[ARC5] When an off-course U-2 spy plane out of Alaska nearly triggered war

[Tim]

Hi Hue - (I can't read the Alaska newspaper linked) but I read Washtub ran
from 1951-1959.  (CIA FOIA Reading Room).  So radios were not GRC-109's but
could have been RS-1 or RS-6.  Or ???  Not much info out there regarding
details except they recruited a lot of Hams for obvious reasons.
Tim
N6CC

On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 5:51 PM Hubert Miller <Kargo_cult at msn.com> wrote:

> By David Ramseur
> Updated: December 2, 2017
> Published: June 9, 2017
> Anchorage Daily News
>
> This is a really interesting article. I lived through those years as did
> most of you, and i'm no stranger to the Gary Powers story, but this one was
> news to me.
>
> https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/we-alaskans/2017/06/09/when-off-course-u-2-spy-plane-out-of-alaska-nearly-triggered-war/
> 300 miles off course. No, really, he was really was off course, no alibi !
>
> Excerpts:
>
> "Concerned with the whereabouts of the U-2, the Duck Butt pilot radioed
> that he would fire flares every five minutes for Maultsby to follow.
> Nothing but black sky for the captain as radio transmissions from Alaska
> grew weaker. Finally, Maultsby picked up the faint signal of a local radio
> station: balalaika music and chatter in Russian. The captain was
> dangerously miles off course."
>
> and...
>
> "Cold War paranoia ran so deep in Alaska that the FBI embarked on a
> top-secret mission to recruit and train average Alaskans - fishermen,
> trappers, bush pilots and other private citizens - to fight covertly
> against a feared Soviet invasion of its former fur colony. Dubbed by code
> names such as "Washtub" and "Corpuscle," the operation had two phases,
> according to newly released classified documents. The first called for
> Alaska citizen-agents to be trained to hide in key locations during a
> Soviet takeover. They would find survival caches of food, cold-weather gear
> and radios with guidance on how to send coded messages about Soviet troop
> movements."
>
> The radio reception in the first paragraph no doubt deals with MW
> broadcast reception. This kind of reminds me of that post of mine a few
> months back about the B-29 lost
> over Alaska and its radio communication problems.
>
> The last paragraph quote has me wondering: Exactly what radio sets were
> cached? Would that be GRC-109 ? It would sure be interesting to see some of
> those instructions on sending coded
> messages !!
> -Hue Miller
>
>
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