European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 19, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Jay june 19,1968 the stars and stripes Page 5 the Story of the f111a in Thailand iter controversy mystery miser of the controversial i Wing fighter jets went to i heir first month Oft the air Force has put a cure he on the mid. It to Thailand in ant to shed some Light on series attending the pres s plane. Denied Access to face he Taim a Crew hangouts in Rakhli in flying mystery. By Hugh a. Mulligan up special correspondent i Thailand a  recently As the five is fellas squatted in the might behind their Revet 2 party or parties Unm stole across the old Japa runway Here and Paltell the name of the 428th t. A. A tical fighter Squadron. By changed it to 428ths. Tactical Kamikaze Adron. Gallows humor to Days later party or part unknown but since rehab a Breed to be from the 42ndjtical electronic Squadron intelligence outfit that fouls enemy tracking radar got of a genuine Edsel Automo Grill and Hung it Over the quarters Hooch of the1a detachment. Allows humor is common no men who can Only live death by laughing at it the newest plane in the Ater is always Ripe for fun1 games especially when it is used to be the hottest thin to come off the drawing he american tenants of the Ihli Royal air Force base be in the steaming heart off Eiland s King cobra country acted that sort of horseplay cd the Day March 17 to be let when six fellas from Lis fab Nev. Spread their jigs in the approach pattern1 sat Down on the runway by to go to  followed an unending. Of misery for the super so inti rated $7 million plane. Born and bred in controversy plane that had everything j was meant to be All things All services turned out to be be to out Fly everything but inset. I Contrail of trouble gains at Treetop level eve avoiding Telegraph poles through the electronic magic fits tar terrain following a  nights later the first f111a went Down. The North vietnamese claim to have shot the plane Down Over a tin province 150 Miles North of the demilitarized zone but the air Force has reason to believe the plane never got out of  happened the wreck age was never found the two Man Crew never recovered. Two nights after that Satur Day March 30, the second f111a went Down. Again the North vietnamese claimed to have shot it Down this time Inson Tay province just West of Hanoi. They were wrong. Res Cue helicopters picked up the Crew Safe and snug in their unique evacuation capsule and after considerable searching i triple canopy Jungle the wreckage was located in thai fully chosen and rigidly trained to Fly the most technologically advanced aircraft in the world such nursemaid tactics were a bitter Pill to Swallow but worse was to come. On May 8, an air Force f111a made a Force Landing on a training flight 60 Miles North of Las vegas. Really loved now the joke went around Theta Hli officers club that the air Force would like to get the fellas out of the theater but they could t find anyone will ing to Fly them Home. What had gone wrong Here was a plane that had Al most everything and despite Al the jibes one that the pilots really loved. Col. Ivan Deth Man the harassed hard bitten commander of Rakhli s f111adetachment, who held up Well under the pressure of losing three of the seven planes As signed to him insisted to any Turbo fan Jet engines enable it to travel transoceanic distances without refuelling As it did on it dramatic visit to the Paris air show. It can tuck in its wings turn on its afterburners and climb to 60,000 feet at two and a half times the Speed of sound or on the deck perform super sonically at sea level. The Speed and reduced infrared profile minimizes the chances of enemy detection and interception against the toughest targets. Computers self adapting controls terrain following radar automatic navigation and attack systems and other electronic marvels put the pilots and his avionics Man in the right hand seat in a hands off flying world where the plane does its own mapping always knows wherein is performs its own bombing countdown and can make instrument landings on runways not even equipped with radio an radar Landing aids. The radar in the Long Black nose of the "1.1.,i the controversy studded air Force f111a takes off on a test flight. Pen in its Short combat sex Rienche the f111a left a dark Jibrail of trouble a Circum nce that was not lost on the piers Vitious thais who mediately labelled her the blk Bird a Bird of bad Omen the Orient. The Start was auspicious. On night of March 25, the _ As were committed to Corn it Tor the first time Over North tet Nam. The missions we Reilly successful maybe not be m the wildest dreams of the Ventor but certainly beyond iat any other plane in the Warold do. Briefer in Saigon let it be gown that the plane did what it designed to do Streak Inlow Low below the radar against a roughly Del t7 target ducking in and of valleys skimming Moun land near the Mekong River town of Moukdahan. It meant to Chi Minh this time did not get his hands on the multimillion Dollar Little Black boxes that make the f111a different from All other  Only four of the detach ment s original six planes left the fellas were grounded until replacement aircraft  was More ribbing in the bar at the Rakhli open officer mess and digging Little jokes about the f111a pilots never getting to see the decor in the "100 Mission bar a private room for Farewell parties for pilots being rotated Home after flying 100 missions Over North  mid april the sleek Birds with the disappearing wings were flying North again and this time they went for 11days, nights really before the laughter suddenly died in theban and the ominous word spread that another had gone Down. The third downed f111a like the first just vanished i thin air or maybe thick mountains. No wreckage no beep from the