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 The F4D Phantom II. This slide was taken in Germany and is probably my favorite because you can almost see in the cockpit. The F4 entered the European Cold War in 1966. It was used as a tactical air to ground bomber, a strategic bomber, close air support bomber in support of ground troups, air to air interceptor and air superiority fighter. A true all purpose fighter aircraft.
 Here we have a flight of four F4Ds lining up with the runway. Once over the end of the runway the number one aircraft in the flight (the aircraft furthest away from the camera) will make a 180 degree turn to the left. He (no female fighter pilots in 1967/68) will be followed four seconds later by the number two aircraft and three and four will follow four and eight seconds later. This will provide the necessary clearance between the aircraft for landing. See the next picture. Sorry to bore all you fighter pilots with that.
 Here, the number one aircraft has already departed and the number two aircraft has just started to make his 180 degree turn. The turn was normally made at 60 degrees of bank and at two G's (twice the force of gravity)
 Fill er up please. Here we have a flight of four at the neighborhood gas station. Aircraft three and four are not visible but we are following a KC-135 tanker at about 400 mph. Air to air refueling was a pretty routine mission. Some times we did it because we needed the extra gas to complete a mission and many times we did it just for the practice. Daylight refueling was a lot of fun but night refueling in the clouds could be pretty exciting.
 This picture shows the aircraft in position just before the tanker boom operator plugs the nozzle into the aircraft. The aircraft pilot would fly to a predetermined position behind and below the boom and then the boom operator would complete the hookup. It was then the pilots job to keep it in position no matter what the tanker pilot did. The tanker had a predetermined orbit to fly and was often in a turn. During training missions we would make three or four hookups just for the practice.
 This slide was taken somewhere south of Tripoli, Lybia before the Lybian government ran us out of Wheelus Air Base. About once every three months we would spend two weeks at Wheelus for gunnery training. Gunnery training consisted of dropping practice bombs and shooting rockets at the dessert. Also shooting the 20mm vulcan cannon at "the rag" and occasionally at the dart. The dart was an airborne target (kite) that was towed by another aircraft, usually an F-100. This particular slide was taken one Saturday morning when four of us (two aircraft) flew a little "out and back" into the dessert about 200 miles.
 The OV-10 Bronco. A twin engine turboprop observation aircraft. I flew this aircraft in 1969/70 in South Viet Nam and Laos. Actually from South Viet Nam to Laos. The job was to stop North Vietnamese trucks from traveling down the Ho Chi Min Trail into South Viet Nam. Guess we didn't do a very good job; we lost that war. Never-the-less, flying the OV-10 was a lot of fun. The aircraft could do anything the F4 above could do. It just did it a whole lot slower. The plane could make a 360 degree turn inside of a football field and do a split S from 1500 feet. It could carry seven combat ready paratroopers in its cargo hold although we never had an occasion to us that capability. If you have an interest in the OV-10 you should visit the Bronco Association home page at http://www.ov-10bronco.net
 In this view of the OV-10 Bronco you can see the the centerline mounted 600 pound fuel tank and the two rocket pods. Normally the rocket pods each held seven white phosphorous smoke rockets used to mark enemy targets for attack by the fast movers, such as the F4 above. When covering the Army's Long Range Recon Teams we tried to carry High Explosive and/or Flashette rockets in one of the pods. Not visible in either of these two pictures are the four 7.62mm machine guns that the plane carried. They were capable of firing 200 rounds per minute. No good against any type of hard target they did come in handy when covering the Army. The Marines also flew the OV-10 and they carried a center mounted pod with a 20mm Vulcan cannon which was a real serious gun.
Our squadron was located at Da Nang Air Base which was on the coast of Viet Nam south of the North/South border. Forward Operating Location (FOL) one, our location, was at Pleiku Air Base in the central highlands. Our sister aircraft was the O2, pictured here. The O2 was a converted Cessna Sky Master with two push/pull reciprocating engines. The O2 was originally to be an interim aircraft for Forward Air Control duties until the OV-10 could be brought into the war. As with most interim measures the O2 stayed to the end of the war. Because it was much slower than the OV-10 it normally flew over the Ho Chi Ming Trail at night and carried a navigator with a starlight scope to seek out enemy trucks on the trail.
 The O2 also flew the Prairie Fire mission which was in support of the Army's Long Range Recon Teams. I didn't fly the O2 but did get a little time flying back and forth between our FOL and Da Nang. It was not a particularly comfortable aircraft to ride in. The O2 normally carried two rocket pods. For it's night missions it carried several flares that could be dropped to the ground to provide a visual reference point in the dark. It had no internally mounted guns but it was not uncommon for it's crewmembers to shoot M16 rifles or drop hand grenades out of it's windows.
 Didn't fly this aircraft at all but sure would have liked to. The A1 Skyraider came in several models and I don't know which one this is. Perhaps one of this pages viewers can provide that answer. We, both the OV-10s and O-2s, worked with the A1s during Prairie Fire and Rescue missions where they provided a large portion of our fire power. They were highly accurate in the delivery of their munitions. For more information on the A-1 I highly recommend http://skyraider.org.
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