Thirdwire Series After Action Reports

[+Dave 2,322]

Welcome to the After Action Report's Thread (AART)

 

Here are the rules...

 

1. You must have screen shots detailing your mission.

2. No more than 5 screen shots and the size limit is 1280x800

3. You will have fun.

 

Enjoy

[DaniloE31 280]

Great idea! Looking forward to make some post here.

(ehmmm... did I just break the rules? .... )

[+Dave 2,322]

Great idea! Looking forward to make some post here.

(ehmmm... did I just break the rules? .... )

 

No....

[exhausted 55]

Are embedded youtube videos allowed?

[+Dave 2,322]

Are embedded youtube videos allowed?

 

Sure thing.

[exhausted 55]

AAR# 1

 

 

 

Kep Airbase

 

American attacks have been routine for several days and patterns have been established. The pilots of 921 Regiment are put on standby.

 

The duty officer's log looks like this.

 

0600: Duty section is to fuel and arm 6 MiG-21Fs

0711: Duty Staff NCOIC reports all aircraft fueled, armed, and ready to launch

0745: 4 pilots and 3 backups are briefed and placed on standby

0815: Duty officer eats rations

0824: Duty has secured rations

1056: Duty is informed of yankee air raids forming

1059: Duty pilots placed on alert

1120: Commanding officer orders 4 MiG-21Fs to taxi and prepare to meet threats

1142: Major Ngo, Lt. Dinh, Capt. Nguyen, Lt. Do take off to intercept raid on Thanh Hoa

1201: Major Ngo reports contact and engages

1204: Major Ngo reports bomber destroyed

1206: Lt. Do reports Maj. Ngo, Lt. Dinh, and Capt. Nguyen shot down.

1223: Lt. Do lands

1226: Lt. Do secures from MiG-21F and enlisted crews begin maintainence.

1232: Lt. Do debriefs

 

No Further Entries.

 

 

Edited January 19, 2010 by exhausted

[xclusiv8 35]

God damn exhausted!!! Love the video and LOVE the pic!!!

[+Dave 2,322]

Nice exhausted, keep them coming.

[+Crusader 2,101]

very cool video!

[exhausted 55]

Thanks everybody, for watching and for the comments. I hope you don't expect a series though!

[+Dave 2,322]

With Israeli Air Force short on recce aircraft because of the protracted war losses they asked the USAF to assist in make sure the Soviets were not supplying the Egyptian air force with medium to long range bombers.

 

 

The ingress in was uneventful with a few pot shots at me from AAA sites. Our EC-121 called out a couple Migs on patrol and they seemed to get a vector on us but we kicked in both cans and they didnt have a chance to even get a visual. We expected all hell to break loose but not a single SAM was fired. We got over the target, and took our pictures.

 

 

We left the area in a hurry where some more Migs were hanging around but again our speed kept them at bay. We were feet wet about 25 mins later.

 

 

With the base in site we were able to breathe better.

 

 

The film was rushed to the lab and we got a great shot of the airfield.

 

 

The lab crew blew up the pictures and I eye spied with my little eye nice new shiny Tu-16's. We all know Badgers are not native Egypt.

 

 

 

The Russians have some explaining to do. I wonder what the UN securty council will have to say this?

[xclusiv8 35]

[DaniloE31 280]

Today was an Alpha Strike to Sam County on the schedule… Yes we went to visit the Dragon’s Jaw and try to make him shut. Now you know, you can’t just fly through toward Thanh Hoa and pretend to drop bombs just like that. Five Air Regiments are stationed in that area, waiting for you to shot you down…

 

The plan was like that:

 

2x RA-5C RVAH-13 (Bats), Iron Hand in the Hunter role

2x F-4J VF-92 (Silver Kings), Iron Hand in the Killer role

2x F-4J VF-114 (Aardvarks) TARCAP

2x F-4J VF-96 (Black Falcons) MigCAP

2x F-105D 563rd TFS (Ace Of Spades) as Bombers

 

Me… I was doing the YGBSM* mission

 

 

As soon as we passed our IP, the RWR begun to peep like crazy… Ok let’s start some jinking and wait for the Hunters to turn down some Radars.

