Introduction
No 24 Squadron’s history is unique as not many of the PAF Squadrons have such a distinct and checkered history as that of this one. Some of the special features were as follows:-
(a) This was the only PAF Squadron which was jointly raised and manned by assets of both United States and Pakistan by way of manpower and equipment.
(b) This Squadron used to carryout highly sensitive and secret operations for the defense of CONUS (Continental U.S), besides important tasks for Pakistan against its prime adversary.
(c) The flying operations of this Squadron were directed and monitored by one of the most important U.S Intelligence agency, the NSA (National Security Agency). This Agency came directly under the command of US President through his Defence Secretary and was not subordinate to U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff i.e. the uninformed Pentagon hierarchy.
Raising of the Unit
2. The Squadron formed on 5th December, 1962 with the posting of Squadron Leader (Shaheed) M Iqbal S.J, as the Squadron Commander along with a skeleton staff of pilots/nav-adversely affected for want of igators and maintenance personnel (see appendix early story of No. 24 Sqn. PAF). It was housed in one of the two main hangers at PAF Peshawar, the one which faces the main Tarmac. The first two aircraft which were assigned to the Squadron were USAF’s RB57Bs Nos. 1536 and 1573,. both these aircraft were the property of U.S and were stationed at PAF Peshawar for special task to be solely performed for the bene- fit of US but were flown and maintained by PAF crew. The upkeep of the ELINT equipment was the responsibility of US personnel. The spare support was through a supply element dedicated for the Squadron and for this purpose a US Air Force supply officer was stationed with the Squadron at Peshawar. He ensured that the aircraft operation was not adversely affected for want of igators and maintenance personnel (see appendix early story of No. 24 Sqn. PAF). It was housed in one of the two main hangers at PAF Peshawar, the one which faces the main Tarmac. The first two aircraft which were assigned to the Squadron were USAF’s RB57Bs Nos. 1536 and 1573,. both these aircraft were the property of U.S and were stationed at PAF Peshawar for special task to be solely performed for the bene- fit of US but were flown and maintained by PAF crew. The upkeep of the ELINT equipment was the responsibility of US personnel. The spare support was through a abo Both these aircraft remained at Peshawar till March 1964, when they were taken back to US and replaced with two RB57Fs, especially manufactured Pakistan. The for stationing first two aircraft of the ‘F’ series 13286 and numbering 63 63-13287 were assigned to No 24 Squadron. In addition to two. RB57F (nicknamed as “DROOP- IES”) because of their marked anhedral Wings, there were two more PAF owned aircraft which were earlier with No 31 Bomber Wing, but were especially modified in the US for “ELINT” Operations and were allotted to No 24 Squadron on return. These aircraft were meant for operations against targets of interests to the PAF.
3. By June, 1964 the Squadron had following four operational aircraft catering for both the requirements of United States and Pakistan:-
(a) US owned RB57Fs 63- 13286 and 63-13287 (with PAF markings)
(b) PAF owned RB57Bs 3954 and 3961.
The crew composition and support maintenance officers posted in the Squadron were as follows:
| (a) Pilots | ||||
| (i) | Squadron Leader | M Iqbal, GD(P), S.J (RIP) | Squadron Commander | Martyred in 1965 war |
| (ii) | Flight Lieutenant | Akhtar Bokhari GD(P), S Bt | Ops Officer | Posted out after 4 months in the Squadron (Retd as AVM) |
| (iii) | Flight Lieutenant | Mir Rashid GD(P), S.J RIP | Ops Officer | got release in 1966 joined PIA later migrated to U.S where he died by drowning, buried in America |
| (iv) | Flight Lieutenant | Mahmud-Uz-Zaman GD(P), lmtiazi Sanad, | RIP | Retd as Air Commodore |
| (v) | Flight Lieutenant | Fazal Hussain GD (P) Imtiazi Sanad | RIP | got release in 1967 as Flt Lt and started agricultural farming in Sindh |
| (vi) | Flight Lieutenant | Usman Khan GD (P), Imtiazi Sanad | RIP | got release as Squadron Leader and joined PIA |
| (vii) | Flying Officer | lrshad Ahmed Qureshi, lmtiazi Sanad | GD (P) | Retd as Gp Capt lives in DHA Lahore |
| (viii) | Flying Officer | Jaweed Ahsan, lmtiazi Sanad SI (M) | GD (P) | Retd as Air Commodore lives in DHA Lahore |
Role of the Squadron
4. (a) The squadron was catering to the intelligence needs of two countries; who had diverse interests, the US element consisting of RBs 57B 51-1536, 51-1573 and later RB 57Fs 286 & 287 were flown by the PAF air crew to carry out Telemetry Electronic Intelligence “TELINT” against USSR.
(b) The other two aircraft RB57Bs i.e. 954 and 961 were fitted with special equipment to carry out EILNT operations against India; they were also capable of carrying 40″ focal length cameras for photography of intended targets, but only obliquely.
5. Telemetry Intercepts of USSR
The missions with the two RB57Fs, were flown at about 65,000 feet AMSL, by the crew donning, full pressure suits, high over the Pamirs in the northern area closer to USSR.
6. ELINT Against India
The PAF owned aircraft flew at various heights up to about 45,000 AMSL depending upon the nature of the mission to find the location of various types of radars deployed by India on Pakistan’s border starting from north to Rann of Kutch in the South. With the help of these two Aircraft, an up to date Order of Battle of the IAF radars both high powered high level and the low powered / low level was maintained during peace, as well as during hostilities.
7. Photo Reconnaissance
Both the PAF aircraft numbering 954 and 961, had the capability of mounting 40″ focal length cameras fitted with high quality focusing and imaging lenses which were mounted obliquely in the bomb bay of the aircraft. These cameras could cover up to 30 NMS when flown at or about 40,000 AGL. Photography of border area starting in the north from Kargil up to Rann of Kutch in the south was periodically carried out. The imagery was furnished to Air Intelligence Directorate and to Terrain Section of Military Intelligence in GHQ. On the advice of M.I. Directorate, it was also given to the Survey of Pakistan for producing updated large scale maps of the Indo-Pak border. This photography went a long way to produce new updated 1″, 1/4″ maps of the border areas, as hitherto information avail- able was of only old vintage British era. Therefore No 24 Squadron contributed a lot in the effort of acquiring latest information for use by Pak Army to know about the Indian defence works which were continuously carried out along the Border. Information was also gathered about operational works which used to be added in various sectors along Indo-Pak border. The GHQ, whenever required requested PAF to cover an area of their interest to provide up-to-date photography, especially when Indian Army carried out large scale deployments in peace time exercises or during hos- the periods prior to Rann of Kutch and the Indo-Pak war of 1965. These sorties were flown with fighter escorts in sensitive areas such as Shakargarh / Pathankot bulge and also in Lahore sectors. Whenever there was a requirement, no hesitation was shown even to violate the mutually agreed 10 N.M’s lateral distance of flying close to Indo-Pak border. The Squadron crew never hesitated to fly in an unarmed RB57B at heights which were easily detectable by the hostile radars. At times the crew reported, flying along the border with PAF fighter escorts, seeing contrails of IAF fighters on parallel tracks on the other side. The IAF, however never dared to violate or attempt to shoot down the air- craft. These were interesting and exciting moments but missions were carried out in the true spirit of patriotism and display of courage: the very hallmark of PAF aircrew whether of bombers or fighters.
