and you remain a member for life, even after you've left the service. • High Dividends on Savings • Low, Low Rates on Auto and Recreation Vehicles Loans • Instant Money. Thrifty Credit Service. • Personal loans • Complete Services Available Overseas by Mail or Teletype • Nationwide Toll-Free Telephone Service. Stateside Call 800/336-0222 The Following Are Eligible For PFCU Membership: • Active or retired Commissioned or Warrant O ff icers o f the A rm y or Air Force regardless of mem- bership in another credit union. Overseas: Army or Air Force overseas enlisted personnel and civilians who are not members of another credit union authorized to serve them while overseas . • DOD contracted educators. Stateside: Al I Pentagon person- nel paid by DOD. • Army, Air Force or OSD enlisted and civil- ian personnel within a hundred mile radius of the Pentagon and not in the field of membership of another credit union autho- rized to serve them. • Plus cer- tain others-contact PFCU for details. You'll find PFCU literature and loan applications available at many overseas exchanges. Take a look and see all the advantages of a PFCU membership. Pentaaon Federal cred it union ~.O. Box 9649, Roalyn St11ion ~~~~ Ar ll n,,:on . Vit1 lnl• 22209 • T•f1phon• : In Washington Area Call 5254062 In Virginia Call Collect 703/625-4062 19 Aeros oace world Col. Jack B. Gross, USAFR (Ret.), who is AFA 's long-lime Treasurer, is presented the Legion of Merit by Air Force Secre- tary Robert C. Seamans, Jr., as USAF Chief of Staff Gen. John D . Ryan looks on. The award is for "outstanding services" while serving with Headquarters Command and the Air Reserve Personnel Center. 20 course includes sessions contain- ing both formal instruction and open discussion, with each class mixed as to race, sex, age, and grade to assure a variety of view- points. The curriculum consists of in- formation exploring the nature of prejudice, contemporary social problems in the military, minority- group history, and methods to en- hance the communication process. Completing the course in De- cember was Lt. Gen. Jammie H. Philpott, who took over as USAFE Vice Commander in September. "I felt that I was already sensitive to the racial problems facing all Americans, but participation in this seminar has given me new in- sight into the task we face in overcoming many years of in- sensitivity and injustice-a task in which I think the military should lead the nation," the General said. * Were the Wright brothers mis- takenly credited as being the first to fly heavier-than-air craft? The Pilot, a magazine published by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), is the latest to herald "growing evidence" that several people flew before the event at Kitty Hawk. Th e Pilot cites evidence that Richard Pearse, a New Zealand farmer, made numerous flights up to 150 yards at treetop level at least a year before the Wright brothers' flight. On March 31, 1903, some ten months before Kitty Hawk, Pearse made a con- trolled flight of two and a half circuits of a small field before numerous witnesses, the magazine claims. Th e Pilot also says that six years before th e Wrights' first flight, W. D. Custead, a railroad ticket agent in central Texas, flew a powered aircraft a distance of five miles. Supposedly, Waco, Tex., newspapers in 1897 documented the event. The plane was said to be powered by an engine built by Gustave Whitehead of Bridgeport, Conn., who himself was to have flown an improved version of the plane there in August 1901. AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 What's more, The Pilot suggests, the fu-st to fly a heavier-than-air craft was a German immigrant Jacob Brodbeck, who a complished the feat thirt,y-ei ght years before the Wrights. llis aircraft, of spring-powered design , was said to have climbed to treetop level before the power ran out and th e airci·aft was destroyed in the en- s uing crash. Brodbeck emerged unhurt. *The Canadian Armed Forces ha positively identified the wreckage of a Hun-icane fighte1; tha t era hed in dense forest near Chi- coutimi, Quebec, twenty-nine years ago. The remains of the pilot, Sgt. Raymond W. Bailey of the Royal Air Force, were found in the air - craft. On November 16, 1943, the World War II fighter took off from a Royal Canadian Air Force air- field as part of a five-plane forma - tion on a training flight. As the flight entered a heavy snowfall soon after , t he Hurricane flown by AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 Sergeant Bailey disappear ed. Eventuall y, the four oth er ail-cr aft landed safely and initiat ed a search. Records how that some fifty planes fl ew a tot al of 400 honrs during th e earch but were hampered by snowstorms in t he area. On December 8, 1972, a bull- dozer doing road work uncovered the ill-fated aircraft. * NEWS NOTES - Air Force Academy Cadet First Cla s Frank G. l{lotz i one of thirty-two Amer ic ans to rec ive a Rhode Scholarship. He is the sixteenth Academy cadet to be so honored. Boeing and McDonnell Douglas have been authol'ized by DoD to initia