Black Cats of Osan: U-2 Spy Plane Escapades and Calamities in Korea

By Rick Bishop

The story of the top-secret “Black Cats” who undertook dangerous long-duration high-altitude missions to provide intelligence on North Korea during the Cold War.

Plying through the darkness at the very limit of the earth’s atmosphere, the U-2’s extrasensory intelligence-gathering sensors quietly intercept and redistribute mountains of information to a highly classified ground site, located at Osan Air Base, Korea. From there, the top-secret intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) products are distributed to the highest levels of command authority within the United States. Although the Dragon Lady has been in continuous service for nearly 70 years, she has always been considered a “National Asset,” with technology so sophisticated that she outlasted her “replacement”—the SR-71—decades ago.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Rick Bishop, a former U-2 pilot, takes the reader deep into the Black World of non-satellite ISR to reveal how a small detachment of 100 hand-selected personnel with only eight pilots and two aircraft became the most reliable and productive air force unit to ever utilize the Dragon Lady during the Cold War and to this day. As second-in-command of Detachment 2 (Det 2) of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing during the mid-1980s, Rick kept a detailed journal of the daily operations that routinely launched pilots on high-altitude solo missions lasting at least nine hours. Wearing full-pressure suits similar to those utilized by the Shuttle astronauts, these missions took a physiological toll on each pilot who upon return had to coax the Lady, universally known for her treacherous landing characteristics, safely back on the ground along with the often-priceless intelligence-gathering sensors.

Although the pilots were the pointy end of the spear, this is also the story of the missions that could not be accomplished without the dedicated effort from enlisted personnel and civilian company tech reps to keep the maintenance-intensive platform in the air. Along with Physiological Support Division personnel, responsible for keeping the pilot alive in their pressure suit environment during emergency situations, as well as numerous other support troops required for logistical and supply support, the unparallel success of Det 2 can only be attributed to the professional pride of the close-knit selectively manned brotherhood known as the Black Cats of Osan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Casemate
• Release date: Sep 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781636243542

Rick Bishop

Growing up in the Miami, Florida suburbs, Rick Bishop was captivated by aviation. Soloing at age 16, his passion for flight knew no bounds, and following his third year of college, he volunteered for the Army Aviation Program leading to 1,000 hours of heavy-lift helicopter combat time in Vietnam. Following his early release from the Army and finishing his bachelor’s degree, he joined the Air Force to fly jets and after four years as a KC-135 aircraft commander, instructor, and evaluation pilot, was selected to interview for a special duty assignment as a U-2 pilot culminating 12 years later as the commander of the only operational U-2 squadron in the U.S. Following further advancement, he retired early after nearly 25 years of military aviation service to fly for American Airlines. He retired after over fifty rewarding years of piloting civilian, military and airline aircraft. Lt. Col. Bishop holds A.S., B.S. M.P.A. degrees and is a graduate of the very selective and prestigious Air War College. He now resides in the rolling hills of a central-Florida equestrian community, north of Ocala with his dedicated wife, Virginia, of 40 years.

Book preview

Preface

It has been a few years now since my first attempt at writing was published. I must admit I’m very pleased with the success and acceptance of the book, not only by the general public but by many very critical and knowledgeable individuals in the aviation community as well. At this point (2022), Shady Lady has garnered a multitude of five-star reviews on promotional websites and rave literary praise from numerous military and aviation publications as well as noted published authors.

I devoted a large portion of Shady Lady to the various locations around the world, known as Detachments (Dets), from which top-secret U-2 operational missions were flown. Each location had a set of unique characteristics and strictly adhered to protocols to minimize the inherent dangers associated with every flight in the Dragon Lady, lasting anywhere from nine to 12-plus hours. While I described each Det in detail, due to the sheer amount of time that I spent at one particular location, I dedicated the longest chapter in the book to it alone, quipping therein that I could easily write a book on my multiple 70-day operational tours as a pilot and one-year stint as operations officer, known as the Director of Operations (DO), while serving there.

