11th October 1980

PLUG 61 Flight, a cell of three aircraft, departed Mildenhall with '61' routing to Pease AFB, whilst '62 & 63' will return to Mildenhall.
PLUG 62 estimate 43.47n 26.11w 14:36, 50n 08w 16:02, ETA Mildenhall 17:02
PLUG 63 estimate 49.40n 11.49w 13:02 with a turning point of 49n 15w 13:21, F270 49n 08w 13:58, ETA Mildenhall 15:30

PLUG 61 departed Mildenhall 11:07 50n 08w 13:02 F260 46n 30w 14:58, 45n 40w 15:45, 45n 55.40w 18:57, ETA Pease AFB 21:12

PLUG 51 Flight 50n 08w 12:11 blocking F260/270 50n 10w 12:23, 49.40n 14w 12:33, 48n 20w 13:23, flight of three aircraft, PLUG 51/52/53.

PLUG 52 returning to Mildenhall from 49.40n 11.49w 12:33 at F370 49n 20w 14:50 F270 50n 10w 15:42 50n 08w next
PLUG 53 also returning to Mildenhall, estimate 50n 08w 13:04

KING 50 45n 35w direct 42.52n 32w, direct FLO (Flores) direct GRA direct Lajes at F200. On a 'Phone Patch to Alconbury Base Op's, advised that OUTSIDE 21 Flight had departed Alconbury at 11:50, time en-route is 10 hours 1 min.
Subsequent 'Phone Patch to Ramstein JRCC (Joint Rescue Command Centre) that we are the "Duckbutt" support for the "Coronet Gyro" deployment and proceeding to 45n 35w but we ran into a hurricane out here and altered our orbit position to 47.47n 25w at 12:52. We are in contact with both cells of chicks and will advise what the chicks and tankers are going to do regards the storm.
We departed our orbit at 14:46, 45n 26.05w 15:19 43.30n 26.37w 15:40 GRA 16:40 ETA Lajes 16:50 at F200

HEADANCER on Phone Patch to RAYMOND 7 (Cannon AFB) advised that OUSIDE 11 Flight was airborne at 11:24 and that PLUG 51 and OUTSIDE 11 Flight rendezvous started at 11:47.
Further Phone patch to RAYMOND 1 (TAC/ALCC LangleyAFB) advised that the OUTSIDE 11 Flight was 'on' (refuelling) at 12:09 at 50n 07.45w and 'off' at 12:50 at 49n 15w, where the following loads were passed to each of the four chicks, 11.2, 12.2, 11.4 and 12.6.
Also advised RAYMOND Metro that Hurricane Ivan was at 46.00n 32.00w at 10:00 with winds of 72-95 kts heading 030° at 32 kts, the Gander SIGMET shows the storm at 35n 32.70w at 11:00

GREED 63 on Phone Patch to PHANTOM 85 (USAFE ALCC) departed LIPA (Aviano) 13:05, ETA Alconbury 16:45 with 16 pax and 15,000lbs of cargo

All the above covers traffic related to the returning deployment for "Coronet Gyro" from Alconbury, where eight RF-4C's (60413, 60415, 60418, 60422, 60425, 60428, 60433 and 60478 - all coded "KE" from the 153rd TRS, Mississippi ANG) were heading home.

The call-signs involved were:-

PLUG = KC-135's
KING 50 = HC-130N, 95820
OUTSIDE = RF-4C's (see above for serials)
HEADANCER = EC-135K, 53118
GREED 63 = C-130 support

Various HF frequencies were involved, 6750/9011/6757