PROJECT ARROW AND THE MARKINGS CONFUSION ON F-86Ds
Project Arrow was an Air Defense Command directive that effectively changed a large number of F-86D squadron designations in August 1955. A squadron would be in place on 17 August at McGuire AFB, only to learn that that unit designation was now on F-86Ds based at Stewart AFB - even though not one pilot or airplane had changed bases. Sabre Jet Classics is now trying decipher all the markings changes that took place because of Project Arrow.
For instance, the 75th FIS was in place at Suffolk County AFB. Their Sabres proudly wore a blue tail band and sharks teeth, with the badge of the 75th FIS on the fuselage. Then on 18 August 1955, the 75th number was assigned to Presque Isle with an F-89 squadron! And in their place at Suffolk County was the 2nd FIS. Question is - did the 2nd FIS simply adopt the old markings of the 75th, i.e. the blue tail band and sharks teeth? If not, what markings did they have on their aircraft?
It happened all over Air Defense Command. The 445th FIS at Geiger Field went to a unit at Wurtsmith, and their F-86Ds now belonged to the 497th FIS at Geiger with similar markings, while the 520th FIS at Geiger was inactivated and became the 498th FIS, and on and on. As a historian, I'm trying to get a handle on what a certain unit's markings were so that I can put the proper airplane photos with the proper squadron of a story appearing in Sabre Jet Classics.
So I need your help. If you have photos and/or color slides of the F-86Ds in your squadron(s), please loan them to the editor so that I can make copies for use in the magazine. I especially need color photos or slides to make certain a squadron is the color it was or is or whatever. And I'd apprciate any dates you might know for your photos or slides. It doesn't have to be exact, a month and year would be great but just a year will help. It's driving me NUTS! HELP!!! Contact your editor Larry Davis at Sabre Jet Classics, 6475 Chesham Dr NE, Canton, OH 44721, ph (330)493-4122, or email sabreclsx@aol.com with any information you might have.
FOLLOW UP
The Hunters
SabreJet Classics 14-1The following information and a great batch of photos was received from a couple of sources regarding the making of the motion picture "The Hunters", Starring Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner.
from Frank Meyer
The movie was accomplished at Williams AFB, not Nellis. The movie preview was on a Saturday evening and the movie producer presented a color TV to George Panas, who flew as "Cleve Seville" in the film. During the preview, Robert Mitchum had to leave due to a sickness in his family. Being current in the C-47, John Lowery and I flew Mrs. Mitchum and son to Los Angeles.from Dale Boggie
Dale not only flew in the movie as "Ed Pell", he also filled us in with an extraordinary amount of detail, including a big batch of color slides of happenings during the filming.
"The F-86 crews came from Williams AFB, from the 3527th and 3528th CCTS. Capt. George Panas of the 3527th was the designated leader of the F-86F continegent. He flew most of the scenes as "Cleve Seville".
The F-84F "MiGs" came from Luke AFB, home of the 3600th CCTWg. Capt. Joe `Turkey' Turner flew most of the scenes as the North Korean `ace' - "Casey Jones". The C-130A cameia ship was from the 772nd TCS at Ardmore AFB, and was flown by Capt. Matt Biggs, Jr..
All the aerial dog fight scenes and maneuvers were shot against big cloud buildups off shore from Palm Beach, Florida. But the takeoffs and landings were filmed at an old auxialliary field in the desert south of Luke.
It was here that "K-13" was built. I don't know of any other bases that were used in the filming. The Hollywood people did a really good job out in the desert making it look like a real rice paddy. Somewhere they found a couple of water buffalo look-alikes. All the filming was done in February 1958.
We never saw any of the actors in Palm Beach. I never personally saw any of the actors but understood that Mitchum, Wagner, and Richard Egan, "Col. Imil", did come to Luke to be filmed getting into and out of the F-86s, sitting in the cockpit, etc., but I didn't see them. Most of their appearances were in the studio in mockups and setups where they could project moving clouds behind them or other action on process screens.
There was one problem with the F-84F "MiGs". When the F-84F "MiGs" deployed from Luke to Palm Beach, they'd al-ready been painted a flat pale blue/grey - with big red stars painted on the tail, just like the Russian insignia. And after all, the MiG was made in Russia and we were Cold War antagonists.