te Pha e II of t he AMST pro- gr.am ( see April '72 issue, p. 84). Und er Phase II, each will build and test two prototype aircraft, to be evaluated against mission re- quirements. The first world hot air balloon- ing championship will be held F bruary 11- 17, 1973, in Albu- querque , N. M. Some 100 balloons are expe ct ed and seventeen na- tions will be represented. Dr. Rocco A. Petrone, Director of the Apo11o Program at NASA Headqual'ters, ha taken over as Director of NASA's Marshall l;ipace Flight Ceuler , IIunt viii , Ala., succeeding Dr. Eberhard Rees, who retired January 19. A direct communications link between the US and the oviet Union via atellite is being planned. Har.ris~Intertype Corp. , which builds advanced electronic communication and data-handling system , ha been given a US Army Satellite Communications Agency contract to build a ground terminal near Washington, D. C., and main tain it. The Soviets will build a counterpart ground station near Moscow. Died: Andrei Nikolayevich Tu- polev, eighty-fo ur , in Moscow in December. Tupolev was one of a handful of designers wbo domi- nated developments in Soviet aviation fo r t he past fi fty year s. The TU-144, the first super sonic t ransp ort to fl y, is a produ ct of his design bu rea u. ■ 21 Airman's Bookshelf The Fiihrer's Psychiatrist The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wart im e Report, by Walter C. Lang er . Ba sic Books, New York, N. Y., 1972. 280 pages. $10.00. A large number of Americans, particularly young Americans, do not know as much as they should about Adolf Hitler. It is possible t hat this book , a psychological re- port written for Gen . "Wild Bill" Donovan of the World War II Office of Strategic Services, will tell them more than neces sar y. But it is fa s- cinating 1·eading, an application of psychoanalytic insight to warfa re. It was classified secret for almost twenty-five years, although the rea- son for this is not made clear. It may be because many sources are identified. There are a few of us , ancients of at least three score years, who re- member Hitler and even had the ex- perience of living in Germany while he ran the country. This reporter is one of them. On returning from a sojourn in Berlin and Munich in the middle '30s, it was astounding to find a substantial number of US citizens who saw no thr e at and counseled that "we can do business with Hitler." The concept was ridiculous, and Dr. Langer's book tells why. In a new introduction, prepared for this first public edition, the author says the assignment was completed too late, It was produced in 1943. Had it been compiled years earlie1·, say 1933 or 1934, "there might not have been a Munich." The date of the Munich pact was 1938. Had the facts been known to millions of Americans who never saw Hitler, we also could have been better pr e- pared for the debacle that stretched from 1989 to 1945. The facts Dr . Langer was able to assemble showed how mad the Fuhrer was and how he got that way. The projections of this psy- choanalysis proved accurate: The author predicted Hitler's personal isolation would increase, that his rages would continue as his mental 22 abilities deter ior ated. Dr. Langer surveyed the po ssible ways in which this evil man co ul d me et hi s end and concluded that suicide "is the most plausible outcome." It was suicide. There are six major chapters in the book, cov ering everything from Hitler as he viewed himself and as others saw him to th e psychoanaly- sis itself. Inevitably, th e man's sex- ual idiosyncrasies get a lot of at- tent ion. There also is examination of his rages, his anti -Semitism, his longing for immortality, and his fears. At the end of World War I, Hitler WM exposed to a slight at - tack of mustard gas. He spent we e ks in the hospital behaving as though he were blind and speech- less. Both were the result of simple hysteria. It was while he thought he was blind and mute that he had a vision of libe ra ting the Germans and was convinced that Providence had chosen him for this missio n. There are other books young Americans must read with this one to understand the Hitler phenom- enon. It could flourish on ly in the political and socioeconomic atmos- phere of it s day. In different atmos- pheres which may develop at any time, there are differe nt fanatics who will flourish and menace our fre e society. -Reviewed by Claude Witze. Mr. Witze is a Senior Editor of AIR FORCE Magazine. American Foreign Policy A New Isolationism: Threat or Promise? by Robert W. Tucker. Universe Books, N ew Yo rk, N. Y., 1972. 127 pages. $6. 