Back in the '50s, SAC used special versions of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet for electronic reconnaissance. They were fast and efficient, and crowded. The Specialist Signals Operators — officially called "Ravens," but more popularly known as "Crows" — were crammed into a compartment only four feet high where they sat facing aft, strapped into ejection seats in the midst of banks of scopes, receivers, and recorders.
Despite awkward conditions, they did a good job recording myriads of exotic Sovjet radar pulses for later analysis. Often, however, flights were long and boring, with no sign of activity. One former Crow recalls:
"Those sorties gave us time to dream up pranks. Since a Crow's greatest ambition was to pick up a new or an unusual signal, we sometimes made up our own. We brought kazoos, noise makers, whistles, signal generators, and other devices to stump the analysts. Once we brought a cricket along and recorded its chirping, which we mixed with the navigational radar pulse and electrical noise from a fuel boost pump. We recorded and photographed the result and called it a new signal, speculating that it was most likely from an advanced fighter radar. Two weeks later, the analyst's report came back. They had properly identified the nav radar, the boost pump, and the cricket. As a crowning touch, they had even determined the cabin temperature at the time of the recording and the sex of the cricket."
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