Thirty five years ago, one of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina’s (FAA, Argentine Air Force) last few North American F-86F Sabre jets undertook the return to its home country in order to become a monument at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA).
Serialled C-123 (c/n 191-674), it was the most flown of the 28 units accepted by FAA in 1960, which in 1997 was repatriated from ultimate home base in El Plumerillo (Mendoza) to USAFA, Colorado Springs (Colorado).
The aircraft was built by North American Aviation in Inglewood (California), accepted by USAF on 09/08/1953 with serial number 52-4978 and was initially in the custody of 1737th Ferrying Squadron, based at Dover Air Force Base (Delaware).
Its first two years of operational career were spent at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, where it was used for fighter pilots training by 3595th Flying Training Wing (01/1954) and its successor, 3595th Combat Crew Training Wing (3595th CCTW, 02/1955), undergoing overhaul work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
The following three years, it was based at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, where it operatied with 3525th (03/1956) and 4530th CCTW (07/1958), getting major overhauls at McClellan Air Force Base, near Sacramento, California.
Sent to overhaul in Sacramento in 11/1958, never returned to operational service with USAF: In 05/1960, it returned to North American Aviation in California and, after resale and delivery to the FAA, it was decommissioned in 10/1960 with a total of 1,855:20 flight hours.
Although it departed the US in early 11/1960, technical developments detected during the ferry flight upon arrival at Howard air base, Panama Canal Zone, delayed its arrival into Argentine territory through 10/12/1960.
In the almost 26 years that it served with the Argentine IV Brigada Aérea (IV Br Aé, IV Air Brigade) at El Plumerillo, it accumulated 6,691:00 flight hours and was formally discharged on 08/11/1986 after having participated in many notable or historically relevant events.
It was involved in internal and joint exercises, such as the “Yunká” tactical air exercise (Chaco, 10/1967) or its first dissimilar air combat training exercise against A-4Q Skyhawk fighters from the Argentine Navy (Trelew, 12/1978), and may have intervened in several of the uprisings and military revolts that marked Argentine political history between 1960 and 1980.
Although we could not confirm its involvement in the Laguna del Desierto crisis (Santa Cruz, 1965), we do know that it was actually involved in another two of the many border disputes that Argentina had with Chile and got near the brink of a war escalation.
Reliable sources assure that it was deployed to Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut) when, at the end of 08/1967, an escalation began between Argentine and Chilean naval units started in the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego) area and that it was also part of an airmobile squadron deployed to Trelew (Chubut) when tensions increased again at the end of 1978, eventually participating in an 18-minute raid on Chilean territory in the area between Río Turbo (Argentina) and Puerto Natales (Chile).
Dedication by technicians from the Río Cuarto Material Area, based in Las Higueras (Córdoba), allowed Argentine Sabres in general (and C-123 in particular) to remain in service well into the 1970s, migrating from the original natural metal scheme to a three-tone camouflage (khaki, green, and gray with a light gray belly), of which our subject was the first recipient.
The long way home
Repatriation to the United States began to take shape in the first half of the 1980s, when USAFA decided to exhibit an F-86 at its facilities to evoke USAF involvement in the Korean War (1951-1953).
Much to the surprise of Colorado Springs officials, the remaining North American Sabre population was limited, mainly because of the model’s age, its delivery through military aid plans to allied nations, and its usage as a target for anti-aircraft missile testing in the Southern California desert.
Informed of the USAFA quest, Argentine air attache in Washington, brigadier general Ivar D. Cotelo, decided to offer FAA cooperation given that ten Sabres remained in IV Br Aé inventory operating with Grupo 4 de Caza (G4C, 4th Fighter Group).
As a matter of fact, the 25th anniversary of its arrival in the country had been celebrated on 09/26/1985 and it was vox populi in the Argentine aeronautical communited that the model was “burning its last cartridges” since all reamining aircraft were near or beyond their design life.
