USAREUR Units - 503rd Avn Bn

When an OV1 Mohawk was used the range was greater and could be increased by using a transponder. The pilot would fly to an area where we could easily lock onto his aircraft and victor him to the target area. The drone or aircraft was locked onto the radar by one of two methods. One method was called search where the radar antenna would rapidly go back and forth and up and down until it found something on which to lock. This was sometimes difficult to do if there were several aircraft, mountains or heavy clouds. The other method was to use special tripod mounted binoculars that were syncronized to the radar antenna. An operator would use the binoculars to locate the drone or aircraft and could lock the radar antenna onto the them by pressing a trigger.

In one of the photos I sent, I am operating the binoculars in such a fashion. You can also see the drone operator on the left side of the picture. Once the drone was out of sight he would enter the radar unit to control the drone. Once the cameras were retrieved, the photographers took over. The cameras and film were high quality and the photographers did a great job. I was told that a camera and drone cost about $100,000. I don't know if it was true.

The picture of the radar set in operation was actually taken by one of the photographers holding the surveillance camera. When we went into the field we carried a lot of gear. In addition to the trucks full of drones and the two radar sets, we had to carry all the equipment to maintain the drones which had gasoline engines and wooden propellers and parachutes. Each radar set had to have a large generator which used a jeep engine to supply power for the radar. Each radar also had two smaller generators for communications purposes. The photographers also had all the gear to develop the prints.

I have several old photos and some military papers. Most of us in the ASTA platoon had received our training at the USACSTATC at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. I remember Col. Wilhelm as the Bn Cmdr and Maj. Knight as B Company Cmdr. Our platoon leader was Lt. Trieber.

I remember we had fixed-wing aircraft such as Beavers, Otters and our largest fixed wing aircraft was the OV-1B Mohawk. Our rotary wing aircraft were OH1, HU1B, and H34.

The ASTA platoon had two AN/MPQ-29 radar sets with all related equipment and many wooden propeller driven drones. We took part in several exercises with Operation Silver Talon being the most memorable. Our barracks were on the west side of "Red Square" next to the consolidated mess hall. When my room mate and I left in August of 1966 we were the last of the radar section and turned our equipment over to a photographer. The unit was very short handed as the Viet Nam War was drawing many resources from Europe.

I'll be happy to look at my old record and photos for information if this is the type of material you want. I took a few 8mm movies while on maneuvers. I haven't tried to view them in decades but they contain images of our aircraft and drones in action.