Message posted by Andre' M. Dall'au on June 02, 2007 at 6:02:51 PST:

Guys,
My friend kevin Dockery and I are working on a upcoming book (as well as a episode of "WEAPONOLOGY") and need some help from Peter, Hank and the rest of our analyists. During the Vietnam War a rather serious attempt was made to get some American P.O.W.s out of the Hanoi Hilton. It involved Navy SEALs, minisubs, underwater lockout close to enemy shores, a breakout of American P.O.W.s and SR-71's. It was called Operation THUNDERHEAD and took place on or about September 1972. The Blackbird's mission was to communicate with the American P.O.W.s by criss-crossing Hanoi exactly at 12:00 Noon while at multi-sonic speeds. The resultant sonic booms were a message to the P.O.W.s that the JCS and National Command authority had OK'd their escape and for them to execute the plan. This all actually happened, and the plan and results of the mission were classified for many years. Kevin and I are looking for the pilots of those Blackbirds yo see if they would or could talk about their flights. I would appreciate any help to locate those pilots, or finding a good site where a message could be sent. Any ideas or info would be appreciated and please contact me off-line for details that might be best left off the message board. Any questions about the authenticity of this project should be answered with googling Kevin Dockery's name and viewing the many, many books he has authored about NavSpecWar.
Thanks for everybody's help, and I think this is appropriate for this site as we freqently discuss all things Blackbird, and this is one of their more interesting roles during their heyday.
Thanks again.
Andre'

Replies: