USAF Cold War Schemes

[bcyc 18]

I'm doing a little tweaking to make my SFG campaigns a little more accurate. Given the fictional nature of these campaigns, this is naturally conjecture, but I was wondering if those who knew a little more than me could lend a hand. There seems to me to be 3 basic flavors of paint schemes during the Cold War - grey/silver, SEA camo, and NATO camo. Did only planes deployed to theater bases (ie Germany and Thailand) receive tactical schemes? I know that planes used primarily as interceptors stateside like the F-106 never received camo, but did USAF Phantoms based at home stay in Grey or did they get painted during the Vietnam era? Similarly, how often did earlier aircraft serve in Vietnam in grey/silver schemes? When was the SEA Camo introduced? I've looked around on the internet, but can't find a concrete chronology. Thanks!

[mppd 16]

The three-tone SEA scheme was introduced in the war zone about November-December 1965, and was pretty universal within a few months. It was introduced to TAC and USAFE in early 1966. These other commands were slow to adopt the two-letter tailcode system that started in PACAF ca. Dec 1966 - it was well into 1967 that they adopted it. One markings scheme that has not been presented in the Thirdwire sims on TAC acft was the last four digits of the serial in white higher up on the vertical stab, in something like 10-12 inch high characters, seen in 1966-67 before the two-letter tailcode system was adopted.

 

Mike D.

[Blade 354]

One markings scheme that has not been presented in the Thirdwire sims on TAC acft was the last four digits of the serial in white higher up on the vertical stab, in something like 10-12 inch high characters, seen in 1966-67 before the two-letter tailcode system was adopted.

 

Here is a picture to illustrate that:

 

Edited May 27, 2008 by Blade

[mppd 16]

That's the scheme. I don't think it was used in USAFE or PACAF, but I could be wrong - the only birds in SE Asia I have seen photos of with it were recent arrivals from the states.

 

Mike