In writing this book, I felt compelled to not only recount some of my personal experiences but the personal stories of those critical players who made this Det so successful, sometimes under very trying conditions. It spans my involvement in the Selectively Manned U-2 Program from 1978 to 1991 and illustrates the dedication to the mission that could only be accomplished by this fantastic aircraft and the officers, enlisted, and civilian experts that were dedicated to her every need. This book covers many of the idiosyncrasies associated with this unique location that made complex high-altitude reconnaissance missions look routine while, in fact, they could be fraught with danger.

I will take the reader behind the scenes to experience day-to-day intelligence-gathering operations that could evolve from tediousness to exhilaration and celebration to tragedy, sometimes within hours. Moreover, because of a detailed flight log kept throughout my flying career, and a detailed journal of my experiences as DO in 1984, I was able to highlight the many personalities of a singularly unique and talented fraternity of Special Duty pilots that mastered the dragon within the Lady, whose idiosyncratic personality is renowned for her well-earned reputation as the world’s most dangerous operational aircraft to fly. Also emphasized are the highly qualified hand-selected cadre of dedicated maintenance specialists, Physiological Support Division technicians, civilian factory technical representatives, and other specialized personnel whose dedication made the U-2 Dragon Lady the acknowledged premier high-altitude reconnaissance platform in the world then and to this day.

This is our story as experienced and seen through my eyes and their first-person testimony. It is meant to be a tribute to the most highly tasked and successful Det in the history of the U-2 Program, if not the entire Air Force—the Black Cats of Det 2, Osan Air Base, South Korea.

Introduction

Known by relatively few outside the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) community are the locations of Black World aviation assets. Every location or facility starts out as a top-secret entity but after a while becomes impossible to hide, even though all operations may have been cloaked in late-night darkness. In the case of the Dragon Lady, the inability to hide the thunderous take-off power of her highly modified J75 turbojet engine, which was rumored to be capable of awakening the dead, soon led to her discovery no matter where she was residing! Such a location was the top secret CIA desert landing strip adjacent to Groom Lake, Nevada, code named either ‘Paradise Ranch’ or ‘Watertown.’ Previously utilized by the Atomic Energy Commission as a nuclear testing facility, both code names devolved into ‘The Ranch,’ thus cloaking the complete lack of water or paradise and eventually acquiring the name of Area 51.

Within the U-2 community, operational locations (OLs) were usually the first step in deploying the Dragon Lady to a new location. These OLs were closely guarded secrets, sometimes even kept from the pilots until they arrived in the specific operational region. To the personnel at the squadron levels, these locations seemed to sprout up overnight in order to conduct anywhere from one to numerous top-secret missions, as directed by the highest national command authorities (although they were thoroughly planned in advance at the higher headquarters level). This, the smallest operational entity within the black world, comprised the minimum number of personnel required to accomplish the mission. The OL could vary from a remote, single-runway desert location, with pilots and support personnel living in tents (very rare) to borrowed sophisticated facilities allowing the comforts of on-base billeting, a hotel, or even an occasional embassy (even more rare)! The senior ranking pilot was always placed in charge, although not a strict commander on written orders.