Replacement of Aircraft
8. In the last week of August, 1963, the Squadron Commander one day came to the crew room and told the pilots/navigators to check validity of their passports and those who did not have, were to fill the forms available in the Squadron Orderly Room and hand over to the Adjutant for obtaining International Passports. He also told that soon the whole Squadron which included the Pilots/Navigators, Engineering officers and the maintenance personnel were to proceed to USA for training on new aircraft which were to replace the already held two US owned RB57Bs numbering 1536 and 1573. The reason for replacement which we learnt later, was that the usefulness of “TELINT” which was collected by 24 Squadron was of such a great value, that the US scientists developed more thirst for additional information and wanted total coverage of telemetry of the Soviet rocket launches from “Tyuratam” to get full benefit from such intelligence. The “TELINT” intercepted with the help of RB57Bs, which could not fly high enough because of limitation of their service ceiling, needed to be enhanced by collecting additional data through full intercepts of rocket engine telemetry to know the performance capabilities of the Soviet ICBMS.
9. In October of 1962, the Fort Worth Division of General Dynamics was given a contract for the manufacture of two redesigned aircraft under the designation of RB57F the. aircraft was powered by a pair of 18000 lb. s.t Pratt & Whitney TF-33- P-lla turbofan engines which gave the RB57F more than twice the power of its parent B57. In addition, provision was made for a pair of 3300 lb.s.t Pratt & Whitney J-60-P-9 turbojet engine housed in a detach- able pod to be mounted underneath each wing. These auxiliary engines did not have ground starters, and were air started in flight after wind milling up to 12% rpm, they remained at idling upto 32,000 feet altitude from there onward throttling control started responding. Full throttles on these engines could only be used at altitudes above 40,000 feet. The J- 60s added approximately 2500 feet to the maximum ceiling. Combined power of the main engines and the auxiliaries increased the ceiling to above 68,000′ A.M.S.L. The aircraft payload capability was also enhanced which enabled the scientists, to fit much more sophisticated equipment better than what was earlier installed in RB5Bs. The cockpit space remained the same as standard B-57, however the aircraft was provided with a modified Lear MC-1 autopilot to help over come fatigue factor, as endurance of these aircraft was increased in the range of 9 to 10 hours; depending on the height of its operation. The first prototype RB57F flew on 23 June, 1963. Such were the extent of modifications that new serial numbers for fiscal year 1963 were assigned to the modified version. The first two rebuilt aircraft were numbered 63-286, 63-287 and sent to Flight Test Centre at Edwards Air Force Base, California for trials.
10. Trip to USA
In early October, 1963 the Squadron got marching order to proceed to USA on board a special USAF C-97 aircraft which arrived at Peshawar to take all aircrew and maintenance officers including tech- May 12. In February 1964 the two airnicians, directly to Fort Worth Texas. Where the new aircraft was being modified/manufactured. This was the same Factory where later the US Defence Secretary, Mr. McNamara’s famous version of versatile but controversial F&B Ills, and then the F-16s, were manufactured. It was a huge facility spread over many square miles. The Assembly Hanger had six parallel side by side tracks, but was lying empty with just two RB57Fs standing all alone. Seeing this colossal facility, one realized why the US military/industrial duo needed to contrive conflict environments in the world, to pro- vide sorely needed jobs and also to keep their huge industrial juggernaut going to sustain their weapons based export oriented industry
11. At Fort Worth plant, the Squadron personnel were split into two groups i.e the aircrew and the engineers. The aircrews were given a short MTD type orientation about basics of aircraft and were then sent to Edwards AFB, where the aircraft moved. Flying was done simultaneously with the trials of the aircraft fit- ted with all sorts of monitoring devices and weird wiring. This was done to cut down trial / conversion duration, to enable the aircraft operations to be started from Peshawar in the fastest possible time. The PAF engineering contingent remained at Fort worth plant to undergo maintenance training in the Factory where all the technically sophisticated work- shops existed for thorough training in airframe, engines, navigation/communication equipment. Since the maintenance of special “TELINT” equipment to be fitted on the aircraft was the responsibility of the US personnel, training of that portion was skipped for the PAF crew. After completion of training the PAF contingent returned to Peshawar and awaited arrival of the RB57Fs.
12. In February 1964 the two-air craft landed at Peshawar ferried by USAF crew and handed over to No 24 Squadron without any pump and show obviously for the security rea- sons. After necessary changes in the markings of aircraft from that of USAF to PAF, they were quickly inducted on regular flying duties in the Pakistani environment. The older RB57Bs i.e. 536 and 573 were with- drawn and taken back to the US. Since the “F” model was built around the old fuselage of B57 it had acquired a peculiar shape. Because of less height but very large wings of 122′ span, which contained fuel tanks as well as very sensitive sophisticated antennas mounted in their tips to pick up telemetry. While parked on the Tarmac with full fuel, its wing tip ground clearance was very marginal. Taxying the aircraft from parking to the take off point on the runway, entailed traversing the uneven sur- face at very slow speed; even then sometime the aircraft tips would touch the ground. To avoid damage, the tips’ undersides were fitted with wooden skids for this purpose. Other distinct feature of the aircraft was its very pronounced big tail plane which had longer than usual empennage.
13. The extended wing of honey-comed design gave added strength which enabled it to carry two main turbofan and two addition- al detachable under slung turbojet engines. The aircraft had elongated tapered nosecone for installation of forward mounted antenna for ILS landing-aid. The usual rotary Bombay door was replaced with detach- able external aluminum panels of light weight metal which could easily be removed to allow installation of an over sized pressurized capsule having state of the art TELINT receiver equipment which included large size magnetic tape recorders to record Telemetry. This equipment manufactured “HRB SINGER” a hitherto very less known firm which specialized in development and manufacture of highly sophisticated secret equipment for its main customer the NSA (National Security Agency). The extant of sophistication of this equipment can be judged by its capability to pick up signals from hundreds of miles away and get triggered automatically for recording of the very special coded missile telemetry of the Soviet missile rockets when aircrafts large wing mounted antennas were kept in straight and level condition pointing towards the launch site.
14. The aircraft’s power/weight ratio was highly biased towards power, therefore its “Take Off” was very spectacular. It took a very short run to get airborne. While taking off from runway 35 at Peshawar by the time it reached University Road; it use to attain height in excess of 2000′ and looked like a speck of small cloud rising upward, this was because of its silver colour and large size. No body could resist watching this fortress climbing in almost vertical attitude. The maximum IAS of the aircraft was designed to be kept below 140 knots in all phases of flights. The high angle of climb was a necessity as otherwise the aircraft could easily exceed its laid down speed limit because of its powerful engines. The US contingent of air crew and some skeleton maintenance staff who had come with the aircraft were very impressed with its speedy induction in the PAF and they left back home earlier than they had planned. This certainly was a great tribute to the skill and professionalism of the air crew and the maintenance personnel of No 24 Squadron.
15. Initially two aircraft 286, 287 were brought to Pakistan, but after seeing 100% El almost serviceability/availability of the air- craft, the Americans decided to pull out 287 from Pakistan under the pretext of carrying out further modifica- a- tions but actually this aircraft was assigned to No 7407 Combat Support Wing at Rhein-main in West Germany, for identical tasks against WARSAW pact countries including European part of Russia. This air- craft was intercepted on 16th December, 1965 by the Soviets and was hit by a much improved surface to air missile and fell in the Black Sea “Adiou Comrade”.