Finally: “Shotgun!”

 

 

 

 

 

Now that the first sites were down, we could get in and start picking some SA-9 and Sa-8 to decontaminate this area. Is not easy at all to visually get your targets while you dodge these missiles going lower that 300ft!

 

 

 

 

 

Nevertheless my wingman was making a fabulous job hitting all the targets I could assign to him.

 

Suddenly the usual voice screaming: “Get him off me! I can’t shake him!!!”. OK now are MiGs in the game. As you don’t want to lose your Wingie in such a mission, I took a look around to see what was going on, and see the VF-114 leader above me with a Blue Bandit (MiG-21) in trail trying to outrun him. “These guys are supposed to protect US from the bandits!!!”, were my first thoughts…

 

So I went in full AB, 120° turn, full radar lock and fired an AIM-7. Which obviously missed... then fired again… same, ground clutter is too high here at 1000ft . Now in Heat range I rather squeezed an AIM-9, which went right up his tailpipe. You can scratch one MiG from the list.

Before I could think of anything else, I suddenly saw other juicy targets on the ground, and went after my primary mission again.

 

Very few minutes later, I saw on the map (a little cheat I admit) a red plane going after my wingman! This time for real! So I told him to break and to go air 2 air, and went in AB to get some altitude to try to get the Red Bandit in my radar.

This was my very last act. Indeed: “SAM launch, SAM launch!!!”, and in a split of a second before I could get a look after the source of the danger BOOM… disintegration. These SA-9 are very deadly…

 

But my Wingman did again very well. He survived THIS situation against all odds, with two MiG-17 firing at him simultaneously, and did in the end a clean AIM-9 kill.

 

 

 

 

The MiGCAP section was further useless…

Lt. Connelly flying this VERY SAME plane stated after the air battle of 10 may 1972, he would have had at least two more kills, if he only had a cannon.

This pilot was seriously trying to dissent, wasting 1000 round of the SUU-23 on the same target without a single hit!

 

 

 

 

In the end the Thuds found their way in to the target, put their payload on the right spot, and found their way out. It also seemed like we did good job.

 

 

 

 

 

After all although we lost 3 F-4 (me and the two lousy VF-114 CAPs, don’t kwon how… it was not my job to look after them…) I think this can considered as a successful mission.

You don’t get every day the chance to shut the Dragon’s Jaw!

 

 

 

* YGBSM = you’ve gotta be sh#tting me!!! This is what the first F-100 Weasel drivers said after they discovered that their new mission was to hunt for SAMs and kill them…

Edited January 25, 2010 by DaniloE31

[Slartibartfast 153]

Exhausted Whens the series come out??? Damn fine way to start it all off talk about raising the bar and then some... good picture and fantastic movie...

 

Dave nice to see the old F-101F out to play well thats what it looks like anyway...

 

Will have to scotch up an AAR but will have to remember to get footage of what I am doing... Always get tied up in the action.

 

And nice one DaniloE31

[exhausted 55]

AAR #4

 

040165

 

The 8th TFW has just arrived at Ubon and we've already been tasked with missions up north. So much for familiarity.

The guys way up have ordered us to prepare for strikes on Ho Chi Minh's supply lines and to protect the heavy hauler's. To

make most of our flights possible we depend on tankers, and aerial refueling is something that continues to wreck my nerves:

knowing that I, and the guy behind me, depend on my ability to link a flying probe into a port I can't even see. Back to

protecting the bombers though; the Air Force has been emanating Thuds like it's nobody's business - mostly from ground-fire,

but also a few from MiGs. I guess that could have easily been me, but fighter pilots don't die, we're not allowed to.

 

Our current CO does not seem to share the same exciting disdain for our enemies as we do. He hardly flies at all with us, and

tends to keep us far away from the action, but Washington has been good to me. He has hand picked me to lead a group of

ground pounders to an area with some lucrative quarry: Kep.

 

We got our brief early and because of that I know that I will be going deep into a place where no one wants us. I know that Ho

will send up MiGs in his usual, sneaky way. We have some form of radar coverage over the North, but no one knows just how

good it is just yet.

