Tag: Vietnam War
"Drop your tail-hook!" Pardo cried. The steel tail-hook, designed to halt the aircraft after landing on an aircraft carrier, was nothing if not strong — seriously strong. The following article contains excerpts from the story titled Stars And Stripes appeared in Richard Pike’s book Phantom Boys Volume 2.
Pardo's Push
Some thirty miles north of Hanoi at a place called Thai Nguyen, an...
The Hanoi Taxi flew two missions into Hanoi, carrying out 78 POWs and two civilian returnees to the Philippines, and four missions from the Philippines to the U.S., carrying 76 ex-POWs The C-141 Starlifter was the US Air Force’s first major jet aircraft designed to meet military standards as a troop...
Though he would have been in his right by USAF procedure to follow the rest of the aircraft and leave the area for Takhli, Maj. Merlyn Dethlefsen elected to take another crack at the SAM site as he knew more of his fellow pilots would be returning over the next several days.
Schaffert had survived a gruelling ten-minute solo combat with six MiGs — a classic engagement still examined at Topgun decades later During the Vietnam War, the 'Sundowners' (VF-111) logged six deployments, scoring MiG kills in F-8s and F-4 Phantom IIs. Noteworthy one of the highlights of the 1967...
VF-51 F-4 had one of the most flamboyant Phantom markings to go to sea- what rival squadrons called the "Supersonic Can Opener" was a bright eagle marking with tail feathers that splayed out on the rear fuselage During Operation Linebacker over Vietnam in 1972, the two McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II squadrons...
"We were lead aircraft with #2 and #3 echeloned loosely behind us. Looking out my right window, I discovered #2 was slowly drawing abeam. Both #2 aircraft’s pilots were dead-ass asleep, with the plane on autopilot," Jay Lacklen former B-52 pilot Jay Lacklen is a former B-52 pilot with 12,500 flying...
The rear cargo door came down, and Santa emerged. The troops cheered and whistled. Then the Donut Dollies came down the ramp and the troops went joyously berserk, but not in a nasty or lewd sense… Jay Lacklen is a former C-7 pilot with 12,500 flying hours and the author of two books, Flying the...
He was the father of Derrick Thomas, a linebacker and defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs who was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 2009. Capt Thomas never got to see his son play football An American flag serves as a backdrop to an image of Capt. Robert J....
In Southeast Asia, Gen. Chappie James served as deputy commander for operations and later vice wing commander of the 8th TFW. Along with Robin Olds, James formed a strong leadership and combat team, inevitably dubbed “Black Man and Robin.” As reported by Pensacola News Journal, the new Pensacola Bay bridge...
USMC EA-6A 'Electric Intruder' was the most capable electronic warfare aircraft of the conflict Grumman’s A-6 Intruder was the ‘Main Battery’ of carrier aviation throughout the Vietnam War. It represented the most capable medium attack aircraft in-theatre for the entire conflict, being capable of striking targets with a heavy load of ordnance in almost any...