16. RB57F’s ‘TELINT’ Operations
The RB57F use to remain on 24 hours alert along with standby air and ground crew, ready to be launched within one hour of the scramble call. The flying was carried out by donning tailor made Full Pressure suits which were of the same material, quality and design as those used by the “Astronauts”. These were meant to protect the lives of the aircrew in case the air- craft cockpit pressurization failed during flight, as the missions were mostly flown at or above 65,0000 AMLS. It may be noted that the physiological problems faced by the human body at such heights are similar to those encountered by the space crew. The Squadron had about 20 such pressure suits. The Americans, cost conscious as they are, had attached price tags. Each suit at that time cost approximate 25,000 US dollars. The total price of 20 was 1⁄2 million Dollars. The American supply officer had put the following caption outside the L.S.E room.
“THE MOST EXPENSIVE WARDROBE EAST OF SUEZ”
This certainly was a misnomer as this wardrobe had limited use. The suit, had to be taken off immediately after landing. The aircrew 6 had to carry a small portable air- condition unit hooked to the suit which was connected by the ground crew immediately after the aircrew came out of the Air-conditioned cockpit. Since the suit was completely sealed; you can imagine walking around in this during summer season of Peshawar where temperatures most of the day in summer exceeded 35° C.
17. Telemetry Interception
RB57F which was the property of US was fitted with SECRET “TELINT” equipment. This aircraft” in collaboration with U.S 6937th Communication Wing located at PAS (Peshawar Air Station) Badaber, was used to carry out their missions to intercept coded telemetry of missiles launches from Tyuratam cosmodrome which was spread over many square kilometers with centre at (45° 54’N and 63 ° 18’E) close to northern tip of Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. The quality of telemetry needed to be intercepted and automatically recorded by the RB57F was possible, only by a high flying aircraft from Northern Area of Pakistan, because of its proximity and suitability of parallel track essential for precision intercept of the most critical phase of “missile launch transmissions” from their “Lift Off” to separation of powered rocket engines after their burnout, which used to falloff from the dummy war head, whose intended impact area used to be in the Pacific Ocean; north or north east of Japan. The special Telemetry which used to be recorded on large size tapes located in the belly of the aircraft were immediately unloaded on landing, by US personnel working with Squadron, and after initial verification they were flown by the fastest means to National Security Agency HQs at Fort Mead Maryland USA, for their decoding and speedy interpretation. This vital information collected in Pakistan was of great national security interest to US. This information used to be deciphered to obtain needed parameters of soviet ICBM rockets which gave information about their power output, payload capabilities, ranges and calculation of their navigational trajectories, which enabled the US Scientists to determine circles of probability of their possible impact points on CONUS strategic targets. This information thus collected from Pakistan also helped US in improving their own rocket engines as initially Soviets had edge over the Americans in this field at that time. The maiden space flight of “Urigagrin” had given Jitters to Americans. The US President John. F. Kennedy had promised not only to catch up; but to surpass Soviets in the shortest possible time. In this big power rivalry, Pakistan was helping America to gather intelligence which they could not have obtained from any alternative site because of geostrategic position. The importance of missions for Americans was probably not fully known to Pakistan’s decision makers and thus no significant military or economic advantages, commensurate with the enormous importance of the work, we had done was obtained by our leader- ship in the 60s, unlike West Germany, Turkey and South Korea who also helped America in this type of work during cold war era but obtained much more potent gains through development of their infrastructures which greatly helped their economies.
18. Jamming of Indian Air Force R/T
(a) On 6th September, 1965; onward, the entry of US personnel (working with Squadron), in Peshawar Base was stopped. No more missions against Soviet missile launches were flown from that date on ward. On 6th of September the Squadron Commander of No 19 Squadron assembled his pilots, in the Air-conditioned crew room of No 24 Squadron for briefing of preemptive strike against IAF Base Pathankhot with eight F86Fs. Flight Lieutenant Tassawar Elahi Piracha and Flying Officer Jaweed Ahsan of No 24 Squadron were also sitting in the same aircrew room when the briefing was carried out for this mission and heard the full details of the Hi-Lo-Hi profile of flight against Pathankhot. Flight Lieutenant Piracha had very attentively listened to the whole briefing and later pre- pared Nav cards for the use of the strike pilots. He being an ex F86F pilot, knew dangers and the importance of this mission. His attentive- ness proved to be great boon in saving the lives of aircrew of No 19 Squadron from Indian Air Force interception or possible failure of the mission which could have resulted in fatalities of own pilots. How it happened the details are as follows:-
(b) No 215 R&D Squadron based in Peshawar, had developed an Airborne VHF R/T Jammer to be used during actual hostilities only. On 6th September 1965,. this prototype Jammer was installed on RB57F No 286 which was to be used against the R/T transmissions of Indian ground based radars whose GCI call signs were already known through earlier ELINT missions carried out by RB 57B numbering 954, 961 (the PAF owned Aircraft of No 24 Squadron ). The RB 57F piloted by Flying Officer Jaweed Ahsan and Flight Lieutenant Tassawar Elahi Piracha in the back seat were given the task of flying at about 45000 feet south of Sargodha on a circular track for detecting the VHF transmission frequency of the high Powered P-35, Indian Air Force radar located on the outskirts of Amritsar: through manual selection of VHF R/T band, the transmission frequency of the radar needed to be detected. This was done by turning the frequency wheel fraction by fraction, listening to R/T talk and recognizing the call sign to know its source. The ground transmission was then required to be Jammed as briefed by 215 Squadron sleuths, using the air-borne RB 57F installed Jammer. This jammer was indigenously developed by the then so called whiz kids of 215 Squadron namely Squadron. Leader Ali, Flight Lieutenant M. S. Khan and Flight Lieutenant Sibtain. This equipment was earlier never tested during peacetime because of “SECURI- TY”. The No 24 Squadron crew, as mentioned above had taken off at 1530 hrs on 6th September, 1965 to remain “on station” as long as required, late into dark hours of the night. The duration of this day and night mission lasted for four hours thirty minutes. The RB57F landed back when all the 1st days’ strike missions intended to be launched on preemptive 1st strike of Indian Air Force bases at Adampur, Halwara, Pathankhot and Amritser radar returned home. These strikes were meant to give crippling blow to the Indian Air Force as most of the aircraft on these airfields’ tarmacs were parked in Wing tip to Wing tip position in close proximity openly on the tarmacs or in sand bagged temporary shelters: as at that time neither PAF nor the Indian Air Force had built concrete covered pens. But unfortunately because of blunders of PAF Mauripur and Sargodha on 6th September 1965 the details of which are now part of the PAF History, the missions from the PAF Base Sargodha which were to spearhead the counter Air Operations with 22 F 86s could send only paltry three (3) aircraft across the border piloted by (Squadron Leader Sarfraz Rafiqui, Flight Lieutenant Younas Hussain & Flying officer Cecil Chaudhry) two of whom met martyrdom in enemy territory, Cecil the sole survivor returned home. The only successful strike mission was that of No 19 Squadron from Peshawar which attacked Pathankhot. The success of this mission earned No 19 Squadron Aircrew 6 Sitara-i-Jurats, this would not have been possible if the attention and initiative of RB57F aircrew of No 24 Squadron had not foiled the Indian Air Force interception of No 19 Squadron air- craft: which were detected by “Amritsar Radar” much before their descent to low level final run to Pathankhot:. The Amritsar CGI controller, judging by their last position at height and track before descent to low level knew that the mission could be headed to Pathankhot. The controller thus started vectoring the Indian Air Force interceptors (who were earlier airborne from Halwar/ Adampur) towards Pathankhot. At this stage the “Jammer” installed in the air- craft was turned on to Jam Amristar GCI’s transmissions. But it was a surprise as the noise generated by the airborne Jammer was like mewing of a cat in front of the roar of a lion. The RB57F aircrew quickly appreciated that this technique of jamming was totally ineffective. Through mutual consultation the aircrew decided to interfere through “voice transmission by mimicking the controller’s voice, Ahsar misdirected the Indian Air Force air craft away from the easterly direction by telling them to head South West (the actual vectors were given to Ahsan by Piracha who had the area map in front of him in the rea cockpit) to intercept mass-raid coming towards their home base Halwara/Adampur from Sargodha. The IAF’s interceptor leader, in utter confusion of getting two diagonally apposite vectoring instructions was so annoyed, that he started exchanging abusive language with the controller, and in this atmosphere of extreme hostility, towards each other, decided to abandon the mission. Some aircraft in the mean- time started giving low fuel calls as they had been, flying at deck level with full throttles. This “calling off” the interception, provided respite to No 19 Squadron who had “HAY- DAY” to achieve an uninterrupted leisurely two or may be three pass- es over the Target which resulted in destruction of almost Thirteen Indian aircraft on the ground on that day in Pathankot.
