Adak: the Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586

Air & Space Power Journal, Fall, 2004 by David R. Mets

Adak: The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586 by Andrew C. A. Jampoler. Naval Institute Press (http:// www.usni.org/press/booksearch.htm), 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21402, 2003, 240 pages, $28.95 (hardcover).

The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586 is a rousing good tale of danger and rescue in arctic regions. The author is that marvelous combination of experienced operator in the airplane, service, and region concerned, plus a writer of very considerable talent. No wonder the book is a joy to read. Alfa Foxtrot 586 was a Navy Lockheed Orion P-3 turboprop designed for antisubmarine work (the same kind of airplane forced down recently on Hainan Island). This tale of the Orion, a bird of long and reliable service, will be interesting to all USAF Airmen--but especially to C-130 crew members. Although the Hercules does not resemble the Orion very much externally, they are built by the same manufacturer and have similar systems. Thus, the trouble with a runaway propeller and an engine fire on the Orion will resonate especially well with C-130 folks in the Air Force.

Ditching was much more common in the 1950s, when the two airplanes were designed and memories of World War II were still fresh, but it is as frightening now as it was then. Alfa Foxtrot found itself far out over the frigid seas south of Adak, an island southwest of Alaska, in October 1978 when a runaway prop and multiple fires on engine number one (the one on the far left) brought her down with almost no chance of survival. However, through dauntless courage and competence, most of her crew lived through the ordeal, ultimately rescued by a Soviet fishing trawler that luckily happened to be nearby. An Air Force RC-135 appeared first on the scene, relieved overhead by a Coast Guard C-130. The closest US ship, a Coast Guard vessel, was more than a day's sail away. Almost miraculously, the Orion came down successfully in mountainous seas, after which crew members launched two of the three life rafts. The pilot, Lt Cdr Jerry Rigsby, who had flown the aircraft during the ditching, was the last out of the plane, drowning in a valiant attempt to swim to a raft in the raging sea. One of his crewmen did not make it out because of injury (possibly fatal), and three more died of exposure in the rafts. Ten of the crew of 15 men survived long enough for the trawler to perform a heroic nighttime pickup and bring them into port.

Captain Jampoler, formerly an Orion pilot and a squadron commander, describes all of these events in authoritative detail and with great elegance and passion. His effort is all the more impressive in that he relies not only on his own experience, but also on many primary-source interviews and documents, thus making The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586 relevant, credible, and engaging. It should find a place on every flyer's reading list.

Dr. David R. Mets

Maxwell AFB, Alabama