Because of the demand for the Dragon Lady’s leading-edge intelligence-gathering capabilities in hotspots around the world, some of these OLs were enlarged and upgraded, eventually metamorphosing into detachments. These Dets, with a full complement of logistical-support personnel, were capable of operating one or more U-2s and thus becoming a more permanent location with the commander serving a one-year tour of duty. Depending on the workload (sortie rate) expected from the Det, the manning usually consisted of a commander, operations officer, four pilots per aircraft, two staff navigators, one flight surgeon, three Physiological Support Division technicians, and a vast array of maintenance personnel as well as civilian technical representatives (tech reps to the pilots or field service representatives to the maintainers) to care for the Lady’s every need. A detachment supporting two aircraft could require a minimum of one hundred personnel to launch and recover the Lady as well as maintain the exotic equipment required to perform each mission. Even more personnel were required to tie the loose ends of logistical and administrative demands. And this was just the beginning. After the mission launched, hundreds of other personnel worldwide, working in shifts over 24 hours, were required to collect, interpret, and disseminate the vast volume of top-secret intelligence generated by each flight. The Dragon Lady, well renowned for her unequaled photographic capabilities, also carried state-of-the-art signals intelligence to collect and locate voice communications and electronic emitters as well as all-weather measurement and signature sensors, capable of pinpointing fixed and/or tracking dynamic targets. Besides onboard recording capabilities, throughout the early 1970s and into the 1980s, the various forms of these collections were also downlinked in real-time, to be followed by simultaneous downlink and global-spanning uplink technology to secure sites around the world (starting in the early 1990s).

My intent, throughout this book, is to offer an in-depth look at the largest and most successful Dragon Lady detachment in the air force, flying almost daily top-secret missions, during my days as a pilot, operations officer, and squadron commander in our close-knit U-2 fraternity. I felt obliged to relate the stories of day-to-day operational missions that, if accomplished flawlessly, never made the headlines so sought after by the press, nor leaks sought after by our adversaries. There are playful moments, serious confrontations, and disastrous events that formed the personality of the Det, realized through the high caliber of those so dedicated to its success. This is our story of that era and about the select group that was a major part of the U-2 Dragon Lady’s legacy of long-standing success, presently approaching 67 years of continuous service to the defense of the United States of America. It is a narrative spanning three production runs along with constant airframe, powerplant, and sensor upgrading over the years that made her a national asset and a living legend second-to-none in today’s covert world of air-breathing aerial reconnaissance.

CHAPTER 1

A Star is Born

In the decade following WWII, there was nothing in aviation history that could compare to the performance leap incorporated into aircraft design by the small group of engineers at the top-secret Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, nicknamed the Skunk Works, led by the most brilliant aeronautical engineer of his time, Kelly Johnson. After intentionally being left out of the initial government bidding process for the role that U-2 eventually filled, Johnson devised a plan to skunk the design concepts offered by his rivals at Fairchild, Martin, and Bell aircraft companies for a radical new aircraft.

Post-WWII, the aviation and space programs of both the Americans and the Soviets had benefitted from employing German scientists who, only several years before, had been developing technologies to use against the former Allies. While America generally drafted many grateful and lustrous scientists, there was some question as to what their less-fortunate colleagues, interned in Russia, might have up their sleeves. Therefore, Russian strategic capabilities and intent were the cause of some anxiety within the Pentagon as well as the CIA and White House.

Postwar airborne attempts to gather intelligence on Russia utilizing converted piston and, later, jet-powered aircraft fell short of what was needed and even resulted in shootdowns by MiG fighters during periphery and limited overflight missions. Project Genetrix of the 1950s was the last lame attempt at gathering overflight intelligence through the use of cameras attached to high-flying balloons that were programmed to descend after drifting across Russia on the prevailing winds. This project was a dismal failure.

In 1953, senior operatives within the U.S. Government sent out queries to established aircraft manufacturers for ideas on the development of a new high-flying reconnaissance aircraft capable of sustained flight above 70,000 feet and a 3,000-mile range while carrying up to a 700-pound payload, which ultimately would consist of a very sophisticated camera and miles of film. This was considered a very tall order when the then-current fleet of jets struggled to achieve half that altitude and one-sixth of that range. While the competition went to great efforts, including in one instance a full-size mockup of their offerings, none could approach the design requirements set out by the contract specifications, nor would they be able to produce a prototype within three to five years. In March 1954, Kelly came through with a design concept which, a U-2 urban myth contends, was initially drawn on a cocktail napkin. He guaranteed the CIA and higher authorities that it would not only fly well above the required altitude but would have a better payload and range and could be produced in eight months. Because of Lockheed’s previous aeronautical achievements—including the P-38 Lightning, Constellation airliner, and America’s first operational jet fighter, the P-80 Shooting Star, along with its companion trainer, the T-33—and Kelly’s involvement in same, the contract was awarded to Lockheed.