00; paperback, $2.25. The Johns Hopkins faculty has in recent years widened the field of view of our foreign policy options. In 1967, George Liska a.rgued in Imperial America that the United States, a dominant power that had won the Cold War, should consider an imperial policy reminiscent of Rome's glor y. In 1972, Robert Tucker a:rgues in A New Isolati on- ism that the United States, a power of limited influence in a muted Cold War t hat no one has won, should con sider an isolationi st policy re- flecting our heritage. Liska's analysis bas been refuted by recent events; the adoption of his proposal now appears beyond th e pale of possibility. Tucker' analysis reflect s those event s; bis proposal brings isolationism back into the pale for considei-ation. Both have done an admirable job of question- ing the conventional wis dom. Tucker shows us t hat we have blindly rejected "isolationism" and silenced those that recommend re- trenchment as "isola ti onfats." For Tucker, isolationism, defin ed as the refusal to enter certain relation- ships (alliances) and to undertake certain actions (interventions ), is appropriate at particular junctures in the development of the nat ion and the international system. He argues that we have arrived at such a juncture. According to Tucker, the United States today has no intrinsic interest in any area of the world, save Europe, and no strategic inter - est, even in Europe. The only direct threat to the United States is instability in the US/ Soviet strategic balance, which would not be affected by ev en the worst outcome of isolationism: pro- liferation, or loss of non-US terri- tory to hostile forces. Threats to Eu rope could and would be handled by Europeans. Without intrinsically or strategically valuable areas to protect, the deterrent defense of still other areas to demonstrate capability and will becomes mean- ingless. Tucker feels t hat a new iso- lationism is in keeping wi th US traditions, might achieve its objec- tives at a more reasonable cost than other policies, and could find ac- ceptance with the American people. I disagree. It is not clear that Europe is the only area of intrinsic interest to the United States today. For example, the energy crisis plus ecologi cal co ncern about substitutes for fossil fuel may increase US de- pendence on the Arab world, while historical, political, and emotional ties may maintain our involvement in the survival of Israel. Europeans may well react to our AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 withdrawal by less, rather than more, defense effort in their own behalf. Access to basing still has subtle impact on the quantitative strategic balance, and access to re- sources may have far-reaching im- pact on the qualitative balance in the future. Stability is not automa- tic; reasonable hedges are demanded of the prudent statesman. I would hope that recent events have taught us to pursue a course between iso- lationism and imperialism, that of a mature and selective practitioner of power politics. One may agree or disagree with Dr. Tucker's analysis and prescrip- tion. All would have to agree, how- ever, that he has done us a service by forcing the ongoing foreign pol- icy debate to examine its under- pinnings and widen its field of view. -Reviewed by Maj. Frank B. Horton III, Department of Political Science, USAF Academy. Of Diplomatic Maneuvers Ashes of Victory: World War II and Its Aftermath, by Quincy Howe. Simon and Schuster, New York, N. Y., 1972. 542 pages. $12.50. John Brooks, a staff contributor to The New Yorker, is quoted on the dust jacket of this book as writing that "It will be my standard refer- ence text on the Second World War." If so, Mr. Brooks will have a difficult time finding out how, where, and by whom the war was actually fought. Of political and diplomatic maneuverings from Munich to the recent visit of the President to Peking, he will find plenty, perhaps in some cases more than he wants. This account of World War II and its aftermath is told almost en- tirely at the level of FDR, Church- ill, Mussolini, Hitler, De Gaulle, Chiang Kai-shek, and Hirohito in the first part, and of Truman, Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Adenauer, and Mao Tse-tung in the latter part. At the next lower level we follow the trials and trails of Rib- bentrop, Stettinius, Harriman, Eden, Dulles, and Molotov. And finally, at the third level, we find on occasion Generals MacArthur, Marshall, Rom- mel, Rundstedt, and Tojo. Below that the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought the war are lost in the mists of obscurity-and neglect. Journalist first and historian only by avocation, Quincy Howe, long- time editor of The Living Age and AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 founding editor of Atias, has bor- rowed his theme from Thucydides, stressing throughout the essential irony of history that men's hopes, fears, and intentions bear little re- lation to the eventual outcome of great wars. Where Thucydides be- gan his tale with the affairs of Epi- damnus and Potidaea, followed by the Congress of the Peloponnesian Confederacy at Lacedaemon, Howe begins with the "congress" at Mu- nich and moves steadily onward at his own lofty level through the series of wartime conferences and decisions from Arcadia to Casa- blanca, Quebec, Moscow, Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam, and on to Geneva and Peking. At that level his his- tory is well informed and provoca- tive, taking advantage as it does of the latest and best available