XIII
deployed.
Typical of the coordination required on an operation of this
magnitade and participated in by the variety of aircraft and missions
thereof, was the Travis to Hickam leg of the deployment,
The four B-57
aircraft and one SC-5 aircraft were prepositioned at Travis Air Force
Base, on 18 October 1960,
The problem was to coordinate the passage of the
U-2 aircraft over an orbit point of the SC-Sl on the Los Angeles to
Honolulu track and allow time for the rescue aircraft to move from the
Travis to Honolulu track by the time the B-57 aircraft passed,
This was
accomplished as the SC-5l departed Travis approximately one-half hour before
the first U-2 left its home station at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas,
The
-
four B-57 aircraft departed Travis in formation one-half hour before the
first U-2 passed over the Long Beach very high frequency omidirectional
range,
The SC-5l was in orbit on the Los Angeles to Honolulu track when
all three U-2 aircraft passed overhead, then when the last U-2 was 250
miles along the track toward Ocean Station November, the SC-5l moved up
to the vicinity of the Travis to Honolulu track for passage of the B-57
aircraft,
The coordination was perfect, and valuable navigational
assistance was obtained from the rescue aircraft,
All the deploying
aircraft then passed over the Ocean Station Vessel November and a second
SC-Sh midway between the vessel and Honolulu,
Radio contact between all
the aircraft and the vessel was good, and the B-57 flight was made without
incident,??
From the time of its organization until the 926th Test Squadron
(Sampling) transferred from its membership with the Air Force Special
Weapons Center, it engaged in sampling operations for the following
276
SWEH-2-003
4