 

The 479th's responsible for performing a MIGCAP while the 433rd provides close escort for the Thuds. Take off is set for 0930,

but weather may push that back depending on what the Thuds run into.

 

 

Alright, out of character now. This mission is so fictional it's not even funny. F-4s did not arrive in Ubon until December 1965, not April. Also, then Col. Olds dictated the 400 knots rule when fighting the MiGs. He didn't take command until the later part of 1966, which means he couldn't have given the advice about speed in 1965. Also, the pilots names and circumstance of their loss are completely made up by me.

 

The ending had to be cut because Youtube only allows 10 min videos.

 

Please enjoy.

Edited January 26, 2010 by exhausted

[exhausted 55]

Part II/ last 2 minutes

 

[DamonSchumi 2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy7i21a-UMM

[exhausted 55]

Nice video!

 

Marines bring the F-8 Crusader to Vietnam and immediately start flying missions from Da Nang. They are often called on close air support missions like this one.

4/2 made contact with charlie while attempting to locate hidden caches near some villages. The F-8s, which were sitting on standby, are scrambled and launched to

support Marines at a location no more then 35 miles from their base. It's going to be another mission where they have strike 'in country.'

 

Here's Devil 1-1 taking off. He rolled on dry thrust, not afterburners.

 

 

 

Green tracers betrayed their owners and soon Devil flight was on them like sh!t on rice!

 

 

 

First comes a successful application of Willy-Pete!

 

 

 

Then comes a nice, thick layer of rockets!

 

 

 

The enemy is suffering badly, but not bad enough! Devil flight swoops from above donating 20 mike-mike to the enemy's cause!

 

 

 

At the end of the morning Devil flight landed and found out they waisted 47 bodies and the 4th Marine Regiment captured maps and what was left of a weapons cache.

[+EricJ 4,244]

Nice one exhausted

[exhausted 55]

 

 

1965 October 05

 

Standby pilots of VMFA-115 are alerted and sent to a border outpost near Laos to assist elements of the 1st Marine Regiment. VMFA-115 delivers ordinance within close proximity of the grunts. The target zone is close, and it is on the Laotian border.

 

[+Dave 2,322]

great vid and with one of my favorite songs. Turn your radar on next time.

[crazyazul 0]

Anyone got anything for this?

[UnknownPilot 33]

(this is dressed like an F-4J(UK), but was only because I couldn't figure out the skin issue at the time, the loadout and everything else was F-4J under the USN though :) )

 

Out on a fighter CAP, we were almost out of fuel when I heard a call from Red Crown and went to investigate. Turned out to be a lone MiG-21. My #2 went bingo by this point, so I sent him home.

 

2 Sparrows went dead on me and I closed to 'winder range, and the second one of those came through for me. Curiously though, the bandit flew off on fire like a human piloted flare or something.

 

 

 

This was confirmed by troops on the ground and recon flights in the area :

 

 

 

 

 

On his way down he looked like he was trying to control it, maybe dive to put the fire out or something, but soon be popped like a firework on the 4th.

 

After that, we headed for home, and despite a potential fuel situation, decided to dive for the hills for a little canyon running at high speed. If they don't revoke my wings it'll be a miracle.

 

I mean, it's just a little harmless fun.....

 

You know, things like cresting a hill upside down at less than 500ft over Mach 1.

 

 

 

And then after that I noticed we were down to less than 4000 lbs of fuel, so I stood it on it's tail, shot up to abou 25,000 feet, and headed for home, throttling back to a cruise.

 

Upon arriving at the base, with around 2000 lbs left, I nosed it over, lit the burners, and waved to the tower crew as we shot down the runway at their window level, about 68 feet or so.

 

 

 

At the end of the strip, we thought about making a split S almost into a landing, but, once we hit about 17,000, I noticed there was about 60lbs of fuel left (as in, it only showed 6 on the clock) so I cut back to idle, and basically dead-sticked it gently, came to a stop with 20 lbs of fuel left.

 

[UnknownPilot 33]

Man! I wish I had the means to record video, or even that tracks could be saved in this sim.

