On the night of Oct. 10, 1985, Lt. Cmdr. Barry Steel, call sign Vert, was relaxing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. The ship was cruising in Alert 60, a readiness condition with weapons stowed and planes tied down, so it would take 60 minutes to launch a bird.
“Stand by. Stand by. Now launch four alert F-14s, two alert E2s, two KA-6D tankers,” the announcement sounded throughout the ship.
Vert rushed down five flights of stairs to the ready room. The duty officer assigned him an F-14 equipped with a reconnaissance photography package and told him to suit up and go.
“What are we doing?” Vert asked.
Nobody knew. It didn’t matter. The order was issued. It was go time. Vert ran back upstairs, donned his flight gear, and performed preflight checks on his F-14. Photographers mates loaded the aircraft’s cameras with film. Missiles were mounted.
Shortly before takeoff, Vert was informed, “You’re looking for a civilian airliner, and you may be cleared to fire.”
Sometimes, in the military, a man receives information or orders so unexpected that he must ask, “Say again?”
The situation was confirmed.
I asked Steel how he felt about being told that. He replied, “When you’re in the business of flying airplanes, and you’ve seen people get killed … you compartmentalize stuff. You don’t want to deal with it right now, just put it away.”
The ship was in Alert 60, but they couldn’t waste a whole hour. The birds were launching within 10 minutes. Vert was wheels up in 20 minutes.
“We took off into the black sky with no plan,” Steel said.
They were ordered to fuel up from the KA-6D tankers and proceeded to fly circles on two Combat Air Patrol stations. Vert’s CAP was southwest of Crete. His friend, call sign Skid, was on station to the southeast.
One of the E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft picked up contact to the east near Cyprus. There, Skid encountered a cargo plane flying very unusually with running lights off. He shut off his own lights to facilitate a stealth approach. He flew by radar, unable to see the target. Finally, his radar intercept officer in the back seat shined a flashlight out of the cockpit and saw two engines on the nearest wing. A four-engine aircraft.
The E-2 relayed from Saratoga, “Not our guy. Let him go.”
Later, another contact came out of Egypt, moving to cruising altitude and passing Skid’s CAP. Still flying with no lights, Skid discovered an EgyptAir 737 and relayed its tail number.
“That’s your target,” said the E-2.
Vert and two other pilots were ordered into close proximity to the 737. The E-2 radioed the passenger jet and soon called the F-14s: “The EgyptAir pilot doesn’t believe he’s being tailed by F-14s. Turn on your lights.”
Four well-armed F-14s were suddenly visible and really close. That got the foreign pilot’s attention! The F-14s were ordered to compel him to land at Sigonella, Italy. As the 737 descended, Vert put his cameras to work and documented it all.
Although Top Gun wouldn’t be released until summer, the atmosphere back on the Saratoga flight deck was like the celebration near the end of that movie. People congratulated the pilots as they exited their airplanes.
“What the f**k did we do?” Vert asked.
On Oct. 7, Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, killed one American, Leon Klinghoffer, and eventually fled to Egypt, where they boarded a commercial flight to Tunisia.
“Those Palestinians who hijacked that ship!” someone said. “They were all on that plane.”
Thanks to the hard work, dedication, and professionalism of Steel and the pilots and crew of Saratoga, the murderous monsters were finally in custody.
“I was ready, in the right place, right time, and we got it done,” Steel said. “It was a very satisfying feeling.”
Trent Reedy, author of several books, including Enduring Freedom, served as a combat engineer in the Iowa National Guard from 1999 to 2005, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
*Some names and call signs in this story may have been changed due to operational security or privacy concerns.
