WEBVTT 00:01.399 --> 00:05.079 Hi , my name is uh Alan Feldkamp . Uh , 00:05.199 --> 00:07.477 a lot of people call me Al , so that's , 00:07.477 --> 00:09.643 uh , most of the Air Force people know 00:09.643 --> 00:11.829 me as Al Feldkam . I see , I served in 00:11.829 --> 00:14.539 the 55th , um , actually 3 times . I'm 00:14.539 --> 00:16.539 going to count the time in uh up at 00:16.539 --> 00:19.850 Isson in the 24th . Uh those dates were 00:19.850 --> 00:23.590 1976 through uh late 00:23.590 --> 00:25.989 1979 . So I was up there . I was in the 00:25.989 --> 00:28.569 Cobra Ball , 24th . At that time , 00:28.610 --> 00:30.959 strategic reconnaissance squadron , and 00:31.129 --> 00:33.185 I was checked out in three different 00:33.185 --> 00:36.250 positions in the ball and it's probably 00:36.250 --> 00:39.490 my favorite aircraft of the RC fleet to 00:39.490 --> 00:42.330 fly . The second time I was in the 55th 00:42.330 --> 00:46.049 was 83 to 84 in the 343rd . 00:46.569 --> 00:49.930 I served in a combat sent as a Raven 5 00:49.930 --> 00:53.360 and a TC , so um 00:54.040 --> 00:56.207 and that was it was a relatively short 00:56.207 --> 00:58.484 term , but it was productive and again . 00:58.484 --> 01:00.707 I like the scent but not as well as the 01:00.707 --> 01:03.610 ball , but anyway , it was a lot of fun . 01:03.939 --> 01:06.106 And then the third time I came back in 01:06.106 --> 01:08.949 1988 after serving in the Pentagon and 01:08.949 --> 01:11.839 the air staff . I came back as the ops 01:11.839 --> 01:13.950 officer and squadron commander in the 01:13.950 --> 01:17.430 343rd and that started my 01:17.430 --> 01:21.379 command started on the 30th of 01:21.379 --> 01:23.870 October of 1988 , and I relinquished 01:23.870 --> 01:26.099 command just a couple of days before 01:26.099 --> 01:29.620 the entire squadron . Went to uh Desert 01:29.620 --> 01:33.410 Storm Desert Shield Desert Storm . So , 01:33.500 --> 01:35.556 uh , the first , uh , the first Gulf 01:35.556 --> 01:37.611 War . So , and that was in August of 01:37.611 --> 01:39.778 1990 . After that , I went to National 01:39.778 --> 01:41.833 War College . So , and , uh , always 01:41.833 --> 01:43.833 tough to be at National War College 01:43.833 --> 01:46.056 when the entire entire squadron and you 01:46.056 --> 01:48.000 help train up is of uh doing other 01:48.000 --> 01:50.940 things . Um , I , uh , achieved the 01:50.940 --> 01:54.599 rank of full colonel , um . And uh 01:54.599 --> 01:57.279 my full active duty time started in 01:57.279 --> 02:01.040 1971 , June in 1971 going to NAB and EW 02:01.040 --> 02:04.860 school . And uh my last day in the 02:04.860 --> 02:07.290 Air Force was the 30th of March of 02:07.949 --> 02:11.610 1994 , so it's been a while , but uh 02:12.309 --> 02:14.531 That's pretty much my career and it was 02:14.531 --> 02:16.476 a great career . I enjoyed the Air 02:16.476 --> 02:18.365 Force immensely . I think I had a 02:18.365 --> 02:20.587 chance to make some changes in people's 02:20.587 --> 02:22.809 lives . One of the things that I'd like 02:22.809 --> 02:24.910 to talk about here today . It was 02:24.910 --> 02:28.070 during my command , the squadron and 02:28.070 --> 02:30.720 actually All of the Air Force , but in 02:30.720 --> 02:32.929 particular the , the strategic 02:32.929 --> 02:35.139 reconnaissance business had to make a 02:35.139 --> 02:38.570 change from being a Cold War 02:39.580 --> 02:43.220 type unit which a lot of my