The RB57F crew after remaining on station for 4 1⁄2 hours returned to Peshawar where they found pilots of 19 Squadron in a very jovial mood and were lavishly celebrating their success under their Squadron Commander’s leadership.
19. The Bomber aircrew in their usual habit of soberity and high sense of sacrifice decided not to disclose what had happened earlier in the air which had resulted in safe return of all the 19 Squadron pilots. This incident has remained unmentioned in the written History of PAF; but it is about time that it is high- lighted even though 46 years have passed so as to put the whole truth in right perspective.
20. Pathfinder Roles of No 24 Squadron
The high powered Indian GCI mobile Radar equipped with Soviet origin P-35 was stationed close to Amirtser airfield, but its location was interpreted through signal intercepts and calculated to be within a circle of probability of about 2 NMs. Being a small pinpoint target it was very difficult to hit with guns/rockets of F86F aircraft. Incidentally it was No 24 Squadron which had earlier detected its approximate location sband its type through repeated RB57B (ELINT missions.) the F-86 strike missions flown earlier were unsuccessful due to one or the other reasons and PAF had lost a very popular figure (Flight Lieutenant Bha Muneer) to the heavy Ack Ack defending the radar, therefore, Squadron Leader M Iqbal and Flight Lieutenant G.A. Khan in their RB57B flew a mission to deter- mine exact location of the site as the Indians had put dummy antennas around the actual position, RT 33’s photo was of not great help. During this mission the RB57 was hit by ground fire over the radar and returned home only with one engine as the other engine had to be switched off in the air because of the damage sustained.
21. Shahadat of Squadron Commander
Squadron Leader M. Iqbal the Squadron Commander along with a brilliant navigator Flight Lieutenant Saifullah Khan Lodhi, on 11th September, 1965 decided to practice and refine the procedure of newly assigned role of path finding as it was envisaged that from then onward this would become a normal practice against Indian radar sites deployed at various places along the border. These radars needed to be destroyed to give respite to PAF fighter bombers at a later stage of PAF operations (Close Air sup- port to Pak Army over Battle area) in critical Lahore and Sialkot sectors, where Indians were poised to launch their massive ground attacks to defeat Pak Army confronting them.
22. To determine the actual position of radar site the RB57B was practicing to note the precise behaviour of received signal “lobe” depicted on the Scope fit- ted in the back seat of the air- craft. This practice was decided to be carried out on a small PAF radar located at Rahwali (Pakistan) the RB57B aircrew must have got the shock of their lives when they encountered intense Ack Ack fire from the site of friendly radar below. The air- craft was hit; the pilot Squadron Leader Iqbal ejected but was still fired upon and received the fatal bullet during parachute descent. A single 20 mm round entered below his chin and came out of his head. The navigator who was glued to his radar scope monitoring the behavior of received transmissions in the rear cockpit covered with curtain to darken the scope, had no chance and went down with the aircraft. Luckily the aircraft did not catch fire and after crash his body was also retrieved but minus his head. Martyr’s bodies were brought by helicopter to the home base Peshawar. Both were posthumously awarded the Sitar-i-Jurats and are now resting in their eternal abodes in their home towns of of Sialkot and Faisalabad.
23. The Squadron continued to fly with RB57F against Indian GCI transmissions but with less and less fruitful results as the Indians had quickly and correctly assessed the incident of 6th September’s R/T interception and decoy calls by RB57F. They took corrective measures by not using one frequency for GCI purpose for longer period but through coded language changed channels repeatedly (at great inconvenience to the pilots & controllers) and therefore no meaningful and cohesive conversation was now being picked up by PAF aircraft and thus no interference of significance could be carried out in the later days of the short lived war. However the RB57B, continued to keep PAF informed of the order of battle of Indian Air Force radars throughout the war and later even after the ceasefire. These missions continued to be carried out till the number plating of the Squadron and even much later. The sole remaining aircraft No 954 was later sent to No 7 Squadron at Mauripur where it was parked inside the main hanger, instead of the covered pen in dispersal area of the base and was destroyed by direct hit on the hanger during IAF’s air strike in 1971 war.
Goodbye Trusted Warrior.
24. Unconventional use of RB57F
As mentioned earlier, RB57F was US property and was fitted with special equipment meant to pick up missile telemetry of Soviet rocket launches from Tyuratam range in Kazakhstan. In 1965 war it was used in a limited role of monitoring Indian GCI R/1 transmissions and interference, this was rendered in effective after 6th September due to Indians timely corrective measures. The crew of No 24 Squadron felt very frustrated that in spite of having an aircraft of such tremendous capability of flying long durations at great heights it could not be used in any useful aggressive manner in 1965. Because of US modifications in “F” model it was completely devoid of its bombing capabilities.
25. Employment of RB57F after the ceasefire of 1965 war
The crew of No 24 Squadron, after many days’ discussion reached a consensus that this high flying aircraft could be used to carry out photography of all the tactical and strategic targets: located all over India including hither-to inaccessible areas in the eastern, southern and western parts of this huge country. The Air Headquarters was approached to get approval, for modifications in the aircraft to make it worthy for photo reconnaissance which was readily given.
26. Modifications of RB57F
The squadron already had two 40″ focal length cameras meant for use with PAF owned RB57B i.e. 954, 961. To use these cameras with RB57F, some necessary mechanical/optical modifications were needed to be carried out in the aircraft:-
(a) Installation of strong lugs and harness to keep the two cameras at slight angle to each other securely mounted and still in the hollow of bomb bay in vertical position while in flight (This was needed to get wider overlapping photo coverage).
(b) Development of pressurized casings for both the cameras to keep them operative in extreme low temperature and atmospheric pressures.
(c) Development of camera sight to be mounted on the right hand side of congested pilot’s seat, clear enough not to come in the way, in case of needed ejection.
(d) Cutting of large enough portion of the pressurized fuselage below the Pilots’ seat in the cockpit to accommodate the sight for viewing ground directly under the belly of the aircraft.
