Dedication and Sacrifice: National Aerial Reconnaissance in the Cold War

Army

GUARDRAIL

aircraft

?he

first doeumented

case of

an

attempted

shootdown

eame in

Oetoirer 1949, when

$oviet fighters

attempted to

down a U.S"

I3-?9

over

the

Sea

ofJapan;

the

aircraft

eseaped unharrned. Over

the next

decades,

there were

thirty documented

Soviet atlacks

on U"$.

reconnaissance

aircraft. A

tragic

thirteen were suceessful.

During

the

Cold War

period

of 1945-19??,

a total of more

than

forty reconnaissance

aircraft were

shot down in

the European

and

Paciiic

areas.

THX I,958INCTNEI\IT

In

1997

the

U.S.

government

placed

on display

a

C*130

aircraft

to

syrnbolize

all the

losses

in

the reconnaissance program"

The

C-

130 is

a sister

craft to one

shoN down in 1958

This

is the

storv af

that incident.

On

the ?nd

of September

lg5B,

Soviet

&4iG-1? pilots

shot down

a

U"S. Air

Force reconnaissance-configured

C-130 transport

aircraft

over

Soviet

Armenia.

The MiGs

attacked the unarmed

aircraft after

it inadvertently

penetrated

denied airspace.

It

crashed

near

the

village of

Sasnashen,

thirty-four miles north of Yerevan,

the

Armenian

capital. Seventeen

Americans

died

in

the crash.

The crew members

had

been based

at

Rhein-Main

Air Base in

Germany,

but were on temporary duty

at

Incirlik Air

Base, Adana,

Turkey.

The aircraft carried six flight crew

members from

the

7406th Support Squadron and eleven

USAF

"back-enders,"

Security

Service

personnel

attached to

Detachment

One of the 691fth Radio

GroupMobile.

Actual Route

Planned

and

actual

flight routes

of the

ill-fated

C-f30 /60528

On September

2,

the C-130

(tail

number

60528)

departed

Incirlik

on a

reconnaissance

mission

along the

Turkish-Armenian

border. It

was

to

fly from Adana, Turkey, on the

Mediterranean

coast, to

Trabzon, and turn

right

to

fly to Van,

Turkey. From Van

Surrourrding

the

Aerial

Reeonnaissanee

S{emorial are

planted

eighteen

trees,

eaeh

syrnbolizing

a type

of

reconnaissance

aircraft

lost

duning

the

Cold

War

(tweive

Air Foree

ainfrarnes,

four Navy

airfrarnes,

and twer

Army

airfraures).

These

trees

help us

to

remernber

that all

serviees

partieipated

in this

program

ancl

that

they all suf,fered

losses.

*lt***

The

ef'feirts

and seerifrces

of these

intnepid soldiens,

sailorso &ix'*ren,

snd

marines

wex'e

not

im. vein'

They

were

pex"*

of,

a

pnogrem thet wes

vitel ttl the

seeul:ity

of

the {Jnited

States

eluring

tiwres

of

penil,

erisis,

and

w&r"

They

helped

keep the

peace,

&nd when

the

natiore

wes

involved

in w&r,

helped

s&ve

Arneriean

lives.

We

will nst

forget

them"

For further information

or

additional copies,

contact the Center for

Cryptologic History, National

Security

Agency,

Fort George G.

Meade, Maryland, 20755-6886, ATTN:

5542.