Tom spoke about a chapter he wrote for the book, but his editor didn’t let him put in the final version because it didn’t have anything to do with the rest of the book. I thought you [bumped the stick] with your knee.’” The aircraft were also aging rapidly; ground aborts became common and Thompson’s unit departed Bergstrom with 20 airplanes to ensure 12 of them stayed airborne long enough to reach Aviano Air Base in Italy. Delperdang also worked at Eglin AFB in Florida, overseeing upgrades to the RF-4C that sustained it into the 1990s: improved navigation equipment, the Pave Tack laser targeting system and a terrain-following system. In 1987 an RF-4C had the dubious distinction of being one of a handful of U.S. aircraft shot down by friendly airplanes during peacetime. During an August 1965 inspection, a general told Ransom’s squadron “how bad we were.” On October 27, 16th TRS pilots ferried nine airplanes to South­east Asia. VMFA-333 was the last regular Marine squadron to operate the F-4 Phantom but finally transferred to the F/A-18 Hornet in October 1987. For prototypes, engineers lengthened the nose on two F-4Bs to accommodate advanced radar and camera systems: film, infrared and side-looking radar. Fighter Squadron VF-142 Ghost Rders Patch Full Color. - Wallpaper Abyss Listen to the actual combat missions to hear Bob and Roger talking intra-cockpit and the radio transmissions made by other aircrews in the strike force and Red Crown, the Navy airborne warning ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. Aug 16, 2020 - Explore James Lee's board "F-4 Phantom", followed by 150 people on Pinterest. The air strike that March day in 1967 was on the ferociously well-defended Thai Nguyen steel mill, north of Hanoi, North Vietnam. Gen. Rudi Peksens, “and that’s where reconnaissance comes in.” Before satellites and remotely piloted aircraft, aircrews put their lives in danger to collect information. No F-4 story is complete without mentioning maintenance nightmares. My squadron had a lot of members of the aerial combat fraternity because it was tasked with the strike escort mission in Route Pack VI. Another post-Vietnam RF-4C upgrade was the Tactical Elec­tronic Reconnaissance (TEREC) system, a pod loaded with radar detection equipment for locating SAM sites. Official USAF Records Credit the 35 TFS with 6 MiG  Kills. Retired U.S. Air Force officer Eileen Bjorkman is a freelance writer and author of The Propeller Under the Bed: A Personal History of Homebuilt Aircraft. Both Ross and his backseater ejected and were picked up. The deleted chapter was all about fighter pilots and what it was like to fly fighters in the US military. Most of the fighter pilots who flew into North Vietnam never engaged a MiG. The following table lists the members of the 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron who were credited with MiG kills during the time we were TDY to Korat Air Base, Thailand, in the summer and fall of 1972. Although many risked their lives that day the USAF did not suffer a single loss. “The RF-4 was perfect for its time,” Peksens said. Kenny is the only instructor pilot I remember from my F-4 RTU. The strike escorts usually flew the F-4E armed with four AIM-9 Sidewinder heat seeking missiles, 3 or 4 AIM-7 Sparrow radar guided missiles and one six barreled 20MM gatling gun. A last-minute change in target put him 45 minutes behind schedule, enough time for North Vietnamese radars to cool down and restart from an earlier strike. McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom Photos and Pictures. Tom Wolfe said that fighter pilots “have the right stuff” in his best selling book of the same name. 2nd row standing:  Bill Mikkelson, Jack Caputo, 2nd row sitting:  Don Vogt, Mike Nelson, Jim Pinckley, Jim Sumner, Back row from the left:  Sol Ratner, Gary Retterbush, Charlie Cox, Jeff Pritchard, Dan Silvas, Biff Strom, Ray “Howie” Howington, Jeff Musfeldt, Phil Lehman, Dave Lowder, Phil Winkler, Carl Scheidegg, Jack Storck, Cliff Young. Opens image gallery. Dan told me after the mission what it felt like when he heard Lt. Col. Beckers in Lark 01 call “Lark 3 break left.”  Dan looked to his F-4’s seven o’clock position, saw four supersonic missiles coming at him and said “oh shit, left, left, left.”  I have the tape and will soon write a story about that close encounter of the frightening kind. At the altitudes F-4s flew over North Vietnam, the missile had a kill radius of approximately 65 meters, but anything within 100-120 meters of the detonation would be severely damaged. Download for free on all your devices - Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet. “No one knew what they were doing.”. $6.99. Add to Cart ... Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime: Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy : Gen. Rudi Peksens). On May 8, 1972, Major Robert Lodge, gave another combat mission audio tape to Sgt. He was 200+ feet above the ground. The fraternity of Vietnam era fighter pilots who actually engaged a MiG in life or death aerial combat is very small and very elite. One of the attacking U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4C Phantoms was hit twice by anti-aircraft fire, and gas was streaming from the fuselage. (Photo by … Locher shot down their second MiG 21 while flying F4_D 650784. “As soon as I turned in down the railroad [target], the sky lit up,” Ross recalled. Wolfe spent a lot of time researching “The Right Stuff” by hanging out with fighter pilots on Air Force and Navy bases. Most trail missions were at night, when many aircrew admitted they often didn’t live up to the “unafraid” part of their motto. We were at 4,000 feet and Kenny was flying the airplane when I heard an explosion, the aircraft shuddered and the front windscreen was covered in what turned out to be hydraulic fluid. Colonel Ferguson’s F-4D that he flew back to Kunsan AB, Korea, in October 1972 when the 35 TFS RTBd. It was a hangar queen for one and a half years.”. Ransom recalled, “As soon as you made the [turn], the whole sky lit up with tracers,” but the maneuvering largely kept them from harm. “At about 10,000 feet, we felt like a bus had hit us,” said Sprouse. “When I flew [combat missions] from Incirlik Air Base [in Turkey]…for the first week or so…we didn’t know if we were successful or not because we had no reconnaissance. Unfortunately Kenny died in 2010. The unarmed RF-4Cs were far from defenseless, however, as pilots quickly developed deceptive maneuvers to counter the gunners. A U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas EF-4C Phantom II aircraft (s/n 63-7474) of the 67th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 18th Tactical Fighter Wing over North Vietnam in December 1972. The aircrew then arrived to help photo interpreters align film images with error-laden maps. When a strike escort carried only three Sparrows, it was because a single AIM-7 missile was replaced by an ALQ-119 jamming pod that jammed enemy SA-2 Guideline surface to air missile (“SAM”) radars. Gen. Steve Richie’s story of the rescue read “Roger Locher Describes Shooting Down a MiG, Getting Shot Down by a MiG-19, Ejecting & Evading Capture on the Ground in North Vietnam for 23 Days.”. Find the perfect Navy F 4 Phantom stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Here is a translation of some of the jargon used by the aircrews and Red Crown: These pictures are from Joe Lee Burns collection. Lt. The aircraft remained in service with the USMC until 1992 when the last airframe was replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet. Although pilots initially manned the rear cockpit, it didn’t take long for the Air Force to realize that weapon system officer (WSO) training cost about one-third that of pilots, and WSOs supplanted PSOs. Ransom still marvels, “A second lieutenant signed for a $3.5 million airplane!”, After training, Ransom moved to the 16th Tac­tical Reconnaissance Squadron (TRS) at Shaw, the first operational RF-4C squadron. The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. They had been deployed to Vietnam, operating out of Udorn, Thailand. “He ran the INS [inertial navigation system] and let you keep your head out of the cockpit more.”. Complete combat air losses are known – NVAF lost 66 MiG-21 vs 382 F-4. The 35th TFS soon consolidated the squadron and moved all of its men and F-4Ds to Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, where I joined it. Lord George Byron, English romantic poet ("Lara," "Don Juan."). As you know Kenny was recovered after spending a nervous night hanging in a tree in Laos In retrospect, My ordering Kenny to eject was a mistake which I have always regretted. | U.S. Air Force photo I was given the option of ejecting or landing gear up as the landing gear would not come down. On April 5, 1972, 35th TFS crews began flying combat missions from Ubon Air Base, Thailand. After Vietnam, the Air Force transferred many RF-4Cs to the Air National Guard and some units picked up new missions, including drug interdiction and disaster relief. [During the Polish Solidarity crisis in 1980-’81] we sent RF-4s from Zweibrücken [Air Base, in Germany] up into the Baltic Sea so any nation watching could see that the U.S. Air Force was there and interested…using soft power, showing a presence, where a fighter or bomber might have been too strong a signal.”, An RF-4C of the 14th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron spools up its engines at Udorn Air Base in Thailand in October 1972. D.W. [David Wark] Griffith, influential U.S. film director (The Birth of A Nation, Intolerance). Sprouse pulled the ejection handles and recalled, “On the way down, we [could] see the helicopter on the carrier starting to fire up to come pick us up.” Both Sprouse and the pilot survived, the pilot with serious injuries. Tom told me that I should read “Jousting with Sam and Charlie, the Truest Sport.”. Copyright 2009 - 2017 Richard Keyt | All Rights Reserved, Articles by 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron Guys, Robin Olds, the Fighter Pilot’s Fighter Pilot, Roger Locher Kills a Mig, is Shot Down & Evades for 23 Days, Joe Lee Burns Shot Down over North Vietnam, Thank You Martin Baker – the F-4s Ejection Seat, General MacArthur’s Duty, Honor, Country Speech, President Lincoln’s Letter to Lydia Bixby, Major Sullivan Ballou’s Last Letter to His Wife, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas on Freedom, F-4 Hit by Flak Lands without Its Backseater, Sgt. The missile had a warhead that weighed 195 kg (130 kg of which is high explosive) and could detonate via proximity (when it got as close as it was going to get), contact and command fusing. These pictures were taken by members of the 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron while TYD from Kunsan Air Base, Korea, to DaNang Air Base, South Vietnam, and Korat Air Base, Thailand in 1972. 