By John Champagne

    Choosing the Air Force on Branch Night would take me to places different than my classmates, doing different things. I joined twenty-five of our classmates who went into the Air Force at graduation. When the Air Force assignment officer visited West Point, I asked him what does the Air Force do? This was because I was not aviation-qualified, and the engineering intern program was no longer. He said I could go to graduate school and get a master’s in electrical engineering (MSEE). My first duty assignment was to the University of Illinois, living on John Street in Champaign, Illinois. After graduation with my MSEE degree, I was assigned to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts as a test engineer for Tactical Weather Systems. It was not an AF requirement that I knew Spanish before going to Spain, so I learned it on the job with the Spanish Officers especially at their Officer’s Club. My next assignment was to Torrejon Air Base in Madrid, Spain.

My last assignment before resigning, and entering civilian life, was in Air Force Security Service at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

     As part of my Air Force career, I was assigned to a joint Spanish Air Force project at Torrejon Air Base in Madrid, Spain. The U.S. had an agreement with Spain for use of Air Force and Navy bases in Spain. At the time, Spain was not a part of NATO. As a part of this U.S. agreement with Spain, we were upgrading Spain’s Air Control & Warning System (AC&W). This project included upgrading radars to the seven radar sites in Spain to more modern systems.

As part of the upgrade, we were installing a new Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system to identify friendly military aircraft. This IFF system included new modes to accurately identify a friendly aircraft. A snag came up as to how to evaluate the new IFF system, as Spain did not have any aircraft equipped with the advanced IFF system. Fortunately, there was a U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) tanker wing based at Torrejon that was equipped with the modern IFF system. I went with a Spanish Air Force Major to request a mission off the south coast of Spain with one of the US SAC KC135 tankers. SAC agreed and we scheduled a mission for an evening two weeks later for the KC135 to fly away from the radar site and then return on a reciprocal course using the advanced IFF system. The mission went off without a hitch and the Spanish accepted the new IFF equipment. However, the next morning the Spanish officers burst into my office to tell me that Libya had launched fighters to intercept the KC135 and see what was going on. The Libyan fighters just flew around the KC135 while it was in international airspace. SAC was concerned about this report. [JAC1] It was an actual launch by Libya to see what an Air Force plane was doing near their borders, albeit still in international space.

     Another interesting thing was the testing of the new Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) Anti-Chaff receiver. Chaff is small pieces of aluminum that confuse radar systems. Military aircraft carry the chaff in pods on their wings that are internal to the aircraft.  When a threat is identified, the chaff is dispensed to confuse the radar on incoming missiles. Again, neither the Spanish nor United States Air Force had the proper chaff in Europe. Their chaff was designed for Russian radars. Belgium had the chaff, but would not fly in Spain, as Spain was not part of NATO at the time. I did locate an ECM testing aircraft at Griffiss Air Force Base in New York. I arranged for them to come over and test the Spanish system. When we did tests at Griffiss AFB, we did it in the late-night hours in order not to disrupt civilian air traffic. The Spanish wanted to test in the daytime. The test was planned for the radar site near Madrid in the afternoon. Spain put out a notice their radar coverage would be out for the Madrid region for the afternoon of the test. Again, the test went well, and the Spanish accepted the system. We never heard of any disruption.

I really enjoyed working with the Spanish Air Force on this international project. The Spanish Air Force awarded me and the Program Manager, Colonel. Rufus D. Hutcheson (USMA 1954) the Spanish Cross for Aeronautical Merit. This is the highest Spanish military award given to a non-Spanish citizen.

     Even seven years after graduation, I was still the youngest graduate on Founders Day at Torrejon AB, Spain. As we all know, the youngest graduate must give a speech on the state of the Academy. There were few West Pointers at my assignments.  I gave the youngest graduate speeches at the University of Illinois, a couple of times at Hanscom Air Force Base (commanded by Major General Albert R. Shiely Jr, class of 1943), and a couple of times at Torrejon AB. Finally, I attended Founders Day at Fort Sam Houston where there were plenty of younger graduates.

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 [JAC1]It was an actual launch by Libya to see what a AF plane was doing near there borders, albeit still in international air space.