Lt. James Cater

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19834-n23/ 8NOV65 Two flights. Milk run except for the horrible conditions over the target area due to clouds and ridgelines. Only a single plane dropped. We went home and that was it.

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19821-n21/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19822-img00434/ NOV65 Another lousy mission. Suffering losses in the worst ways. Four of us went out on an armed recce near an NVS basecamp. We found the camp when some serious tripple A opened up on us but 1LT Darrell Mckee found some trucks that i sent him to take a closer look at a potential target. As the rest of us whipped it around to head back towards Mckee, something went wrong since 2LT Imants Shannon lost control and went in. Danm it all. Well we worked over the trucks something fierce with CBUs and rockets and blew the hell out of them. We still had to worry about going to far south down the valley as the NVA were shooting for all they were worth every time we got within range. When i saw Mckee heading for the guns, i figured maybe he was going to make a turn near them and head back towards the trucks. Instead, he made a run to drop his CBUs and was promptly shot down. As i circled back to make a run on the last truck, i saw his plane going down trailing smoke and impacting about a mile NE of the basecamp. Didn't see any chutes. The only good news of the day was finding another NVA base and making a successful drop on it. As i sent Capt Evans on home just a bit before me and Andy did, he went to altitude while i stayed low. We had an idea that something was in the area since some Huns heading North earlier drew some fire near our flightpath and we could easily see the smoke from the bursts. We figured it as a pair of 100mm guns and who knew what else. The what else turned out to be a quad 14.5 and a self propelled dual 57mm setup. We got one of the big guns on our initial pass and missed on the 14.5 with some rockets on the second. Instead of pusing our luck we decided to go home as we had this place marked on our map and will be back soon.

Here is something that i find pretty strange... When i try to use more than one flight, the planes only have one engine functioning. It's a pretty weird thing to see. They take off and try to form up but with only one engine going it's pretty much a futile task. Anyone have a clue about how to deal with it? There are certain areas south of Vihn that i would hit with at least three flights of Spads. I'd like to do the same with B26s because a single flight is just asking for trouble.

Thanks for the info. I'll try it out when i get home from work. The bounce fix seems to have gottoen things straightened out. Thanks again for a solution!

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19787-n18/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19788-n19/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19789-n20/ NOV1965 Rob and Charles are dead. Just before their last mission they went out with us, Captain Evans,and 2LT Alfred Brown on an armed recce. It was strickly routine so that's all i'll say about that. What did them in was a strike on an NVA artillery position. The Marines had been pushing hard to the north to clear the area below the DMZ and were rather successful except for one area where they were getting hheavy fire from Artillery dug in up in the hills. That's where we came in. Major strikes were planed in the area and we were slotted to go after the guns along with some SPADs out of Pleiku. With all the whiz bang jets around it makes one wonder why they wanted a bunch of prop jobs to do the job but i just figured that with the lousy weather, only we could get down at a decent enought speed to see things enough to drop. It took a lot of time to figure out who else would go. so in light of the importance of the target, i decided to ask Rob and Charles the day before to do it since they were top flight pros. Of course they agreed and it was on. Everything was normal until just after the IP. Flak started coming up from a base area we knew of near our route but we assumed they didn't have any heavy stuff. We were right back in April, by now there are big guns every where up north. As we approached our tip in point, we could see heavy AA fire being directed at the flak supressors as well as the Spads which droped just before we began our attack. To say the target wqas defended is an understatement. They had a lot of 57mm and 85mms banging away at everything that flew, including us. As soon as we heard Rob call "bombs away" we looked dead at the target and let fly ourselves with 5 CBUs. Just as we were begginning to get out of there a blinding flash showed above us and we knew it was bad when we couldn't get Rob or Charles on the radio. They took a direct hit from what was most likely an 85mm round in the main tanks and their plane simply disintergrated. There was nothing we could do so we headed on our egress towards the coast. We were just about to pass near another patch of guns when luckily, a fast mover launching rockets at one attracted their fire and so warned us of the danger. We veered to the SE and after a minute or so we heard of some Marines in a fight with Charlie. Me and Andy looked at each other and called it in. We found them in short order and made multiple passes shooting the hell out of them with our .50s. By the time we were heading climbing for the trip home, we heard more about the artillery site. The place was so infested with guns that it took six fast movers to neutralize the area. Even then, a Navy A4 was shot up bad and his wingman downed by the guns. What a lousy day! http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19790-img00431

It would be really neat if the F-105 could utilize it's Bomb Bay. It would make for some interesting strike profiles due to what weapons could be used and the limited amount of fuel

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19760-n15/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19761-n16/ APR65 Back into the swing of things. Had a nice time working over Charlie. Marine and ARVN patrols have been finding evidence of lots of enemy activity to the just below the DMZ and so we were fragged to provide a few planes to hit them whenever they popped up. It was only a matter of waiting and sure enough, the VC showed themselve by ambushing some Marines. It was a rather cut and dried affair after that. We flew down loaded with CBUs and napalm and rained down hell on Charlie. The Dong Hoi strike was an improvement on our strike procedures. 1LT Robert Autrey and his co-pilot 1LT Charles Baker came along and we did the usual route heading passing of the Mu Gia pass. Make you wonder if this area is the sole place in North Vietnam that is devoid of AA guns. Anyways, we went over the coast and then turned back once we cleared the Arrowhead. We had a pair of Huns out of Da Nang doing flak suppression and they had great timing. Just as we swung around at the IP they showed up and we went in. It was really nice. The guns opened up on as we broke through the clouds but we had the advantage. Bombs away and full throttle towards the hills at 1500ft! The fire was there but it was inaccurate. A few evasive dips and we soon were out of range. Then it was a climb back to altitude and home we went.

From the main screen...Options-Control-Customize-Weapons Commands-Open Bomb Bay Best to have it set on your joystick or throttle.

Do you have a button set to open/close the weapons bay?

My royal wedding quota was met by watching Chuck and Di tie the knot way back when. Right about now the only important event in the UK IMO is Fulham beating Sunderland.

Can't do anything about twisters. When they happen,they happen and that's it. Once they are going it's more or less a matter of pure chance.

One big plus about the Invader... You can carry enough ordnance to do serious damage in one pass. My current loadout for a strike is 14 MK82s divided between the bay and wing stations. That is good enough to do a tornado's worth of destruction provided one gets a good line to drop on. For CAS, i like a combination of M36E2 clusters and napalm

:rofl:

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19747-n12/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19748-n13/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/19749-n14/ 23APR65 This is war and losses are to be expected, but they always hurt when they happen. Everett Olmstead and his right seater 2LT Abraham Able are MIA after being shot down heading out of the target area. Everything was routine until literally seconds before we were going to begin our attack on the primary target. A flight of SPADs was hitting the same place and they also got what we were coming after. Decisions, decisions and Everett was going after a triple A position while me and Andy would drop on other buildings on the enemy base. There were a lot of other aircraft in the area and the flak was suprisingly fierce. As we set up for our attack, we could hear damage calls on the radio and actually saw an earthbound fireball a few miles to SW of the target as a plane went down. The attack itself was no problem as we manuvered to get the best setup and dove in from the NW. We had plenty of time to look things over and made a drop that walked our bombs (14 MK82s) across the base. My horrible error was in making a climbing turn out to sea instead of staying low and fast. I was fine even though i was taking some fire as i would soon be out of range. When Everett tried to close up he was losing airspeed and exposing himself like a shooting gallery pigeon. Someone saw his plane going down trailing smoke and crashing just offshore but didn't see any chutes in the area.