Tower Flyby

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

SR-71 came to Kadena AFB on Okinawa about 1966 or 1967.  Everywhere else they were called "The Black Bird" but we called them "Habu" (a poisonous and very aggressive pit viper on Okinawa).

 

The first Habu I saw was off the west end of the main runway at Kadena.  I was driving north on Highway 1 in my little Fiat 600 coupe at the legal 30 mph when this thing roared over my car at about fifteen feet: actually much higher.....the runway was about a hundred feet above the road and the plane was way above that.....but my poor little car and its driver were rattled around by turbulence from the plane.

 

I pulled off the road and watched this thing nearly vertical and break the sound barrier on the rise and promptly disappear.  My recollection later was that it was HUGE, and noisy, and FAST!

 

We saw then once in awhile until I was transferred to Vietnam and my interest change to "will a plane get here in time to save my butt".

 

I never saw another one after I left "The Rock".