That Phantom II Passed us Like We Were Standing Still ...

This is a bit of personal history I'd like to model some day, assuming I could find a suitable shadow box and the right kits in 1/144 scale (I think anything larger would be TOO large, and when you read on you'll see why).




I want to tell you my one experience (up close and personal) with an RF-4C, based at Shaw AFB in the late fall of 1969. I had just volunteered for the AF (ROTC) and, as a reward, all of us who opted for AFROTC (the first year ROTC was voluntary at my university) were promised a ride in the back seat of a jet fighter. Alas, it wasn't in the RF, but in a T-33 (which is still no slouch, based on the F-80 and loaded with thrust).

Anyway, I was in the back seat of the T-bird, with a USAF Major driving up front (and building flight time - he was a desk jockey but still wanted flight pay), and I was having a blast. Then, as we flew over Shaw at 10,000 and 360 knots indicated (paralleling the runway 2 miles below), an RF jock got the tower and asked for permission for a "war emergency climb" to 30,000. My pilot told me to watch for the afterburner flare ...



 

As soon as I saw it, I popped the pilot on his helmet (which is what he'd asked me to do), and he immediately firewalled the T-bird and also began a zoom climb.

 

Remember, at that instant in time, we were going 360 knots - we could have easily coasted to 15 grand in no time at all - but he poured on the coals ... and at that instant, the RF was just starting to roll. Got the picture?

Here's what happened next.

The RF passed us (like we were standing still) at 11,500 feet. Remember, it would have taken us just seconds to coast that high, but we were at full power.

 

That, my friends, is just how damned fast and powerful an RF-4C was in 1969, and if it was still around today, it would be just as fast and exciting.



Now, just as a personal aside, I had planned to make the USAF my career (having already failed the eye test and not being allowed to accept my appointment to Annapolis).  I'd grown up dreaming about being 3rd Generation USN, but when I blew the Annapolis eye test, I set my sights on the USAF, and chose a civilian college with AFROTC.  Shortly after volunteering, I scored the highest AF officer qualifying score ever seen at my university - and at that, I was immediately offered a full scholarship, but I had to take a physical. As with the Navy, even though there was an unpopular war on and a relative dearth of volunteers for the military, that ended badly.

So from 1972 on, I've been about military aircraft in history magazines (and now online), I go on History Channel talking about them (9x and counting), and I model them. Not what I'd hoped for, but it's as close as Uncle Sam and my damned (correctable, but not good enough) eyes would allow.

And so, I have my sights on a boxed diorama of my T-bird being passed by a scalded-dog RF-4C in '69 at Shaw AFB.  Though personal, it's still "history you can model" ...

Operation Credible Sport - A Remarkable Rocket-Powered Top-Secret C-130

A dash of "hidden history" you can model. Operation Credible Sport (yeah, a pretty stupid name, but it defined a fascinating plane).

In 1980, with elections closing in fast and the hostages in Iran into their second year of captivity, the USAF under President Carter came up with a rescue plan (this is after the tragic accident at Desert One, the secret air base we built in Iran to stage rescue helicopter flights into Tehran).

The idea was simple. Take a more-or-less standard C-130, and put rocket motors in its nose and tail, making it possible for the plane to land and take off inside of a soccer stadium.

 
 Houston, we have lift-off ...

 
 A surviving Operation Credible Sport conversion was on display at Warner Robbins AFB, south of Macon, Georgia. I've heard that the museum had to cut back it's aircraft inventory, so I can't swear it's still there

Big-assed rocket  engines were mounted, and it was secretly tested at what was then Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium (then home of the Braves, the Falcons and a short-lived pro soccer team).


 Janes Defense Weekly illustrated the aircraft with lift engines operating, and with the nose rocket housings visible - "Credible Sport" at play and at rest

The plane would (with gear and flaps down) dive toward the field inside the built-up stadium, flare out, hit the nose rockets, then land literally inside the length of a football field. When the hostages were returned, the plane would fire the tail-end rockets and zoom out of there.

 The nose rocket housings are visible here

The take-off and landing profiles were modeled after the pitch of the stadium (which is pretty steep).

In 1982, I was touring Lockheed-Marietta during an IPMS event in Atlanta, and noticed a forlorn-looking all-black C-130 with some odd bumps. I privately and quietly asked our tour guide, a very senior Air Force non-com about this plane and he told me the whole story, including (he was quite disgusted) President Carter's unwillingness to pull the trigger once the plane proved what it could do. It was all very hush-hush, but since it was more than 18 months after the hostages had been released, it was a secret without a reason to be secret.

Much later, it became public, and you can find photos and info by searching Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=c-130+i ... channel=sb -

I used the key words: c-130 iran hostage rescue version operation credible sport. Lots of photos, videos of the plane in test operations, and background. This would make a fascinating model kit of a rare and ALMOST historically-significant aircraft.

The "Google images" from that search are here: https://www.google.com/search?q=c-130+i ... 56&bih=518