The Skunk Works went to work on its ace in the hole—the recently developed F-104 Starfighter fuselage, to which would be mated an 80-foot high-aspect ratio wing (long and thin) and a conventional elevator for the tail (the F-104 had a T-tail). This transformation would convert America’s fastest Mach 2-plus interceptor into the highest-flying subsonic jet in the history of aviation. True to his word, Kelly’s Angel was completed in less than eight months and came in under budget. A short time later, in November, President Eisenhower authorized the U-2 Program, and the Angel became the U-2A. The U signified the utility category of aircraft in an attempt to disguise its intended purpose and awesome capabilities; it was codenamed The Article by the CIA.

Initial planned flight testing by Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier started on 1 August 1955 and, after inadvertently becoming airborne at 70 knots during taxi tests on 4 August, resulted in light damage to the aircraft. Testing conducted at the top-secret Groom Lake test facility, now recognized as part of Area 51, continued through September with the U-2 achieving goals that were inconceivable at the time, including altitude records which, out of necessity, would remain highly classified. These altitudes were being routinely flown despite the original Pratt & Whitney (P&W) J57 engine installation experiencing more than occasional flameouts between 57,000 and 65,000 feet until modifications were incorporated in the spring of 1956. Eventually, the staggering initial performance figures would be surpassed with the installation of the much more powerful P&W J75-P-13B in the U-2C.

By the direction of President Eisenhower, the aircraft were released to the CIA, with the provision that only foreign pilots be recruited to fly the aircraft in case mishaps or shootdowns occurred over denied territory. This stipulation was later relaxed and, under Project Aquatone, American pilots were hand-selected primarily from a cadre of top-notch Strategic Air Command (SAC) F-84 fighter jocks that, after being sheep-dipped, became civilian Flight-Test Consultants for Lockheed. This process allowed the pilots to retain their military rank and promotions while enjoying substantially higher civilian pay for their service in the CIA. These initial pilots would become the original U-2 pilots, referred to as Drivers by the agency, and the eventual instructor pilots for those that would follow in their footsteps. Many of those initial Drivers soon found out how treacherous The Article could be unless flown within the exact parameters of its flight envelope. During the first year of operational training, 17 crashes resulting in 11 deaths were reported, with 50 minor and major mishaps occurring during the early years, earning the U-2, like its F-104 predecessor, the unofficial moniker of The Widow-Maker.

The initial operational control by the CIA concerning covert missions came over the objection of the then SAC commander, General Curtis LeMay, who insisted all missions and pilot training fall under his command. While losing that battle with the president, all was not forfeited as SAC would be placed in charge of both CIA and Air Force U-2 pilot training. This top-secret training program would initially be codenamed Shoehorn, evolved into Oilstone, and, in 1956, became Project Dragon Lady. This evolution would not be completed until many years later, becoming the Senior Year program.

The Dragon Lady is born

Even with the masquerade of the ever-changing unofficial monikers in the 1950s, including Angel, Aquatone, Article, and Deuce, the final designation of Dragon Lady was certainly the most suggestive of the U-2’s ornery personality. It also had a direct linage to the popular Terry and the Pirates action-adventure comic strip of the time. In it, a character called The Dragon Lady was a beautiful Chinese seductress, but also a vicious pirate queen who was a resistance leader against the invading Japanese. As a result, many men were to lose their lives to her enticements. Likewise, the U-2’s diabolical personality was also responsible for considerable loss of life, especially during early training and operational deployments, leading to its accepted personification as the Dragon Lady, a name that would serve her well into the future.

