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From my reading of the excellent book Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam, 1965-1972 (http://www.amazon.com/Clashes-Combat-North-Vietnam-1965-1972/dp/1591145
by hga 11y ago
From my reading of the excellent book Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam, 1965-1972 (http://www.amazon.com/Clashes-Combat-North-Vietnam-1965-1972/dp/1591145198 http://www.amazon.com/Clashes-Combat-North-Vietnam-1965-1972...) that would imply your father was fighting over South Vietnam (or perhaps to the west), but, hmmm, it didn't mention F-111 missions at all. For the big operations up north, the Air Force used up its F-105 inventory, and had to switch to their own version of the Navy's (spit) F-4.
Ah, per Wikipedia the F-111 was employed, but I can see why it wasn't covered in book, it was ideally employed as a low level terrain following penetrator, so it would not be a part of the big daytime flocks of birds that the NVA were be able to follow and vector their Migs to for one pass attacks. So not relevant to a book focused on air combat per se.
Heh, love the anecdote about the Edsel. The Official Story, on Wikipedia at least, is that he saved Ford not by pushing it, but by killing it, but I have my doubts, everything he touched after that turned to shit, including his disastrous tenure at the World Bank where he destroyed untold agricultural systems in the Third World....
- rhizome 11y agoI haven't read anything, but certainly killing the Edsel could have been his predecessor's idea, but it was too late and the task was saved to give some shine to McNamara. That happens (or seems to) in exec pushouts all the time.
- _Codemonkeyism 11y ago"It was late, so he ended up flying the F-100."
- hga 11y agoFrom Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-100_Super_Sabre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-100_Super_Sab...): Adapted as a fighter bomber, the F-100 was supplanted by the Mach two class F-105 Thunderchief for strike missions over North Vietnam. The F-100 flew extensively over South Vietnam as the air force's primary close air support jet until being replaced by the more efficient subsonic LTV A-7 Corsair II. And this was mentioned in passing in Clashes.