The image above was taken from an MH-53J from the 20th Special Operations Squadron, piloted by Capt. Thomas Trask, during the first Combat SAR (Search And Rescue) mission behind the enemy lines since Vietnam.
The combat rescue mission was launched on Jan. 21, 1991 to rescue Lt. Devon Jones, 130 miles into Iraq.
Jones was an F-14 Tomcat pilot from USS Saratoga’s VF-103, who was downed along with RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) Lawrence Slade by a SAM (Surface to Air Missile) over Iraq.
Larry “Rat” Slade endured interrogation, torture and starvation in the Iraqi hands for 43 days.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
From cannons to rockets to nuclear-armed ordnance, the F-89 seemed a formidably armed interceptor, protecting North America in the early years of the Cold War from Soviet bomber fleets coming over the polar region. In […]
The story of a daring and oft forgotten nighttime air raid on the Nazi capital, carried out by the Soviet Navy using near obsolescent torpedo planes, early in the war on the Eastern Front. The […]
The Special Operations Forces (SOF) Week conference displayed a graphic illustration of the launcher, showing a multi-pod system with eight or more pods available. US special operations planners want to find a way for their […]