Cold War Downing
22 JUNE 1955
COLD WAR DOWNING
As the Cold War deepened and the United States became aware that the Soviets had developed their own atom bomb, we scrambled to install the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line of radar posts across northern Canada and Alaska. These, with their “White Alice” communications arrays, [White (as in snow-covered) Alaska Integrated Communications and Electronics], would provide an early warning of the Soviet attack everyone feared. But in 1955, these systems were still not reality. Instead, manned aircraft watched for Russian aggression along the Siberian frontier. These patrols and Russian MiGs occasionally came into conflict.
This day was cold, overcast, and downright nasty when the Lockheed P2V-5 “Neptune” of the VP-9 “Golden Eagles,” at Naval Station Kodiak, Alaska, took off. Pilot LT Richard H. Fischer was to fly along the International Date Line separating Alaska from Siberia, being careful to stay on the American side. Co-pilot David M. Lockhard led nine more crew members who would man the electronic surveillance gear. They cruised at 8000 feet over the Bering Sea, careful to keep west of the Date Line. But in this bad weather…
Six MiGs appeared. Two MiG-15 “Faggots” trailed from above, two more from below, and two more crossed behind them in a scissors pattern. Seconds later 23mm and 37mm cannon fire ripped the P2V-5. The port engine burst into flame; Fischer rolled the aircraft and dove for the clouds. The rushing air of the dive snuffed out the fire, but when Fischer leveled off below the clouds four injured crewmen writhed in pain on the deck. Worse, the hot magnesium in the wing spar re-ignited. By pumping fuel to the opposite wing the crew was able to avoid a mid-air explosion, but the crippled Neptune required all Fischer’s strength to fly. Realizing the gravity of the damage, he coursed in the direction of St. Lawrence Island, a remote Alaskan island in the Bering sea. Limping only 50 feet off the water, the rocky cliffs of the island soon appeared out of the fog. Fischer made a belly landing, sliding across the tundra and bursting into flames. Six more were injured in the crash.
Yupik Eskimos in the village of Gambell eight miles distant heard the commotion. As members of the Alaska National Guard, it was their duty to investigate mysterious happenings, so close as they were to Russian airspace. They found Fischer’s men, burned, broken but alive, and brought them to safety.
The United States protested this incident, claiming the Neptune was in American airspace and demanding $725K in compensation. We may never know whose aircraft were off course in the inclement weather, but this was the only Cold War incident in which the Soviets admitted involvement. Moscow paid half the demanded indemnity.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 28 JUN 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
“Cold War Incidents Involving US Navy Aircraft.” United States Naval Aviation 1910-1995, Appendix 34, p. 775, AT: http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/united-states-naval-aviation-1910-1995/appendix-34.html, retrieved 7 October 2015.
Department of the Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare). United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980. Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 208.
Dunham, Mike. “Cold War Shoot Down Over St. Lawrence Island: Survivor Returns to Thank Villagers Who Rescued Him.” Alaska Dispatch News, 20 August 2015, AT: http://adn.com/article/ 20150820/cold-war-shoot-down-over-st-lawrence-island-survivor-returns-to-thank-Villagers-who-rescued-him.htm, retrieved 7 October 2015.
VP Navy website. “22 June 1955,” AT: http://www.vpnavy.com/ vp9_mishap.html, retrieved 7 October 2015.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: LT Fischer was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions this day.
The DEW Line went operational on 15 April 1957 and was active for two decades, being replaced by the more robust North Warning System in the 1980s.
The twin-engine P2V “Neptune” replaced the PV-1 “Ventura” as our preeminent patrol and ASW aircraft in the early 1950s. The Neptune was replaced in the 1960s with the P3 “Orion.” The VP-9 “Golden Eagles” are currently stationed at NAS Whidbey Island and fly the Boeing P-8A “Poseidon.” Today early warning patrols are subsumed by satellites.
In an example of how independently the services operated in the early Cold War, at the time of this crash the Air Force maintained the Northeast Cape AFB on St. Lawrence Island, a remote airstrip and early warning post not far from where Fischer crash landed. However, its presence was not briefed to Navy pilots, nor was it indicated on Fischer’s charts.