(e) Finding and fitting of strong transparent glass plate able to retain cockpit pressurization and with-stand high forces, ordinary thick glass was found to be unfit and would break when the climbed aircraft through 40,000’AMLS during the trial.
27. These were some of the technical challenges which needed to be over come before the aircraft could be put to use in photo recon- naissance role. The Squadron air- crew and the engineering Officers started to work day and night to carry out all the tasks mentioned above simultaneously to make the aircraft operational and put to use in the shortest possible time: to beat the anticipated dead line of stop- page of over flights on each other’s country which was bound to happen in case of ceasefire agreement between Pakistan and India. As hot news of tripartite talks. between USSR, India and Pakistan were scheduled to take place soon at Tashkent. The squadron had two capable engineering officers Flight Lieutenant Maqsood Ahmed and Flying Officer Akram Khan Niazi, who with the help of No 102 MU at PAF Drigh Road completed all modifications successfully. The RT-33 plate was used to overcome earlier difficulty of breakage of cockpit pressurization retention glass.
28. The development of aircraft sight and its installation in the air- craft took a little more time. However here the ingenuity of Flight Lieutenant Fazal Hussain GD (P) who had great natural aptitude and instinct of tempering and experi- menting with various gadgets, bore fruit. He was able to develop the sight with the help of dismantled old epidiascopes which were used in the 50s in RPAF College Risalpur class rooms for projection of charts / pictures on the boards. Fazal setup an open Air laboratory in front of the crew room. He put various lenses and parts of the epidiascope at various lateral intervals on two or three ordinary moveable wooden benches increasing/decreasing their distances to produce focused image on the ground glass held on the opposite end of the “LENSE”. Lo and behold in a few days, a sight “Made in 24 Squadron” was ready to be put in a cylindrical casing of adequate size to fit in the aircraft cockpit. A flexible black cloth visors was put on top to enable the Pilot to clearly see the projected inverse image of the ground immediately below the aircraft in clear recognizable condition. One might ask why such a contraption was needed? The answer is quite obvious to those who are familiar with flying at great heights. At 65,000′, AGL while flying straight and level the nearest place visible to an aircrew on the sides of the cambered fuselage would be in excess of 12 NMS. To be able to take vertical photos of latterly spread area in the range of 6-8 miles on the sides, which is normally the area of interest at an air base; it is very important to align the air- craft for photography, by keeping the Runway in the middle of sight screen. By the time these modifications were done and the experimental flight proved successful, the Indo-Pak war had already come to The Squadron, abrupt stop. informed the Air Headquarters, that the RB57F was ready to undertake photo reconnaissance of all the Indian air force bases starting in the north going to east, south and west as well as, other tactical /strategic targets i.e. cantonments, shipyards, ordinance factories, and even nuclear installations of Bhabha atomic centre at Bombay.
29. The Air Headquarters, authorized initially, to photograph rear and forward Bases located in the northern part of India, contiguous to Indo-Pak border. The first mission was flown on 16th October, 1965, piloted by Squadron Leader Mir Rashid the then Squadrona Commander and navigated by Flying Officer Sultan Malik.
30. The aircraft took off early and headed north east to “Leh” in ladakh, after the indo chines skirmishes in 1962, this airfield had assumed great importance. Its run- way was extended to 14,000 feet because of its high elevation. The Americans had helped India in this task, to enable it to operate all types of aircraft whenever needed. After photographing “Leh” following the crest of Himalyaya, the aircraft turned west and appeared over the sky of “Brailly Airfield”. The idea of following this route was to give complete surprise to the Indians. After “Brailly” it was the turn of “AGRA” which was the home base of IAF Canberras. It was spread over large area having numerous large/ small hangers and work- shops: here all the buildings and even the runway were painted with camouflage colour. A clear evidence of the importance given to the small but potent threat posed by the PAF B57s. Then “Hindon” a big fighter base close to Ghaziabad east of Delhi, its primary role being air defence of the Capital. Next was “Ambala” which was extensively used by IAF for air operations Pakistan. against Photographs revealed the damage caused by No 31 Wing PAF through stream of night attacks on the base by the B57S throughout the period of hostilities. Over. Ambala, the Indians fired salvo of SA-2 missiles at RB57F. There was no direct hit, however proximity/terminal explosions below and on the sides of the aircraft had extensively damaged the airframe. Due to extreme buffeting encountered, the two auxiliary turbo Jet J-60 engines flamed out and the aircraft started loosing height. But the two main turbo turbofan TF-33 engines kept operating normally, the loss of height was insignificant to pose threat to the aircraft by a large number of IAF fighters hovering below the aircraft. The although shaken by this sudden development kept their wits and handled the emergency in a very professional manner. It will not be out of place to mention here the procedure which was adopted by the pilot for photo missions. The cameras’ Sight was fixed on the right side of the cockpit slightly ahead of the pilot’s ejection seat. In order to use the sight the pilot had to fully loosen his lap belt and the shoulder harness, put his right leg on the left and bend down as far as possible and pull the sight’s flexible visor close to his pressure suit “face plate” for viewing the ground immediately below the aircraft for proper alignment with the runway and then commence the photography. For this phase of flight, the air- craft had to be put on “Autopilot” so as to have his hands free for operation of alignment, keeping the visor close to his eyes and operating Cameras controls for photo- graphing the target areas. At “Ambala” while busy in this activity the explosions occurred which violently shook and buffeted the air- craft, this all happened when the pilot was sitting with loose seatbelt, his head hit the aircraft canopy which dazed him for a while. But even in this condition he did not forget to put autopilot on “NAV Mode” this transferred the aircraft control to rear cockpit: where the navigator promptly fed the direction and distance of Peshawar in the inertial navition system. The air- craft responded marvelously and maneuvered itself to head home. The pilot quickly recovered crossed over to Pakistan and started descent to lower level to enable the RB57B, the buddy aircraft piloted by Flt Lt Mehmood Uz Zaman to inspect the aircraft and advise about the surface damage. The large size empennage was stuck awkwardly to one side however its adverse effect was not felt as the autopilot had countered its lateral deflection by adjusting the ailerons position and kept the aircraft straight on course. With this knowledge, the pilot took wise decision, descended to low level, kept air- craft on auto pilot and established a long straight in approach for run- way 35 at Peshawar and delayed taking the aircraft out of Autopilot mode” as long as possible. The approach speed was kept low to reduce the adverse effect of misplaced empennage. The aircraft touchdown in the beginning of run- way, its initial approach speed and direction kept it on the main runway for a while, but then it swerved to the right into “Kucha” and came to rest on its right wingtip where the installed wooden skid prevented wingtip damage. The CAS air Marshal Nur Khan along with other senior officers was present on the Tarmac watching and praying for the safety of both the aircrew and the aircraft. Luckily the aircraft did not catch fire as the pilot earlier had dumped the extra fuel in the air before landing. Cameras were immediately unloaded, films were rushed to Air Headquarters Central Photo laboratory where they were processed and hundred of photo- graphs were sorted out under the supervision of late Sqn Ldr M Saeed (Fatso) who was the assistant Director, (photo reccee) in the ops branch. The important prints were enlarged and handed over to Air Intelligence Directorate where through photo interpretation maxi- mum Intelligence was derived.
