In November 1961 the squadron received the project “Tall Tom” aircraft 58-0711, a C-130B-II from Lockheed at Long Beach, California. The aircraft was scheduled to fly operationally in January 1962. This new paragonpl aircraft was one-of-a-kind. The front-end crew was the same as on the C-130A-II aircraft, but the back-end & its crew was totally different. There were four radio operators (linguists). Three sat at one large console.

This console & operators faced aft. This console was positioned between the side aft personnel doors & under the aileron rod power package. The radio antennas were large round discs mounted on fiberglass panels on the sides of the aircraft. From the outside these panels were above & forward of the JATO doors. Between the 245 bulkhead and the console position were long rows of tape recorders. When the interpreters were operating a curtain was pulled across the opening between the flight crew and the back-end crew so that the flight crew could not see what was going on in the back. When a flight crew member had to go into the back he had to advise the back-end crew that he was coming.

In October 1962 project “Tall Tom” was concluded and aircraft 58-0711 C-130B-II was returned to the ZI for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two flight crews went with the aircraft on TDY status. Aircraft 58-0711 returned to Rhein/Main in Oct 1971 and left in June 1972. It was used for aircrew transition training into the B model. At this time the backend radios were still installed but not in working status.