The former 7499th Squadron became the 7405th Support Squadron, remaining at Wiesbaden as the only unit to conduct corridor collection.The 7405th had been openly tasked with the courier mission to West Berlin, meaning it was to conduct daily flights to and from Tempelhof Air Base carrying passengers and priority cargo. It was known as the "Berlin for Lunch Bunch". Under this cover the newer aircraft were to continue their collection using better sensors, including the first infrared imagery sensors. Its C-47s and RB-26s soldiered on into the late 1950s, and some C-54s until 1963. In 1959 the C-47s were supplanted by four Convair T-29s, navigator trainers converted for courier work and vertical photography, but another generation was about to arrive.
Painting by one of the flight crew from the wall of 7405th T-29 A Flight
The new aircraft, a specially modified Boeing EC-97G Stratofreighter, made its appearance in 1953. This aircraft (serial 49-2952), covertly carrying a 240 inch focal length camera, was codenamed PIE FACE and was mostly used along the periphery of the satellite nations.
In late December 1975, the 7405th flew its last EC-97G mission from Wiesbaden Air Base when the USAF turned the base over to the United States Army and moved its operations to RheinMain AB. There, re-designated as the 7405th Operations Squadron, it acquired three heavily-modified, C-130E Hercules.
Lineage:
7405th Support Squadron (Wiesbaden AB), 10 May 1955
After 30 June 1974, assigned directly to HQ USAFE.
Re-designated as 7405th Operations Squadron (RheinMain AB), 31 December 1975
During our Elbe river cruise Rudy Howell (7405th, 1955-57) recalled that in 1956 he was involved in an attempt to collect on a high-interest Soviet ship. Although he was an A-Flight navigator (usually flying ELINT C-54s), he had heard that a photo C-47 had been tasked to fly to Oslo, Norway, and photograph the vessel while it was on a good-will visit. He volunteered to be the C-47 navigator, and away they went. They got to Norway all right, but on all three days the vessel was in port there was a low overcast, preventing the C-47 from "doing its thing." Disappointed, the crew flew back to Wiesbaden.
One day the next week, Rudy was in a movie theater in downtown Wiesbaden and noticed that the newsreel was showing the ship on its port visit. The newsreel photo coverage, from ground & water level, was terrific, and Rudy hoped that at least this film got to the analysts! It probably did, Rudy, but the analysts would surely also have wanted the good vertical images that the 05th could have provided. They love to mensurate photography like that and get the exact dimensions as well as other technical stuff. A search through the 7499th Group histories shows that in July and August, 1956, A-Flight flew several ELINT missions against Soviet ships in the Baltic as well as enroute to Norway, under a task named "Operation SQUINT." The 05th's "Hot Pepper" photo C-54 was also successful in photographing the ships while they were in the North Sea. So, between that and the newsreel coverage, maybe the analysts were happy after all.
John Bessette, 7499th Historian
1960s - Buzzing Berlin
"This was our patch when I was there. We could not talk about what we did outside the hanger, but you could look at the patch and see the fox watching over the world - kind of let the cat out of the bag". John Kauffman (Feb 1960 to Dec 1962)