The damaged aircraft was put in hanger for necessary repair with the help of “Rail Trolley” developed exclusively for parking of large sized RB57F under the roof. The need for installing “Rail Track” in the hanger arose because of the large span of aircraft as it could not go inside the hanger width wise due to smaller entrance doors. Length wise the hanger was big enough to accommodate the Aircraft. It used to be pulled on top of a special trolley with the help of a tractor; outside in the open space adjacent to western side of the hanger and then pushed/pulled as needed manually. To repair the damage it took Fifteen days’ round the clock work by the maintenance crew to finish necessary repairs of damaged empennage and the honey-combed wing sections and surface areas. The PAF had no earlier experience of this type of repair work therefore the services of PIA personnel were After acquired for this purpose. repair the aircraft was ready to embark on flight. It was flown on 2nd November, 1965 by Squadron Leader Mir Rashid and Flight Lieutenant Tassawar Elahi Piracha for about 3 1⁄2 hours on a test flight to check all aspects including photographic mode so as to declare it ready for further photo missions against India. After thorough checks and further necessary tinkering of minor nature which continued till the aircraft was completely fit for flying. Air Headquarters gave approval to undertake another marathon mission to photograph in one go the airfields of Jodhpur, Bikaner, uttarlai, Ahmedabad, Dwarka coast, Jamnagar and Bhuj. All these air fields/installation are located in the southern sector of Pakistan. On 14th December, 1965, the RB57F majestically took off from Peshawar with Squadron Leader Rashid and Flight.
Lieutenant Tassawar Elahi Piracha to head straight for Jodhpur. It was a clear crispy day ideal for photography, the mission started very methodically and with professional efficiency it took photographs of all the targets as planned by the air- crew. The flight throughout was being monitored by Badin radar. When flying over Jamnagar the air- crew noticed few small specks with long contrails below the aircraft which were also on the scope of our Indomitable Badin Radar. Wing Commander M M Hassan GD (P) (later rose to the rank of Air Marshal and served as VCAS with CAS ACM Zulfiqar) was himself watching the scope. Those specks were Indian fighters whose pilots were looking up helplessly at the PAF aircraft which was carrying out its mission without any consternation. You can imagine the amount of frustration it must have caused to IAF hierarchy who were aware of what was happening deep inside the Mother India. As feared at Tashkent talks Pakistan agreed to stop over flights of India, in fact this was the first item of agreement of the agenda, taken up forcefully by the Indian delegation. If the implementation of this could have been delayed, Pakistan would have acquired treasure of information through photography of vital areas of whole of India. After implementation of this agreement only limited area was photographed from time to time to monitor enforcement of ceasefire by both sides along the borders of Indo- Pak border. Finally in July, 1966, the American aircrew came to Pakistan and took the RB57 F back to US. A bright chapter in the life of No 24 Sqn ended, with only one Aircraft left it was decided by the air Headquarters to number plate the squadron in 1967 with the transfer of its sole survival 954 to No 7 Sqn at PAF Mauripur.
| BIBLOIGRAPHY / REFERENCES |
| 1. The United States and Pakistan 1947-2000 Disenchanted ALLIES (ISBN019579656X) By Dennis Kux -Oxford University press |
| 2. The story of the Pakistan Air Force A saga of courage and honour Published by shaheen foundation Islamabad, Pakistan Copy right 1988 |
| 3. Flight of the falcon By S Sajjad Haider |
| 4. Flying Log Books Air Cdre STE Piracha & Air Cdre Jaweed Ahsan PAF (Retd) |
| 5. Martin B-57 Canberra Chapter 8 General dynamic PB57F http//www.csd.uwo.ca/pettypi/elevow/baugher-us/b057-08.html |
| 6. Martin B-57 Canberra-Chapter 10 B57 with Pakistan http:/www.csd.uwo.ca/pettypi/elevow/baugher-us/b057-10.html |
| 7. Martin B-57 canberra-Chapter 4 B57 page 7 of 10, page 8 of 10, page 9 of 10. |
| 8. Baiknur cosmodrome 45.9N63.03 E Sources and resources Adopted from: Europe and Asia in space 1993-1994 Nicolas and David rodvold (Karman sciences/ Air force Phillips libratory) File://c:\windows\desktop\space\hannew site information baikanur.htm. |
| 9. Unit History-6937th Communication group, pas, Peshawar Pakistan http://693750 megs.Com/unit history/html |
| 10. Telemetry Analysis- central intelligence Agency Mhtml:file://G:\Badaber%20presentation\Badaber%20work\ Telemetry%20A 10/13/2011 |
| 11. Electronic Intelligence (Elint) by NSA Richard L Bernard Centre for crypto logic history national security Agency 2009 |
| 12. Personal first hand knowledge of Air Cdr STE Piracha. He was a Crew member posted in 24 Sqn for the period covered in the write up. |
Early Story of th No. 24 Squadron, PAF
Appendix to History of 24 Sqn.
Nostalgia be my friend!
On 1st May, 1960, a US U-2 piloted by Gary Powers was shot down by Surface to Air missile (SA-2) high flying rockets at about 70,000 feet in the heart of USSR. He had taken off from PAF Peshawar.. The Russians were obviously very angry and warned Pakistan that they had put Red Mark around Peshawar on the map and they would punish Pakistan severely in the event of recurrence of this nature. America had established an air station at Badaber near Peshawar in 1959. After this incident, President Ayub told the Americans to close down this base immediately and stop U-2 flights from Pakistan. This was a very serious setback for the U.S. But after hectic US-Pakistan diplomatic discussions, Pakistan agreed to do the job which was more important than U-2: which was only used for photographing of various areas/targets in USSR.
In mid of August 1962, President Ayub went to Canada on a state visit but it was a cover for his subsequent short trip to Hyannisport, U.S.A. in Cape Cod area, where President Kennedy was staying at his family home to recover from a serious back bone injury. This was a contrived visit to inquire about the health of U.S. President; whereas actually it was an occasion to sign an Agreement between Pakistan and U.S.A. to carry out special ELINT operations against USSR. On this occasion, President Ayub and Jackie Kennedy went on that famous horse ride on the Hyannisport beach which was splashed across the world press.
Wing Commander M. Khaquan Abbasi (later Air Commodore) was the commanding officer of No. 31 Wing PAF-the B-57 outfit. I happened to be serving in that Wing at that time. By the way he was my old flying instructor at RPAF College Risalpur in 1952 and was quite fond of me. One day in late August, 1962, I was scheduled to fly as a Navigator with him from PAF Mauripur to Peshawar. Somewhere in the middle of the flight, he told me that he was taking me to Air Headquarters Peshawar to meet some very senior PAF officers in connection with a very important mission. He told me that Squadron Leader Muhammad Iqbal (then OC No. 8 Sqn PAF) and five B-57 Navigators including myself were to go to U.S.A. soon in connection with a very important training course of some 4-5 months and that on return, we would be rewarded very lavishly by being allotted paid high salaries, reserved houses with telephones and provided cars for pick and drop from residences to the office and back, etc. On reaching Peshawar, I was asked to suggest four other names of navigators who should go for training with me to U.S.A. This seemed most unusual to me being only a Flight Lieutenant myself. Anyway I suggested my own course-mate Flight Lieutenant Syed Ahmed, Flight Lieutenant Rass Masud, Flying Officer Saifullah Lodhi and Flying Officer G.A. Khan. My suggestion was accepted in full. The same afternoon, we returned back to PAF Mauripur.
