College Eye
On 1 March 1967, Big Eye was renamed College Eye Task Force and relocated at Ubon RTAFB. Because of the complexity of the aircraft and its systems along with the large support group it required, the CETF was not a welcome tenant at the relatively small Thai bases. It moved to Udon RTAFB in July and to its final station at Korat RTAFB on 17 October 1967. Seven of 26 EC-121s deployed from Otis Air Force Base, MA, and arrived at Korat, on the 19th.
From April 1965 to early 1966 and beginning again in late 1967, the EC-121Ds also controlled a flight of MiGCAP fighters for unarmed support aircraft operating over the Gulf. The EC-121Ds also served as an airborne communications relay center for strike aircraft to transmit mission results and position reports to the control center at Da Nang; directed operations of fighter escorts, MiGCAPs, Lockheed C-130 Hercules flare ships, and A-26 strike aircraft along the North Vietnamese-Laotian border; provided radar and navigational assistance for Combat Search and Rescue missions; and assisted fighters in finding tankers for emergency refueling.
The government of China on 12 May 1966, formally protested an incursion by an Republic F-105 Thunderchief pursuing a North Vietnamese MiG it subsequently shot down 25 miles inside Chinese territory. A U.S. board of inquiry recommended that College Eye also monitor the "no-fly zone" inside the North Vietnamese border with China, provide alerts to U.S. aircraft nearing the buffer zone, and report border crossing violations by U.S. aircraft. This could not be done from the Gulf and a third orbit, called Ethan Charlie, was created in Laos. After tests in June and August, regular missions began 24 August. There were not enough EC-121s or crews to support three orbits twice daily, so the Laotian orbit was only flown every third day, with Ethan Bravo missions canceled on those days. After 13 October 1966, the Charlie orbit was flown every day and the Bravo orbit suspended altogether. In April 1967, four more EC-121s were deployed, two to Thailand on 29 May, making for a total strength of three College Eyes in Taiwan and six in Thailand.
In April 1967, the Air Force began fitting its entire EC-121 fleet with the QRC-248 IFF transponder interrogator. The QRC-248 had been developed to surveil Soviet-export aircraft flown by the Cuban Air Force. The SRO-2 transponders installed in Soviet export MiGs enabled Cuban ground-controlled interception radars to identify and control their fighters. A testbed EC-121 called Quick Look had flown with College Eye in January 1967 to test the QRC-248 and found that North Vietnamese MiGs used the same transponder. QRC-248 accurately discriminated MiG radar returns from the myriad returns picked up during a mission, and extended the range of low-altitude detection to more than 175 miles, covering virtually all important North Vietnamese target areas.
By 31 May, all College Eyes had been fitted with QRC-248. The mission of the Bravo orbit was changed from that of a backup for the Alpha orbit to being the primary QRC-248 listener. However College Eye was prohibited by the Joint Chiefs of Staff from actively "interrogating" MiG transponders, following a National Security Agency security policy protecting its "intelligence sources" (of which the QRC-248 was one), and thus was restricted to waiting for North Vietnamese GCI to interrogate its aircraft. QRC-248 began regular use on 21 July 1967, but by then North Vietnam's MiG force, which had suffered serious losses in May, had suspended combat operations.
In the last week of August, however, after a period of intensive training and revision of tactics, the MiGs began to engage U.S. strike forces again, scoring a number of kills. Seventh Air Force finally obtained permission for the Bravo orbit EC-121 to actively interrogate with the QRC-248 on 6 October. By 4 December, its success outweighed any value in flying the Alpha orbit, which was discontinued.
On 1 March 1968, the College Eye call signs were changed to Ethan 01, 02, 03, and 04 in conformity with standard Air Force procedures. Ethan 03 (the Laotian orbit) began "positive control" (airborne direction) of C-130 flare ship flights and A-26 Invader night interdiction missions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos on 19 April 1968.
The task force was scaled back on 1 July 1968, to four EC-121Ds and the Rivet Top testbed aircraft to allow for the basing of another College Eye detachment at Itazuke AB, Japan. The name of the task force was discontinued on 30 October 1968, when it was redesignated a final time as Detachment 1 (Rotational), 552nd AEWCW. The EC-121 deployments to Southeast Asia were discontinued in June 1970 in the expectation that they would no longer be utilized.
Read more about this topic: Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star, Vietnam War
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