Ear on Chicago; Air Force

This is Hugh Hill speaking from O 'Hare International Airfield on the northwest side of Chicago at the United States Air Force Base. This is the home of the 56th Fighter Group. This group is composed of the 62nd and 63rd Fighter Interceptor Squadrons. This is the story of the Air Defense Command in action. The 56th Fighter Group is prepared for action 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our report will be with the 63rd Fighter Squadron. That blast on that horn there was a scrambled blast. Boys will be coming out of that door just a few feet away from me. So let's go over there and record it. Here comes the pilot now. As you could hear him run by he went out of here at 100 miles an hour and he's all the way out on the apron now. A while after pilot is running out there to that aircraft you'll be getting in it in just a second and starting it up. I want to talk to the man that we're going to travel with

today Captain Larry Parford. He's going to be the pilot of the aircraft that is going to accompany the interceptor. And we're going to go aboard that jet aircraft. It's a T -33, the boys here call them T -birds. First of all Captain Parford how long does it usually take from the sound of that horn until that aircraft is airborne? Well, he should be airborne within five minutes from the time the horn went off. That's our mandatory requirement. In line with that he has already set up his airplane when he came on alert with his regular shift. He's already set all his switches. His parachutes already in the cockpit. His helmet is sitting up on the windscreen so all that he has to do right now. As you can see him doing as we look out the window is jump into the cockpit. Hit the start switch and he's ready to go to Lieutenant's name Lieutenant Jim McClecky. Well, now he's out there now and ready to start. I suppose it's time right now and I see that it is because we're getting a flash from the airplane to switch off to another tape recorder which we have set up out there and listen as Lieutenant McClecky warms up that aircraft.

Captain Parford and I have made a quick run out here to the aircraft. We're standing right next to it now. You will hear the aircraft start up in just a second. There he is, hitting the start switch now. You can hear the engine starting to turn over. He'll be cranked up here in just the matter of a few seconds. That motor we heard running is on an auxiliary power unit. That's right, the motor that you hear running in the background is an auxiliary power unit. Now you can hear the engine just starting to crank up and it will pretty soon drown out the sound of the auxiliary power unit. There it comes. I'm a little bit out of breath from running out here. So, bye. By the way, where is he going? I don't know as yet. He'll probably be checking off on whatever vector the GCI site gives him. I'll tell you what. Well, he's trying the process of

cranking up. Let's you and I are going over to our airplane because we're going to be following him. We'll leave the tape recorder here with your partner to continue the sound of his run -up. All right, fine. There goes the clicky now. The lieutenant is on his way off to the runway. Okay, and we'll crank up and follow right here. The capacitor, the noise, I've now gotten into the T -33, in order that we may go up and observe the actual intersection. Lieutenant Jim McLecky has boarded his aircraft in just a few seconds here and here. His discussion with the tire operator here and on his field. Captain Paiser and I have oxygen masks on and you will be able to see the sound of our breathing. And as we inhale, there will be a brief pause on our dead space just as you have just then.

Oh, here it is. I'm an easy one. Scramble one from the hard -hanger. Lamp's in them to them on three, two, three, two, one, six. I'm an easy one, Roger. The arm is right to two, seven, zero. Angel's 15. Claim, Buster. Pagan. Charlotte. All of the power. I, Roger. Diamond easy one. Hector two, seven, zero. Flying angels, 15. Buster. Channel 12, part taken. All in a day. Um, it's channel eight, all of the power. Roger channel eight, alternate power. Captain Paiser and I, what if you could explain this? Base, stock, center, base, standard for those ampers. Explain those in the toes, we would understand. Max two, three, two, three. Just exactly what those instructions to Lieutenant McLecky were. Is he Diamond one? Roger. He's Diamond easy one. His scramble instructions consist of Diamond easy one. Hector two, seven, zero degrees. That means he goes out of here on a heading of 270 degrees to the west. Claim now. The tower

said Angel's 15. That means 15 ,000 feet is his altitude to climb to. Uh, he advised him to contact Pagan on button eight. That's the radio frequency. Alternate 12, that's the alternate radio frequency in the event, uh, the primary button eight is an operative. And who is Pagan? Uh, Pagan is the radar station that we, uh, work with, primarily in this area. Although we do have overlapping systems where they may transfer us over to another radar controller and an adjacent area, if the target happens to go from our area to another one. Does Pagan control the flight of the intercepting aircraft? Uh, that's correct. They control the interceptor as long as the interceptor remains within their capabilities. If they, the target aircraft starts, uh, flying away from this area. Pagan will then transfer control of us over to an adjacent radar station and then that station will control the flight. I don't need one request for the runway. The runway is in one direction, positionally, through two local lines. I'm an easy one -moder. The pellet

