NSGA personnel reminded that reconnaissance flights carry risks
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, April 17, 2005
MISAWA, Japan — Petty Officer 2nd Class Paul Dinkins didn't know the
30 Navy personnel and one Marine he and fellow Misawa servicemembers
paid homage to Friday afternoon in a somber ceremony by the ocean.
Dinkins was born nearly a decade after North Korean MiG-17 fighters
shot down a Navy EC-121 reconnaissance plane on April 15, 1969, over
the Sea of Japan, off the North Korean coast, killing everyone on
board.
But as a cryptologic technician with the Naval Security Group
Activity at Naval Air Facility Misawa, Dinkins said he feels a
certain kinship with the fallen crewmembers, some of whom were
cryptologic technicians from a now-defunct intelligence unit at
Kamiseya, Japan.
"We're not usually in a combat situation. It's a reminder, even with
our job, we take certain risks," he said.
A Marine, an Air Force chaplain and a handful of Navy sailors and
airmen, mostly from NSGA, gathered on a blustery pier battered by
salty waves at Misawa Fishing Port for the ceremony held every year
on the anniversary of the incident.
The names of the 31 who died were read aloud and a wreath of flowers
was tossed into the ocean about the same time the EC-121 was shot
down.
"We've done this for a very long time," said Lt. Cmdr. Jenna
Hausvik, an NSGA fleet operations department head. "We want to make
sure they're honored for making that ultimate sacrifice."
The EC-121 departed from Naval Air Facility Atsugi near Tokyo. Most on board were part of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One, or VQ-1, but nine were from NSGA Kamiseya. The aircraft, according to news reports at the time, was on a routine reconnaissance mission over
the Sea of Japan with orders to fly no closer than 50 nautical miles
(about 57 miles) from North Korea.
An excerpt published in Time magazine's April 25, 1969, issue
read: "For nearly seven hours, the aircraft followed a clockwise
course around the Sea of Japan. Then, a ground station in South
Korea radioed a sudden warning: two North Korean MiG jet fighters
had taken off from a base normally used only for training and were
headed toward the EC-121. The Navy plane acknowledged that message,
and turned seaward from a position well outside the twelve-mile
limit claimed by North Korea. It was to end its mission prematurely
and return to Atsugi. On monitoring radars in Japan, the blips of a
North Korean jet and the U.S. aircraft met and passed; then the EC-
121 disappeared from the screen altogether. It was not heard from
again."
Only two bodies were recovered.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Jared Buttrick, a Navy linguist and NSGA
cryptologic technician who organized Friday's ceremony, said a lot
of his friends are flying similar missions every day. "I don't think
it's as likely to happen in this day and age, but things go wrong,
people get scared," he said.
Said Petty Officer Scott Johnson, an NSGA cryptologic
technician: "We do go up a lot and it's always on your mind. The
aircrew community is like a brotherhood. We feel a close bond with
that crew that perished."
Cmdr. James Brokaw, NSGA commander, said the ceremony tradition
followed NSGA Kamiseya to Misawa when the unit moved there in 1972.
"I think it's very valuable to our folks," he said. "Our sailors and
airmen are still flying these missions. This serves as a reminder to
all of us that there is a risk associated in our daily operations."
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?sec ... icle=28469
(via Military News - thx André Samento / Jet Crash)