pilots survival radio not even a Glimmer on anyone radar screen. Nothing. The Birds kept flying but no for Long and not in the same super sophisticated Way. Now the did t Fly Low Low Low any More and they did t go Oudalone and the All weather Day night All purpose fighter Seldom went out except under Tiv Best possible conditions Alwain the company of an Electron intelligence ship assigned to locate the pieces in Case ther were  pilots who had been care be who would listen that it Basic Best plane he had Ever  did the australian Pilot who flew with the Squadron be Ause his country has ordered 4 fellas and the Navy com Mander who flew the air Force version Over North Vietnam Asan Exchange Pilot waiting for he controversy to Clear up Over he f111b, which is the Carrier  their few appearances be Ore the press the f111a Pilot shave been stiff and guarded in heir Overly complimentary evaluation of the plane but in heir off duty moments they Lave been genuinely enthusiasm. Now underdog these Guys Are so gone on the plane that even the rest of the base is pulling for it said ab66 Pilot i suppose we always were proud of having it Here and now that it s the underdog we d like to see it overcome whatever it is that s bugging it. The Guys want to Fly because pilots want to Fly and it gives you the creeps to pass a grounded  from almost any viewpoint except what is behind the mys Tery of what actually happened the variable sweep Wing Jet with its three tons of electronic gear and its Crew module escape sys tem has got to be considered one helluva an air plane As the pilots claim it to  can spread its wings Delta style for a heavy Takeoff or Landing at less than 92 air Miles per hour on unimproved run ways of less than 3,000 feet. Its f111a, which is the heart of theofr system looks Down and ahead and to each Side As the plane streaks super sonically at altitudes of less than 100 feet apprehending objects As Dis Crete As a flagpole and automatically deciding whether to go above or around the obstacle. But All of these sophistication help add to the mystery of the f111a, not because they make the plane too Complex to Fly but because they make it too difficult to follow. In a Way the haunting aspects of the first f111a combat crash reflect the whole ghostly nature of an air plane that could do almost anything without any one having to do much of any thing. It is known that she took off a night headed for North Viet Nam s Southern Panhandle with12 750-Pound Iron bombs attached to her wings. The Load was no particular problem even in the thin Tropi Cal air since the f111a is Capa ble of packing 52 such bombs four under the belly and 48 on the Wing pylons. All bombing missions out of Thailand must log in at Sakhon phanom Nick name nip the final checkpoint along the Mekong River on the Border of Laos where Permis Sion is Given by the 7th air Force to proceed As planned into North Vietnam. Orbiting South of nip is an Aerial com Mand Post which also monitors and acts As sort of a double Check. No one worried very much when the f111a disappeared from the radar ," As the airmen called the Bird with the vanish ing wings was always ducking in and but of canyons and Val Leys skimming Low along the deck maybe 50 feet or less where the vertical radar beams kept losing her. On the ground in the nip area at the time when the f111a should have been checking i with the final checkpoint an air Force Captain operating a Moni Toring radar set made Contact with the f111a, suddenly lost it and presumed it had crashed. Jungle search unknown to him at the time two air Force sergeants also were observing the appearance and disappearance of the f111a on a surveillance radar without really knowing what they were looking  now nip and the orbiting command Post were alerted tothe fact that the plane was in some kind of trouble and the airways filled with radio attempts by the Captain on the ground with the monitoring radio and the two final checkpoints tomake radio Contact with the f111a, but there was no  presumption was then that it had gone Down somewhere near the Mekong River and search and Rescue efforts were concentrated in the triple canopy Jungles that fall Back fro the River on both the thai and laotian sides. Mountain crash not until several Days late did it become known that the sergeants operating the surveil Lance radar deep in the Jungles had kept the stricken f111a i their scope for a considerable time. It was Low less than 1,000feet, and they watched it Fly a figure eight loitering pattern freight or 10 minutes then they watched it Fly some 140 to 180miles in a straight Southwest line in the direction of Rakhli the Home base before it vanished from their scope. The search efforts immediately were switched to the mountainous area in the West but the wreckage was never located despite daily flights by Light planes with loudspeakers offer ing the natives about $50 for in formation. Presumably the plane had bashed into a Moun Tain while flying the deck with All its bombs intact but like every other f111a Mission Over North Vietnam it never had gone supersonic. The main Rea son is that the f111a needs it afterburners to do the supersonic deck flying that it was de signed to do but the afterburners attract heat seeking missiles. Crews sit and Stew had the plane been shot downy the antiaircraft guns that now bristle almost As heavily from the Jungles of Laos As from North Vietnam did Southeast Asia s oppressive humidity foul up the Ter rain following radar meanwhile the 22 f111a pilots and the 300 maintenance men electronics and avionics experts and other technician who volunteered to come to Thailand for the air War against North Vietnam sit and Stew at tending Dull Squadron meetings trying to keep in fighting trim without even getting near the  them the merry Bell in the 100 Mission Bur seems far far away