U-2 variants

Kelly’s obsession with engineering the lightest possible aircraft, to obtain maximum altitude, led to several design quirks that required highly qualified jet pilots to acquire unique skills unheard of before the advent of the Lady. In an effort to eliminate weight from the F-104 fuselage, the internal structure was reduced to a point where a maximum G loading of +6.0/-3.0 was decreased considerably, depending on aircraft configuration. Next, the tricycle landing gear was abandoned in favor of an unusual bicycle gear arrangement, eliminating the weight of the dual main gear and nosewheel of the F-104 in favor of a single dual-bogie main landing gear assembly and a very light pair of steerable, Teflon-coated aluminum tailwheels. To provide taxiing capability, castoring, sprung-steel outrigger pogos with dual wheels were fitted into wing receptacles and fell free as soon as the wings provided lift, leaving an extra 150 pounds of gross weight on the runway after take-off; pure genius from an engineer looking to eliminate every ounce of weight. In the end, Kelly quipped, the only similarities evident between the F-104 and the U-2 were the cockpit windscreen, canopy, and speed brakes.

However, Kelly’s weight-reduction program met stiff resistance when he suggested no ejection seat or pressurization need be incorporated for the pilot! After all, he reasoned, a new partial-pressure suit and helmet had been developed by David Clark for high-performance experimental aircraft, and surely there would be more than sufficient time to bail out conventionally on the way down from 14 miles above the earth. Fortunately, whereas his engineering logic couldn’t be dismissed, a more practical aviation contingent interested in some semblance of pilot safety won the day. A very light and rudimentary Lockheed-designed ejection seat was installed after starting the production run, usable only above 2,000 feet and 120 knots. It came with a warning to attempt ejection above 10,000 feet whenever possible, an altitude achieved in less than 45 seconds after brake release. Since the design of the skin-tight pressure suit depended on constricting every inch of the body to create an artificial atmosphere in case of a depressurization, a feeble pressurization system was installed that kept the cockpit at approximately 29,000 feet. At least the extremely uncomfortable and restrictive suit was not in the constrictive mode at that altitude, but it contributed heavily to pilot fatigue on long flights.

As the Dragon Lady matured over the years, she was transformed into several variances of the A- and C-models, each sporting a new designation with some new technology, advancing her capabilities to new heights. Some of the improvements along the way were underappreciated by the pilots, to say the least. Increased fuel load capability, to be carried in slipper tanks mounted on the leading edge of the wings, extended maximum flight times from seven to over nine hours. This extended the misery of flying in an extremely confined cockpit, and the binding, skin-tight partial pressure suit, for another couple of torturous hours. To add insult to injury, the E-, F-, and G-models were configured with aerial refueling capabilities! Fortunately for the remaining Drivers, this modification proved unsatisfactory after two crashes occurred (unfortunately resulting in one death) when the U-2’s wings separated from the fuselage due to flying a bit high in the refueling envelope and encountering the thrust created by the KC-135 tanker’s inboard engines. Three A-models were further modified with stronger landing gear, landing spoilers, and arresting hooks for aircraft carrier operations and given G- and H-designations, with the H-models being air-refuellable as well. Although very successful G/H, and later U-2R, carrier demonstrations were carried out, even Kelly’s considerable influence couldn’t sell the awesome capabilities to the navy that the Dragon Lady offered in protecting the fleet.

While the C-model variants were performing admirably for the CIA and air force, there came a point where, due to their size, they hit their limit to carry new and improved signals intelligence (SIGINT, voice communication and electronic) sensors. A last-ditch modification offered only a minimally increased housing for sensors, nicknamed the Dog House, which ran along the spine of the aircraft from the cockpit to the vertical stabilizer. While it became evident the Dragon Lady’s days might be numbered due to the introduction of the Skunk Works’ A-11/12 and SR-71, to supposedly replace the U-2, other grand plans were harbored for the old girl.

