Taiwan filmmakers fulfill Laughlin pilgrimage in search of Chinese U-2 heritage

December 17, 2006
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

The Taipei, Taiwan news crew from Phoenix Television Network visits key operation areas at Laughlin Air Force Base, Friday, beginning with the Life Support functions for departing pilots. From left, Ting Wen-Chen, senior reporter, Lo Li, videographer, and Tang Yi-Ning, production executive, team up to record observations and demonstrations. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

One step in capturing international Cold War history

Pursuing the legend of the Black Cat Squadron of U-2 reconnaissance plane high flyers, Phoenix Satellite Television Limited sent a team from Taipei, Taiwan, last week to Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio, Texas. And the unusual visit needed and received the blessings of the Secretary of the Air Force.

The trio – Videographer Lo Li, Senior Reporter Ting Wen-Chen, and Production Executive Tang Yi-Ning – were greeted warmly here, Friday (Dec. 15), escorted around key base operations, concluding – appropriately – at a hangar that once concealed the super-secret U-2s.

Here at Laughlin, the single-engine jet reconnaissance aircraft – at once tough and delicate – was navigated on altitude-record missions above Cuba, scrutinizing Russian missile bases there from altitudes approaching and exceeding 70,000 feet. But, Friday (Dec. 15), Li, Ting, and Tang were hot on the trail of U.S. Air Force U-2 flyers who helped an international effort to put eyes in the skies above Communist China.

The Republic of China (Taiwan) Black Cat Squadron was an elite cadre of pilots trained by U.S. flyers – including Central Intelligence Agency pilots – to gather strategic information about military and political activity in the emerging Communist country, as well as Indochina and North Korea. More than a hundred missions were flown by the squadron, and five pilots in the single-seat aircraft were shot down by surface-to-air missiles, three killed and two captured.

Linda Rios Bromley, Houston author who coordinated the video program producers’ visit, is as well acquainted as any student of the U-2 era of spy plane activity. Bromley’s book, Freedom Flight, chronicles the misadventures of one of the Black Cat pilots, Chang-di “Robin” Yeh. His third mission over Mainland China was a disaster. Yeh was shot down, was one of the lucky two who survived, spent the next two decades incarcerated or confined to living in China, and was finally given up by his captors and returned to the United States.

Yeh, learning of the Phoenix Network’s interest in developing a documentary, was consulted and urged his friend, Linda Bromley, to help facilitate the U.S. visits. “If Robin asked me to jump over the moon, I’d get a big ladder,” chuckled Bromley, Friday.

The Phoenix crew first visited the Life Support area where pilots and student pilots are outfitted for flight, including parachutes, flights suits and helmets. Sr. Airman Bridget Boehm and Airman Katherine Kealaloha explained the suiting up rituals and equipment checks, allowing Tang to heft and don a parachute to get a sense of the weight and fit.

At the Base Operations Center building, the group and entourage were treated to views of the Laughlin flight line, with T-1 “Jayhawk” trainers below, and T-38C “Talons” and T-6 “Texans.” From a high catwalk that circumnavigates the Radar Approach Control Tower (RAPCON), Lo Li strove to photograph the precisely lined-up inventory that faded, respectively north and south, into the obscurity of fog that had all aircraft grounded for the morning.

But two of the Air Force’s “heavies” and a static display cluster of Laughlin’s trainers also captured the Taipei natives’ attention. A giant C-17 “Globemaster” cargo and personnel carrier and a KC-135 “Stratotanker” used for mid-air refueling were flown in to show off for pilots graduating that morning and their families. The aircraft assembly serves as a backdrop for photos of mothers, dads, wives, husbands or sweethearts pinning the coveted silver wings onto crisp blue uniforms of the graduates. Those informal ceremonies were underway in full view of the videographers from Taiwan.

Next stop was the top of the tower, the RAPCON control room with its full views of the flightline and approach paths of incoming aircraft. There, Staff Sgt. Keric Hill introduced the production crew to the tower personnel, explaining their responsibilities and the sophisticated equipment on which they depend.

Next, Li, Ting and Tang walked to the northern end of the flightline to visit an old hangar that once housed the U-2 “Dragon Lady” jets flown by daring pilots with unique skills demanded by perilously thin air at altitudes very close to outer space. Now the high-ceilinged edifice is the T-38C “Talon” maintenance shop, and the Taiwanese were granted the opportunity to climb an access ladder to peer into the cockpit of the two-seat jet trainer. The moment became a photo opportunity for anyone with a camera.

The group’s tour at the base ended with a buffet lunch at Club XL, while E-mail addresses were exchanged.

Their final stop for information gathering was the Laughlin Heritage Foundation Museum, in the 300 block of South Main Street, downtown. There to greet them were James Long, foundation board chairman, Major Charles Chandler (USAF, retired), president, Col. Vic Milam, (USAF, retired), treasurer, and Maj. Gen. Gerald Prather (USAF, retired), board member.

The hosts took Li, Ting, Tang, Bromley and Del Rioan “Cookie” Gulick (who helped organize local arrangements) on walking tours of the museum’s rich collection of objects, documents, maps and photographs. With pauses to relate personal stories about various Cold War episodes, the hosts finally allowed the Taiwanese to get down to business with a formal interview of Milam.

Milam flew above Laos, North Viet Nam, Cuba and a few other targets he declined to name, gathering photographic documentation for analysis by the Pentagon and the CIA. (For an in-depth narrative of some of Milam’s exploits, see the LIVE! article, “A Wild Ride from the Edge of Space ,” October 16.)

Ting, conducting the interview, was particularly interested in Milam’s time in Taiwan, training the Black Cat pilots on behalf of the CIA. Milam’s responses were cautious and measured, but the documentarians were very pleased with his cooperation. The Laughlin Heritage Foundation Museum is open every Saturday, 1-4 p.m., or on request by calling James Long, 830-775-3561

The crew next visits Washington D.C. where they anticipate meeting and interviewing more flyers and retired military personnel who hold important recollections of the Black Cat Squadron. In all, they will have been introduced to 13 U-2 pilots as they complete their project.

According to Bromley, the final product – planned in Chinese only, but possibly with subtitles – is slated for airing on the global Phoenix Network in March, 2007.