Sommaire pour July/August 2025 de Flight Journal

IT HAS BEEN 50 YEARS since the end of the Vietnam War. For a lot of reasons, Vietnam was a different kind of war. If nothing else, it was unique because it was the first televised war and Americans could watch it in real time—sometimes with TV reporters right in the middle of firefights. But even with that reality, it seemed surreal as many argued the politics and whether we should even be over there in the first place. Somehow, the courageous soldiers doing the fighting fell through the cracks. The concepts were politicized but the human reality and sacrifice was overlooked. This was evident with the cold and hostile reception so many GIs received when they returned home. Vietnam was also the first war that fused the ground and…

IT WAS CALLED EVERY NAME IN THE BOOK by the pilots who flew it. “Sandy,” “Spad,” “AbleDog,” “Flying dump truck” and “Workhorse of the fleet” were just a few of the titles given to the single-engine behemoth that weighed more than 20,000 pounds when fully loaded. When Douglas Aircraft genius Ed Heinemann designed the big, lumbering square-wing, square-body attack aircraft in 1944, it was initially given the name Dauntless II in honor of its predecessor, which had gallantly fought against the Japanese during WW II’s dark early days. The Dauntless II made its first flight on March 18, 1945, only nine months and two days from its initial conception. A short time later, it was given a new name and simply called, "Skyraider." But on a hot, humid day over…

As the jet age emerged after World War II, it became a rat race between Russia, England and the United States as to who had the most effective fighter interceptor. This was especially important to the Russians because they had always put their emphasis on defense. In this realm, it was about even, with the U.S. always dominant in long range bombers. However, in the early 1960s, Lockheed’s Skunk Works came up with a reconnaissance airframe that the Soviets would never have an answer to, and it became known as the SR-71A Blackbird. With a crew of two, its superior altitude (85,000 feet) combined with blinding speed (Mach 3.2+) allowed it to overfly any country in the world with complete safety. Until satellite surveillance came into its own, the Blackbird…

COURAGE IS A CORE COMPETENCY often ascribed to the military. Its synonym, bravery, is always associated with fighter pilots by the fighter pilots themselves (and hopefully still by women at bars). Employing “if then” logic: if all Mistys are fighter pilots (and God knows, we all were; sorry—are!), then, ipso facto, all Mistys were/are brave; God willed it so. In my case, it was a little less complicated. When I was growing up, I was a pimple-faced kid with a penchant for heavy machinery. All I was interested in was fast women, fast cars and fast airplanes. Along came my wife, and there went the fast women and fast cars; all that was left was fast airplanes. That’s how I became a fighter pilot and thus was granted the mantle…

Editor’s note: The North American T-28 “Trojan” trainer is one of the least-known combat aircraft of all time. This is because it was designed as a trainer and history has failed to properly recognize its other roles. It was an unglamorous airplane and fought in even more unglamorous, sometimes officially denied wars. However, it earned its stripes and deserves to be better recognized. IT WAS A DARK NIGHT OVER THE HO CHI MINH TRAIL. “Zorro-16, Nail-43. I have you approximately seven thousand above terrain. You are on fire. What are your intentions?” “Roger, Nail-43. Understood—on fire.” Air Force Captain Charles Brown didn’t need the FAC to know he was on fire; he could see the glow of the fire out the exhausts of his AT-28D! Whatever his intentions, the decision…

ON NOVEMBER 14, 1965, Bell UH-1B helicopters delivered the lead units of the 7th Cavalry Regiment to Landing Zone X-Ray in South Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley. North Vietnam’s 33rd Regiment attacked, triggering the first major battle between the U.S. and North Vietnamese armies, immortalized in the book, “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young” by Lieutenant General Harold “Hal” Moore. News coverage of the battle featured images of what became the war’s iconic American weapons: the M16 rifle and the UH-1 “Huey” helicopter. The prolific Huey, with its unmistakable whop, whop, whop sound, was involved in every major battle, defining Vietnam as “the helicopter war.” The Huey was to Vietnam what the Jeep was to WW II, and all major armed services used these helicopters. The war’s emerging air mobility…

Minutes after sunrise, with small patches of fog still sticking like dirty cotton to deep green-black mountains, the howl of an Air America Pilatus Porter turboprop signals the start of another day in the “secret” war fought so bitterly in the mountains of Northern Laos. This “non-war” raged throughout the country whose neutrality had been agreed to a few years earlier. CIA case officers and logistics specialists are “the customer.” Air America and Continental Air Services haul cargo and troops. Gen. Vang Pao’s outnumbered Meo guerrillas fight for their mountains and their way of life against an invading army. United States airpower and the little-known Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF) and its U.S. advisors provide the margin of survival—if not victory—for the Meo (also known as the Hmong). The direction…

On December 22, 1964, history was made when the SR-71 made its first flight with Lockheed test pilot Robert Gilliland at the controls. The Blackbird would continue its career for more than 25 years, until the last one was retired on March 6, 1990. This was the only aircraft built during the Cold War that the Soviets had no solution for, and it flew over hostile territory with total impunity. Using two Pratt & Whitney J-58 turbojet engines with afterburner, it could easily surpass Mach 3, which translates to 2., 300mph plus. Combining its supersonic speed with altitude (over 80,000 feet), no fighter or surface-to-air missile could touch it. There was no need for it to be armed with guns or bombs, as it was the ultimate picture-taker from its…

