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Robert D "Tony" Day |
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The beginning of 1970 was the beginning of my career with the U-2 program and unfortunately the end of the career for Francis Gary Powers. At that time Powers was flying U-2's from phase inspection at Lockheed plant in Palmdale California or as it was referred to as "The Skunk Works".
I had extensive training as an electronics technician and a sensor systems specialist for the purpose of uploading, downloading, upgrading and repairing sophisticated aerial correspondence cameras. Little did I know all the places of intrigue that training would take me.
No mission regardless of whether it started in America or overseas somewhere was just routine. With the extensive flying time of the U-2 very long flights very far way locations were possible.
Along with the various camera systems I also had the responsibility of maintaining and calibrating what was referred to as the "Drift Sight" which from the pilot's prospective was used as an upside down para-scope. I remember one particular mission that came back at the end of my shift with a drift sight out of calibration. This would entail pulling another eight hour shift to calibrate. The servo's that controlled the drift sight which needed calibration were located near the rudder peddles where the pilot's feet rested. This means I had to position myself upside down in the cockpit with my feet resting on the top of the pilots seat where his head went. To say this was uncomfortable was a huge understatement to say the least. Now, in that painfully uncomfortable position I had to do the very delicate work of calibrating the centering or the rotation of the controls of the drift sight. Finally after a night of pain and delicate work it was over and ready to go on an early mission. I had no idea of where the flight was going or what the target was and frankly I really didn't want to know.
After working with the various camera configurations employed by the U-2 for it's high altitude reconnesencemissions I found myself selected as one of a few to go to Itek Camera Cooperation to be trained on the latest very technically sophisticated Iris Optical Bar Panoramic camera yet to be employed into service with the U-2 program. I felt very honored being one of only a few to be selected for such training but once I got there I was less thrilled having to learn Electronic and Mechanical Engineering from two Stanford University professors. That alone gave me a certification as to the degree of sophistication of what I was getting into. It never ceased to amaze me as to the photographic capabilities of this camera. From altitude I saw a picture taken with this camera that showed the greater portion of California, enlarged it showed a whole very large city, enlarged it showed a ball field, enlarged it showed a parking lot, enlarged again it showed a man carrying a brief case and further enlarged it showed a brass plate on the brief case with the owners name engraved. At this point I knew I was working in a very elite field with state of the art equipment.
I served overseas on missions to operating locations given code names for security purposes. This job took me to places I would never have gone otherwise and in some cases would never want to go back to again.
Fast forwarded about twenty some years where my wife and I went to the Richmond Va Aviation Museum to see a presentation of some artifacts of the U-2 aircraft pertaining to the shoot down of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers by none other than Francis Gary Powers Jr. The presentation was done very well and brought back many memories. At the end of the presentation Gary came directly over to me and introduced himself saying "Hi I'm Gary Powers Jr. how are you doing"? Like he knew me. I will always wonder about that. Lol for about 25years there after I've been assisting Gary in various ways with his Cold War Museum in Vint Hill Va as a U-2 camera consultant.
The Itek Iris II
Optical Bar Panoramic camera with a few modifications is still in use today. This gives me great pride in what I did and for the purpose of that camera and how it's product had helped our country and it's people. God bless the U-2 and God bless America
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