![]() On the latter missions, the large Warning Star flew just 50 feet above the water so Cuban radar would not spot them and find out that the U-2s were up.Ĭombat-ready planes and crews also served in Vietnam. "But we also flew missions to make sure nothing interfered with the U-2 spy plane flights, or to pinpoint where they crashed so the pilot could be rescued." That was our overt mission," said Cataldo. The public knew we patrolled to spot anything moving out of Cuba. He was assigned to a combat-ready airplane, based at McCoy Air Force Base in Orlando. I thought it would be exciting and it was." My reaction was ?great!' I always wanted to fly, have wings. "I asked why and they told me I was going to be an airborne radar operator. After graduation, he found himself undergoing a whole lot more tests, physical, psychological and professional. "When we got over the ocean and near the fighters, the MiG turned away."Ĭataldo, now retired from a career with Pan Am security at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at Cape Kennedy, says the incident was just one of many in what he now realizes was a dangerous occupation.Ī graduate of Vero Beach High School, Cataldo joined the Air Force in 1966 and was trained as a radar operator at Keesler Field, Miss. "All our pilot could do was head out to sea where there was a Navy carrier with a fighter screen," said Cataldo. The MiG was loaded with air-to-airmissiles. The four-engine Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star, an airborne early warning radar surveillance aircraft, was unarmed. "If we turned, he turned," said Cataldo, now 63. VERO BEACH ? As Ralph Cataldo watched the image of a North Vietnamese MiG fighter plane on his radarscope, he noted it was mirroring his plane's flight pattern.
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