# Oct 6th 1973 - 40 years ago, the Yom Kippur war



## syscom3 (Oct 6, 2013)

40 years ago today, Oct 6th 1973, the Yom Kippur war began. Israel vs. Egypt and Syria.

Nixon and Kissinger supporting Israel.
The cowardice of Europe.
C5's and C141's resupply the IDF
Arab air defenses take a big toll on the Israeli AF.
US supplied jammers and smart munitions take a big toll on the Arab air defenses.
USN 6th fleet on war footing.
OPEC cuts back oil production.
Brutal tank battles in the Sinai and Golan Heights.
Threat of Russian intervention means US at Defcon3


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## michaelmaltby (Oct 6, 2013)

Israel at its finest.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/middle-east/55442/israel-was-not-brink-nuclear-strike-1973-video


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## davparlr (Oct 6, 2013)

I posted this before but since it was brought up. 

October 10, 1973, McGuire AFB, NJ, 30th Military Airlift Squadron, C-141s. I was pulling Cold Banner alpha alert (we always had an alert bird, called Cold Banner alert, to fly the President's car and Secret Service personnel around; alpha alert was on-base station for a launch capability in 3 hrs. IIRC). At Oh dark thirty, we were alerted to go fly. During fight planning, my engineer came in and told me the plane was being loaded incorrectly. Heavy forklifts were being put on without the proper wood planking to distribute weight. The Ops officer told me all waivers would be provided and to get the aircraft airborne as is. Flight plans took us to Harrisburg, Pa. to get a load. Harrisburg apparently has an armory. Although the field was normally closed, the tower was opened just for us. Using the previously mentioned forklifts, we loaded 40k lbs of Shrike anti-radar missiles. A Joints Chief-of-Staff call came in to the tower and told me to get the plane off the ground immediately, which was difficult to do hand loading the aircraft. Airborne, next stop Oceana Naval Air Base, Va. We landed, and were told to taxi to the end of the runway and shut down on the runway! Parked on a parallel runway, which was 12k ft. long was a Boeing 707 completely covered in wrapping paper like a package, however, cargo doors on the side of the aircraft was open showing the words El Al, the national airline of Israel. They loaded the shrikes on the Boeing which already had a load of sidewinders on board. It used most of that 12 ft to get off! On arrival back at Mcguire, I turned on Walter Cronkite on the news and he reported that the first US support of Israel occurred at Oceana NAS that day and showed an aircraft he called a 747 taking off enroute to Israel and it was really my C-141. So much for secrecy. I was 25 years old and I had made the national news, or, at least my plane. I can’t believe it was 40 years ago!

Later we were flying roundtrip shuttles to Israel from the Azores (24 hr. missions). On landing in Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv, I was told that the stores we were unloading would be fired in 30 minutes. The front line was close! We started support all the way from the US two weeks after the Russians had started their airlift to Egypt from Turkey (which had forbid us to land). In two weeks we caught up with them and then easily surpassed them.


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## syscom3 (Oct 6, 2013)

davparlr ; in a very shot reply. A simple thank you is all that needs to be said.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Oct 7, 2013)

Wow thanks for sharing that!


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## davparlr (Oct 7, 2013)

Thanks guys. Syscom3 is correct. No European country would help except Portugal, and that was only the allowance of the Azores for the primary base, and only a few would allow us to land in an emergency. We could not even overfly any European land and had to split the straits of Gibraltar. The Navy stationed carriers in the Med. to protect us from intrusion from North Africa. Over Cyprus we picked up Israeli fighter escorts into Israel. Because of this war, the AF decided to stretch the C-141 (a powerful aircraft that was mostly volume limited before being weight limited) and add inflight refueling (without the Azores we could not have provided support).

Since Cold Banner birds were always ready, launches were almost always interesting. I launched three times, probably a record for a McGuire aircraft commander, this one, an emergency air evac that was a story all in itself, and a real Presidential support (the presidents car weighted 12,000 lbs!).


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## michaelmaltby (Oct 7, 2013)

A little scene-setting:

40 Years Since the Yom Kippur War #1: The First Strike • IDF Blog | The Official Blog of the Israel Defense Forces


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## syscom3 (Oct 7, 2013)

Mirages, Phantoms 2's and Skyhawks. I have to read up about their performance in this war. I wonder if the Isreali AF had their equivalent to the "Wild Weasels"?


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## R Pope (Oct 8, 2013)

"The President's car weighed 12,000 pounds"......! 
That's a lot of champagne and caviar!


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## davparlr (Oct 8, 2013)

Another little side story. During this period, my brother worked at the Naval Air Rework Facility(NARF) at NAS Pensacola. He worked on refurbishing A-4s. Israel was scarfing up all the A-4s they could find and send them to Pensacola to prepare for battle. They only wanted two things fixed, flight controls and bomb releases (and, of course, engines, which NARF didn't do). He said the planes would come in with fuel leaking all over the place but none were fixed just shipped.


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## michaelmaltby (Oct 11, 2013)

And, in a "message" to Iran this week, the IDF are signaling with their _right_ hand .....


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrkCE-cfQHA_

... while their l_eft_ remains hidden:

Dolphin-class submarine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## parsifal (Oct 16, 2013)

maybe we could do a "this day in the Yom Kip[pur war".......


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