This was back in the late summer of 1967. Paul Martino and I were TDY out of the 319 FIS at Homestead AFB FL up to Tyndall AFB. We were playing 'bad guys' to let the U2 crowd evaluate one of their self-protection pieces of gear. Our 104As had the brand new J79-19 engines in them and we both had full pressure suits since we were going up to the U2's cruise altitude, well above 50K.

    Now our original -3B engines were okay when they were new but over the years they had developed warping between sections and frame cracks which let hot air leak out and we had had trouble with aft overheat lights at economical cruise power at altitude. The home-grown remedy was to speed up for more air flow around the engine. The quickest way to get more speed was light the AB but that remedy to cure an overheat light was perhaps not something one would want to do on a long-term basis.

    The real answer was to retire the -3B engines and replace them with the -19, the same engine that went into the Italian F104S. A fine officer and gentleman, Colonel Dave Rippetoe up at ADC HQ ramrodded the project. It was not simple but was something we could do in our own shops. So pretty soon all our birds had new engines. That move gave us a real boost in thrust - military thrust went from 9600 to 11870 and AB from 15000 to 17500. In addition higher compression and a more efficient nozzle added 10 minutes to our normal mission time 1+30 vice 1+20 out of 896 gallons of fuel, clean. Needless to say we were ecstatic over the added thrust. Only one minor whine; we lost the classic 104 'hoot'.

     So there we were, up at Tyndall, running practice intercepts on a U2 with its new goodies. With the old engine getting at the U2 was a fuel-critical mission. We had about 10 minutes playtime if it was VFR; essentially none if we had to make an IFR approach. More than once I'd been 'over the fence' with 800 pounds or so left. If the target was late, well, you can see what the problem was. But with the new engine - we could make reattacks. 

    Our target was stooging along at his relatively low speed up well past 60K. And we found that his Magic Box had no effect other than to add a few streaks of clutter to our radar scopes. We picked him up and tracked him just fine. Had he been a bad guy, he would have been toast. Our castrated (no warhead) Sidewinders growled when they saw him, still a few miles out. Since we had an overtake rate of about 700+, seeing him was pretty critical. We'd learned a couple tricks about that and used them, following the simulated MX launch with a gun pass, bunting sharply outside of 2000 feet to avoid coming too close and booming him. (SAC was known for an absence of a sense of humor.) Since the gunsight computed from 4500 on in, we were fairly certain the gun would have worked just fine way up there in that skinny air. Plus I had boresighted all our guns to within 1/2 mil . . .

    Why didn't his Magic Box work? Having been through the ADC Interceptor Weapons School, I quickly deduced our radar was just too old-fashioned and unsophisticated to be affected by anything other than sheer noise jamming. The fancy new ECM was just too fancy!

    For you who aren't familiar with the ASG14T1, it didn't track in angle; you did the tracking by turning the bird. It could track in range once inside 10 miles but that really wasn't necessary for a missile intercept although it was for accurate aerial gunnery. It was a spiral scan radar, scanning a 90 degree cone centered on the ship's boresight axis, with a maximum of a 20 mile range. When you were boresighted on the target the radar painted a circle on the scope, the radius of which was the target's range. If all you got was a piece of an arc, well, you turned to make it a circle and you were pointed right at him. And with M2+ well in hand, you could certainly catch him. (I knew a pair of very close friends that reached 2.5 in their -19 104As.)

    We flew a couple missions each, no problems developed, the U2 was an easy target, and we were debriefed exhaustedly. Thus the TDY came to an end and it was time to go home.

    I don't know who originated the idea (me, I think) but we decided to wear our p-suits home. Actually, wearing them wasn't bad; they featured good air flow from the ship's p-suit vent blower. ADC called them APS22-3 suits. They were modified Navy MkIVs, made by David Clark and personally custom-fitted. (I kick myself now for not keeping mine - it was on a hand-receipt but I turned it in when I left for the F4. Would have made a great souvenir.)

    Paul and I filed a DD175 flight plan for 1150 TAS and FL 730 - I already done some back-of-the-envelope flight planning and figured we could hack those figures. We plotted a course due south out of Tyndall to climb to about 38000 (tropopause level that day) thence direct Sarasota Vortac and accel and climb to 73000 direct HST. The Tyndall WX and indeed the entire route was scattered Cu, winds the usual westerlies, light up at 730.

    We suited up, got our clearance, got airborne and checked in with Miami Center. We leveled at 38000, turned on course and requested climb to FL730 - and got it immediately. Paul was already out in tactical as we went to about 90% AB for the accel. Less than 2 minutes later we started the climb and soon (I forgot how long - it wasn't much) I called "Level Flight Level 730".  Miami came right back with "And you weren't lying about your true airspeed, either!" 

    I chuckled at that, knowing our symbology was jumping from spot to spot on his scope at 20+ miles a minute. I'd already reduced AB to maintain about 315, knowing that was close to best L/D for cruise efficiency. Fuel flow was now about 100 pounds a minute, checking the quantity gauge against the clock. Not too shabby; about the same flow rate as cruising at 37000 and 510, but twice as fast. The TACAN distance indicator was rolling over rapidly, too, a mile every 3 seconds.

    The sky was noticeably darker overhead but not nearly as dark as it got going over the top in a max performance zoom climb, one where the altimeter hits its mechanical top at 86000 but you kept going up because you still had 300 knots or so, util you floated over the top at whatever you figured you could hack. 150 KIAS was fairly comfortable, maintaining maybe a tenth of a G . . .actually, you could hang a pencil in mid-air and formate on it for a true parabolic flight path.

    The horizon had a whitish rim over it and the sky went smoothly from a lightish blue above the rim to almost an indigo blue directly above us. The cumulus clouds far below were noticeably moving under us.

    The airplane was handling nicely, no overt signs of being affected by the altitude at all. All engine readings including EGT were well within limits. She gave every indication of more in hand. I now regret we made no effort to find out how much more performance was available, but we were home-ward bound.

    Approaching Sarasota I signaled Paul and we came out of AB back to idle and left 73000, establishing a gliding descent at 310.indicated. I was amazed to find we'd covered close to 250 miles burning very little fuel and leveled off on initial about 10 miles out from Homestead at 1500 AGL and 300 knots with about 1400 pounds of fuel left for an uneventful pitch-out and landing. 

    Quite an amazing airplane and I am ever grateful I got to fly it for about 3 1/2 years.

     - Walt "BJ" Bjorneby