In the autumn of 1983, 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber in the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Then-President Ronald Reagan directed surveillance of terrorist cells in the area. Burk and Henichek left RAF Mildenhall AFB in England on a mission over Lebanon. Denied access to French airspace, their adjusted mission plan included refueling off England’s south coast, a rapid transit along the coastlines of Portugal and Spain, passage through the Straits of Gibraltar, refueling in the Western Mediterranean, a direct overflight of Beirut, and departure along the southern Mediterranean with another refueling stop over Malta, followed by a supersonic return through the straits back to England.
“Henichek informed me that our defensive systems display showed that SA-5 was tracking us. About 15 seconds later, we got a warning of active guidance signals from the SA-5 site,” Burk recalled. After getting a low-oil-pressure warning, they altered course for England, crossing France without authorization. As a result, they were intercepted by a French Mirage III demanding a Diplomatic Clearance Number. Henichek gave them something else.
“What he had given him was ‘the bird’ with his middle finger: I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel,” Burk recounted.
