(Merged images courtesy of WikiMedia Commons)
Back in 1988, the Cold War was not quite as pressing a concern as it had been in years past. Mikhail Gorbachev had already begun his Glasnost initiative to open the nation up both internally and externally, and in the minds of many historians, the gears of progress were already turning toward the fall of the once mighty Soviet Union. One year prior, Gorbachev and Reagan had signed the (now defunct) Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which had the aim of eliminating intermediate and shorter-range nuclear missiles from both nation’s arsenals — as these missiles were seen as “first strike” weapons that allowed little to no time for a tactical response.
As a part of this agreement, the Soviets set out to destroy 72 of their claimed stockpiles of some 650 now-banned missiles by launching them from a known and observable facility toward a known and observable impact point. For the U.S., this was an opportunity to gather some valuable intelligence regarding Soviet missile technology, so the Air Force deployed RC-135S Cobra Ball optical and electronic intelligence aircraft to the region to observe. By 1988, Air Force pilot Robert Hopkins was deployed in support of this intelligence gathering operation along with the 24th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, 6th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing out of Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.
USAF Photo
According to Hopkins’ account, he and his crew were flying a standard mission in a sensitive area east of the Kamchatka Peninsula near the Soviet Union when they got word that the Soviets were about to conduct a launch of ..
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