This caused quite stir when they landed to refuel enroute, Air Police being called out, etc.. So when they flew back to Luke after filming, they painted a large black `USAF' on the fuselage. All the paint was temporary stuff and easily removed when the filming was over.
A personal note concerning Joe Turner, "Casey Jones" in the movie. I ran into him at a Daedalian Convention several years later. He asked me whatever happened to that cute blonde I'd been dating in Palm Beach. I replied that we'd been married for 35 years! When I got home after the convention and told my wife about meeting Turner, Sharon said - "You dunderhead! We've been married for 40 years and last week was our anniversary, which you completely forgot!" As we used to say in Korea, I was in `deep Kimshi."
THE RUSSIANS
ARE COMING!
THE RUSSIANS
ARE COMING!
by Jerry Burton
The following incident is recalled by Jerry Burton, a crew chief with the 526th FIS at Landstuhl AB, Germany.
It was a nice Spring morning in 1958 at Landstuhl. We had finished pre-flighting the birds and were waiting for the pilots to come ambling out of the Ops shack. Suddenly the door came crashing open and pilots, lots of pilots, started running toward the airplanes all over the ramp.Wien I asked the captain that was flying `my' bird - "What's going on?", he appeared a little shookup and said he couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me anything. We got the birds ready for takeoff as fast as we could. Suddenly, a green flare (flare!) went up from the tower and the pilots started cranking up the engines - all of them! All of the flyable airplanes in the squadron area were manned, started, and running.
Then just as suddenly, the signal to shut them down was given and the pilots stop-cocked the engines and began screaming for fuel trucks. We called for the fuel tankers but then the green flare went up again! This time they taxiied out and were cleared to go. Seeing all the airworthy birds snaking down the taxiway to the active runway was like watching a World War 2 movie. We heard them go into AB (afterburner) and take off heading east. We were only 7 minutes from the border with East Germany, and with that in mind, we always flew `hot' with live rockets.
They were no sooner out of sight when the Line Chief came down and told us to get our field packs out of the shack and inspect them. Fifteen minutes later an Air Police van pulled up and began issueing all of us Ml carbines and two 30 round magazines! The hanger maintenence troops were running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to cram engines into engine-less birds and close up the panels for inspection.
Needless to say, the joking abruptly stopped as everyone realized that something very big was going down! No one knew a thing of course, or wouldn't tell us, and we all felt like the proverbial mushroom. But then it started to hit home. The start of World War 3 was a distinct possibility in everyone's minds.
So aside from having an Ml in our hands and our field packs nearby, we simply stood around and waited for the airplanes to return - IF they were coming back! About a half hour after the mass takeoff, someone shouted "Here they come!", and the first flight hit the pattern. Immediately, we all noticed that none of the airplanes had their drop tanks. When they banked and showed their bellies, we all strained to look for rocket burn indicating the rockets had been fired. But they hadn't. Fuel trucks were al-ready in the area waiting. We didn't even have to call for them like we usually did. We turned the birds around quickly and got them ready without tanks.
I asked my pilot "What the hell was happening!", but again, he declined to say anything and simply wrote up the jettisoning of the tanks and vacated the cockpit. The pilots all went back into the Ops shack while we set about getting the spare tanks down from the racks and checking them for leaks. It was frantic, frantic, frantic! Finally we had all the birds reconfigured and sitting Ready Alert.
Hours went by and we kept all the airplanes ready to go. But the urgency seemed to dissipate and we mainly stood around waiting for something else to happen. Suddenly the APs returned and reclaimed our carbines and ammo, and the brass told us to stand down but have the air-planes ready to go.
The next day we heard that the communists had staged a massive military exercise along the border and threw hundreds of MiGs into the air, flying up and down the bor- der taunting us. NATO and USAFE had to counter it, so every serviceable fighter in Europe took to the air and flexed their muscles in return. We were told that to keep up with the latest Russian fighter aircraft (MiG-19s), our birds had to drop their tanks! Those of us in the 526th FIS weren't tasked with retrieving the dropped tanks so I assume another organization picked them up. Either that or some German farmer suddenly became the owner of an aluminum mine!
Such was the day that will live long in my memory.