European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 20, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Just sitting Duck if youre flying a chaff Mission May 1977 the stars and stripes Page 9 by Mike Spear stall writer when Spong the Call name for it number pulled up to the Quick Check area before Takeoff at Sig Nellas naval air the William Lind known As lurch in the 81st tactical fighter had the kind of flight mis Sion that All but a few pilots would just As soon he was about to Fly a chaff Mission As part of a Large air Force attack on six enemy ships in Dawn patrol a nato at the Quick Check three other f4 phantoms songs 22 and 23 also part of the chaff were going through their final Check before Takeoff and Down the taxiway waiting to take off following his lurch could see More phantoms and several they were part of the main attack and attached to pylons under their wings were Maverick missiles and laser guided chaff run vital this attack Force was depending on lurch group to make an effective chaff if it did it they would have More Suc Cess and lurch went through Las minute Check lists and no doubt was mentally sorting out details of what he was going to do on the trying perhaps to anticipate any thing that might happen lurch flew 400 missions during two duty Tours in Vietnam and he has a penchant for he is attached to the 81st tows 91sl tvs at Raf As director of weapons and tactics and he has had a big part in planning the air forces missions in Dawn patrol men in the 81st will Tell you that he has studied the books on tactics and knows you get him talking on the subject of tactics and you cant Stop one squad Ron member Hes programmed on Hes also an excellent Pilot who puts the phantom through Aerial Maneu vers in an attack situation that even pilots in the Wing have difficulty trying to lurch f4 Maneu vers arc uniquely they will Tell but Hes not called lurch of its a name he picked up in flight school because of his he Hes 6 feet 4 and weighs Well Over 200 he has a yet pleasant that you would More quickly associate with a preacher than a fighter at 36 his receding Blond hair and Sharp Chin give him a seemingly elongated face and his wire rimmed glasses Correct the vision of almost piercing Blu Egray if you Are a Packer fan and remember the Lombard then he is almost the twin of the packers great Middle line Ray Wilschke although not As and like he has a Way of making the Best of a Tough what makes a chaff run so unpopular among pilots is that the chaff plane is a very obvious the Pilot dispenses Small hairline pieces of what looks like metallic thread to confuse enemy but it also appears quickly on it and the enemy figures out readily where the plane dispensing it is in the chaff planes often use it As a shield to attack then after the they use it As a shield through which to the chaff plane is a sitting its at stage Center in a giant shooting you cant blame a Pilot for not wanting to Fly chaff missions during a says Sid Mission Deputy com Mander for youre just silting up there where you can easily be picked off and you dont even get to shoot the Quick Check goes fast and lurch eases his f4 to the end of the runway for Takeoff behind the three the Mission will be conducted zip lip which Means there will be no radio communications Between the planes unless an emergency situation therefore everything will Progress in exact time or As nearly so As when the Takeoff time the four chaff jets blast Down the runway at 10second thirty seconds after the Leader first lurch opens his As his plane picks up Speed he can Sec the other three aircraft taking off and rising against a background of White William lurch Lundsey takes a breather alter chaff secs by Spear As soon As the group gets it turns North and closes into a tight forma the group flies in a North and slightly Westerly direction at 350 then a few minutes into the flight the first problem the night Rufed suddenly slows his plane to about 200 knots and since there is radio lurch can Only guess at what is in a minute he suspects Flap which later prove and Edwards decides to head Back to the chaff flight is reduced to three planes now with Dorin balls plane taking the but then balls radio goes out and Charles Mitris f4 takes the who is Mission commander for the whole air Force contingent at must have been thinking How apropos his emphasis on flexibility was the Day before when he spoke at a mass1 Over a Small Island the tyrrhenian about 70 Miles to the North of Simonel the planes Circle 10 minutes or then head West at More than 500 knots through Cloudy and sometimes partly Cloudy the weather forecaster at the preflight briefing said the weather reports from the aircraft Carrier John indicated that it was steaming off the South East coast of it is Sardinia the chaff groups Heads for while it Waits for the code message from the reconnaissance planes on the whereabouts of the Fleet but soon lurch feels something is nato tests its Mettle in the med from Page for when the enemy comes up with an effective Way of Jam Ming our we come up with some hmm new so it cant be