scholar- ship. Complaints, if there are any, will center on his imperial tone and purple prose: Ribbentrop is a "pip- squeak," Dulles "sanctimonious" and "fumbling," while Hitler alternately "whines," "rants," and "connives." Unlike Thucydides, however, who remembered to have us follow the disastrous retreat of the Athenians from Syracuse, Howe has little in- terest in the military aspects of the war. Sailors will find only two fleet- ing references to the Battle of the Atlantic, and assiduous airmen will find Arnold mentioned twice, Spaatz never. The theme is implicit in the title and is repeated throughout as when he writes that "from the ashes of both defeat and victory rose China's eternal phoenix, the bird of para- dox." In: Howe's view, however, China has no special claim to the bird of paradox. Interesting and provocative, yes; -exasperating, now and then; defini- tive and all-encompassing, no. Worth $12.50? Only to devotees. -Reviewed by Maj. David Macisaac, Department of History, USAF Academy. New Books in Brief Aerial Photography: The Story of Aerial Mapping and Reconnais- sance, by Grover Heiman. The main emphasis in this book is on the use of aircraft and photography as in- struments of military and national power, and how the waging of war has changed more radically and more rapidly than ever before in history as photography and aero- nautics have become increasingly sophisticated. Part of the Air Force Academy Series. Macmillan Co., New York, N. Y., 1972. 180 pages with index and bibliography. $5.95. The New Astronomies, by Ben Bova. Mr. Bova first traces man's fascination with the stars from prehistory up to the new era of sophisticated instrumentation; then he pieces together current break- throughs in astronomy and the in- struments that have made these discoveries possible. Written for the layman with a minimum of technical knowledge, the book can also be enjoyed by young adult readers. St. Martin's Press, New York, N. Y., 1972. 214 pages with index and bibliography. $7.95. Mr. Piper and His Cubs, by Devon Francis. William T. Piper knew nothing about the aircraft business or flying. However, he parlayed a four-hundred dollar in- vestment in an aircraft company into a family fortune. The name Piper has become a household word as his flying machines have served as the nursery for four out of five American pilots in World War II and have given peacetime wings to men in ninety nations. This is the story of the growth and develop- ment of the lightplane industry in the US and use of its products throughout the world. Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1973. 256 pages with index. $7.95. The War of 1812, by Juhu K. Mahon. Detailed narrative of the military operations in the War of 1812, both on land and on water. Mahon treats the war as a part of the social history of the time, and it becomes~clear that this was a good example of how not to use war as an instrument of national policy. University uf Florida Press, Gainesville, Fla., 1972. 476 pages with index and bibliography. $12.50. Two more books in a series of Navies of the Second World War are British Submarines and British Battleships and Aircraft Carriers. Handbooks that present a unique and comprehensive description of Britain's navy-the former about its submarine designs, with com- plete war program of construction; the latter about its capital ships and aircraft carriers, with special attention given to wartime altera- tions. Doubleday, New York, N. Y., 1972. 152 and 160 pages, respec- tively. $4.95 each. -BY CATHERINE BRATZ 23 CM-1680 UHF 100-Watt Power Amplifier. Now you can boost your 10 or 20-watt UHF transmitter to a 100-watt power- house. Just connect a CM-1680 UHF power amplifier between your present transmitter and antenna. The unit produces up to 400 watts peak power across the entire 225 to 400 MHz band without any tuning or adjust- ments. Yet it weighs just 35 pounds and fits into a standard 19-inch rack. And there is never any need for tuning, cali- bration, or periodic maintenance. Thanks to the system's all solid state circuitry you obtain optimum on-the-air availability. Even if a device happens to fail, you stay on the air. Fail-safe cir- cuitry lets you ope rate at reduced po wer while you use the front panel meter to quickly i so late the defective module and replace it. But you won't be doing that often. The use of all-silicon devices and conservative derating assures an MTBF of at least 5,000 hours. The CM-1680 operates on 120/240 vac and is designed fo r continuous duty operation. It has been procured by the U. S. Navy, NASA and fo reign govern- ments for ground-a ir and sh ip-shore communication. For more information about the CM-1680, write Motorola Government Electronics Division, Communications Operations, 8201 E. McDowell Road , Scottsdale, AZ 85252 . (602) 949-3153. --- M MOTOROLA ,- Almost exactly twelve years from the day that Alan B. Shepard became the first American to enter space, the United States is scheduled to launch the world's first truly habitable space station. This epochal