Fighting flights
Indochina
America “got caught up” in the Vietnam War very firmly, and the recall from Okinawa A-12 — the only manned aircraft capable of reconnaissance of North Vietnam with impunity — had a painful impact on the awareness of the U.S. military command in Indochina. Holy place is not empty — in the first half of 1968 in Baden landed four SR-71. The Japanese quickly nicknamed the ABU planes for a thin silhouette similar to the local poisonous ABB snake. The name was appreciated by the scout crews and was spread among the pilots and technical staff, including 9th Wing personnel, who had never been to Okinawa. Name “Black Bed” has never been official for SR-71, moreover, in a narrow circle of people involved in the development and operation of the scout, it, unlike “Hebei”, did not enjoy popularity.
Four aircraft, flight and maintenance crews that arrived in Okinawa, formed the Saw 9th Division I. Later on, the flight personnel of unit I changed with a periodicity of 70 days — the period of the trip to the war.
SR-71 first appeared over the SAR in April 1968, with a scout flying crew consisting of a pilot, Major Jerome 0' Valley, and an operator, Major Eva rd Payne. Later on, such flights became common: they flew one to three times a week for reconnaissance. Takeoffs were usually scheduled for 10:00-14:00 local time, depending on weather conditions. After takeoff, the plane gained speed and altitude and lay on the course, leaving O. Taiwan from the starboard side, Luzon — from the left, over the island of Hainan scout turned to the fighting course, crossed the Gulf of Token and entered the air space of the SAR, usually in the area of Haiphong. Then the route led to Hanoi, through the territory of Laos to Thailand, sometimes SR “climbed” into the Chinese airspace, as a rule, such a “bend” was not done on purpose — just Vietnam was not enough for turns of high-speed aircraft (for the same reason in the eighties MiG-25 scouts flew over Bulgaria for a very short time — on the turns of the aircraft tended to “hook” then Turkey, then Greece). Over Thailand, in the vicinity of Karat Air Base, the scout refueled from KS-135 and lay on the course of return, often flying over the SAR again and conducting photography. Weather conditions did not always allow the aircraft to fly on a working ceiling of 75,000 feet (ca. 23 km). Because of the dense cloudiness during the rainy season, pilots had to dive under the clouds. The loss of altitude had an extremely negative impact on the stability of the aircraft, making it difficult to pilot the aircraft.
In one flight, the scout photographed several hundred objects, from tanks to American POW camps. In particular, before the unsuccessful operation of the green berets “Falling Rain” to release the prisoners from the camp of Son Tie, the SR-71 photographed the alleged place of detention.
The Vietnamese were constantly trying to get scouts: according to American data on four SR-71 planes from the complexes, C-75 was fired several hundred missiles, all by-passed. It is believed that the success of the pilots was ensured by the Red equipment installed on board the SR-71, which “extinguished” the radar of the guidance system of the S-75 SAM system. After each reconnaissance flight, a white image of the snake hub appeared on board the SR-71. Most of the crews were among the first to fly from Okinawa to receive the Cross “For Flying Merit”.
Two planes were lost in Vietnam's reconnaissance. The first crashed on May 10, 1970, over Thailand. After refueling, the crew met a thunderstorm front, trying to rise above the clouds, the pilot took the heavy aircraft beyond the pitch limits, resulting in a sharp drop in engine thrust and the car lost control. The crew sank to the ground near Karat Airbase on parachutes. The second loser was a plane known as “Rapid Rabbit” (the symbol of Playboy). Scout had an accident on July 20, 1972, after a successful reconnaissance flight on a landing, which was carried out with a strong lateral wind.