Bob Ackley wrote in a message to Roger Nelson:

 BA> A unit of those was based at Kadena while I was there.  Nobody'd
 BA> thought much of the new construction on the west end of the flight
 BA> line.  After the construction was finished they flew the 
 BA> Blackbirds in.  This was supposed to be a deep, dark secret.  On 
 BA> their way in the first bird called Kadena to announce his imminent 
 BA> arrival, Kadena replied they had nothing on their radars so the 
 BA> guy said words to the effect 'Oh, I'll drop down below 100,000 
 BA> feet so you can see me.' 

That airframe could "get down the road", couldn't it?  (-:

 BA> That plus within a week one of them was doing preflight checks on
 BA> the pad at the east end of the runway.  That pad is right next to
 BA> the base fence, and on the other side of that fence is a public 
 BA> road (Highway 3 IIRC).  That road was quite literally covered with 
 BA> Okinawans and their cameras, some of which had lenses so big they 
 BA> could probably tell how long it'd been since the pilot had shaved 
 BA> despite the dark glass in the cockpit windows, all madly clicking 
 BA> away as fast as they could; any GI out there would've been in deep 
 BA> sh*t, but they couldn't do anything about the locals. This around 
 BA> mid-1967 if memory serves.

By then, I think, the "secret" was already out.


Regards,

Roger 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+