 

I just had a couple of amazing firsts. I took an F-104C-10 up North in 75, with random enemy air, time, and weather, but light ground defense (simply because too much of that brings my ancient machine to it's knees and I can't play). It put me up against some MiG-21s and it was a far tougher fight than I would have figured it should be. In the process of trying to get a gun shot on one, he hit the brakes, I over-shot, went vert, and he sent a missile up my exhaust. I was surprised at their response, but kinda impressed too actually.

 

So I hit re-fly and decided to be more aggressive this time. I went higher, with more thrust, and tried to hold a superior E state over them. Also blew my tanks almost right away this time. In the process of following the first one I had locked on-to, I saw the other one shoot across my face, not knowing if he was going after my #2, I switched and followed him. We went down into the weeds and I was able to turn with him easily, but the roll rate (slow at first, with fast acceleration and slow deceleration) kept screwing me up. And he would pull some snap moves to get out of my sights at the last second.

 

And this was the first "first", coming down low, in a hard turn, I had my take-off flaps down, was pulling G, then he slammed the brakes and cut the other way, I was going to over shoot so I continued but pulled up, raised my flaps, and switched to padlock view, and to my amazment, my lazy spiral climb apparently caused him to lose control in his attempt to follow me, because he slammed into a river. My first maneuver kill!

 

So then I saw another 21 near, but my #2 was WAY out of position and screaming and crying, so I chased him down, he had 2 17s tangling with him, I called him in then told him to attack my target, but he wouldn't listen. I sailed in, snapped off a shot, and he stood there and took it. The other one was a bit tougher, and I accidentally sliced his wing off with my v-stab.

 

 

But by this point, I was seriously low on fuel. The dial read below 1 and I had 238 miles to go to get home. So I headed that way, climbed gently up to 23,000 and eased the throttle back as far as I could. By the time I reached 175, I knew there was no way I'd make it, so I hit Alt-N and then tried to ease it down to the base, but I ran out of gas just before I turned on to final approach.

 

Now, here I am, doing less than 400knots in a Widowmaker, 5 miles from the strip, and it's off to my 9 o'clock. :::: ulp ::::

 

I gently eased it around, and just rode it out, waited until I was just about at the fence before dropping take off flaps and gear... my blown flaps were no longer being blown, I had no power to go-around, and this thing has an 8 mile long tail that's easy to strike, with no wings to speak of... I held it steady until I was about 90' off the deck and tried to gently flare it. Somehow, I managed to not strike the tail and just hit a little harder than I'd normally care to.

 

I dead-sticked a Starfighter!

[macelena 1,070]

Reinstalled everything and back to flight...against some technical odds. Flew a recce mission over Vietnam with RA-5Cs, it was fine. Target was an airfield near Hanoi, weather scattered, daylight, 1970.

 

As i entered red airspace, rwr went mad. We flew at angels 5 near some kind of factory or complex, and since then flak would scratch us the whole trave. I climbed angels 8 approximately, beyond the clouds, and AAA intensity decreased. When at 25nm from the target we were painted by some radar at 11 o´clock, ordered my wingman to break and dove down to 3000 ft. He reported fighters behind us, I saw at least two MiG-21 F13, but i was on burners, flying over Mach already. Then a SAM site, NW from the target (we were coming straight north to the airfield) started firing SA-2s at me. For the first time, i could visually track them the whole flight. I pumped out chaff and broke right and down, evading three, maybe four of them, however, with all the chaff and ECM, they still got me tracked. Finally made it to the airfield, flew leveled and straight over it, and flak was far more intense than anytime before, i thought they would get me then. As i flew past intact, turned SE to get feet wet for the egress, so at least i could stop getting flak. SAMs bitching again, i change altitude, light on and off the ECM, et cetera. I know that coming tree-top low would have made the deal easier, but i think Vigilantes didn´t do that exactly. Just before overflying the shoreline, WHOOM a MiG 21 crossed in front of me. I didn´t adquire him, then, neither see him coming. Continued feet wet, being painted and eventually fired against by SAMs, but no trace of fighters. Once far from the coast, made it back to base without further incidence, althought my wingman flew all over NVietnam with a MiG behind him and SAMs upon him, he didn´t make it.