An accident that almost broke up NATO

Today, April 16th, commemorates an event that led to a major crisis within NATO and led to the exit of one of the major Allied powers from the transatlantic alliance.  Changing the location of a training sortie at the last minute due to weather, an RF-101 inadvertently photographed a secret French nuclear facility.  In order not to arouse the suspicions of other NATO intelligence services, they did not mark associated locations as restricted airspace, which would invite uncomfortable questions.  Although France had detonated its first nuclear weapon in early 1960, it was continuing to expand its atomic research and manufacturing base.  The Marcoule center, used to produce plutonium, had been known and was marked as restricted airspace, but a newer uranium enrichment facility at nearby Pierrelatte, on the Rhone River 25 kilometers to the north, was not so designated.  Smith's film was confiscated and turned over to French authorities, who established that no photographs of the restricted Marcoule facility had been taken, but a couple of dozen of the unmarked Pierrelatte facility had.  However, training flights over France were supposed to be at least 3000 feet AGL, and Smith's Voodoo had been tracked at 2,500 feet--a minor violation which the US State Department did apologize for.  By then, their first weapon, the AN-11 nuclear bomb, had just become operational.  I have excerpted this story from my new book on the F-101 Voodoo, with some added notes: http://www.amazon.com/The-F-101-Voodoo-Illustrated-Heavyweight/dp/0764347993

An event precipitated by the Voodoo led to a major crisis within NATO in the spring of 1965.  On 16 April 1965 a RF-101C performing strip photography as part of the Operational Readiness Inspection with the new Project 1181 aircraft inadvertently photographed a secret French nuclear facility.  Not wanting to compromise its location to foreign nationals, the French did not note the location as restricted airspace on the USAFE sectional charts, only marking it on some of their own charts.  With no restrictions noted on his available sectional charts, Captain Joe Smith picked a sparsely-populated training area along the Rhone River due to bad weather over northern France and Germany.  Having completed his mission and preparing to head back to Laon AB [Note: This is in error.  Smith departed from Ramstein AB, Germany], Smith noticed that he had a French Vautour interceptor on his wing, not an uncommon occurrence.  Smith selected afterburner and waved to the French crew as he accelerated away to return to base.  He landed to be met by his squadron commander who stated that Capt. Smith had overflown a restricted area 250 miles from where he actually conducted his mission.  The French misdirection soon became apparent and the ensuing tempest went all the way up to the White House and back down through the chain of command.  When it became clear that the fault did not lie with the American Voodoo pilots, the French government became even more outraged and in an attempt to save face President Charles de Gaulle ordered American forces out of France.

[Note: This passage above is based on the personal recollections of the pilot, Joe Smith and the operations officer who designated the route, Don Karges, as told to author Doug Gordon and recorded in his excellent book Tactical Reconnaissance in the Cold War, pp.133-138.  I am very happy to give a plug for Doug's book which may be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Reconnaissance-Cold-War-Vietnam/dp/1844153320  As related by Douglas Boyd in his book, De Gaulle: The Man Who Defied Six US Presidents, the French complaint had been that he strayed over restricted area P-59 over Marcoule, 25 km south of Pierrelatte.  Smith did not mention the specific area that the French government claimed he overflew, but it was in SouthWEST France over 200 nautical miles from the Rhone River.  Boyd has the date as 16 July 1965, while Smith gives it as 16 April 1965.  Smith made it a point to document everything thoroughly given the seriousness of the charge against him, and given that it is from a first-hand source and that Boyd has some factual errors in his account ("RB-5" radioactive sampling aircraft), Smith's account is more credible to me.]

The relocation of USAF forces from France coincided with the reshuffling of reconnaissance units in USAFE and the beginning of the retirement of the Voodoo from Europe.  On 1 October 1965, the 32^nd TRS at Phalsbourg AB was transferred from the 66^th TRW to the 26^th TRW at Toul-Rosieres AB prior to conversion of the squadron to the RF-4C.  Three months later on 1 January 1966, the 38^th TRS was transferred to the 26^th TRW, also to begin conversion to RF-4C.  In compliance with the demanded relocation from French territory, the 26^th TRW moved to Ramstein AB, Germany in October 1966.