30 November 1957 – Capt Benny Lacombe is killed when he unsuccessfully attempts to bail out of Lockheed U-2A, 56-6704, Article 371, 13 miles SE of Laughlin AFB. Ejection seats had not yet been fitted to U-2s at this point. The history of the U-2 program is fraught with fatalities and crashes. “CIA pilots Wilburn S.
Colonel Bill Berkley is a leader in the area of enhancing the use of night-vision goggles. He was instrumental in the development of a helmet-mounted display for a simulation of the NVG image with special software to capture the NVG effects, which also produces fully correlated realistic out-the-window night scenes.
At the I/ITSEC Convention in 1999, “Colonel Berkley’s fly-by-night training team [at Aechelon Technology was} at the center of American efforts to meet operational training needs of aircrew using night vision devices, particularly NVGs. The team develops training manuals, conducts instructor training, and provides technical support for operational units. “The official courseware we produce is used by the USAF, US Navy and Marine Corps for initial training, and to a lesser extent by the army.
“A basic driver of everything we do is a very strong primary operational requirement to develop a capability for night warfighting,” he says. “Secondly there is a requirement for effective, affordable training for aircrews. Everyone involved recognized that the ability to fight at night is critical to success.”(1)