We sat out there with engines running until finally the 35^th crew chiefs decided that they would let us use their APUs. By then we were down to about 2300 pounds of fuel each. Then we sat for about a half hour before the regular pad landed.

Just before they were refueled, we got a scramble.

We were vectored up north to chase after a plane with a negative squawk in the buffer zone. It was a fouled-up affair as Baskett had a weak transmitter and I had to relay all the messages to Badger.

Then I couldn’t read him myself, and Hall was relaying to me from Baskett and I was then telling Badger.

I finally spotted the Bogey. It was a Marine L-19. He started to play at first to see if he could get away from me. But when he saw that we meant business and there were three more planes after him, he acted real meek and I went in and got his number. I think I shook him up a bit when I went under him about 25 feet away."

Lt. Wm. Starr
July 12, 1954

Below: dad's notes written in another photo journal he kept:

"One of the main activities on the flight line was the alert pad. We kept F-86's on ground alert to intercept any bad guys heading south. We had three minutes maximum to get airborne, starting from the position shown below (photo: sitting and standing in the alert shack). We "scrambled" frequently. But it was usually after some friendly aircraft who was off-course, rather than a "bandit". There were several encounters with Mig's while I was in Korea and in one case, a man in the wing shot one down. These encounters usually came when we were escorting reconnaissance planes "near" north Korea and China. (Our respect for the communist airspace was a bit relaxed). I frequently saw Migs, was chased a couple of times, but never got a shot at one."

- Lt. Col. William J. Starr, USAF

Notes on slide:

"Two F-86F's take-off past alert pad.  Lt Smith in his bird, K-14, Feb '54"