HEADED INTO HARM'S WAY
Last Known Photo, 30 Dec, 1953
L-R: ENS Paul Morelli, LTJG "CB" Ward, LT Jesse Beasley, ENS Burt Mulford
While ferret crews faced the same dangers as their brethren in fighters and bombers, they bore the additional burden of risking their lives without the knowledge of the citizens for whom they flew. The twilight war carried not only the threat of capture or death but the assurance of official silence or disavowal, that is the fate of all spies, whether they wield daggers or digital analyzers. Dogfighting, bombing and test flying were high-visibility occupations that produced heroes. But the intelligence collectors prowled, unheralded, in the Cold War’s netherworld like their earthbound counterparts in trenchcoats. So reconnaissance crews, ferrets included, lived their professions in reverse. When they completed their missions satisfactorily they were publicly ignored, and when they were killed or captured they were a source of embarrassment. In all, 90 fliers remain unaccounted for from 10 ferret shoot-downs. Inquiries by family members about their loved ones and the nature of the mission, like other such inquiries, disappeared into a bureaucratic quagmire of evasion and double-talk.
Beyond the Iron Curtain, Air&Space, page 34, Aug/Sep 1994, William Burrows
Last Known Photo, 30 Dec, 1953
L-R: ENS Paul Morelli, LTJG "CB" Ward, LT Jesse Beasley, ENS Burt Mulford
While ferret crews faced the same dangers as their brethren in fighters and bombers, they bore the additional burden of risking their lives without the knowledge of the citizens for whom they flew. The twilight war carried not only the threat of capture or death but the assurance of official silence or disavowal, that is the fate of all spies, whether they wield daggers or digital analyzers. Dogfighting, bombing and test flying were high-visibility occupations that produced heroes. But the intelligence collectors prowled, unheralded, in the Cold War’s netherworld like their earthbound counterparts in trenchcoats. So reconnaissance crews, ferrets included, lived their professions in reverse. When they completed their missions satisfactorily they were publicly ignored, and when they were killed or captured they were a source of embarrassment. In all, 90 fliers remain unaccounted for from 10 ferret shoot-downs. Inquiries by family members about their loved ones and the nature of the mission, like other such inquiries, disappeared into a bureaucratic quagmire of evasion and double-talk.
Beyond the Iron Curtain, Air&Space, page 34, Aug/Sep 1994, William Burrows
5 Cape Cod
December 30, 1953The Neptune was a major player in the shadow of the Cold War. It was ideal for Cold War "Ferret" missions since it could carry a heavy payload of electronic gear and a number of systems operators over long distances. The perceived Soviet threat, nourished by the mistrust that pervaded East and West, had Neptunes flying 24-hour patrols over the Formosa Straights and the Chinese coast well beyond the Korean war years. The waters of the Formosa Straits simmered throughout the Cold War, keeping patrol squadrons occupied with constant searches for ship and troop concentrations. After the Korean armistice, the PatRons paid more attention to the Russian coastlines. Patrols often ventured dangerously close to territory the Soviets were keenly interested in shielding from prying eyes.
LOCKHEED P2V NEPTUNE An Illustrated History
Wayne Mutza
THE SEARCH BEGINS
My brother made the next attempt to obtain more information by writing the Navy for details, but he only received a short letter saying that our father was killed in a military aircraft accident.
Our family felt that Vice-President Gore would be willing to help a hometown family discover more information, so our efforts turned to his office in Carthage. Within a week of my sister’s request to his office, we received a 43 page Navy accident report. This report was written by an investigative officer from squadron VP-2 and included a statement from the Navy Judge Advocate General’s office. I requested this Manual of the Navy Judge Advocate General Investigation report (JAGMAN) through the Freedom of Information Act, but I was denied. My appeal produced a letter citing that the box containing the JAGMAN had once existed but was now the only one missing of 52 classified boxes for 1954. All the other cases for 1954 were there but my father’s was missing! Was someone preceding me in an effort to foil my discovering something or was it just a coincidence? Initially the Navy accident report was the only evidence available, but after careful perusal manyinaccuracies were noted. Listed maps as well as other pages from the Navy accident report were missing. What did the missing pages and map contain? These obvious discrepancies prompted me to search further into events of the night of January 4, 1954. Something was very wrong with the report. Coordinates were almost 200 hundred miles from where they logically should be, events were out of sequence, the radio log transmissions did not correspond with my father’s commanding officer’s letter to my mother describing the events that night and there now appeared to be not one, but two possible crash sites. I turned again to Vice-President Gore’s office with my concerns for these discrepancies but this time he would not respond. After six months of phone calls to his office, I was simply provided with a Navy Dept. phone number to contact myself. I reached Navy Cdr. Tim Coolidge whom I asked to meet with to share my discoveries. He declined a meeting with me saying that the Navy didn’t normally meet with families about such matters but to list my concerns and send them to him. I did as he suggested and after months of receiving letters of no substance from the Navy it was apparent that they had no interest in explaining the discrepancies that I had pointed out, nor in searching for the remains of my father.
