The Willy Victor Shootdown - Forty Four Years

John Lilyea at This Ain't Hell... has posted a nice memorial to the Willy Victor crew killed 44 years ago by the North Koreans.

I learned something new - I never knew that April 15th was Kim Il Sung's birthday.
He does a good job putting it in the context of the Cold War and making it relevant to today's headlines.

The lesson we learned from that shoot-down, one that was strongly emphasized in future Cold War reconnaissance missions, was that when you're flying close to a hostile, hair-trigger nation's airspace, where you are is not as important as where they think you are. That is, if their air defense system believes you have penetrated their country's sovereign air space, they just might try to kill you. The challenge was answering the question "where do they think we are and what do they intend to do about it?"
 
My Memorial Day post from 2009 lists what I believe to be all Navy crypologists (Cryptologic Technicians, radio Marines, and officers) killed in action since the beginning of the Cold War.

Rest in Peace guys.