NASA program will put man to work in space aboard a commodious and well- equipped laboratory and test his ability to function productively over long periods by operating a congeries of scientific instruments . SKY AB OPENS THE AGE OF SPACE XP OITATION By Edgar Ulsamer SENIOR Eo1ToR, AIR FoRcE MAGAZINE APOLLo-17, the last and most productive of America's great moon voyages, closed a chapter in the US space program that began with Sputnik and ended with the nation's su- premacy in manned spaceflight clearly estab- lished. The next chapter in the US space pro- gram will center on a shift in locale and objec- tives: the exploitation of near-earth space to benefit man on earth in many and varied ways, from resource planning to space manufacturing and national defense. The first manned system specifically designed to exploit, rather than explore, space is Skylab. Skylab is a two-story space station about thirty AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 times the size of the Apollo space module. It will serve alternating crews of scientist- astronauts over relatively long periods of time as both a truly "livable" home and a scientific workshop. While the Skylab program is ori- ented toward basic scientific objectives, its im- portance to national security is significant. It will establish man's capacity to live and work in space over long periods and test his ability to observe the earth's surface systematically and in great detail. NASA, as well as the De- partment of Defense, expects the Skylab pro- gram to establish, in a precise scientific and medical sense, whether man "can be certified Al/I FD/ICEFEBRUARY 1973 MA GAZ/NE 25 for prolonged working assignments fo space," without such aids as artificial gravity. Mission Profiles NASA's program director William C. Schneider told AIR FoRCE Magazine that Sky- lab, really a cluster of modified space vehicles collected from previous space programs and joined together, is scheduled for launch on April 30 1973, at about 12:30 p.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Total weight of the pace station and the Saturn V which serves as the launch vehicle, will exceed 6,200,000 pounds, and the assembly will be more than 333 feet high. The space station is to be placed in a 233.5-nautical-mile, circular orbit, inclined fifty degrees toward the earth's equator. Thus, Skylab will pass over all areas of the globe within 3,450 miles north and south of the equator, including forty-nine of the fifty United States, missing only AJaska. It will circle the earth at five miles per second, or once every ninety-three minutes. Although Sky- lab will not be inhabited for anywhere near that long, it will stay in space for up to nine years before the earths gravitational pull causes it to reenter the atmosphere and burn up. Once in orbit, Skylab s attitude control sys- tem will place the space station in proper posi- tion re'lative to the sun and the earth. At the same time all the life-support ystems such as pressurization , lu:ating, and lighting will be started up. The third category of actions to be taken during the initial unmanned phase of the Skylab program involves deploying a sophisti- cated telescope system and the space station's power source--it solar-cell panels. The tele- scope, called the Apollo Telescope Mount, is a man-operated solar observatory located out- side the habitable portion of Skylab. On the Telescope Mount four forty-five-foot wings of solar-cell panels will spread out like a windmill. Other solar panels are mounted on the cluster's main structure, the Orbital Workshop. About twenty-four hours after the perma- nent elements of Skylab are larmched, the first Skylab crew, a team of three scientifically trained astronauts will take off from th e Kennedy Space Center in a modified Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM), with a Saturn IB serving as the launcb vehicle. The CSM will go into a parking orbit, ranging from eighty to 120 nautical miles above the earth. Skylab, the world's fir st ma1111 •d orbi tal st ientific ·pace sta1i o11, is 011 extension of NASA's Marcury, G-emi11 i, and A polio space programs. AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 Using the Command and Service Module's propulsion system the astronaut will maneu- ver their spacecraft to the altitude of, Skylab. a process expected to require about five or- bits, and then rendezvous and doc:k. They will en ter the Skylab space station through a dock- ing adapter and an airlock module and pre- pare the space tation for habitation by turning on lights fans, and other systems. Twenty hours after liftoff their "day" will be done and they will go to sleep. From then on they will be on a sixteen-hour-a-day chedule. Most of the nonsleeping hours will be devoted to work, but every seventh day will be a day of rest. Twenty-four days after liftoff two crew mem- bers will leav the space tation through the airlock for extravehicular activities (EVA), during which they will retrieve film from the Apollo Telescope Mount. On the twenty-eighth day, the a tronauts wiU enter the Command and Service Module, separate the Module from Skylab, deorbit, and splash down in the Pacific in the manner of the Apollo crews. Sixty days later a second crew will take off from the Kennedy Space Center' and fly a simi- lar but longer mission of 'fifty-six days with three periods of EV A. During the first EV A, they will load the cameras of the Telescope Mount. Halfway through the mission they will retrieve that film and reload and toward the end of their missi.on they wil1 br.ing all exposed film back into the spacecraft. Tl1irty day after the r:eturn of the second crew, Lht: tbird und l:.u:t team of Skylab astro- nauts will take off for another, similar fifty-six- day mission. Upon that crew's return, or about eight months after the launch of the space sta- tion itself the Skylab program will end. Sky- lab's three crews will perform more than sixty scientific experiments, including two· formu- lated by the Air Force for the Department of Defense. Space Rescue In the past, spacecraft size, limited life- support capacities, and the absence of systems redundancy precluded the possibility of re cu- ing stranded astronauts. But because Skylab is a cluster, the astronauts can retreat to the Apoll.o Command Service Module if a. cata- strophic failure were to make the space station unusable. The only likely condition requiring rescue, short of the highly improbable event that both the space station and the Apollo module should fail at the same time, is inability of the Com- mand and Service Module to return to earth or the inability of the a tronauts to enter the CSM. In such an eventuality, a rescue effort, involving another Saturn lB and a specially 27 Skylab's principal element is the Orbital Workshop. By space standards, Skylab's crew quarters, shown here in mockup form, are palatial. 28 The M 11/tip le Docking Adapter provides the means for linking Skylab to different command modules. equipped CSM would take off from earth as soon as possible, with two astronauts aboard. The rescue spacecraft would pick up the three slrauded astronauts following a conventional rendezvous and docking maneuver and return all five astronauts to safety. There i , however, a co11 iderable .lag between the time an emer- gency might be reported and the rescue ve- hicle's takeoff. This lag varies from ten to forty-eight days, depending on where the prep- arations fO[ the next Skylab launch stand at the time. In case of trouble on the last and final mis ion, a backup vehicle would have to be made ready for use as the rescue spacecraft. Total cost of the Skylab program, which got under way in 1965, is expected to be about $2.6 bi llion, o.r rough ly one-tenth the cost of the Apollo program. At the time of this writ- ing Mr. S hneider told Am FORCE Magazine, we are c mpletely within our cost forecasts and as a matter of fact, recorded a small cost reduction last year." The Orbital Workshop The largest and principal element of the Sky- Jab cluster i the Orbital Worl::shop, a converted th i rd stage (S-IVB) of a standard Saturn V. It is more than forty-eight feet in length, about twenty-one feet in diameter and con1ains two floors of work space totaling some J 0,000 cu- bic feet of habitable interior space. (Counting AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 the other units of the Skylab cluster, the Skylab astronauts will have an unprecedented 12,763 cubic feet of habitable interior space, or more than three times the interior volume of the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. Skylab's total length is slightly more than 118 feet.) A fire-retardant aluminum foil covers the in- terior of the Workshop. Its exterior is protected by a tough aluminum meteoroid shield, held about five inches away from the spacecraft's exterior walls, to reduce the danger of puncture by high-velocity space matter. The two-story Workshop, which includes crew Quarters, has aluminum floors and ceil- ings. The quarters area is subdivided into a wardroom, which offers a generous 100 square feet of flo or space; a sleeping area of about seventy square feet; and a small waste manage- ment area. Most of the r em ainder of the Work- shop's interior or about 180 square feet, will be used as Skylab's work and experiment area. The astronauts will breathe a 70/ 30 percent mixture of oxygen and nitrogen pressurized at five pounds per square inch, comparable to the pressure levels aboard commercial aircraft. The interior temperature can be controlled by the crew at from sixty to ninety degrees Fahrenheit. Almost all of Skylab's gear will be aboard the first launch, with the three crews carxying only a few critical items. About 2,000 pounds of food, in frozen , dehydrated, and dry form , wiJI be stored in onboard containers and freezers. The crew can heat or chill food. More ' forward end of the Workshop. The astronauts will enjoy some of the comforts of home: fre- quent clothing changes a smaU book and mu- sic library, a vacuum cleaner, and a large pic- ture window that faces the earth on the sun-lit side. They