Don writes: I'm sending a brief history of my involvement With the HAWKEYE Program from the beginning. When I first got involved with the program I was station with the 6947th SS, at McDill, Tampa, Florida.

In May or June of 1965, can not remember for sure, a requirement came in for two Morse operators for a new project, Robert (Charlie) Ross, from the 6949th SS at Offutt AFB, Nebraska and myself were sent TDY to Hurlburt Field 9, Florida to familiarize ourselves with the equipment and what would be required for our input for the program.

Of course, being at Field 9 we had some additional training for Deployment to SEA. On 10 Oct 65, we flew commercial to Travis AFB, then military aircraft to Okinawa. From Okinawa we were put on board a C-130 for the flight in country. When we got to Cam Rahn Bay, we had to buzz the strip to clear the workers off the field before we could land.

Air operations was operating out a conex at the end of the runway. From Cam Rahn Bay, we took an in country special to Tan Son Nhut, where the aircraft and the rest of the crew where. The front-end crew flew 925 from Florida to Nam. ( Capt. Eddy then, was the navigator, he could fill in the route they took and how long). Tan Son Nhut was suppose to be our home base, but with the requirements levied on us by MACV we were all over Nam.

I can not remember when they pulled 925 out of country, I think it was June or July of 1966. (again, Capt. Eddy could maybe give you this information as he was the navigator on the return flight also). I returned to CONUS Oct. 1966 was assigned to the 6949th SS at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. When I arrived at Offutt, there were TDY orders awaiting me. I was sent TDY to the 3247 Special Activity Sq, Grenier Field, New Hampshire for further testing of the HAWKEYE (acft 925).

The front-end crew was made up of the original crew from Nam. Capt. Eddy was the project officer. Besides testing at New Hampshire, we were at Cannon AFB, NM, Luke and Davis Monthan AFB, AZ, and Ft Huachuca, AZ. In Jan, 1967 we went TDY to Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico to conduct comparison testing against the Beaver program run by the Army. The bad guys in the field were the 7th Special Forces out of Pamana.

The HAWKEYE program proved itself against the Beaver and that was the beginning. After completion of all the testing, I return to fly with the ACRP programs until 1973, when I was sent to Ubon, Thailand. I was involved with the EC-47 program there until 1974, when I return to CONUS. I retired in Sept 1975 as SMS.