the enemy does the same for our jamming any new data or in the Field is guarded As securely As a Hus band might his girl friends Telephone evaluation of eco capabilities played a big part in the according to Sid Mission Deputy com Mander for and although eco was the most advanced technology involving it and for Good there steaming along with the Fleet just As if it were part of it were russian surveillance ships one officer said we dont want them to see some of our stuff because we May really have a need for it to carry out its the air Force used six fills from the 20lh tactical fighter Wing at Raf upper Heyford and 12 phantom f4ds from the the rest were wild weasel phantoms from the 52nd Tow at Span Dahlem and reconnaissance phantoms from the 2fith try at Wei Bruckn there were also planes from the 17th de sense systems evaluation Malmstrom fab in flying eb57s out of Gioia Del Chileab in on hand to provide High frequency communications for the exercise was the 1st combat communications so from Lindsey in their missions the air units practice standoff attacks in which the planes fired their weapons outside the Range of most ship the Navy is not accustomed to this kind of said the navys biggest object is to shield in going to try to find the ships and Knock them and on a Clear Day there is no Way they can hide from during the attacks recon nuisance planes were used to find the then with f4 wild weasel Protection against surface air f4s and carrying Maverick missiles or laser guided bombs attacked the fills with their advanced navigation equipment also took on the Job of doing All the critical navigation during All attacks were conducted zip a fairly new tactic in which the pilots Fly in silence to keep the enemy from picking up their radio signals and thus locating in order for zip lip operations to be effect exact timing is required so that radio transmissions Are the zip lip procedure is an outgrowth of what was Learned in the 1973 israeli War when it was discovered the enemies of the israelis were Able to pinpoint israeli pilots from their radio conversations and Knock their planes one officer the mood of the exercise was thorough Mitri called on his men to work efficiently and to write efficient reports so that new knowledge from the experience could be quickly i ill my men that i want them to do the whole Job and work just As hard on the parts they dont like As those they do he capt Jim Ferguson of the 92nd tvs summed it All up As Well As this is a Guod exercise because were getting to work closely with the recce recon Naissance the wild weasels and the i think it helps our effectiveness because we gain More firsthand knowl Edge about what the other Guys can we dont get this wide variety of experience during Normal training off to the right and much lower than his f4 he can see the whole attack Force fills and f4i heading in the same direction he is like a pack of the attack plan Calls for them to be behind him on his left he would later i  think of any situation in which i would pass these As the group nears the coast of Southern lurch sees a ship off to the he is also has a new the group is More than 250 Miles from Simonella he looks at his fuel gauge and says with conviction weve got to execute within five minutes in the preflight briefing Jim Leader for this had said to the pilots of the fuel heavy fills dont drive us to East Jesus and use up All our the fills Superior radar is used in the Mission to get the flight to the precise Ini tial Point for launching the the fills also take part in the actual attack on the the chaff flight crosses the sardinian coastline at feet and quickly begins a Long descending turn to the then everything begins to fall in place for As the group begins to leave the Southern tip of lurch can see smoke to the left where ship guns have been firing at the Eulada then he sees ships there Are several in the huge Bay near the Range and directly South he can see the British helicopter Carrier As he turns East he sees the it is the location of the Kennedy he learns later that changed the Overall approach Angle for the the Carrier lies along the original planned attack route and in order to approach the ships without being selected too the attack groups had Tohy North of the chaff run begins immediately after the ships Are spotted and during it lurch puts his plane through a series of Maneu vers that would make a Bird there is a four turn combined with dives and rollovers that last throughout the minute the plane is Over the As quickly As it it is Over and lurch rights the plane and starts looking for the Tanker plane to the chaff group is Mable to find How Ever and later lurch learns that the Tanker was giving its position off a radio that the phantoms didst the chaff group Learned too late that it had flown past the Tanker and decided to head in the command lurch was filling out a report in a neat left handed you dont notice that he is left handed right off because he Doest screw his Arm around into a Hook when he writes like most left Banders it didst All go according to he was but that Why were