And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
a-5 faster than a Phantom was. Terrible bomber. Fast mail plane when needed to act like one. Bigger than a Phantom also. Taken around the 1970's before the Navy got rid of the A-5s aboard Aircraft Carriers. Heltau
I have quite a long story about getting CAS (close air support) outside of the Con Thien firebase up along the DMZ in Vietnam. Suffice it to say that the Marine pilots in the Phantoms did an unbelievably outstanding job on the "slopes."
I can't imagine the balls it takes to land on a carrier, but looking at that photo I can't imagine the balls it took to sit in a jet full of fuel within 20 or 30 feet of someone else trying to do it.
Working from memory here. Vigilantes were originally designed as nuke bombers, and the bomb bay was a tunnel that ran between the engines. The idea was to shit the bomb so that the plane would be on its way beyond the target when the bomb detonated. (Air burst: a lot of heat, initial radiation, and blast but “minimal” fallout. They could alternatively be set up for surface or subsurface bursts. The subsurface bursts would develop the most fallout, with correspondingly less of the other effects. Vigilante would serve most productively in the photo recon role, but it was a mighty big plane to operate from a carrier.
two comments. 1. That F4 is a bit low, I suspect he got an unsafe 1 wire grade. 2. We had Vigis on the Nimitz in 1978, we even pushed one over the side after the frame got bent when the starboard main mount broke on landing.
McCane must have been on leave that day.
ReplyDeleteMcCain was an Attack Puke, not a Fighter Jock.
DeletePenthouse at the Hanoi Hilton giving an interview for the press.
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine landing one of those flying beasts on a postage stamp bobbing up and down in the ocean.
ReplyDeleteLooks like 603 is a Vigilante amongst the Phantoms.
ReplyDeleteIs that what that is? I noticed the different nose and intakes, but didn't know what it was!
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DeletePost-strike bomb damage assessment??
DeleteAnd the guy in the Vigi looks like the Plane Captain, waiting for his crew to show up.
a-5 faster than a Phantom was. Terrible bomber. Fast mail plane when needed to act like one. Bigger than a Phantom also. Taken around the 1970's before the Navy got rid of the A-5s aboard Aircraft Carriers.
ReplyDeleteHeltau
I have quite a long story about getting CAS (close air support) outside of the Con Thien firebase up along the DMZ in Vietnam. Suffice it to say that the Marine pilots in the Phantoms did an unbelievably outstanding job on the "slopes."
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the balls it takes to land on a carrier, but looking at that photo I can't imagine the balls it took to sit in a jet full of fuel within 20 or 30 feet of someone else trying to do it.
ReplyDeleteWorking from memory here. Vigilantes were originally designed as nuke bombers, and the bomb bay was a tunnel that ran between the engines. The idea was to shit the bomb so that the plane would be on its way beyond the target when the bomb detonated. (Air burst: a lot of heat, initial radiation, and blast but “minimal” fallout. They could alternatively be set up for surface or subsurface bursts. The subsurface bursts would develop the most fallout, with correspondingly less of the other effects. Vigilante would serve most productively in the photo recon role, but it was a mighty big plane to operate from a carrier.
ReplyDeletetwo comments. 1. That F4 is a bit low, I suspect he got an unsafe 1 wire grade. 2. We had Vigis on the Nimitz in 1978, we even pushed one over the side after the frame got bent when the starboard main mount broke on landing.
ReplyDelete