colleagues 02:43.220 --> 02:45.860 I grew up with , you know , going to 02:45.860 --> 02:48.179 Kadina and Hellenicon and you know 02:48.179 --> 02:51.009 Mildenhall and Sosson , but all the 02:51.380 --> 02:53.547 places where we were strategically set 02:53.547 --> 02:55.850 up to collect on primarily the Soviet 02:55.850 --> 02:58.869 Union . So I take over the squadron and 02:58.880 --> 03:01.102 and of course that's everything's doing 03:01.102 --> 03:03.770 that and then in '88 and 89 , 03:04.990 --> 03:07.157 thanks to President Reagan and all the 03:07.157 --> 03:09.580 things that he did , the Soviet Union 03:09.580 --> 03:12.899 begins to fall and by 1989 the Berlin 03:12.899 --> 03:14.955 Wall fell and then the world changed 03:14.955 --> 03:16.955 and everyone's looking for this big 03:16.955 --> 03:19.121 benefit . I say everyone , politicians 03:19.121 --> 03:21.066 are looking for this big financial 03:21.066 --> 03:23.720 benefit of the Cold War being over . 03:24.610 --> 03:26.610 And that brought into question what 03:26.610 --> 03:28.499 we're going to do with this fleet 03:28.499 --> 03:30.499 primarily of the rivet joints , but 03:30.889 --> 03:33.056 what we would do with these aircraft , 03:33.119 --> 03:35.008 and it became evident to a lot of 03:35.008 --> 03:37.175 people up the line and certainly those 03:37.175 --> 03:39.230 of us in the squadron and the people 03:39.230 --> 03:41.341 above me at the wing and air division 03:41.341 --> 03:43.820 level . That we need to do something 03:43.820 --> 03:47.779 different . So , prior to 1988 or 03:47.779 --> 03:50.860 so , we worked very , very little with 03:50.860 --> 03:54.110 any of the other um Air Force 03:54.110 --> 03:56.388 components that needed our information . 03:56.388 --> 04:00.070 Our data was sent up to primarily NSA , 04:00.490 --> 04:03.630 some of it to the NGA and different 04:03.630 --> 04:06.660 places , and then they would review it . 04:06.669 --> 04:08.613 It's kept it at the top secret SCI 04:08.613 --> 04:10.836 level and it may or may not filter down 04:10.836 --> 04:14.470 to other fighter units or AWACS or 04:14.470 --> 04:17.109 JStars or whatever that may or may not 04:17.109 --> 04:19.899 have happened . Subsequent , and we 04:19.899 --> 04:21.980 started in the squadron and I , I'm 04:21.980 --> 04:24.809 gonna name there's just a few , I mean , 04:24.980 --> 04:27.220 the squadron guys that I had and they 04:27.220 --> 04:29.442 were , I got the 1st 4 women in the Air 04:29.442 --> 04:31.498 Force uh during that period . One of 04:31.498 --> 04:33.664 them , Sheila Lear , she's in the Hall 04:33.664 --> 04:37.359 of Fame . But mostly the guys jumped 04:37.359 --> 04:41.000 in and we started kind of figuring out 04:41.000 --> 04:42.778 on our own how to work with the 04:42.778 --> 04:46.429 tactical guys and sent some people out 04:46.429 --> 04:49.119 to Nella , some of our people primarily 04:49.119 --> 04:51.230 one of them was the first one of them 04:51.230 --> 04:54.200 was Dave Heineer , Colonel Dave Heiner , 04:54.239 --> 04:56.128 retired . Dave went out there and 04:56.320 --> 04:58.431 started us getting connected with the 04:58.431 --> 05:00.598 fighter weapons school and . Everybody 05:00.598 --> 05:02.598 was amazed , you know , we fly in a 05:02.598 --> 05:05.010 river joint out into the red flag 05:05.010 --> 05:08.119 exercises , and people started getting 05:08.119 --> 05:11.269 permissions to fly those missions 05:11.640 --> 05:13.679 