Salute!
Yeah, Drainpipe, decent article and I missed that rejoin 'cause my Dad died the morning I was leaving to get there. I was in the first replacement pilot group for Combat Dragon and got there in time for two months of the test phase. We replaced the test pilots and "experts" from Tactical Air Warfare group who went home in December. Plus, the sortie rate was so high they increased the pilot manning numbers. So I flew with the guys in the article and roomed with Blaha, the astronaut. Lon Holtz and I were at Korat Thailand for the first end of the war in 1972 - 73. He managed to bag a Mig in an F-4E and I got to fly up north and bomb Hanoi a few times In my SLUF.
We just flew a lotta missions with lowest loss rate of any attack plane over there. We had several logos, and one was "Closest Air Support", but mostly we like " Smallest fighter, fastest gun. When you care to expend the very best, wire Rap at Bien Hoa, Dragon at Pleiku" We only flew outta Pleiku from November 67 to April 68. Was supposed to leave there after the Combat ragon test phase was over, but Tet broke out and we switched from armed recce over the Trail to CAS.
@ SAS... That Vinh Long bird was likely my wingie. Had some kinda smoldering fire that the environmental system ( air conditioning and heating) heated/fogged up the cockpit really bad, so he saw a runway ahead and landed on it!! We could use anything with 2500 to 3000 feet
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