Lt. James Cater

Great mission! Only in a Warthog would have been able to accomplish the mission despite such damage. Any other plane would have been gone for sure. It's always nice to get a small bit of payback for a squadron mate.

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/16300-clipboard-a14jpg/ 14NOV62 Another successful mission marred by the loss of a pilot. The 136th was tasked with a strike mission so we were going to be there escorts. Took two flights at 10,000ft and all was routine until Tiger neared the IP. Tiger lead called tally ho on some Fishpots and we had a MIG-17 at our 6. Everyone punched tanks and the fight was on! I gunned down a MIG17 just a second after it got 2LT Roger Kirk. I just wish i could have been quicker because it was pretty obvious that he had no chance to EandE so far behind the lines. Also bagged a Fishpot with an AIM9 that 1LT Lesan had damaged with another missle. Lesan and CAPT Chuck Cooney shot down a 17 and a Fishpot respectivly. If only Kirk had a few seconds more. Damn.

Flying a SPAD in WOV GOLD is a major challenge. The flak in some places is pure EVIL!

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/16116-clipboard-a-13jpg/ Went in three flights strong but the pickings were meager. Gunned down a MIG21 that damaged my wingman and had a long but unsuccessful fight with a real honcho. Tried to lure two into chasing me back to towards the front until their fuel would drop and i would stalk and shoot but it didn't work as they ran for home at high speed and my fuel was getting low also. Better luck next time i guess

I've only gone Downtown twice since my comp can't handle the framerates and so it makes for a less than stellar experience up North. Luckily in a Thud and F-111, i managed to get out intact. Where i really have a lot of time is down in the lower RPs from Vihn to the DMZ and over Laos. 99.9 percent of the times was in a SPAD and i'm quite certain that flying over most areas on a frequent basis in suicidal in any other aircraft. The damage the squadrons' planes suffered and yet still managed to get back to base was awe inspiring. In any other plane we would have been wiped out in short order by the hellacious flak storms the WOV GOLD dishes up.

I've done a lot of Recon flying. It is really different and intense challenge since you are pretty much on your own relying on guile and speed to keep you alive. Unlike Strike missions where you can use standoff weapons, you have to actually overfly the target while straight straight and level. In the ODS mod, IMHO Recce work is THE single hardest thing to do. http://combatace.com/topic/48552-tactics-for-reco-mission/ http://combatace.com/topic/38128-recce-missions/page__p__259882__hl__recce__fromsearch__1#entry259882 Been been having some problems in the real world but i'll be back sometime soon. My current joystick is pretty much worn out and i need to replace it. Good luck to everyone and it's nice to see the reports!

The WOV GOLD Flak is especially terrifying! Going low and slow in certain areas is certain death.

Just to let everyone know... Jefferson Nighthawk has flown some more successful missions and has many kills. I've just been procastinating over posting the AARs due to the frustratingly tedious matter of having to load everything up into the gallery and then cut and pasting the urls here. If anyone knows a really easy and handy way to offsite screenshots please let me know.

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/13339-clipboard-a4jpg/ 7/NOV/62 This was a really wild mission! Expecting heavy action, it was another maximum effort for the 121st. It took us a while to form up but we got solid info on the enemy's location from a pair of German Recce birds around where we we supposed to operate. Unfortunatly we couldn't get there fast enough to prevent them from being downed but we did get there just as a pair of MIG 19s were heading northwest about 6 miles at 12 low. Where ever they were going, it was in a hurry and so off we went after them. It might seem strange that twelve fighters would chase after two, but they were the only enemy planes in sight and we were determined to avenge the Germans. This countinued for about 15 miles when the MIGs split up, one climbing swiftly while the other slowed radically and ending up about 200 yds at #2 flight's 9 O'clock. As i began to order #3 flight to engage the rear Mig, we tallyhoed a swarm of MIG17s climbing up from right below us. It was a a hell of an ambush but we sussed it out and reacted quickly. Everyone punch tanks and engage while i kept on the lead MIG. At that moment we were at 14,000ft. So onward and upward we went. I was well behind the MIG but i knew that sooner or later he would turn and the fight would be on. That was my train of thought until we passed 30,000ft. After that the realization that he was making a run for it became the new mental mode. Up pass 35,000ft and he didn't level off until he reached 40,000! At that point simply running the MIG down was not an option. according to GCI he was about 6 miles ahead and it would take forver to close the gap. It was Yo/Yo time and it did cut some of the gap but as i was getting a bit closer he reacted by going into a shallow diving turn to port just as i started to get the nose up. As i followed him into the turn hit went into a climbing turn back to his orginal course. It was a really neat trick on his part since he went full burner before i was able to counter and so maintained a nice lead. It worked twice more but he went to the well once too often. The third time as i dipped down to follow i anticipated the opposite turn and instead pulled the nose up and climbed to 43,000ft then pointed it down at him in full burner to get the jump. It worked! As he came up and went into burner he was just a bit slow and so i got into range for a missle shot. The missle tracked well and i thought for sure it had him but just as it was closing in he broke into hard to port and that sealed his fate. He lost a lot of speed and allowed me to get into a near textbook guns approach. In all it took about 10 minutes of highspeed chase to get this guy. Meanwhile, the rest of the guys had a bit of a problem. 1LT Albert MacIntyre was shot down by a MIG17 and 1LT Eldon Croker collided with a 17 he was dogfighting. Both bailed out and were taken POW. Also taken POW was 2LT Dave Becker. He lost control of his aircraft in the fight and punched out to avoid going in. A bit of good news was 1LT Duane Lesan, who was #4 in 3 flight, getting the other MIG with a missle. I hope we do better next time as we can't sustain this kind of loss rate.