will be in regular voice communica- tion with the ground. One-way television from the spacecraft to ground controllers will be in operation during certain periods. The total weight of all supplies will be about 11 000 pounds and will include more than 13,000 in- dividual items. • The one feature that wori't let the Skylab crews forget where they are is weightlessness. "We rejected the idea of providing Skylab with artificial gravity [by spinning the spacecraft] on essentially philosophical grounds. We are going into space to benefit from the effect of the zero-gravity conditions on manufacturing and other activities as weU as to study how it affects man. A spacecraft that provides artificial gravity at all times would have defeated the very purpose of Skylab. This is not to say that we wouldn't have liked to conduct some artifi- cial gl'avity experiments, but we found out that these were not compatible with our basic mis- sion. In order to perform such an experiment, AIR FORCE Magazine / February 1973 we would have needed a second Skylab, and that was simply beyond our financial reach," Mr. Schneider explained. T he Skylab Experiments The underlying purpose of the United States's first space station is to provide new information about man, his pl a ne t, and his most .fundamen- tal resource-th e sun. More than sixty scien- tific experiments will be conducted over the life of the program. One of the key areas to be in- vestigated is the medical or life sciences. Ni ne- teen fodividu al experiments will examine the effects of weightlessness and space un man over long periods of time. The duration of the three missions, Mr. Schn~ider explained, was d~termined by medical experts who " kn ew from previous spa ce missions that ou r astronauts had endured periods of up to fourteen days in space without ill aftereffects. They concluded that we could double that time for the first Skylab mission. Once it is established that the , . first crew encountered no medical problems during its twenty-eight days in space, it will be reasonably safe to increase the second and third .flights to fifty-six days." Space, of course has affected both US astro- nauts and Sovi et cosmonauts in the form of mild calcium migration in the bones, a phe- nomenon somewhat akin to what bedridden patients experience during long periods of im- mobility. , itation al stress, all the US and Soviet spacecrews experi- e nc ed some difficulties on th e ir return to earth such as weak knees and some dizziness. This is natural. lt takes a little while to adjust from a weightles environment to a one-G environ- ment and the other way around. We are con- fid e nt that the calcium migration will be mini- mal and won 't make the bones brittle," Mr. Schneider said. Roomy kitchen, located in the wardroom section of the Orbital Workshop, helps to make Skylab almost like home. He added that an elaborate exercise program has been set up for the Skylab crews, including regular workouts on an ergometer (Exercycle) , in ' order to build up their muscle tone." While Skylab's life-sciences experiments are highly technical, their basic, common purpose is to measure the impact of space on the human body and to provide the technological mean to assure man's well-being aboard future space stations. One of the most important series of experi- ments to be conducted by Skylab centers on intensive solar observations, unencumbered by the blurring and filtering effects of the earth's atmosphere. Special emphasis is being directed at finding out how the sun's thermonuclear fu - sion process is initiated "so that we can ga in in our efforts on earth toward replicating this 29 30 Skylab as1ro1w11 ts will enjoy some of the com forts of hom e, including equipm ent for taking hot show ers. Whe 11 1101 i11 use, the 1111i1 is folde d 1111 lllUI stored. Upper right pic 111 re s hows the co111r ol co11s ule of Skylab's solar observatory. The picJures below show how the Skylab crew will sleep zipped into sleeping bags and be able to work out on a special Exercycle. MAJOR INDUSTRiAL CONTRACTORS Among the key contractors involved in the Skylab program are: • The Boeing Co., which produces the first stage of the Saturn V lau nch vehicle. • Chrysler Corp. , which is responsible for t he first stage of Saturn 18 . • Martin Marietta C!lrp., which performs a variety of tcisks in the area of systems engineering and integration. • McDonnell Douglas Corp., which is responsible fo r the Orbital Workshop and many c;if its subsystems. • North A,rierican Rockwell, which is responsible for mod ifications of the Apollo Command and Service Module, as well as the propulsion systems of the Saturn V lauricli vehicle. • IBM, wh ich has a major role in Sky• lab's guidance and control systems. process 1i1 the form of a continuous nuclear fusion reactor." With the US energy crisis moving toward calamitous levels, making the nation highly de- pendent on foreign suppliers, US government authorities consider a reliable, nonpolluting energy source a paramount national require- ment. At the same time, the Ad