Red Eagles

From April 1977 to July 1990, the Red Eagles of the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron carried out the secret mission of Project CONSTANT PEG, covertly obtaining and flying Soviet-designed MiG-17, MiG-21, and MiG-23 fighter aircraft. Headquartered at Nellis AFB, Nevada, they flew from the remote Tonopah Test Range Airfield in the northwest corner of the Nellis training area. From July 1979 to March 1988, Red Eagle pilots from the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps secretly flew more than 15,000 MiG sorties and exposed almost 6,000 fighter crews from those services to the capabilities of the threat aircraft they would likely face in a conflict. The secret was not publicly revealed until October 2006. Three men lost their lives while performing the mission: Lieutenant Melvin Hugh Brown of the U.S. Navy in a MiG-17 mishap on August 23, 1979; Captain Mark Francis Postai of the U.S. Air Force in a MiG-23 mishap on October 21, 1982; and Technical Sergeant Rey Hernandez of the U.S. Air Force in an industrial mishap on February 15, 1984.

Riverside, Ohio · United States