European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 6, 1962, Darmstadt, Hesse Feature Aerial photograph looks Lik this taken of a Railroad facility after it has been Analysed and evaluated by a photo pedal air. Numbers t-4 Are of engines and service cars j and of workshops 7 and 8, fuel storage. Others Are work of the screaming voodoo reconnaissance game by Morton p. Gudebrod is Paris Bureau the rf101 voodoo if equipped with about $100,000 in Aerial photography equipment v an airman Shide Jiva he Ort a Light before printing a Pytor it Toto Stridi Fly. To a i. If i 2 when a supersonic rf101 voodoo of the 661 h tactical reconnaissance Wing swoops Back to Roost cd Laon air Bise on the Plains of North Central France its Pilot can always be sure of a reception committee but the airmen in a Little panel truck who Trail his whining Bird along tie run ways to is assigned revetment Aren t there to Greet him. They re there to help him Complete his Mission and in their earthbound element they must be As Well coordinated As Quick thinking and As efficient As the latter has say just winged a thou Sand Miles and Back in two hours to observe a designated target remember As much As he can of what he sees and photograph same with something Ike $100,000 Worth of camera equipment housed in the nose and belly of his plane. His eyes training and intelligence Are still the primary Factor in Aerial recon Naissance but flashing Over a target faster than the Speed of sound does t allow much time for contemplative viewing. He has the flying to think of too and to actual combat he has nothing but the voodoo s screaming Speed to protect him if attacked. So the cameras which can be operate automatically by complicated electronic gear or snapped one Frame at a time with a shutter Button on the control Slick must be relied on for details. Men meeting the voodoo Back at 1-on Are there to meet the cameras not the before the canopy lifts Over Tho cockpit airman run to the nose of the Jet and Anbolt the window panels through which the Bis lenses have been working. They reach in with practice hands and quickly strip the cameras of their film magazines. Those Are big Metal containers larger and heavier than an office Type writer and can hold up to 970 feet of 9-Lnch-Wlde High Speed film. These men. Who Are with what s called the flight line camera Section work under sgt Marvin Sullivan of Ransom. By. They have to work fast. Running to the truck with the film magazines they take it across the Field to a trailer beside a big a Darkroom in the truck an airman quickly removes the exposed length of film slaps it into a Light tight canister and tosses it out to the truck again to be rushed to the photo lab in another area of the Hii Ngar whore it goes immediately into the soup for developing. The in Erugie elapsed time for a film from plane to interpreters is somewhere Between 3s and 40 minutes. But it s been done in eight under competitive conditions and would probably be Only slightly More than that an actual combat in the room Are several tables topped with ground Glass and lighted from be Neath. Eight trained interpreters enlisted men work there under capt Richard , of Chevy chase., my. All have gone through photo interpretation school a id week course. They can see even in a some times blurred negative things that the untrained Eye would t recognize in a care fully brought out Black and White print among the things they have to Learnin the interpretation course Accord ing to sgt Jack d. Gibson 01 a Rstow calif., acting Coic Section Are How to recognize military equipment types of Industrial plants the structural com position of Bridges Daws canals canal locks All As seen from High altitudes. They also learn terrain analysis and Basic geology and study military science to Aid in interpreting Battlefield Layouts. When the developed film caches the interpreter s table he is joined by the Pilot who tells him what his Mission was and what he observed. He and the interpreter then Check the observations with the films. What the Pilot remembers As a six Span Concrete railway Bridge May show on the photo As an eight spanner. What looked to him As he flashed by like a steel factory May prove on analysis of the negative to be an Oil re finery. Everything la carefully gone Over and within a Short time the report of the Pilot s reconnaissance sometimes corrected and always amplified by the film interpretation is flashed to the commander who requested the Aerial look see of a target Thea work can mean a lot both to the generals planning strategy and to the com Manders in the Field says Gibson during the last War the British had no idea where the v2s were coming from until an Raf girl photo interpreter spotted the launch ing Sites at Peene Munde on a reconnaissance v2s weren t much of a problem after that March 6, 1962 the stars and stapes