In August 1967, after the last SR-71 was built, a brand-new and much-improved U-2R took to the skies. Being 40-percent larger than its predecessor, both the maximum take-off weight and fuel load were nearly doubled. She was just the starting point for an aircraft that would eventually carry over five thousand pounds of sensors above 70,000 feet, with incredible look-in capability and responsiveness unmatched by satellites. While the SR-71 could not be shot down due to its incredible speed, the R-model would have to depend on internal electronic countermeasures for its defense and generally avoided surface-to-air missile sites when possible. What the Dragon Lady was capable of, that the SR-71 couldn’t match, was the ability to loiter in an area of interest for extended periods of time, while gathering vast volumes of SIGINT and photographic intelligence. For these reasons, the powers-that-be considered both aircraft to have complementary collection abilities, resulting in a synergy that produced superior intelligence-gathering capabilities.

Only 12 U-2Rs were manufactured by the Skunk Works, six going to the CIA and the rest to the air force. Eventually, the CIA relinquished their share; by late 1978, only eight remained in service after the Lady proved the Dragon in her personality could be instantly unleashed, even on the best pilots in the world. These aircraft would be spread around the planet performing top-secret reconnaissance missions at various detachments under the purview of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (9th SRW).

Becoming a Driver

The year 1978 was the most challenging and rewarding of my life, during which I volunteered, and was selected, to join the 9th SRW and the 99th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (99th SRS) at Beale Air Force Base, California. My application package was subjected to intense scrutiny—of all my officer performance reports, medical, flying records, and recommendations from my superior officers—by a board of senior U-2 pilots and deemed worthy of an invitation for an interview. As those preceding me had discovered, the selection process was not an easy one; it weeded out all but about fifteen percent of the pilots from initial application to becoming mission-ready in the eight U-2Rs then in existence. The two-week interview gauntlet that followed started with personal one-on-one interviews with several key players within the program, any of which could have eliminated me from consideration, culminating with the 9th SRW’s commander. His approval was required to continue to the next stage and was thankfully granted.

That crucial stage entailed proving adaptability in controlling the singularly unique landing characteristics of what was considered to be the most dangerous operational aircraft in existence. Applicants were allowed no more than three flights to learn the perverse landing peculiarities of the Dragon Lady in the form of the two-seat U-2CT. Any of these three flights could be terminated if the applicant did not show progress in Taming the Dragon. Nicknamed the Two-Headed Goat, both existing trainers had treacherous landing qualities, not only just before the landing stall but after, when on the runway while attempting to balance on Kelly’s bicycle landing gear without allowing either wingtip of the 80-foot span to contact the runway. In those days, only minimal instruction was proffered to the applicant to determine his adaptability to the demands required to control the Deuce.

If the applicant showed promise and had no other apprehensions about what he had seen up to that point, he was invited to join this exclusive fraternity pending acceptance of all current U-2 pilots, passing a battery of psychological interviews and testing, claustrophobia evaluation, and finally passing a one-day-long astronaut physical that basically turned the pilot into a lab rat! Having survived all these challenges and being measured for both partial and full-pressure suits, the applicant was then released back to his originating squadron to await the outcome of a Single Scope Background Investigation. The SSBI, conducted by four individual investigative agencies, including the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office, delved deeply into the applicant’s past, even extending to personal conduct in high school, in order to be granted a Top-Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information/Codeword security clearance. Only when surviving this last hurdle would the pilot receive orders to report to the 99th SRS to start extensive ground and flight training as well as water survival and classified interrogation training, all of which would last for seven to eight months.

This is where I found myself on 9 July 1979, not quite complete with my flight training and 20 hours short of the required 100 hours to be operationally deployed. My continued affair with the Dragon Lady had taught me, over our short time together, how to, most of the time, avoid the Dragon while dancing with the Lady. Being warned more than once to exercise extreme caution when flying below 70 feet and above 70,000 feet, I was very careful not to become overconfident in my developing skills when dealing with the Lady during crosswind landings. I also developed a high vigilance of high-altitude airspeed limitations, where stall speed and critical Mach came dangerously close to total aircraft destruction should either limit be disregarded.

