thedrifter
09-03-06, 09:38 AM
Spy in the sky: He helped snoop on Soviets
By MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff Writer
9/3/2006
Robert Waller was the co-pilot of an Air Force RB-47, which participated in secret overflights of Siberia during the Cold War.
It was a highly classified mission and he couldn't tell his family where he was going, but Robert Waller was packing winter gear.
"It didn't take much to figure out that I wasn't going to Florida," he says.
It wasn't exactly a secret that the United States was flying reconnaissance missions along the borders of the Soviet Union during the 1950s, the early years of the Cold War. And it was well-known that, to put Siberia within easier reach, the Air Force was basing long-range bombers 690 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland.
"A desolate place," as Waller remembers it. Whiteout conditions were so common that all the buildings on the base were connected by a web of ropes, strung about waist high.
"To find your way from one building to another, you pulled yourself along the ropes," Waller explains. "Otherwise, you'd get lost and freeze to death."
Soviet leaders would occasionally complain about the bombers straying from international airspace and entering their territory.
U.S. officials had a couple of standard responses: Either the incident never happened and the Soviets were lying, or it was a navigational error and wouldn't happen again.
Waller knew the truth, but he wasn't allowed to talk about it until recently.
"When I came home, I told my family that I had flown reconnaissance missions," he says. "I didn't say anything else, and they knew not to ask."
Ordinarily, the RB-47 would simply fly over the Arctic Ocean, approaching Soviet territory but carefully staying over international waters.
But U.S. officials were concerned about new Soviet bombers, which were suspected at the time to be able to reach targets in North America.
To know how many bombers the Soviets had, the Air Force needed photographs of their Siberian bases. And to get those photographs, the RB-47s needed to fly over them.
Intelligence reports assured Waller and the other crew members that the Soviets didn't have any fighter or missile that could reach the high-flying RB-47s. But their crews quickly learned better.
In April 1956, MiG fighters shot down an RB-47 over the Kamchatka Peninsula on the Soviet Pacific coast. All of the crew was lost, and none of their remains was ever recovered.
Nonetheless, the overflights continued. The most dramatic mission was in May 1956, when six RB-47s penetrated deep into Soviet territory, flying in formation for several hours.
In the last five years, since the overflights became declassified and information about them has been published, some analysts have suggested that this dramatic mission might have had little to do with photographing Soviet bases.
The Air Force, exploring the possibility of a first strike, was testing whether a large number of U.S. bombers could reach potential targets inside the Soviet Union and return safely to Greenland, they say.
Waller knows only that his orders that day were to collect intelligence.
"When you're in the military, you don't ask 'Why,' " he says. "We had a lot of confidence in our commanders, that they knew what they were doing. And we had a lot of confidence in our aircraft, that they could get the job done and bring us back."
As the copilot, sitting behind the pilot under a plastic canopy, Waller used a remote control to operate the bomber's tail guns -- its only defense against Soviet interceptors.
"I spent most of my time looking backward," he says, but MiGs never approached his aircraft. "I'm sure they were out there, tracking us."
Although they knew the risks, Waller and the other crew members -- all members of the Air Force's Strategic Air Command -- never doubted that they could accomplish the missions.
"If I had to compare SAC to another branch of the military, it would be the Marines," he says. "We had the same can-do attitude. They just told us what they wanted us to do, and we went out and did it."
The Air Force eventually replaced the RB-47 with more advanced spy planes, including the U-2, one of which was famously shot down in 1960 and its pilot, Gary Powers, captured.
And overflights became unnecessary after the introduction of spy satellites during the 1960s.
After a 30-year career in the Air Force -- most of it spent attached to embassies in Latin America -- Waller retired and returned to his original home in northeastern Oklahoma.
He graduated from law school at the University of Tulsa and went into general practice. He is now a municipal judge in Coweta.
Michael Overall 581-8383
michael.overall@tulsaworld.com
Ellie
By MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff Writer
9/3/2006
Robert Waller was the co-pilot of an Air Force RB-47, which participated in secret overflights of Siberia during the Cold War.
It was a highly classified mission and he couldn't tell his family where he was going, but Robert Waller was packing winter gear.
"It didn't take much to figure out that I wasn't going to Florida," he says.
It wasn't exactly a secret that the United States was flying reconnaissance missions along the borders of the Soviet Union during the 1950s, the early years of the Cold War. And it was well-known that, to put Siberia within easier reach, the Air Force was basing long-range bombers 690 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland.
"A desolate place," as Waller remembers it. Whiteout conditions were so common that all the buildings on the base were connected by a web of ropes, strung about waist high.
"To find your way from one building to another, you pulled yourself along the ropes," Waller explains. "Otherwise, you'd get lost and freeze to death."
Soviet leaders would occasionally complain about the bombers straying from international airspace and entering their territory.
U.S. officials had a couple of standard responses: Either the incident never happened and the Soviets were lying, or it was a navigational error and wouldn't happen again.
Waller knew the truth, but he wasn't allowed to talk about it until recently.
"When I came home, I told my family that I had flown reconnaissance missions," he says. "I didn't say anything else, and they knew not to ask."
Ordinarily, the RB-47 would simply fly over the Arctic Ocean, approaching Soviet territory but carefully staying over international waters.
But U.S. officials were concerned about new Soviet bombers, which were suspected at the time to be able to reach targets in North America.
To know how many bombers the Soviets had, the Air Force needed photographs of their Siberian bases. And to get those photographs, the RB-47s needed to fly over them.
Intelligence reports assured Waller and the other crew members that the Soviets didn't have any fighter or missile that could reach the high-flying RB-47s. But their crews quickly learned better.
In April 1956, MiG fighters shot down an RB-47 over the Kamchatka Peninsula on the Soviet Pacific coast. All of the crew was lost, and none of their remains was ever recovered.
Nonetheless, the overflights continued. The most dramatic mission was in May 1956, when six RB-47s penetrated deep into Soviet territory, flying in formation for several hours.
In the last five years, since the overflights became declassified and information about them has been published, some analysts have suggested that this dramatic mission might have had little to do with photographing Soviet bases.
The Air Force, exploring the possibility of a first strike, was testing whether a large number of U.S. bombers could reach potential targets inside the Soviet Union and return safely to Greenland, they say.
Waller knows only that his orders that day were to collect intelligence.
"When you're in the military, you don't ask 'Why,' " he says. "We had a lot of confidence in our commanders, that they knew what they were doing. And we had a lot of confidence in our aircraft, that they could get the job done and bring us back."
As the copilot, sitting behind the pilot under a plastic canopy, Waller used a remote control to operate the bomber's tail guns -- its only defense against Soviet interceptors.
"I spent most of my time looking backward," he says, but MiGs never approached his aircraft. "I'm sure they were out there, tracking us."
Although they knew the risks, Waller and the other crew members -- all members of the Air Force's Strategic Air Command -- never doubted that they could accomplish the missions.
"If I had to compare SAC to another branch of the military, it would be the Marines," he says. "We had the same can-do attitude. They just told us what they wanted us to do, and we went out and did it."
The Air Force eventually replaced the RB-47 with more advanced spy planes, including the U-2, one of which was famously shot down in 1960 and its pilot, Gary Powers, captured.
And overflights became unnecessary after the introduction of spy satellites during the 1960s.
After a 30-year career in the Air Force -- most of it spent attached to embassies in Latin America -- Waller retired and returned to his original home in northeastern Oklahoma.
He graduated from law school at the University of Tulsa and went into general practice. He is now a municipal judge in Coweta.
Michael Overall 581-8383
michael.overall@tulsaworld.com
Ellie