and drop data directly to the 05:13.679 --> 05:15.290 warfighters . I'll call them 05:15.290 --> 05:17.123 warfighters , guys on the ground 05:17.123 --> 05:19.670 fighters . And that was a big eye 05:19.670 --> 05:22.619 opening experience , and it's a really , 05:22.670 --> 05:25.019 really good thing we did that because 05:25.019 --> 05:28.980 by 1989 things have changed and we are 05:28.980 --> 05:31.970 starting to really take on the mode of 05:32.540 --> 05:35.980 moving into the business of direct 05:35.980 --> 05:38.519 contact with the war fighters . And 05:38.519 --> 05:40.463 again I use warfighters in a broad 05:40.463 --> 05:43.390 sense of those of those guys that were , 05:43.760 --> 05:46.709 you know , boots on the ground . So , 05:46.839 --> 05:49.119 um , that all kind of came to fruition , 05:49.600 --> 05:51.767 not to fruition , but it came , we got 05:51.767 --> 05:54.549 the We got the really good payout on 05:54.549 --> 05:57.220 that on the Desert Storm 05:58.970 --> 06:00.920 and on the first Gulf War , as I 06:00.920 --> 06:02.869 mentioned , the entire squadron 06:02.869 --> 06:04.925 deployed , I think it was the 2nd of 06:04.925 --> 06:06.869 August 2 days after I relinquished 06:06.869 --> 06:09.202 command and Colonel John Cain took over . 06:10.049 --> 06:13.899 But from that time on , uh , until 06:13.899 --> 06:15.732 now , actually , because we went 06:15.732 --> 06:18.779 through that whole period of , uh , you 06:18.779 --> 06:22.220 know , from the first Gulf War to 2003 , 06:22.829 --> 06:25.299 where we've had uh RJ's in the Middle 06:25.299 --> 06:29.059 East at different bases , but basically 06:29.059 --> 06:32.470 continuously . So that made all the 06:32.470 --> 06:35.269 preparation for that paid off that 06:35.269 --> 06:38.109 transition happened in that time period 06:38.109 --> 06:41.029 of the end of the Cold War , basically 06:41.029 --> 06:44.950 88 to 9091 right in there . And then of 06:44.950 --> 06:47.950 course the aircraft became after that , 06:48.059 --> 06:49.948 the big safari guys , the guys at 06:49.948 --> 06:52.809 Greenville began modifying the aircraft 06:52.809 --> 06:54.950 more for the missions that the new 06:54.950 --> 06:57.220 missions that we were doing . And that 06:57.220 --> 06:59.980 primarily included uh off boarding a 06:59.980 --> 07:02.036 lot of the data directly down to the 07:02.036 --> 07:04.700 war fighters . So Before a lot of the 07:04.700 --> 07:07.880 data was recorded on board and then 07:09.100 --> 07:11.299 whichever type of media was being used 07:11.299 --> 07:14.899 for for the recording process was sent 07:14.899 --> 07:18.190 off to be analyzed and looked at by a 07:18.190 --> 07:21.420 bunch of group of people that did the 07:21.420 --> 07:23.476 analysis on the work that we brought 07:23.476 --> 07:25.940 back and that all changed and it began 07:25.940 --> 07:28.980 changing after I was in the Pentagon 07:28.980 --> 07:30.758 later . I was running the joint 07:30.758 --> 07:34.739 reconnaissance Center from 9394 and 07:35.049 --> 07:37.170 by that time everyone was used . The 07:37.170 --> 07:39.040 aircraft had been changed enough 07:39.040 --> 07:40.984 equipment on the aircraft had been 07:40.984 --> 07:43.151 changed enough that we could dump data 07:43.151 --> 07:45.809 directly down to any number of people , 07:46.089 --> 07:49.209 including fighters that were F-5-16s 07:49.209 --> 07:52.760 that had harms on them or um 07:53.290 --> 07:56.209 using tattle going straight down to a 07:56.209 --> 07:59.079 unit on the ground . And of course then 07:59.079 --> 08:01.130 the aircraft became more and more 08:01.130 --> 08:03.519 modified , and I think the guys saw the 08:03.519 --> 08:06.049 aircraft yesterday , rivet joint 129 . 