The Martin Matador was a winged, jet engined missile about 40 feet long. It could cruise about 30,000 feet and had a range of around 700 miles. The Matador was an operational missile in the Air Force inventory when I was at Grand Bahama. The frequent Matador launches we supported were training missions for the Air Force personnel.
Most missiles launched for testing carried transponders for us to have better tracking capability. A radar can track a reflected signal, but that signal loses strength over distance. A transponder set to trigger a pulse each time the radar signal hits it sends a stronger signal that makes tracking a long distance easier.
The Matador, being operational, did not have a transponder coded for our tracking radars. It was set for the Air Force guidance crews radar. Therefore, we had to track using the reflected signal. The problem was that a chase plane flew along near the missile. Sometimes we could not tell on the radar screen which signal we were tracking, the missile or the chase plane.
At one radar site on Grand Bahama, the radar antenna was on top of building, right at a corner, about 30 feet off the ground. We had an optical telescope that a person could use to see the incoming missile and the radar could remote to the telescope. The radar had a small boresight telescope looking at whatever the radar was tracking.
There was a pipe cage around the area of the boresight telescope. Normally, one person would be inside that cage and another person at the other telescope. When the radar obtained track, the person looking through the boresight telescope would tell the radar operator if they had track on the missile or the chase plane.
The Matador normally came very close to overhead and then dived from altitude on its target. When something is being tracked and goes nearly overhead, the antenna moves rapidly horizontally.
Sometimes we were shorthanded enough that one person would use the telescope to locate the missile. When the radar operator announced that he had track, that person would run to the radar antenna and slide into the pipe cage. Then they could look through the boresight telescope to see what the radar was tracking.
The danger was that if the radar lost track, the antenna could slew rapidly back to where it was positioned before track was acquired. If a person was standing in the cage, it was fairly easy to hang on during a slew. One mission, I jumped to slide into the cage and the antenna slewed rapidly before I could get into the cage.
Fortunately, I had one hand gripping the interior side of the cage and the other hand gripping the outer side of the cage. I hung on for dear life. If I had let go, I would have been slung outward from the antenna and off the roof, 30 feet above the ground.
As the antenna stopped, I pulled into the cage and grabbed for the handset. The radar operator was screaming into the handset asking if I was okay. I replied yes, and then sat down in the cage until I quit shaking.
Copyright © Jerry Blackerby 2009