McLecky is, uh, just to the left of a standoff 25 feet away. He's ready to take off and we'll be taking off with him. Oh, your tower, diamond easy one, ready to roll. Here we go. You can see gyms after better glowing from here and they're moving down the runway. Taking that street very rapidly. Should be about in just a second or two now. It shows our target. McLecky is out. And we are out. And there's our target. And on our way to the target. Hello, Pagan, diamond easy one. Where is it, Pagan? He wouldn't take it, he's your first square out, Pagan. Roger, reading you five square, Pagan, diamond easy one, is vectoring two seven zero, climbing buster to Angel's 15. There is a diamond easy one. Take a perfect turn now of two four

zero, two four zero. Roger, diamond easy one going forward, two four zero. Well, we heard that car, captain. I'll be better explained exactly what they were talking about. Pagan, diamond easy one, is blocking three normal. Roger, diamond easy one, turn it, stand by. Roger, diamond easy one, turn it, stand by. Uh, you will stand by for a while to lay get squared away on the vector and then we'll go back and, uh, explain some of the things that have taken place up until, uh, that time. Diamond easy one, squawk three normal. Roger, diamond easy one, squawk three normal. I don't have to get that identification on the, uh, interceptor to make sure he has positive radar contact on him and then they'll probably do it. Good easy one, be as far as safe as contact. Roger, easy one, understand contact. Okay, now all is a little, uh, he took off, was given an initial vector of two seven zero degrees. Yes. Uh, he picked up that vector and checked

in with Pagan and, uh, you'll recall the Pagan. Good easy one, be as far as your target is, and you're a one -a -quark division of three eight miles. Roger, diamond is one o 'clock at 38 miles. Okay, he advised him that his, uh, new vector was two seven, uh, two four zero degrees, so apparently the target, uh, moved a little bit and the initial vector, although it was close, had to be modified because the aircraft had been covering a little bit again. I won the target is turning two, so zero and angel 15. We have a real speed two of 200 knots. Diamond easy one, Roger, I'm target information. Okay, from here on out to, uh, Pagan and the interceptor, uh, work in very close coordination, uh, and he changes in hitting on the part of the target, he'll transmit to Lieutenant Michael Fee, and, uh, given, uh, additional vectors, or changes in airspeed as he feels necessary to bring him in on an identification run. And the angel zone will always be altitude, number eight. That's correct. Angels will be altitude in thousands of feet.

Diamond easy one, stir the two five zero. Roger, diamond easy one, going starboard ten five zero. Okay, another correction here, ten degrees to the right or starboard. And you'll roll out on two five zero. Diamond easy one is steady, two five zero. Roger, diamond easy one. Pagan is now plotting that an identified aircraft. Roger, he has both of them positive contact, the interceptor, and the target. Diamond easy one, stir the two seven zero. I get named easy one, going starboard two seven zero. Okay, he's giving him a correction in vector there. Pagan, diamond easy one, is steady, two seven zero. Roger, anyway. Is there any way of telling what way the enemy

plane is moving? Sure, as if you'll listen real close in the instructions that Pagan gives, Lieutenant Meta like he or Diamond easy one, you'll hear him give from time to time the heading of the unidentified aircraft. Beautiful day up here, Captain. That certainly is a little bit hazy today. We get some smoke occasionally from the Chicago area. Diamond easy one has the target now in this two o 'clock position, it's 30 miles. I understand diamond easy one has target, two o 'clock, 30 miles. I get a little of smoke from the industrial area of Chicago, but by the time we get out here to the west, it clears off pretty well. Diamond easy one, be advised, this first pass will be in identification pass. I'll understand my identification pass first pass. Okay, Hugh, what he means by that,

it's not determined whether or not it's an actual enemy. So the first pass, Lieutenant Meta like he will make an identification run and determine whether or not it's a familiar craft. They ask you if I were going after this unidentified aircraft in the first place, why is the unidentified? Well, for any number of reasons, Hugh, oftentimes you'll have an aircraft coming through. Diamond easy one has target, two o 'clock. Oh no, I get a little of an easy one that's going to target two o 'clock. You have an aircraft coming through the area that may be off course, in other words, he's not exactly. Diamond easy one is steady, two, eight, nine. I read that they were easy. He may not exactly be where he's supposed to be, uh, perhaps his radios have gone out and he's, uh, lost his, uh, exact position and, uh... Diamond easy one, what's that, Hugh? Under pagan diamond easy one has thirty four hundred, three fifty oxygen. I read that you have a ten, three fifty oxygen. Uh,

what I was saying before on the intercept, if you go up and do find somebody that is friendly but is apparently in distress of some type, uh, you fly up alongside of him, uh, motion him to follow you and lead him back to, uh, the closest airfields we can land. Very soon. Uh, and of course, if it were an actual enemy though, uh, they wouldn't be on a flight plan and that's, uh, when we'd really go to work. And which time would you say it is now between now and the interception? Well, he gave his last pit, uh, distance as I recall, uh, twenty -some miles. Uh, it shouldn't be more than just a couple of minutes. Diamond easy one has a target now at two o 'clock position at fifteen miles. I didn't mean he's one that has target two o 'clock at fifteen. Uh, just fifteen miles is not very far to go, Hugh, we should cover that distance and, uh, a couple of seven easy one has contact and target two o 'clock at fourteen. Okay, you heard Diamond easy one called contact, uh, it means - I don't know what you're saying,

if you want to see your target. Uh, uh, investigate. Uh, that means that he has him on his own airborne radar now. For the first time he is in contact, I radar with the unidentified aircraft. Roger, he himself is on actual radar contact with him. The ground control brought him into position and so he can pick him up on his own airborne radar. Do we have a radar operating ourselves? Uh, no, we don't have a radar on the T -33. Uh, the next guy you'll hear from him, uh, he'll call, uh, Judy. Uh, that means, uh, he will actually be locked onto him. He'll not only have him on his radar, but his radar - he will need a one more heading now. If you don't need a one, he's heading to nine zone. This radar will be locked right onto him. They're going to be talking about - You're going to be talking about your two o 'clock position about twelve miles. I understand, two o 'clock at twelve. Uh, they're going to be busy now here, so I'll just stay off the radio and let you listen to the whole thing. Right.

I have a nitty -one nitty -one to have a contact with the target. I'm gonna always still have contact. I have a nitty -one star with three four zero. The nitty -one is going to start with three four zero. And the nitty -one is steady. Three four zero. I registered with nitty -one star with three six zero zero. I have your target. Twenty seven degrees, stars and at six miles. I have a nitty -one star with three six zero. I have a nitty -one star with six zero. I have a nitty -one star with a contact with the target. I have contact with nitty -one has steady. I register an nitty -one standing by. Okay,

if you'll check out to the right, you can see I'm at about one o 'clock position, Passing from stop at the point. There is. Moving from right to left. Right in front of us. It's a very time and easy one. The target is friendly. Better it's time to need it when you're quick off heading in three six zero. I'm not running. We identified the aircraft as friendly if you want to see how we'd actually run it but we're an enemy after that of identification run. We'll follow him through on this one while taking sets him up for an actual attack. I was just going to ask you over this to you. It's just an enemy. We'll just follow through some here and we'll see how it goes. A little bag and diamond easy one. Roger, diamond easy one. Go ahead, big. Roger, bag and this is

diamond easy one. I'd like to make a simulated filing pass on these friendly target planes. Roger, diamond easy one. Let's go start with zero zero three zero zero three zero. Roger, diamond easy one. Go ahead and start with zero three zero. We have been throwing just very closely to Lieutenant McLeckley. All the way on the trip at the present moment. Diamond easy one. Let's steady zero three zero. Roger, diamond easy one. At the present moment, Lieutenant McLeckley is just a pair ahead of us and out here to the left. It's a beautiful sight to see. United States Air Force F -86L. Classed against that white and blue sky on a magnificent day indeed. 5 db

1 x 15 x 15 x 15 x 16 x 15 x 25 x 15 x 25 x 15 x 25 x 20 x 25 x 25 x 25 x 2 x 25 x 6 x 15 x 25 today. I'm in the easy one to turn it in now and you're in a car position that's 33 miles. I understand target 8 o 'clock at 33. I can find the easy one as steady, so all nine zone. I'm in the easy one. The intercept on that aircraft was so perfect that it probably looked at some of that stage. I have to come up stage. It's hard to start now. Two, two, zero. I'm in the easy one going hard, starboard. Two, two, zero.

