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SR-71
crews formed a close bond with the people they relied on to
make their missions a success. This bond was unique in the Air
Force, closer than any of us had ever experienced in our careers.
The longer Habus remained in the SR-71 program, the closer they
got to this extended Habu "Family." The personal relationships
that developed between the SR-71 aircrews, ground support personnel,
refueling crews, Lockheed personnel, and other technical representatives
made our program very "unique." |
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Our
Habu family extended from the likes of Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich,
to the Lockheed mechanic turning the wrenches out on the flightline.
Our eternal gratitude goes out to all who played a part in the SR-71
story, without them we couldn't have done what we did. |
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Mobile
Crew
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Mobile
duty consisted of assisting the fliers in their preflight routines,
a very responsible position that could determine the success
or failure of each mission. The mobile crew was generally a
formed crew, but didn't necessarily have to be for training
sorties. For operational missions, the mobile crew also performed
as the backup crew, ready to fly the mission in case the primary
fliers couldn't for one reason or another. |
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Physiological
Support Division (PSD)
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The
organization that maintained our pressure suits was the "PSD".
The facility was located close to the flight line and was the
Air Force's entire repository for all pressure suit operations,
and consequently, had a high level of experienced personnel
working there. They had the technical expertise and capability
to do anything and everything with our pressure suits. |
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The
crew's transportation to and from the aircraft - the white
PSD van. The mobile crew and their car are waiting for engine
start. The car was equipped with two UHF radios for communication
with the SR-71, the command post, tower, weather personnel,
and other air traffic control agencies handling the aircraft.
They also had a portable military VHF radio, nicknamed the
"brick," for worldwide communications.
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| Tech
Reps
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"Tech
Reps" was short for Technical Representatives, who were
employed by their specific companies (Pratt & Whitney, Northrop,
Itek, Goodyear, Honeywell, etc.), each having highly sophisticated
equipment on the SR-71. As civilians, they played an important
role in maintaining our aircraft and lived wherever the SR-71
was deployed - Okinawa, England and Beale. "Tech Reps"
were the experts in their specific fields. |
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RTS
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The
RTS personnel (Reconnaissance Technical Squadron) were the highly
trained people who processed, analyzed, and disseminated the
SR-71's inteligence take. They manned our Mobile Processing
Center (MPC), which consisted of around fifteen large portable
vans, interconnected to each other. |
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| Members
of the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron (9th RTS), Beale
AFB, California, analyze the SR-71's intelligence. Through the
use of portable vans, the 9th RTS developed, processed, and
analyzed our intelligence on a worldwide basis. |
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Return
to Support |
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