Give me a week or so to get my finances back in order and i will definitly want to donate to the cause. Damn if that doesn't look exciting!

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/13328-clipboard-a2jpg/ 5NOV62 Forgot to get the get the mission debrief, but as you can see, we lost two pilots in our mission. It was a rather simple strike mission to knock out the fuel tanks at the Plauen airbase and eight of us took off. Two carrying a single CBU and everyone else configured solely for A2A. The strike itself was routine as can be, a few MIG17s were tangling with our escorts and the flak supression guys and so we waded in. What started out as a minor fight escalated really quickly as more MIGs showed up to fight, 17s as well as at least two flights of MIG 21s. Due to the clouds from 6,0000 to 10,000ft over certain areas of the locale, the fight quickly grew rather chaotic. In the course of engaging probaly 6 different enemy aircraft i downed two with gunfire. A Mig17 which i saw spiral down and crash and a MIG21 which exploded into flames and blew up. 2LTs Feinstein and Mass were the second element of B flight. Aparently they were a few miles south of the battle and were shot down by some MIG19s.

We all ought to know better but almost always fall victim to the "One More" syndrome.

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/13324-clipboard-a1jpg/ 4NOV62 What a great start. Had a recce mission and took everyone along. As it turns out, they weren't needed. Took off, assembled and went to 30,000ft. We hoped to find the Russkies involved down below and surprise bounce them. We were listening to activity reports but nothing seemed to be near us despite overflying a number of enemy airbases. Damned if no one wanted to come up and try us. Well, as we got nearer to Brandenburg i began taking us down. I knew there was a fight ahead but had no real idea as to it's size. It didn't seem like a big deal though, probaly a pair of patrols clashing. That's what it turned out to be and we got there very close behind a pair of Mig17s that we heading for home. Going full throttle, we closed in behind them guided by directions from GCI. It was pretty cloudy and those MIGS we heading right through a very thick patch of them. Soon though we finally spotted them as they broke into the clear and it was on. Assigning the enemy wing to my number 2, i went after the lead. A missle missed due to his breaking into it and damned if i missed with with a burst of 20mm due to almost running into him. He ducked back into the clouds and so it took a few more minutes of GCI assistance to find and shoot him down at 6,000ft Unfortunatly #2 lost his guy in the clouds so i decided to climb to 15,000 and reassemble the squadron. A few minutes later we got info if bogies to the northeast of us and so we turned to check it out. After a brief search a pair of Flashlights came into view below us at 9,000ft flying just above the clouds. We moved to engage them and they split up to flee. I fired another missle but the Flashlight broke just as it launched. The pilot was pretty good. Knowing he couldn't outrun us, he made some excellent low speed maneuvers that caused us to repeatedly overrun. He also used the clouds for all it was worth. A 20mm burst finally connected and down he went. The second disapeared but we found him through an incredible stroke of luck. We were in the process of reforming when he popped out of some clouds a few miles away on a course the was the opposite of what we were intending to fly in order to continue or mission. It's just his bad luck that we happenned to be flying in his direction in order to regroup. This pilot was even better than the first and pulled off some really fine evasions. I hit him a few times but he didn't go down until i closed in and really hosed him. He then blew up and went down. Finally, nothing else was around so we went to 20,000 and went to complete our mission. At the objective we got word of activity to the north but knowing a few of the guys were getting a bit down on fuel i sent them home. As my wingman and i went north i began getting a bit nervous about number 2 and so also sent him home. I wish i didn't because what i found about 30 miles north of Brandenburg was two flights of MIG17s lineing up to land! So i picked a Mig, closed in pulled the trigger and nothing happenned!!! Maybe i had my switches wrong so i rechecked everything, made another pass and found out i was out of ammo! So missles it was. I set up for another pass and had probels getting a tone. Damn MIGs were going so slow that i was closing in at a too rapid rate for the seeker head to establish a lock. Yet another pass and a MIG went down. Quickly cutting back for another pass i was closing in too fast again even though i had the speedbrake out. Damned if i had a hell of a surprise, i was low and slow right over some AAA! As the tracers came up, i fired the last missle more or less ballistically at below minimum range so i could get the hell out of there. Full burner, speedbrake in, and i could hear and feel the hits! Tracers were still coming up but i was heading out of the threat zone. Even at full burner, the engine was reacting very sluggishly so i looked down and sure enough, the Master Caution light was on. I then quickly pulled off the burner and cut the throttle to 50%. A quick panel check showed nothing wrong so out i looked and boy was the starboard wing messed up! I nursed the plane up to 10,000ft and went home. It was a pretty tense flight but i made it!

