Kent O. Williamson

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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Mark O. Williamson

Served in the CIA from 1960 until retirement in 1983 (and afterwards as a contractor). Here are some memories of his aviation experiences.
First overseas assignment providing engineering support to overflight program using P-2V7 aircraft which flew on missions during dark of the moon. Engineering support was on electronic intercept and recording equipment and analysis of hostile electronic signal environment during attacks on mission aircraft.
Designed and supervised installation of an ELINT system in an aircraft provided to a third party country. Their maintenance procedures were somewhat lacking and their ground crew managed to set it on fire, burning up a large portion of the fuselage. I was sent over to do the fire investigation and in spite of them claiming it was "just fate" (their air fleet Marshall) or electrical sparks flying thru the air, determined from the evidence that it was really bad practice to clean parts of the cabin with aviation gas, even though it really got things clean. Then the guilty party confessed but the air Marshall maintained it was just "fate".
During an assignment transport to the 11,000 ft. floor of the Leh valley was furnished by the Russian version of the C-130 flown by the Indian air force. An interesting experience.
Electronic intercept and recording equipment system design for the U2 and other aircraft.
Overflight of parts of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in support of surveillance and operational missions in helicopters and twin otters. Did flight altitude profile planning for some penetration missions.
Probably have something over a million passenger miles on commercial aircraft. At one point I'd flown so much I guess I looked like I belonged on a plane. So much so, that on one flight a flight attendant came down the aisle and knelt on the floor beside me and said "Captain Williamson, what airline do you fly for?" Needless to say, I had to 'fess up and tell her that I was just a frequent passenger.