IN 1967, a group of experienced fighter pilots formed Operation Commando Sabre, a top-secret unit with call sign, “Misty.” The mission was to fly fast and low to find hidden targets such as truck parks, POL (petrolueum, oil, and lubricants) storage sites and SAM missiles. They flew the two-seat F-100F, armed only with 20mm cannon and smoke-marking rockets. Typically, Mistys were up at 0300, off to a quick breakfast and then into a mission briefing. They studied HHQ reports, photos from Intel and previous Misty flights and then made a predawn takeoff. They flew for 30 minutes, let down over the South China Sea and crossed the coast at high speed. Often, the whole sky lit up with tracers as they turned, banked and pulled high-G, looking for camouflaged, heavily…

FROM 2,000 FEET ABOVE the triple-canopy jungle, the Ashau Valley was deceptive in the early morning light through the clouds to the east. Twenty-two miles long and less than six miles from Laos, Ashau was one of two strongholds for the North Vietnamese Army in South Vietnam, the other being the U Minh Forest north of Saigon. Known to the North Vietnamese as Base Area 611, it was Charlie’s personal territory: a major hub on the Ho Chi Minh Trail for the infiltration of personnel and supplies into Thua Thien Province and northern I Corps, the launch point for the Tet Offensive against the Marines at Khe Sanh and the ancient imperial capitol of Hue. On that clear morning in mid-February 1968, the pilots of the two Grumman OV-1A Mohawks,…

MARINE AIR WAS AS OVERWORKED and effective during the great Tet Offensive of 1968 as it had been at any other time in its proud history. Without it, even greater numbers of Marine infantrymen would have died. But it was an endless source of frustration to all concerned that weather conditions over Hue prevented all forms of air support for all but the first few and last few days of the month-long struggle by three Marine battalions to eject two reinforced North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regiments from the city. For all of three weeks, while Marines on the ground in Hue struggled forward without any air support whatsoever, Marine airmen waited for the sky to clear. By the time that happened, the battle inside the Citadel of Hue was nearly…

IN ANY OF ITS VARIATIONS, the A-7 has never been thought pretty; in fact, it had barely landed in Vietnam when its unique appearance earned it the nickname “SLUF,” which stood for “short little ugly fella.” The A-7D may best be described as a heavy-ordnance carrier, long-legged, close-air-support fighter/bomber. When armed with 1,000 rounds of ammo and eight Mk. 82 bombs, its external fuel tanks gave it a combat radius of 480 nautical miles. Ugly or not, during the Vietnam conflict it really carried the war to the enemy, and the USAF relied on it. On October 16, 1972, the 354th TFW flew the first missions out of Korat. Owing to the impressive record the A-7D established early on, it quickly became the weapon of choice among forward air controllers…

Before I joined the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1955, I was just a “good ol’ boy” from Macon, Georgia. But flying a jet fighter only enhanced some of those Southern traits. Less than 12 years later over Vietnam I become a MiG killer with the Triple Nickel-555th Tactical Fighter Squadron. Early jet days My first jet assignment was with the 309th Strategic Fighter Squadron flying a fighter called the F-84F Thunderstreak. Nothing could beat an F-84 going downhill, that was until the F-100 Super Sabre came along. My first thought of the F-100 was, “Boy, it sure has a big cockpit!” But each time you end up changing airplanes, you ended up thinking that way. They were all bigger than the previous one you came from. The F-100…

A CARRIER FLIGHT DECK is a crowded, noisy, dangerous place. There, the young deck crew of the USS Constellation works furiously to prepare “Showtime 105”—an F-4J Phantom of the famous Fighting Falcons, VF-96—for yet another mission over North Vietnam. The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was widely used in Vietnam. It took on MiGs in the high, cold skies nearly out of sight of the earth, and then dived back into the humid, hot, green world that looked so familiar to the troops they supported. No matter the environment, the versatile Phantom mastered every mission to which it was assigned. The Fighting Falcons became famous for having among their members the first Navy team to produce aces in nearly two decades: Lt. Randall H. “Duke” Cunningham, pilot, and WSO Lt.…

THIS POSSIBLE VENGEANCE had dogged the Mohawk for 14 years, ever since the Army decided in 1956 to create the first designed-for-the-purpose “battlefield reconnaissance” aircraft since the North American O-47 had flown in 1937. To understand this problem, a bit of background history is required. The Grumman OV-1 Mohawk was firmly in the tradition of what was called “Corps Reconnaissance” in WW I, and “Army Co-Operation” in WW II, in that it was a purpose-built aircraft to work with the land forces. Some more famous of this type are the WW I de Havilland DH-4 and Bristol Fighter and the Lysander and Storch of WW II. The OV-1 was the product of a requirement put forth in 1956 to develop a more capable design than the then operational Cessna L-19…