As a young sailor (some 30+ years ago) I flew in the back of an EP-3B 'Batrack' aicraft of VQ-1. Years later, I read of the story of the two P-3As that were converted to EP-3Bs in the 1960s.

The story is that they were CIA-operated out of Taiwan, Germany, etc. with a number of modifications for intelligence collection and agent dropping and various skullduggery. When the CIA was done (by 1968) they were modified into the Navy first reconnaissance EP-3s.

One intriguing part was that they were supposedly fitted with rear-firing AIM-9 Sidewinders on wing pylons. To discourage MiGs while engaged in overflights...

This sounds a bit far-fetched to me...has anyone heard of such a thing?