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron in front of squadron building Kunsan Air Base,  Korea, 1 Apr 72, 1st row:  Mickey Wilbur, Charlie Sullivan, Ray Seymour, Ed Askins. Kenny landed in high trees in Laos. This is about the men of the 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron who achieved the ultimate fighter pilot dream, to engage and destroy an enemy MiG in aerial combat. “The greatest relief I ever felt in my life was when that tail hook grabbed the wire.” Both pilot and airplane lived to fly another day. Some of the 35th TFS Guys Pose for a Group Photo in front of the Squadron Building Just Prior to Departing Kunsan AB, Korea, for Southeast Asia. U.S. Marine Corps F-4 Phantom II Units of the Vietnam War. Designed to overcome the RF-101’s shortcomings, the RF-4C was a major overhaul from earlier F-4 models. The picture below is B flight of the 311 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron at Luke AFB 1972. Back row on the top of the airplane from the left:  Lt. Jeff Pritchard, Capt. You many then click on the >> or << symbols to move forward or backwards in picture viewer. But Woody Cox recalled: “The Sidewinder thing never got anywhere. Sgt. Most fighter pilots who flew in the Vietnam war never flew into North Vietnam where the MiGs were. Roger Locher ejected safely and escaped and evaded on the ground for 22 days before getting on his radio and calling for help. WSO Ken Butler said his unit lost several RF-4Cs at night and “never knew what happened to them—the jungle just swallows them up.” For night missions, crews dropped photoflash cartridges to light up a target with 260 million (later one billion) candlepower for taking pictures. I searched for the story on the net tonight, but only found references to it. Tom turned around and we had a lively discussion for an extended period of time about flying fighters. On this day Bob Lodge and Capt. It's December 1966, and a U.S. pilot is leading a squadron of six F-4 Phantoms on a dangerous bombing mission over North Vietnam. Thousands of new, high-quality pictures added every day. Click on the first photo to enlarge it. For more about Locher’s incredible story in his own words and Brig. General Vogt spared no resource to save Roger Locher, but President Obama chose to ignore Ambassador Steven’s pleas because the President had to go to Las Vegas. The photoreconnaissance version of the F-4 was critical to air power thinker John Boyd’s “OODA loop” for combat planning: observe, orient, decide, act and repeat. A McDonnell RF-4C embarks on a photoreconnaissance mission over Southeast Asia in August 1971. The crew was rescued from the Gulf of Tonkin by a Navy helicopter and ate dinner that night in the officer’s mess / ward room or whatever the Navy guys called it. Contrast the importance the U.S. gave to saving American lives in 1972 to the dishonorable mindset and abandonment of the four Americans who died in the Benghazi, Libya, consulate on September 11, 2012, when President Obama refused the doomed American’s cries for help. Every two weeks, a flight of photo Phantoms from Japan’s Kadena Air Base deployed to Osan Air Base in South Korea to fly Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program (PARPRO) missions along the DMZ. This Phantom is operated by the 82d Aerial Targets Squadron (82 ATRS). The following day, other 35th TFS crews began flying combat missions from DaNang Air Base, South Vietnam. Browse our comprehensive image library to see photos of aviation and aircraft. ... + $3.00 shipping . These are Richard Keyt’s pictures  taken while he was a member of the 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron while TYD from Kunsan Air Base, Korea, to Korat Air Base, Thailand in 1972. For Barrel missions, the photo Phantoms carried three external fuel tanks: one 360-gallon tank on the centerline and a 270-gallon tank under each wing. The backseater who ejected from this F-4 is a pilot named Kenny Boone. Richard Pirrello, a mechanic at Udorn, said RF-4Cs shot one million feet of film each month in 1969 for PPIF processing. Thus began the April Fool’s day deployment of the 35th TFS to Vietnam and Thailand to participate in the “Southeast Asia War Games” and Operation Linebacker I. Rick Keyt, 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron. Kenny was one of my instructor pilots when I went through F-4 replacement training unit (RTU) at Luke AFB, Arizona, 1971 – 1972. “I have no idea why,” said Ross, “if the fire went out, or the wires burned through, or the bulb burned out,” but he managed to restart the engines and fly far enough over the water to spot an aircraft carrier, USS Intrepid. Photos taken by Richard Kruse, at Oshkosh in 2010. All F-4 variants experienced frequent hydraulic system failures. Image not available. The picture includes the following 35th Tactical Fighter Squadron guys:  Joe Lee Burns, Joe Moran and Charlie Cox. “It was before we had enough unmanned systems,” Peksens explained. The strike escort F-4s were the