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/13282-clipboard-fjpg/ Here we go again. I'm taking every precaution with this one and i'm sure to make it!

http://combatace.com/gallery/image/13281-clipboard-x3jpg/ I one day i'm going to go back and count how many pilots i had that didn't make it past 10 missions! Anyways, We were on another CAP and i took two flights this time. We bounced some MIG19s that were our primary targets and really went after them. Unfortunatly, in the dogfight that followed 2 LT Patrick Simmons collided with a MIG. A chute was seen but that was all she wrote.

Glad to see things getting busy again. I've been out of aciton for a while since my joysick is pretty worn out and it couldn't handle the sharp manuvers that were needed in a Spad. Especially with the awesome WOV Gold flak! So i've decided to get back in the WOE skies again. http://combatace.com/gallery/image/13274-clipboard-x1jpg/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/13275-clipboard-x2jpg/ Th flight consisted of myself, 1LT Carlyle Simmonds, 1LT Stuart Mass, and 2LT Charles Hirsch. Fo our first sortie we drew a CAP so i decided on a high altitude approach to get the advantage and save fuel. Takeoff and assemblley was pretty routine, except the Hirsch seemed to have some problem closing up and so it took him some time before he got in his slot. As expected, there was a lot of activity going on. We listened to a number of fights going on and thankfully, it seems like we are getting the better of the Reds. Ground Control was giving us good info and cleared us to engage a number of times. Instead, we carried on knowing that there would certainly be enemy planes over our assigned area. About 25 miles out we began a gradual descent to jump enemy planes tha we knew were ahead. At 20,000ft, Mass tallyhoed some MIG 17s climbing up to meet us and the fight was on! Still in a dive, we dropped tanks and made our moves. The first Mig i saw i also assigned to Simmonds, hoping that we should be able to get him quick. As it turned out, i got him within seconds. Still in a climb, he passed by me so i pulled the stick up and immelmaned. Sure enough, there he was! He was engaging Simmonds, and so was at about 1 O clock slightly low and i got the sights on him. A quick burst of 20mm and his left wing was a goner. Quickly choosing another MIG, i got into a good position, but was a little too far for guns and too close for the missles. I thought i got lucky when it seemed the MIG was slowing down and and i was closing fast. In fact, i had to hit the speed brake to keep from overunning. The situation quickly changed. Simmonds called out that he was hit. Ss i slammed the throttle forward and whipped the plane around, i could see we were in in big trouble. Another flight of MIG-17s had shown up and jumped us good. There was only one thing to do and that was run for it! Calling for everyone to form on me, i dropped the nose and went plumetting downward. Levelling off at 5,000ft a desperate chase began. LT Mass called that he was taking damage but i couldn't turn to see. It took about 30 miles for the MIGs to give the chase so i called for us to go back to altitude. Unfortunatly, only LT Hirsch met up and so i decided to take us home. Lt Mass was taken POW. LT Simmonds is MIA