08:06.339 --> 08:09.140 I see it was up to they're up to 14 on 08:09.140 --> 08:11.739 it , so I'm a block 3 guy , so just to 08:11.739 --> 08:13.961 show you how much it's changed . So all 08:13.961 --> 08:17.779 of those changes made the 55 more 08:17.779 --> 08:20.660 effective as a unit , as a unit to 08:20.660 --> 08:22.660 serve , and that's really why we're 08:22.660 --> 08:25.380 around , you know , the JSars has gone 08:25.380 --> 08:28.970 away . AA's mission 08:28.970 --> 08:32.179 is the E3s are kind of going away and 08:32.179 --> 08:35.409 the mission will be replaced with fewer 08:35.409 --> 08:38.210 numbers and so that's why the primarily 08:38.210 --> 08:40.099 the rivet joints , I'm not taking 08:40.099 --> 08:42.154 anything away from the ball and sand 08:42.154 --> 08:44.210 because they do , they do high level 08:44.210 --> 08:46.210 reconnaissance missions , but their 08:46.210 --> 08:48.154 numbers are small . So the RJs are 08:48.154 --> 08:51.789 around yet and they look like they look 08:51.789 --> 08:55.270 to have a very long future , so . I was 08:55.270 --> 08:57.048 very happy to be a part of that 08:57.048 --> 08:59.309 transition period and my hats off to a 08:59.309 --> 09:01.531 lot of the guys that served under me in 09:01.531 --> 09:03.642 that period in the squadron , and I'm 09:03.642 --> 09:05.865 talking to captains here , captains and 09:05.865 --> 09:07.642 a couple of majors , but mostly 09:07.642 --> 09:09.753 captains that jumped in on that . And 09:09.753 --> 09:11.865 then I guess I would mention one more 09:11.865 --> 09:14.599 thing . It was interesting . The first , 09:15.150 --> 09:18.820 the 1st 4 women , they came in 22 and 2 , 09:19.270 --> 09:22.549 they came out of the EW school directly 09:22.549 --> 09:26.239 to the 343 . And it's on the Hall of 09:26.239 --> 09:29.630 Fame . Sheila , she was Sheila O'Lear 09:29.630 --> 09:31.686 at that time . She's Sheila Kirkwood 09:31.686 --> 09:34.059 now , but uh she's the first woman to 09:34.059 --> 09:37.270 combat in the US Air Force combat time , 09:37.390 --> 09:39.830 so her Hall of Fame is as well deserved , 09:39.869 --> 09:43.469 but uh those ladies uh were 09:43.469 --> 09:46.219 amazing on how they integrated 09:46.219 --> 09:48.275 themselves into the squadron and Did 09:50.270 --> 09:52.492 you did fantastic work and the guys all 09:52.492 --> 09:55.000 accepted that they were equals in the 09:55.000 --> 09:57.111 aircraft doing everything that needed 09:57.111 --> 09:59.440 to be done . So I that was just another 09:59.440 --> 10:01.718 side set . It's not a big deal anymore , 10:01.799 --> 10:05.000 but it was again it was a very 10:05.000 --> 10:07.111 interesting time because of all these 10:07.111 --> 10:09.960 changes that were happening and I feel 10:09.960 --> 10:11.960 glad that I made my contribution to 10:11.960 --> 10:14.238 kind of guide our way through that and . 10:14.770 --> 10:17.409 Here we are later , still , still out 10:17.409 --> 10:19.631 there . 55th is still fighting , flying 10:19.631 --> 10:21.798 and fighting and doing all these great 10:21.798 --> 10:23.919 things , so . That's all I got to say 10:23.919 --> 10:24.320 about that .