Night Owls

The 67th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron arrived at RAF Woodbridge in December 1969, having transferred from Moron AFB in Spain. The 67th was not strictly part of the United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE), but was directly answerable to the Department of Defense in Washington. The 67th specialised in rescue and night-time operations, including the delivery and retrieval of Special Forces personnel in foreign territory in clandestine operations, and was one of the few units to be equipped with spacecraft-recovery Hercules HC-130 aircraft.

The Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service merged with Special Operations Forces in 1983; the rescue service split off again in 1990, but the 67th (now renamed the 67th Special Operations Squadron) formed part of the new AFSOC group. Air Force Special Operations Command's brief includes "unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, psychological operations, personnel recovery, county-terrorism, counter-narcotics" (Chinnery 1994).

Today the 67th SOS is part of the 352nd Special Operations Group based at RAF Mildenhall, and flies HC-130 N/Ps. The squadron took part in the Gulf War, operating out of Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. It's nickname is "Night Owls".

Aircraft

In mid-1979, just before the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident, the 67th operated the following aircraft:

one x Lockheed Hercules HC-130 H

four x Lockheed Hercules HC-130 N

one x Lockheed Hercules HC-130 P

nine x Sikorsky HH-53 C "Super Jolly Green Giant"

The HC-130 H is an extended-range version of the basic Hercules, having a range of 3602 km (2238 miles), used for recovering personnel, equipment etc. Since 1964, 43 HC-130 Hs were built, most going to the US Coastguard; but eight were delivered to the USAF, of which at least four were adapted specifically for mid-air recovery of space capsules.

The HC-130 N "Combat Shadow" is a USAF search and rescue version of the HC-130 H, used explicitly for aircrew or space capsule recovery, and having advanced direction finding equipment and helicopter refuelling capabilities. Combat Shadows were used during the Gulf War for refuelling. Chinnery sums up the HC-130 P/N variants as "initially modified to conduct search and rescue missions, provide a command and control platform, air-refuel helicopters and carry supplemental fuel for extending range or for air refuelling... the HC-130 flies clandestine single- or multi-ship missions, usually in low visibility or darkness, intruding into politically sensitive or hostile territory to provide air refuelling for special operations helicopters" (p.270).

The HC-130 P is another Hercules variant, again designed for refuelling helicopters in mid-air, and for recovering parachute-borne payloads. Twenty were built for the USAF. modified from HC-130 Hs by including refuelling drogue pods. According to the 1979-80 edition of Jane's (p.376), a typical helicopter-refuelling mission would involve the HC-130 P taking off with 33,385 kg (73,600 lb) of fuel on board, meeting up with the helicopters at a range of about 925 km (575 miles), transferring 22,000 kg (48,500 lb) of fuel, and then returning home.

The HH-53 C is a night operation rescue and retrieval helicopter, developed purely for the ARRS, with forward-looking IR radar, refuelling boom and on-board IBM computer.

So the picture we build up of the 67th in 1980 is one of an specialised night-operations squadron, based in Suffolk, flying mid-air space capsule retrieval missions. The HH-53 C helicopters would fly out to the Dogger Bank area, to pick up the capsule floating in the North Sea should the circling Hercules aircraft miss it on its way down. Most of the helicopters' fuel is used up flying north, but the HC-130s double up as refuelling bases for the copters, so that's not a worry. (A Hercules itself can quite easily stay airborne for eight hours, running off two engines.)

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