second line of defense if enemy MiGs got past the MiG CAP (combat air patrol) F-4s. The shadow from Rudi Peksens’ RF-4C is visible in a bomb damage assessment image he took over North Vietnam. In the years that followed the Vietnam War, the Phantom was upgraded several times. Crossing the river dividing Laos and Thailand, he pulled the throttles to idle and headed for Nakhon Phanom Air Base, just inside Thailand’s eastern border. Kenny’s airplane was hit by AAA while bombing the trail. In 1980 I was working on a masters degree in tax law at New York University School of Law. A U.S. Navy F-4B from VF-111 dropping bombs over Vietnam, 1971. CREATIVE. I popped off two chaff clouds and about two seconds later there was a detonation behind me from a SAM with no launch light. Select from premium Navy F 4 Phantom of the highest quality. For units not operating near an airfield or helicopter landing zone, parachute-equipped canisters containing photos or duplicate negatives were dropped via a tube attached to the side of a “Blue Canoe” U-3 (militarized Cessna 310). “I had SAMs flying at me, I had anti-aircraft flying at me…the first SAM went above me and exploded, the second SAM was too low and it exploded and didn’t bother me and the third SAM was close enough that when it exploded [the shrapnel] started my airplane on fire.”. Recce crews also found that the RF-4C could outrun many threats. Dan Autrey was my roommate. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. WSO Paul Thompson, who flew RF-4Cs during the late 1980s at Bergstrom AFB in Texas, said the TEREC-equipped aircraft had a reputation for poor stability and fatal accidents, since the pod moved the Phantom’s center of gravity dangerously close to the aft limit. The F-4 Phantom II is perhaps the most famous post-war fighter. Have one to sell? 1Lt. The barely conscious pilot lowered the gear and flaps, but Dobberfuhl couldn’t tell if the tail hook was down. Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman, essayist (The Advancement of Learning). They got their third MiG on May 10, 1972, but were immediately shot down by an unseen MiG. Instinctively, I took the stick and throttles in hand and to my amazement, the aircraft as flyable. (U.S. Air Force). (Courtesy Brig. RF-4C crews often searched for vehicles and assessed battle damage on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which ran primarily along Laos’ eastern border. It was getting dark and the search and rescue guys told Kenny they could not rescue him until the morning. The warnings unnerved some pilots, including Edwards: “Your headset was just full of chirps, so many threats that you just turned it off and occasionally glanced at it to see if there were any strong strobes.” On one mission, he recalled, “I got a launch light [strobe]. F-4 Phantom in the Vietnam War. Gave me a big overpressure, kind of pushed the airplane, a sudden jolt.” The overpressure apparently caused his right engine to stick in afterburner, but he shut it down and restarted it for a less eventful trip back to Thailand. About three miles from the target, the front seat pilot yanked into a 75-degree bank turn and then rolled out, held it for 15 seconds, then did another rapid turn and roll out, and then turned on the radar for one second to make the North Vietnamese think the aircraft was headed someplace else. To get the best pictures, crews usually flew daytime missions over the North between 11,000 and 14,000 feet altitude, making the aircraft vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles: From SAM launch to possible impact was about 10 seconds. Image ID: 372428 RF-4E Phantom II. Some people thought if you put missiles on the RF-4, the pilots would just want to chase MiGs.” Some aircraft were modified with launch rails and a unit from Reno deployed with Sidewinders during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, but after aircrew from Bergstrom arrived who had not trained with the missiles, the weapons were removed. After taking off from Udorn Air Base in Thailand, pilots bled down the centerline tank until it ran dry around the Plain of Jars in Laos, which Edwards said “must be chock full of centerline tanks because we punched them all off there.”, Captain Rudi Peksens points to shrapnel damage on his RF-4C in September 1970. Resetting a circuit breaker in the box required removing the ejection seat, a job that could take a maintenance team all night. What follows is Ray Battle’s comments on the mission: Kenny Boone and I were flying a fast mover FAC mission along the Ho Chi Min trail in Laos. In the hierarchy of flying, the jet fighter is the pinnacle, but aerial combat is the fighter pilot’s ultimate experience. During the summer and fall of 1972 as part of Operation Linebacker I, the 35th TFS conducted strike escort missions into Route Pack VI, the most heavily defended area in the history of aerial warfare. Dan made a great tape recording of a mission north of Hanoi during which he and Gary Retterbush had a spoofed SAM launched at them while they were attacked by two MiG-21s from low and behind that each fired two Atoll heat seeking missiles at them. Spotted the carrier USS Saratoga in the Vietnam War never flew into North Vietnam never engaged a MiG in or... 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