These guys go through this every day. That's why it looks so good and it is good. I'm in the easy one on the surface. Your angle off will be 27 degrees, right? Your final attack will be 180. I understand 27 degrees, right? I'm going to attack with the 180. Two, three, zero. I'll let you say in there, who is in the easy one is steady, two, zero. I'm in the easy one, you know the target now. 12 o 'clock position is 33 miles. I'm in the 12 o 'clock at 33. What he means on this pass, the target's going to be passing from right to left. He's in right in front of us now, but I can just... Two, three, four. Two, three, four. Two, three, four. He should certainly turn him on a southerly hack -peddie, which would

offset the target to the right for our 90 degree beam attack. And I'm in the easy one is steady, two, three, four. I'm in the easy one, you know the target is about 12 o 'clock, 27 miles. I'm in the target 12 o 'clock, 27. We should be getting a turn to the left up here in a little while. Did you spot that aircraft? No, I haven't seen him. I'm sitting there. Two, zero five, two, zero five. Do there's a larger diamond easy one going forward? Two, zero five. There's our left turn I was telling you about. I didn't see the aircraft. I'm sitting here flying close to formation on Jim. However, just by listening to what's going on. The easy one in the street turn is 1 o 'clock position is 20 miles. I'm just changing 1 o 'clock to 20. Just from listening to this, you get the easy one for the personal 180. The easy one

going for the important 180. Do you get a mental picture of what's going on just by listening to the transmissions between the aircraft? The easy one is 2180 degrees, the target is 27 degrees, really at 20 miles. I'm just turning 27 right, 20, I'm in the easy one is steady. When you say you're saying flying tight formation, you really mean it, doesn't it? Oh, this is loose right now. The loose are about 10 feet away. I'm in the easy one part. 175 degrees. Oh, it's 6 miles. I'm in the easy one going for it, 175. That's the other way to that real flight. I'm in the easy one for the important 180. I'm in the easy one going for the important 180. I'm in the easy one has contact, 27 degrees at 15. I'm in the easy one that should be your target.

I'm in the easy one that should be your target. He's got contact with it. Aircraft again. If anyone has a target now, 38 degrees, rate at 13 miles. Roger 30 degrees, rate at 13 miles. I'm in the easy one, start at 1180. I'm in the easy one that's going, start at 1180. I'm in the easy one, 17180. I'm in the target, 27 degrees, rate at 10 miles. I'm in the steady, 27, rate at 10. When you see extremely tight, how tight do you get when these aircrafts in a formation? I'll show you on the way. I'm in the easy one, you have a turn, start with the target. I'm in the easy one, it's time, the easy one is shooting. Roger, time in the easy one, the advice of target. Change the setting to 080 degrees. I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it.

I'm in the easy one, there's a target now, lift in 4 miles. Roger, I'm in the easy one, there's a shooting. There he is out there, one has 20 seconds to fire. 20 seconds to fire. See him out there, converging. Looks like a good run. I'm in the easy one, target. Splash one. There's an easy one, your vision's home plate now, 090 at 100 miles. A German is the home plate, 090 100. I'm in the easy one, this is 012, 020 at the top. 321, what's the fuel?

I'm in the easy one, here's 1 ,800, 300 oxygen. Roger, in the same 300 oxygen. There was a beautiful run out there playing captain. Beautiful. It certainly was, we went right through his jet wash. If you notice that, the soldier we went by with Jim, we went right straight through his jet wash. Right after he said splash that's right. What does he mean splash when he says splash that means he has rockets of fire Okay, he hears about our tight formations. It feels like he can reach out and touches the ring almost pretty nearly.

Oh, I should beg in Diamond easy one. Tell me, hold on home play request to go to button one. Roger. Do you want to leave button one? Roger, good day. Okay, here you have it. And intercept from start to finish. He's got home played in sight. He's going into line. What do you mean they're button one? That's a radio frequency certain channel. That's the channel that the tower is on. Okay, we're ready to land it just a few minutes in, right? That's right. See home played up there. Dead ahead about

18 -20 miles. I've enjoyed it very much. Thank you so much for allowing us to go along with you and take a look at how you conduct your interception. Oh, we're brothers. I have to have you. You have just heard an on the spot story of the air defense command in action. These are the men who protect the lives and property of America from possible enemy attack. I think you can realize from how this operation is carried out the pride these men take in their mission and the dedication which they devote to their jobs. These practice scrambles are carried out day and night 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The pilots and ground crews are constantly on the alert. They seem never to tire of the pressure and strain. I think every American should have the chance to see these men in action as we have today. We wish to thank Colonel John Murphy, Commander of the 56th Fighter Group,

Major Roy W. King, Commanding Officer of the 63rd Fighter Squadron, and the men of the 63rd Squadron for their help and cooperation in making this broadcast possible. We wish especially to thank Captain Larry Parford, Squadron Operations Officer, our pilot on the trip, and Flight Commander Lieutenant James Micklecky, the pilot of the interceptor, and Lieutenant Dave Records who flew the target plane. This then has been the story of the air defense command in action. This is Hugh Hill speaking.