Salute!
For those who "trust" all the hype and claims and critical stuff, but have never reached out and "touched the elephant", I show a graphic from a publication depicting the actual combat capability of my bomb truck back in 1972-1975. The 354th TFW deployed to Korat in October of 1972, and flew CAS, CSAR and strike over Vietnam, Laos and Combodia. Don was one of the infamous C-flight pilots, and later flew strange machines outta Groom Lake, including Shamu.
re-print of 1973/1974 publication graphic
I flew 80 or 90 missions with that load, and it is a very accurate depiction of our range. It is actually a bit pessimistic about the shorter missions to South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as we burned a lotta gas climbing for those runs way up north. On those we carried two x 2,000 pounders, 2 x ECM pods, 2 x tanks and 2 x AIM-9E We also came back from the S. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodian missions with less than 2,300 pounds unless WX was really crappy.
For the trips "downtown" during the 1972 Christmas blitz, we took off last and sometimes landed first because we did not refuel going or coming. The Double Uglies and Thuds tanked while we climbed, then escorted or went in for SEAD/CAP
It would be nice to have someone of that era that flew those missions in something other than a Sluf comment here. And a USN aviator out on a boat in the Gulf could add to the stories.
Gums sends...