The 99th commander, Lt Col. Willie Horton, had seen enough of my flying and decision-making abilities to trust me with flying operational missions by wavering the additional training time in order to send me on my way, reminding me I wouldn’t be considered a Deuce pilot until I returned after a flawless deployment.

And so, the most exciting and rewarding part of my flying life would soon commence. Even the 1,000 hours of my bullet-proof helicopter combat time in Vietnam could not compare with the exhilaration I felt for the challenges that lay ahead with the Dragon Lady and the Black Cats of Det 2 at Osan, South Korea.

CHAPTER 2

Black Cats

The fact the U-2 was shrouded in secrecy from conception and considered a national asset, meaning its airframe and technology were not to be shared with other countries, doesn’t mean a select few pilots from other countries were not trained to fly critical operational missions in the Dragon Lady. These missions were in support of the CIA’s Projects Aquatone and, later, Idealist while flying out of their respective countries. Initially, flight training of the U.S., Royal Air Force (RAF), and Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) pilots was conducted by the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (SRW) at Laughlin Air Force Base (AFB), Texas; it was later moved to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, and redesignated the 100th SRW. Later, when the more advanced U-2R was introduced, the CIA eventually moved its training operations to Edwards North Base.

Chris Pocock, the highly respected master of U-2 history, has researched recently declassified CIA records that indicate the first non-American pilots to solo and train in the U-2A came from Greece’s Royal Hellenic Air Force (RHAF). By late 1956, only four of the originally selected 15 RHAF pilots remained, arriving at The Ranch for training in the A-Model, although the president’s edict of utilizing only foreign pilots was reversed by then, allowing American pilots to start training as well. However, the Greek flight training did not go well, partially due to the language barrier, resulting in two rather spectacular crashes and the end of the acceptance program for all the RHAF pilots, although luckily none of the aircraft had to be written off entirely.

On the other hand, our closest ally, the United Kingdom, provided extremely capable pilots. Similar to their CIA counterparts, these hand-selected RAF pilots fell under the auspices of MI6 for funding purposes and, like those in the U.S., their countrymen were fed a story that the U-2’s purpose was that of high-altitude weather-sampling missions. The first RAF pilot to solo, Flt Lt. John MacArthur, on 3 June 1958, was the 93rd pilot to do so in the program and was followed by four of his countrymen in quick succession. These pilots proved equal to those CIA pilots in the program and eventually flew a couple of missions out of Turkey over the Soviet Union and many more Middle East sorties from 1959 to 1960, providing valuable intelligence to the CIA. These initial photographic returns, one of which was termed a million-dollar photo by the CIA chief, proved the Soviets’ boasting of vast numbers of bombers was false and, later, that their rocket program was not nearly as advanced as advertised. Unfortunately, the shootdown of CIA pilot Gary Powers, on May Day 1960, put an end to overflights of the Soviet Union for then and the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, ROCAF pilots were overflying mainland China in much lower-flying RB-57As. Although the ROCAF pilots were slowly transitioning into the much improved and higher-flying RB-57D, they would still be vulnerable to attack during overflights and, in October 1959, a D-model was shot down, presumably by a MiG-19.

The Black Cats of Taiwan

In the early 1960s, there was intense interest by the CIA and President Kennedy in China’s abilities to acquire nuclear weapons and ballistic-missile delivery systems, after their split with the Soviet Union over conflicting doctrinal and national interests. In order to keep a watchful eye on their developmental capabilities, there was a requirement for direct overflights of mainland China. The main areas of interest comprised the nuclear-testing facilities in the remote desert of Lop Nur as well as the missile launch and test range deep in the northern part of the country. With CIA planning and Taipei coordination, the very long overflights would be flown strictly by ROCAF pilots of the 35th Squadron, known as the Black Cats, out of Taoyuan Air Base (AB) in northwestern Taiwan.

