Aircraft Electronic Warfare: A Memoir by a Project Engineer - Paperback

by John Edward Waters (Author)

After his Navy enlistment and college, the author's career was as an Army Civilian Project Engineer for Electronic Warfare systems for more than twenty years, then five years as a consulting engineer for other military systems. The book contains 61 brief original stand-alone chapters with 67 images for easy reading and viewing by the general public. There are also 39 addenda. He has chapters that report his special projects with the Joint Special Operations Command, the Space & Missile Systems Center, NASA, the Navy SEALS, CIA, Army Delta Force, and the Army Missile Command. In the book, the author explains why he expedited a contract award for 2,000 radar locator systems (AN/APR-39), then had them installed in Army helicopters before the possible start of World War III. He also discusses an invitation to visit the White House, then a productive outcome as a result of that meeting, and later a second invitation when his daughter was a White House volunteer. He shares stories from a POW pilot as they flew low-altitude test flights above the Chesapeake Bay, and why they broke their pencils in half prior to their first flight. Other chapters cover use of the author's radar locator to return a helicopter to the airport after the pilot could not see his ground visual aids due to a dense fog, and combat use of the author's airborne radar locators on attack helicopters a few hours before the start of Desert Storm. The unsuccessful mission to free the hostages in Iran that was aborted when two aircraft collided in the Iranian desert, is also covered in the book. The world knew about that failed mission, but the world does not know about the second mission to free the hostages; the author was a technical advisor for the second mission. The author shares an amusing meeting on a YMCA pool deck with the world record-holder for the breast stroke, followed by a meeting with a US Military Academy, West Point, cadet that had a sad ending. He covers pilot comments about a young couple who tried to escape from East Germany a month before as they flew along the Fulda Gap in East Germany. Read about the author's helicopter flight along the DMZ in Korea and his report. The author taught his radar locator operations at worldwide briefings to pilots and he added unofficial tactics recommendations. The author discusses his friend Leonard Lomell, who a historian called the person most responsible for our successful landings on D-Day, second only to General Eisenhower, and what Lomell did to earn that accolade.The author reports on countermeasures against the Soviet SA-7 heat-seeking missile in Vietnam. His son, Colonel Jay Waters, was deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, and the base commander's unique solution that stopped the mortar shelling is discussed in the book. The author's recommendation to the Army Communications and Electronics Command for a contract award for a specific Remotely Piloted Vehicle is included. The author covers his actions as an undercover agent for a national counter criminal agency. Cold Weather Test and meeting in Alaska, plus meetings in Honduras and the Panama Canal Zone, and TOP SECRET meeting in the Sensitive Compartment Information Facility are also covered. The author also discussed his proposal for a barrier on the Mexican border.