I was specially cautioned by Wing Commander Abbasi not to divulge this information to anyone including my wife. However, he told me that from then on, we would be at a short notice to fly out of Pakistan to U.S.A. at a bare notice A. at of 24 to 401962 my eldest son 48 hours. Incidentally, on 31st August, Faisal Sultan was born and I was concerned on having to leave my wife and new first born behind while I was to go to USA for some considerable time! I spent a few anxious weeks awaiting the arrival of that short notice which finally arrived the 22nd/23rd October, 1962.
On 24th October, by a special USAF KC-135 Aircraft, we left from Karachi Airport for Adana Air force Base Turkey, from where we went to USAF Airbase Wiesbaden, West Germany. After an overnight stay there, we left for Washington D.C. where we landed in the evening at Andrews Air force Base on 25th October and stayed in Naval Officers’ Club. The next morning, we were checked in the Officers’ Club of U.S. Army Security Agency at Arlington Hall Station. Here we were given a set of four security cards which were the special security permits for different areas. We wore these around our neck covered under our shirt. Only one card was visible in front. Here we were met by two persons, one our instructor in charge a Major from the Air force and one Capt. La’fon ( an experienced Intelligence hand, who had served in Berlin as well) from the U.S. Army who acted as our driver as well as Liaison Officer. In the late evening of 26th October, we were taken for a cup of tea at the residence of Major General commanding the U.S. Army Security Agency, who briefed us about our mission in short. We were entertained by his kind wife to a sumptuous tea and cookies.
The next morning, our In charge told us regretfully that there would be some delay in the start of our briefings/training as they were very heavily occupied with the events unfolding at that time in connection with the Cuban Missile crisis. By the way, another world crisis also coincided with this time- in NEFA border of India when clashes took place between India and China over the disputed territory there.
In order to keep us busy and engaged, they came up with the idea of taking us for a 3/4 day trip from Washington to New York and then Boston and is back onto Washington. A special brand new 1963 model Ford Edsel was placed at our disposal and we were pampered in every manner. It was an excellent and enjoyable trip for all six of us because we drove through New England states at the peak of the fall season with the change in colour of the trees which presented a beautiful view to remember for life. Of course, Capt. La’fon (Bud) was our companion driver who was a very interesting person at the very least. At Boston, we were taken to a restaurant for the lunch which Bud told us was the place where the Kennedy Clan was known to hang around. We reached back in Washington late in the evening on a cold autumn. Bud decided to go to his house first to inform his wife and the children who were waiting for him to take them to a football game at their school in their hometown which was nearby. It may be noted that there were no mobile phones those days to facilitate family members to keep each other fully posted with all their movements. He held the hands of his wife and said: “Joanne, your hands are very cold!”. This was his way of expressing love for his wife. All of us had never forgotten that sentence spoken by Bud. He told his wife that he will be soon back to the house, after dropping us in the Officers’ Club which he did.
After a day or two, we flew from Washington D.C. to San Francisco Here, we were initially housed at the Naval Air station at Moffet Field Palo Alto but soon we were shifted to a single storey Holiday Inn Hotel these were early days of the “Holiday Inn” that became Chair later. The next day, our training started at Electronica Defence Laboratories (EDL) located inside the “Stanford University” campus. We used to go there at about 0900 A.M. and returned back at about 1100 P.M. Our trainers in electronics, intelligence and cipher etc. wore civilian clothed like us but were probably a mixture of the military and civilian teachers from the “Stanford University”. Dr. Perry was the head of EDL at that time, who I learnt became an Assistant Secretary of Defence and later rose to become Secretary of Defence. At one of the early training sessions, I enquired as to why were we being trained? To which I was told: “because the U.S. was lagging behind the Russians in the development of missile rockets and we are trying to monitor and copy their parameters of rockets so as to know their secrets and catch up with them”.
We had a retired Colonel as our local conducting officer who took great care to please us by taking us to nice and different expensive restaurants to eat, specially during the weekends. I remember having a sneaky look at the bill which was US$ 25 per person. Please remember that a decent meal could be had in a restaurant those days in 1962 at just US$ 5. One fine morning, we were also taken to a special restaurant named Alta Mira for a sumptuous breakfast while we had an excellent overview of the San Francisco Bay. This restaurant was some miles away on the other side of the famous Golden Gate Bridge. A very interesting occurrence took place when one of the two RB- 57B 51-1536 and 51-1537 were specially modified for the desired purpose, was flown to california from Texas for a physical view by Squadron Leader Iqbal and myself. We found that quite a few controls/switches had been somewhat awkwardly relocated in the cockpit to create place for the radar scope and control knobs (the primary equipment for recording the intercepted telemetry) in the rear seat of the navigator. Both Iqbal and I objected to the arrangements and rejected the modified locations. The Design Engineer and the conducting Colonel were aghast! However, they assured us that the location of the switches and indicators would be rearranged as desired by us after the Department of Defence (DOD) had reviewed and approved the changes. Meanwhile, we were asked to relax in the hotel and await further instructions. Later the Colonel Conducting Officer gleefully informed us that the needful would be done on the two RB-57Bs before their delivery to Peshawar – but at a cost of US$ 250,000 for each for these re-arrangements.
It was now the time for us to return back to Pakistan. It was suggested to us that we take the westerly route for our return to Karachi via Hawaii and Japan but we requested to be routed via Washington D.C. so that we could meet our Ambassador. (Factually, we made this suggestion to extend our stay in US for a few extra days so that the TA/DA and Salary etc could help the five navigators buy a Fiat 600 each instead of a Fiat 500! Iqbal already had a Fiat 1100 in Pakistan). We finally arrived back to Karachi by a commercial flight reaching on or about 25th November.
Since there was great urgency to form the Squadron at Peshawar at the earliest therefore, posting orders of all pilots and navigators and officers of all other branches, airmen and civilian employees were issued on top speed. Since Squadron Leader Iqbal had decided to travel to Peshawar by road in his car, he had not arrived there in time. It became my honour and duty as the senior most officer present to form and raise the Squadron at Peshawar on the morning of 5th December, 1962. Iqbal joined us a few days later.
Soon the two modified RB-57B (Numbering 51-1536 and 51-1573) aircraft were flown in from U.S.A. by American pilots and Navigators and handed over to the Squadron. One logistics officer of USAF named Mr. Hugh was assigned with us to handle/provide all that was needed with respect to logistics from a pin to a canopy. By the way, he was a huge person physically too! He was living at Badaber Air station but was working in the Squadron supply section. It was one of the most lavishly supported unit, because a spare or a few spares for each tiny part of the aircraft were kept in storage in our Squadron supply section so that there was not the least amount of delay in availability of any required part. There was always one spare engine two complete spare wings lying in store, in addition to many other necessary parts.
PAF was compensated in aid instead of heavy salaries to PAF Personnel in this Sqn. However, there were no reserved houses, no telephones and no cars etc. as against what had been told to us earlier. We were on our own, officers mostly on bicycles and every- one else on their two strong legs. A 1940 vintage Jeep arrived for our Squadron Commander. It was a shabby and a rickety piece, which I named as “MacArthur’s very own” I was residing with my family in the University Town Peshawar in a privately hired house, sharing the cost with another Wing Commander of the Air Headquarters.
Flying missions used to be generated at odd hours; while we were at the Squadron during the day, it did not matter much because we used to simply jump into the cock- pits and take off for long flights of 3 to 4 hours. But any call at right was a difficult preposition, as a noisy truck would suddenly show up at my house in the middle of night and I would quickly get into the flying suit and rush to the Squadron to fly the mission.