Friendship and brotherhood gesture
On 10/08/1985, Cotelo sent colonel Donald D. Reed, head of the USAF International Affairs Division, a letter in which he expressed his desire to offer one of the Argentine F-86s “as a gesture of friendship and brotherhood between our [air] forces; but especially because that weapon system is a true symbol, since it implanted in the FAA the foundations of a radical change in everything related to the use of air combat systems”.
The letter ended by stating that, if USAFA accepted the offer, it could come true “the moment we have an aircraft with flight time completed” or immediately, if there was already one in that condition.
Seven months later, an accident with a great political and media impact would make Cotelo’s offer tragically and instantly viable: On 06/19/1986, while participating in routine aerial combat training, Argentine Sabre C-120 suffered the collapse of its wing box and crashed into the ground in the outskirts of Phillips (Mendoza), 55 km. southeast of El Plumerillo.
Its pilot, lieutenant Sergio Rampezzotti, FAA class XLIX and best graduate of the military pilots course a year earlier, was unable to eject due to the violent nature of the airframe break-up and it subsequent crash into the ground, as described by sources familiar with the accident.
The accident determined the immediate grounding of all Argentine Sabres and an exhaustive investigation; since structural fatigue was one of the main hypotheses to explain the fatality.
The report’s conclusions must have left little room for speculation given that, less than a month later, the remaining nine aircraft were decommissioned definitively.
Paperwork shuffling
Even with the freshly grounded airframes, the donation process did not move as quickly as it could: Buth parties didn’t formalize the decision to donate and accept, respectively, one of the inactive aircraft until 01/1987.
The Argentine decision, taken by FAA Chief of General Staff, brigadier general Ernesto H. Crespo, was notified in written form to the US air attaché in Buenos Aires, colonel Gary F. Forrest, by FAA Materiel Commander, brigadier Rubén A. Corradetti, who for the first time referred to C-123 as the aircraft allocated.
By mid-January, USAFA had a plan ready for the repatriation and a tentative date to execute it: According to a message sent to Col. Forrest on 01/15, five specialists would arrive in Mendoza in a C-141B Starlifter on 02/23 and, within a period of no more than five days, they would remove the wings of C-123, assemble its components in a cradle and ship them onboard the same freighter.
The US delegation was to be made up of colonel Robert Y. Foerster (USAF, team leader), lieutenant colonel Alberto Raganato (FAA, USAFA liaison officer), sergeants John L. Weaver, Jr, Douglas S. Fredericks and Leopold B. Martínez (USAFA mechanics) and civilian specialists Justin R. Chesire and Frank B. Neff of the Naval Weapons Tests Center (NWTC) in China Lake, California.
Although USAF would bring their own tools and cradle to recover the plane (even though the FAA was willing to provide the only one it had at hand only if it was later returned), they asked that FAA put at their disposal a 10-ton crane, a forklift for the rear section of the fuselage and nose, fuselage and wing jacks.
They also requested the cooperation of four mechanics and that IV Br Aé be in charge of disarming and securing the plane, removing its machine guns, emptying and bleeding the fuel tanks, and delivering the glider and engine maintenance records.
In a paragraph that lends itself to tasty interpretations, the message also indicated that the NWTC was requesting authorization for Cheshire to be authorized to photograph and film the entire operation “as well as the other F-86 aircraft that may be found at the Mendoza air base [for the purpose of updating records] of the China Lake QF-86F targeting program.”
US expectations, however, had a hard time dealing with the tortuous and unproductive bureaucracy of Argentina’s government: When everything was ready to start the process, Argentine officials objected to the donation because they found out that local legislation prohibited the donation of aircraft and weapons to a foreign nation…
Finding a solution for this incredible legal obstacle required several months of analysis and multiple contacts between the FAA, the Ministry of Defense and the presidential palace and the remedy came in the form of presidential decree number 1285/87, signed 08/06, in which President Raúl R. Alfonsín authorized the aircraft’s sale and set “a price in accordance with the policy of friendship and rapprochement between the country and the American nations”: One US dollar.
Let’s go now!