Like their British counterparts, the first contingent of six ROCAF pilots to enter U-2 flight training under the auspices of the CIA at Laughlin AFB, Texas, were from the cream of the crop in experience levels and flying abilities. They arrived under the impression they were to be trained in the long-wing RB-57D, but soon found out otherwise after extensive physicals, a trip to David Clark Company for pressure-suit fittings, and a very high-altitude chamber ride But, later, according to some written sources, the additional 22, mostly RF-101/104 ROCAF fighter pilots, that would follow in their footsteps between 1959 and 1973 would encounter considerable hardship, compounded by the language barrier, in mastering the very challenging and dangerous idiosyncrasies of the Dragon Lady.

While these perceived difficulties may have existed during the early years of flight training, one of the CIA instructor pilots (IP), Dave Young, had a totally different experience concerning the ROCAF pilots’ aeronautical abilities and vehemently disagreed with this appraisal of their mediocre performance:

I can only speak for my association with the 35th pilots, from 1970 to the end of ROCAF U-2 participation, and I emphatically disagree with this assessment. I spent many two-to-three-month periods at Taoyuan observing the 35th pilots and trained two at North Base; Mory and Chris. I regarded them as excellent pilots and I would have gladly picked either of these guys as my wingman in combat. Having spent five years as an F-100 instructor pilot at Luke in the ’60s, I regarded the ROCAF pilots to be as quick at learning as nearly any of my many F-100 students. By the way, we sent the ROCAF pilots through Berlitz in LA just before the start of training at North Base, so if there were earlier language difficulties, they were eliminated.

In either case, thanks to the extreme tolerance and perseverance on behalf of the 4080th SRW and CIA IPs, all but two ROCAF pilots managed to complete their qualification training.

Taoyuan Air Base would become the home of Detachment H (Det H) of the Black Cats on 14 December 1960. While the Lockheed contingent that supported U-2 operations at Taoyuan was said to frequent a drinking establishment coined The Blackcat in a village adjacent to the base, other parallels between the U-2 and a black feline were subsequently drawn by the ROCAF pilots. Similarities between the nocturnal habits of all felines and the fact that more than a few of their missions were launched in the early morning darkness were noted. The stealthy capabilities of both cats and the U-2, along with the staring feline’s yellow eyes that mimicked the twin lenses of the high-altitude Type B, 36-inch focal-length stereoscopic camera carried, exclusively prior to the introduction of the H-Camera, on their missions came to be symbolized in the moniker that was adopted by the pilots for their detachment. The original Black Cat patch was designed by Lt Col. Chen Huai in 1961, who would have been gratified to learn his creation lived on and is proudly worn by Dragon Lady pilots to this very day, at the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron, Osan AB, South Korea. Unfortunately, Chen was shot down by an SA-2 surface-to-air missile over Nanchang, China, on 9 September 1962. Although alive when he was found, he later succumbed to injuries while hospitalized.

While operational missions were strictly flown by ROCAF pilots, CIA/USAF personnel were assigned to Det H in a supervisory capacity under the auspices of Project Razor and run stringently by the CIA with air force assistance. An additional layer of security, not unlike those practiced by prior CIA equivalents, was placed in effect. All CIA, air force, Lockheed, and other civilian technical representatives were issued false passports, and other documentation with false names and job titles, and wore civilian clothing at all times. Shootdown and capture possibilities dictated the ROCAF pilots be kept in the dark concerning U.S. personnel assigned to Det H. Like their U.S. and U.K. counterparts, the pilots were also given false IDs and flew under the cover story of weather reconnaissance in disguised WU-2s.

The 28 Black Cat pilots put up an impressive record flying out of Taoyuan from 1961 to 1974, amassing 220 operational missions with 102 direct overflights of the People’s Republic of China, but not without considerable danger. Besides the seven training deaths, with nine aircraft lost, incurred while keeping skills sharpened in their U-2C/F and G-models, the losses included one of six new and advanced U-2Rs allocated to the CIA. Operational losses included six aircraft and four