莊人亮先生辭世
Spike Chuang Passed Away

莊人亮先生（右）與英籍U-2研究專家Chris Pocock先生攝於2004年2月
Spike Chuang (right) and British author Chris Pocock

前黑貓中隊（空軍第35中隊）飛行員莊人亮先生不幸於5月11日辭世。國防部在新聞稿中又搞了烏龍（如下圖），稱莊先生是於美國德州洛佛林（Laughlin）基地完成U-2飛行訓練，但事實上他受訓的地點是位於亞利桑那州的Davis–Monthan空軍基地。儘管國防部愛說自己重視歷史傳承，但素質卻是每下愈況，近幾年在表彰或悼念黑貓中隊隊員的新聞稿中幾乎都有明顯的錯誤，而且我從未看過他們更正。這回把莊先生受訓的基地寫錯，導致所有採用新聞稿的媒體跟著一起出錯，然後這錯誤的資訊再透過Internet如電腦病毒般蔓延，國防部真是居功厥偉。
Former U-2 pilot, Spike Chuang, of the ROCAF 35th Squadron (aka Black Cat Squadron) passed away on May 11. The press release prepared by the Ministry of Regional National Defense erroneously described that Spike completed his training on the U-2 at Laughlin AFB, TX. In fact, Spike was trained at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ. This is not the first time that MND made mistakes in their press releases about the Black Cat Squadron. Almost all the releases about this squadron issued in the past few years contained incorrect information.

新聞稿中略有提到莊先生遠赴羅布泊的Tabasco任務以及在雲南上空遭遇地對空飛彈襲擊的事蹟。其實莊人亮是黑貓中隊裡極少數曾兩度遭到中國發射地對空飛彈攻擊的飛行員，除了前面提到的C126C任務，另一次是1966年8月24日執行的C176C任務，下圖顯示莊先生在廣州南海一帶遭遇飛彈襲擊時所做的迴避航線：
MND’s press release mentioned Spike’s daring mission to the Lop Nor Nuclear Test site in China (codename: Tabasco) and his close encounter with Chinese Surface-to-Air missiles over Kunming. Actually Spike was one of the very few U-2 pilots who had been shot at by SAMs twice. In addition to Mission C126C over Kunming, Spike was fired at during Mission C176C, Aug 24, 1966, while he was over Canton. The following plot shows the evasion maneuver he took.

下圖是莊人亮在該次任務中拍攝到的南海機場照片，中情局的判讀人員在照片上發現了攻擊他的飛彈陣地，飛彈發射產生的濃煙在照片上清晰可見：
The next picture was taken by Spike on C176C. CIA photo interpreters found the SAM site that fired at Spike at the airfield. Smoke from the missile launch can be seen.

除此之外，黑貓中隊的U-2在換裝高解析度的H型相機後，首次任務（編號C267C）即由莊人亮負責執行：
In addition, after the Black Cat Squadron converted to the high-resolution “H” camera, Spike was the first pilot to complete a mission in the “H” configuration:

下圖是C267C任務在福建一帶的任務涵蓋圖，由於H型相機的swath width較窄，所以照片涵蓋的區域是長條狀的：
The next figure shows the mission coverage of Mission C267C by the “H” camera in the Fujian area.

其他有關莊人亮先生在黑貓中隊服役期間的事蹟，請參見拙作《快刀計畫揭密》一書。

Rest in peace, Spike.