The second attempt to repatriate C-123 turned out to be much cheaper than the original plan and it started on 10/20 with the arrival of a Starlifter with colonels Rubén A. Cubero (head of the USAFA Department of Foreign Languages and head of the delegation), Drue De Berry (head of the USAFA Special Operations Section ) and Thomas Rauk (air attaché in Buenos Aires) on board.
They were accompanied by Ben Nattrass, an aircraft transport and recovery expert specially hired to organize and supervise the work that would originally have been carried out by USAFA, NWTC and IV Br Aé mechanics.
After three days of work and a farewell ceremony presided over by the head of the Mendoza brigade, colonel (Malvinas War Veteran) Wilson R. Pedrozo, the C-141B and its historic cargo took off for Panama and Colorado Springs at 11:30 a.m. Thursday 10/22.
After assembly and painting work carried out by maintenance personnel from USAFA’s 34th Operations Group (34th OG), the aircraft regained its North American identity and, placed on a pedestal in front of the 557th Flying Training Squadron building (557th FTS), it was dedicated on 05/31/1988 with the Argentine air attache, colonel Jorge B. Fernández, and the FAA liaison officer at USAFA in attendance.
On the occasion, the “Argentine Air Force” prize was also awarded to the best student graduated that year from USAFA and a plaque was placed that, in addition to pointing out the success achieved by the F-86 Sabren in Korea, indicated that “this F-86 passed most of his active life in the FAA” and that “the Argentines donated the plane to the Academy”.
In smaller print it could also be seen that the plane was maintained by the Third Cadets Group and that the first person in charge of the maintenance crew was cadet Jennifer Spindle, of Cadet Squadron 23.
As it has happened in other North American repatriations of Argentine aircraft (see the pentalogy «From La Matanza to Ohio»), our subject was repainted in a metallic finish with North American cockades, blue, white and red bands on fuselage, rudder and underwing tanks and the Air Training Command (ATC) coat of arms on the tail.
Observing historical photos through Google Maps, we assume 52-4978 remained on display near the flight line at the airfield located in the southeast corner of USAFA until 09/1999 and that, sometime between the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2005, it was replaced by one of the T-41 Mescalero trainers that operated for decades from that location.
According to our colleague, prestigious American historian Joe Baugher, the machine was ceded to Hill Aerospace Museum, located at the northwest end of Hill Air Force Base (Utah), about 416 miles northwest of USAFA.
The transfer to Utah occured circa 2006 under the aircraft loan program of the USAF Museum System, whose inventory it had entered in 2004, evidently after being recovered from Colorado Springs.
Furthering the alteration of its true identity and legitimate configuration, the Utah museum repainted it again, this time to represent F-86E 51-2834 “Jolley Roger” as flown by Utah National Air Guard Capt. Clifford Dale Jolley during the Korean War.
Jolley was a member of the 335th Fighter Interceptor Squadron “The Chiefs”, of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group, which, and operating from Kimpo in the summer of 1952 claimed seven confirmed (and 13 probable) North Korean kills during the war.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, the pilot had joined the US Air Force during World War II and claimed three Japanese kills in the Aleutian Islands theater, joining the Air Reserve in 1947 while serving as a Northrop Corporation test pilot and retired in 1966 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, passing away on 07/13/1995.
Bibliography: Atilio Baldini: «Escuadrilla Acrobática Cruz del Sur» (Argentina, 1999) and Baldini, Cettolo, Marino, Mosquera & Núñez Padín: «North American F-86F-30-NA Sabre» (Serie Fuerza Aérea Argentina #6, 1999). Other Internet sources: Joe Baugher and Wikipedia. Acknowledgments: Special thanks to Robert “Barney” Rummel, 34 OG Aircraft Maintenance Chief, and then-Sergeant L. “Dwayne” Paulson, for the valuable material they provided us with when we started this investigation in 1997 with a view to to publish it in our predecessor, Pista 18 magazine. Fernando Benedetto, Gustavo Marón, José Rojas and Vladimiro Cettolo also contributed to this #PhotoLogbook.
