A silver-haired gentleman gazes at the old German fighter sitting quietly in the Air Force Museum.

"The four cannons in that interceptor were devastating," he remarks, looking at the nose of the Messerschmitt Me-262 fighter. "If the Germans had used that jet correctly, with its optimally matched speed, guns and am-munition...well, the U.S. losses would have been fantastic!"

Fortunately for the Allies, Hitler had an obsession with using the jet as a bomber. This delayed introduction of the world's first operational jet fighter until it was too late for it to deliver an unacceptably high rate of losses on the Allied bombers. With the capabilities of the Me-262 and its cannons, an earlier debut might literally have effected the outcome of the air war.

A display case holding various German aircraft weapons catches his attention. He stares at the unusually stubby, black cannon form the
Me-262.

Victor Bilek knows firsthand the highly destructive capability of the Mk-108 30mm cannon in the case before him.

More than 50 years ago, he was the Army Air Force's expert that exploited the weapon after some were obtained in an amazing effort to bring captured examples of advanced German jet and rocket powered aircraft to the United States. Operation Lusty enabled scientific and technical experts to make detailed assessments of this advanced technology in U.S. military facilities.

As part of his exploitation of the Me-262's weapons, he used an old B-24 Liberator as a test target.

"We hit the B-24 just forward of the tail with one shot, at an angle typical of an Me-262 attack," he said while pointing to the museum's
B-24D.

"The specially-designed 30mm Mine-Type' projectile's fragmentation pattern inside the waist of the bomber densely perforated a narrow band of skin completely around the fuselage at the point of entry, and cut stringers and several control cables to the tail. The aircraft engineers who were with us said the whole tail would have come off if it had been in flight...from just one hit!" he said smiling.

Bilek wrote the Army Air Force's official engineering report on this highly effective cannon and its ammunition. That was how engineers made vital contributions to air technical intelligence.

As a young Army Air Force officer first called upon to examine captured enemy equipment, this expertise in the field of foreign aircraft guns helped him return to scientific and technical intelligence as a civilian in September, 1946.

While assigned to Air Materiel Command's T-2 Intelligence, he worked on special projects in the office of the Technical Assistant to the Chief of the Analysis Division.

Not only did Bilek work interesting Foreign Materiel Exploitation projects, he also got to work with some brilliant German scientists who were brought to this country by project Paperclip.

He recalled that their knowledge was astounding, as was their ability to remember infinite details and complex calculations.

Bilek collaborated with one German scientist to write a report on V-2 rocket production in the Harz Mountains that is still today a reference. The German just happened to be the former production manager of the factory.

In 1947, he became the chief of Air Technical Intelligence Center's Armament Branch. Then, as now, technical intelligence was comprised mainly of engineers and scientists, not intelligence personnel.

Four years later, the Air Force set up a separate technical intelligence unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. ATIC reported directly to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. Its focus was Soviet technology. In the early days of the Cold War, relatively few examples of Soviet equipment could be obtained because of the secretive nature of Stalin's regime.

During the Korean War, Bilek was recalled to active duty, yet still remained in his job. His branch finally got their shot at exploiting some Russian aircraft cannons.

Examples of NS-23 and N-37 MiG-15 cannons became available to ATIC in 1952, after bold United Nations efforts to recover parts from two crashed North Korean MiGs still in enemy territory.

After the Naval Gun Factory was generous enough to straighten the 37mm gun barrel bent in the demise of one of the MiGs, the joint ATIC/Navy team thoroughly tested the weapons to learn their strong points as well as their weaknesses. "First off, we were impressed with their reliability and their toughness." He recalled the time he actually froze the N-37 37mm in a solid coating of ice. The test took place in a special facility that was kept at 50 degrees below zero.

"When we fired that thing, it went off just like normal," he laughed. "They have to do that in Siberia."

His assessments of these and many other weapons went into exploitation reports that served the needs of both U.S. military operations and acquisition worlds.

ATIC engineers came to respect the Soviet equipment and provided numerous intelligence reports and assessments to the operational commands, research and development community and the nation's leaders. The creation of quality intelligence products was just as important as exploiting the systems. Findings and recommendations had to be clearly communicated to the customers.

In 1958, Bilek had an opportunity to serve as ATIC's Deputy Chief of Production Control. He stayed in the area of production control even after the unit became the Air Force Systems Command's Foreign Technology Division in 1961.

He worked closely with the newly-formed Defense Intelligence Agency to put together their scientific and technical intelligence production summary.

The Vietnam War brought many challenges to FTD. Vic took on a unique challenge in 1968 when he was named the commander's Assistant for Limited War.

In this position and as appointed Chairman of the Joint Services Battle Damage Assessment and Reporting Program in Vietnam, he had the opportunity to travel to South Vietnam and Thailand, briefing air crews on the threats they faced.

"One of the most satisfying times of my career was briefing crews on enemy ground fire and AAA. They would really listen."

After this experience, he went back to programming and finished his intelligence career as an Assistant to the Chief Scientist where he studied the infrastructure of the scientific and technical intelligence community. Bilek retired in 1973 as one of the senior statesmen of technical intelligence.

The intelligence pioneer said "the real satisfaction of this job came from the R&D guys saying thank you' for the contribution, or the air crews thanking you for helping them live another day. It was those times that made the technical intelligence especially worthwhile."

He continued to serve his country by joining the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and ultimately becoming a division captain.

At the age of 78, he still teaches boating safety in the Kettering, Ohio Adult School Program and is involved as a counselor in the Service Corps of Retired Executives of the Small Business Administration. He is a service officer in the National Association of Retired Federal
Employees.

May Spokesman On-Line