For the pilots, it was normal flying similar to that of B57Bs. Which they had earlier flown in 31 Wing, but navigator’s task was very difficult and tough. Firstly, the rear cock- pit was to be kept totally dark, covered with a retractable dark curtain to facilitate viewing of radar scope fitted there. Navigators’ responsibilities included normal navigation duties and additionally remaining constantly glued to the radarscope to observe and note the variations in blips which related to telemetry picked up from different stages of the flight of Russian Missiles. The observations were recorded on the tape recorders fitted in the aircraft. Every 10 minutes, we used to get ciphered Morse coded messages, which had to be decoded. These messages were given to warn us to keep the aircraft in straight and level attitude with antennas pointing to the Target Area. They were meant to keep us informed about the imminence of a missile launch/cancellation and/or any possible dangers to us from the Russian interceptors; since we used to always fly on the fringes of the USSR border. These missions of 3-4 hours were very stressful mentally and physically.
In private discussions, we were told by our superiors that as a compensation for the job being done by you; U.S.A. would provide F 104 to PAF and Patton tanks, to Pakistan Army. Both of which were very necessary for the defence of Pakistan. Every once in a while we were reminded to redouble our efforts fulfilling US requirement but interestingly we were also some- times told to slow down and not to work too hard. This corresponded to the ups and downs in diplomatic discussion between Pakistan and USA regarding the “swingin moods” about the speed in actualization of the promised supply of defence equipment for Pakistan.
One afternoon when Iqbal and my self landed after a mission, we were met by a young smiling officer from U.S. Badaber, as we got down from our cockpits. He congratulated us for the success of our missions and told us that we had been awarded “Purple Hearts” or some such Medal by President Kennedy for the excellent work done by us in our missions. We told him that it was none of our business to accept these honours, as such matters fall in the domain of foreign and defence ministries of the Government of Pakistan to whom the matter should be referred. We found out that we had captured fraction of the telemetry which was transmitted by a Russian Missile during its lift off from its launching prior to its impact somewhere North West of Japan in the Pacific impact area. So you can well imagine the importance of the contribution of No. 24 Squadron towards the overall objective of the U.S. By the way, in view of launch and impact points of Russian Missiles, the few natural geographical plat- forms in the air to do this monitoring work were operating from Germany, Turkey, South Korea, and Okinawa but the most important task was only possible from Pakistan because of its proximity to launching pads in center Asia.
(The cooperation between U.S.A. and Pakistan was named as “Friendship Team”). Since the mission was so important, it was decided by the PAF possibly as a commitment to U.S.A. that none of the flying crew i.e. pilots and navigators would be posted out of the Squadron as a routine. However, I was very lucky, when I became Squadron Leader on 11th July 1963 having become due for pro- motion since 11th June. I was suddenly selected to command an air defence observer unit at PAF Base Lahore with effect from 5th August, 1963. By the way, Lahore was a most unlikely place of post- ing, as no post of a GD Officer existed there earlier but lucky for me as one the units had been recently moved from Peshawar to Lahore in which there was a vacancy of a commanding officer of the rank of Squadron Leader of GD Branch. I had been specially selected on account of my professional record of service. It was of a double consequence of pleasure because my wife belongs to Lahore and there could have been no happier moments for her and her mother, when our posting to Lahore came about so soon after our marriage. Before this, occasionally I used to be asked by my mother-in-law as to whether or not I could be posted to Lahore, to which my blunt and categorical reply was always “No!” So her joy could well be imagined.
There was one very interesting anecdote of No. 24 Squadron. In every bomber/transport squadron, the senior most navigator is called Navigation Leader. I being the senior most navigator was the Nav Leader of No. 24 Squadron. By chance, I was also the second senior most G.D. Officer in the Squadron. Generally after the Squadron Commander, the senior most pilot is appointed as the Flight Commander/Operations officer. Squadron Leader Iqbal had appointed Flight Lieutenant M. Akhtar Bukhari, the second senior most Pilot as a Squadron Operations officer instead of Flight Lieutenant Rasheed who actually was the senior most pilot after Iqbal.
One day, the magnetic compass of an aircraft was to be checked in the afternoon in a procedure called “Compass Swing”. This is always done by a pilot in the cockpit and a navigator on the ground and the aircraft is turned around with the help of a tractor through 360 degree at the predetermined magnetic bearings. Flight Lieutenant Akhtar, the Operations officer told Flight Lieutenant Rass Masud, a navigator to come for such a Compass Swing in the afternoon. But Rass told Flight Lieutenant Akhtar that before doing this, he shall seek the prior approval of the Nav Leader Flight Lieutenant Sultan, i.e. myself. This was not taken well by Flight Lieutenant Akhtar, who thought that his own authority was good enough. The matter was taken to the Squadron Commander Sqn. Ldr Iqbal. He had his own ideas on the subject and called for an immediate meeting of all the Flight Crews in the Aircrew room and said that No. 24 Squadron being of a special nature; there was no need of the typical Navigation Leader. On this I told Iqbal categorically that fine in that case I should be the Operations officer. Since I was the senior most officer among all pilots and navigators after the Squadron Commander. Iqbal was taken aback but did not find him- self fit to give a decision himself. He decided to take up the matter with the Air Headquarters through the Base Commander who was Group Capt. A.R. Khan (Auzi Khan). The matter was discussed at the Air Headquarters by a number of officers of Air Commodore rank who sought the advice and input of the Air Secretary who was Air Commodore Salahuddin, who provided the list of relative seniority of all officers of the Squadron along with their brief records etc. This process took a few days. Meanwhile, Akhtar was found fuming and said that either he will remain in the Squadron or Flight Lieutenant Sultan or the next senior officer Flight Lieutenant Syed Ahmed GD (N) who ranked No. 3 in the Squadron seniority list.
After Iqbal received the advice of Air Headquarters, he held the meeting in a rather theatrical manner and announced that Flight Lieutenant Sultan would henceforth be the Operations officer. The next formal appointment was that of an Adjutant who is responsible for all administrative and paperwork of the Squadron. So, Iqbal asked Syed Ahmed to be the Adjutant so that the seniority rule was strictly and appropriately observed. However, this offer Flight Lieutenant Syed declined ‘No Thank You”. Thus Iqbal told Flight Lieutenant Rasheed to become Adjutant which he happily accepted. By the way, he was already doing this very job. This resulted in Akhtar taking a ten days leave to proceed to Karachi to lick his wounds of pride but did not come back to the Squadron and got himself posted out.
Thus, I became the first Navigator in the history of PAF to become an Operations officer responsible for detailing and authorizing all missions and signed the Flying Authorization Book of all Flights for the next few months till I was posted out of the Squadron. Besides this whenever Iqbal was away I used to act as the Acting Squadron Commander of No. 24 Squadron. This incident kept a sweet acrimony between my self and Akhtar as long as he served the PAF, though we remained good friends at heart. What happened was only a professional matter of correctness and my legitimate right.
Another interesting event took place when, officers of the Squadron along with some other senior PAF officers were invited to a social evening and dinner at US Peshawar Air station Badaber’s Officers’ Club, when we reached there loud music was playing which stopped suddenly. After some silence of a few seconds, a loud voice was heard which said “why were we being trained and the voice stopped. One of the USAF officers pointed towards me and said “Sultan, you asked this question at Electronic Defence Laboratory in San Francisco”, nice nostalgia and some laugher. Therefore, we enjoyed our evening followed by a sumptuous dinner.
