The 1912 Story from an AIL operational perspective, part 12.
As a side note I sent some pictures of recovered SR71 parts with notes and labeled it part 11. So this is the last of the overall story of the SR71 story from a field perspeciive.
After sending Thanksgiving and Christmas 1993 with the family in California I was pondering my situation as whether I should look for work or could I retire. I had purchased a house near Edwards AFB when I returned from Okinawa when the SR71 closed down I was without a job but with a mortgage. I had purchased the house in CaliforniaCity, a few miles north of Edwards in anticipation of working my remaining years until retirement from AIL. It did not happen and after time with Melpar I still had my security clearances intact because of the consulting contract I had signed with Melpar. It was a very fortunate happenstance.
In early 1994 I got a call from a former AILer, Bob Barker, who had worked on the ALQ-161 in the analysis group. Bob was now working for the government and in a group working with the System Engineering and Technical Analysis (SETA) contractor (SAIC) and inquired if I would come to the base and interview for a job with SAIC. SAIC had one RF/Radar engineer working for them at Edwards and needed another RF knowledgeable person to work with him. I interviewed for the job and was hired a few days later. The part of the SETA contract I was hired for was to assist in developing plans for Engineering Combat Integrated Test (ECIT). The plan was to test integrated systems on aircraft in the world’s largest anechoic chamber (250ft x 260ft x 70ft) that was at Edwards. The Benefield Anechoic Facility (BAF). Our task was to specify and integrate radiating sources that were to be computer controlled and simulate a hostile wartime environment to evaluate the performance and capability of an aircraft to counter many threats. We called it WWIII in a box.
Next to working with the SR71, this was my favorite job. This job enabled me to again re-educate myself in the field of active RF from both the radar and radar jamming aspects of airborne combat. The anechoic chamber was large enough to put a B52 on a turntable and rotate it. There were also two hoists in the chamber for hoisting fighter sized aircraft to simultaneous testing. This job included quite a lot of travel to various system manufacturers to understand how best to test and evaluate their particular equipment. I also had the task of over sight of several Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts in the RF/Radar area. It seemed that everything that the government had currently flying and was testing at Edwards went through the BAF at one time during testing.
After one year SAIC lost the SETA contract to TYBRIN a small company located in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and most of the SAIC group went to work for them and the ECIT effort continued without a hitch.
Sometime in late 1994 the rumor was going around that the SR71 was going to be reactivated and the operation was to be at Edwards. The individual heading up the project at Edwards was going to be Don Emmons who was somewhat responsible for me getting the assignment to Okinawa for the last few years of the SR71. It took about a year for everything to get into place. There were several pilots and RSOs that had flown the SR71 during the final days before its retirement and since the simulator had been moved to Edwards for NASA to use it took time for them to get requalified. NASA had 3 SR71s received from the Air Force in 1990 and were using for high altitude research.
I met with Don Emmons several times and asked if the EIP system was being considered for reactivation. His main concern was making certain that the aircraft and major flight support systems were working. The main sensors were to be the cameras and ASARS. Don asked me if I thought if the EIP systems could be recovered from Eglin and made to work. It just so happened that the SEL software and computer were available and most of the processing hardware was at Edwards. One of the SEL support people that had worked on the SR71 program was working for NASA and that NASA would support the effort to get the reactivation up and running.
I knew where all the people and parts were that could support bringing back the EIP on the program. Don asked me to put together a plan and support team for the effort. Don had me meet with an individual that would be the umbrella company that would be the ‘parent’ organization.
I contacted many of the former AIL field people and got commitments from them to work as a group and that I and Pete Calandrino would head to support the EIP for the reactivation. From my experience with the Lockheed group that had rewritten the U2 processing, I thought that with some modification and software formatting routines that the U2 processing would be able to handle the EIP data. I met with several of the Lockheed group leaders and discussed the effort and it was agreed that Lockheed would assist with the effort.
Once I had every thing in place, Pete and I drew up the plan and proposal and submitted it to Don and the owner of the umbrella group for consideration. It looked like it was a ‘go’. They liked the proposal and the team we had put together. All of the individuals on the team had been ‘retired’ or ‘asked to retire’ from AIL but were more than willing to come back to support the effort. I had letters of commitment from each along with security forms that would be expedited and a proposed salary schedule that was quite a lot more than we had been making previously at AIL. Actually the salaries were in line with what AIL was paying the ‘job shoppers’ on the ALQ 161 job when we were all ‘retired’ All of the former AIL people contacted were looking forward to working on the SR71 once again.
While waiting for a response from Don, I received a call from AIL inquiring whether I would be interested in coming back to work on the reactivation of the EIP on the SR71. I asked what would be the proposed salary and what would be the position and was told it would be at the same salary I received when I was ‘retired’ and would essentially be the same job. I had been gone 4 years, still had active clearances and was making considerably more than AIL was offering. I told them what salary I would want before I would consider going back. The salary I asked for, just to consider their offer, was what I had put into the proposal I had submitted to Don the previous week. AIL would not go for it and I told them to forget about me coming back.
What eventually killed the effort to bring back the EIP, as told to me by Don Emmons, was that AIL found out that someone else had made a proposal for the support of the EIP. I think they had contacted the same people I had on my team and were given the same response I had given AIL. That alerted them that someone else was being considered for the job. AIL considered the equipment and software proprietary and indicated that AIL would take the Air Force to court if any other company were to be given the project. The funny thing about it was that the Air Force had paid for the effort. There were very few people, parts and pieces left back at AIL still working that could support the effort. And most of the copies of the working software for both the field shop operation and ELINT processing were either at Edwards or at Eglin in the hands of NASA and the Air Force.
Don Emmons was having a hard enough time trying to get the SR71 up and running and money for the effort was being very closely watched in WashingtonDC. Any ‘bump in the road’ like a lawsuit would not be in the best interest for the reactivation. So he put the EIP on hold hoping things would quiet down and as it turned out the reactivation effort was finally canceled for good without every being flown outside the continental United States. The SR71 was retired for a second time and I was able to attend the second retirement party at Edwards.
Working on the SR71 and with the AIL support group in the field and the program office at AIL was the most rewarding experience I have ever had. All the contractor support groups and the Air Force people that were assigned to the project were some of the most talented and innovative group you could ever meet. We all worked together as a team with one goal in mind, to keep the SR71 flying and collecting data to support the Intel community.
Although the missions were being flown operationally, it seemed, at least to the field support people, that it was a ‘flying testbed’. We were able to react to situations by modifying software and hardware for specialized collection efforts. As long as any effort was not ‘flight critical’ we were able to do things without fully documenting them before being flown. I don’t think this type of support will be possible in the future. It seems that the weight of supporting paperwork for these types of efforts would prevent it.
Now that that phase in my engineering life is over, it is sad to me that my grandchildren will never be able to see the SR71 takeoff, or land, or feel the power of the afterburners, standing beside the runway at liftoff, that was part of my life for 28 years. Looking back, I only remember the great things we accomplished and the good memories of being part of the operation to support such a great aircraft. There will never be another like it.
That was a great job!
This is the end of part 12