Lt. James Cater

12APR72 Old target but new approach and diffrent defenses to cope with. Due to the weather and anticipating the possibility of a SAM site being in the area, dive bombing was out of the question so we decided on low level with High Drag MK117s. The takeoff and initial approach was usual with the exception of being in instrument conditions and our northeast flight path taking us up towards RPs 3 and 4. Care was taken not to be in to quick but by the time we wee at the IP i knew we were running late. About 20 miles out, other strikes were in the area and the worst possible thing happened. SAM LAUNCH, SAM LAUNCH!! Oh Damn! I ordered LT Lang to hit the target and i manuvered to put myself in a better spot vis a vis the SAM. Another SAM site came up fireing. To our luck they seemed to be ignoring us and the swing in from the northwest gave us a backdoor approach. I bet who ever laid out the defenses never thought that someone would come in low from our bearing. Lang seemed to be having trouble because he was going really slow. no matter what he could not (or would not) go any faster. Man he was really a sitting duck. Anyway, some Navy A-7s were also taked with a target at the POL site and they blew away our primary along with theirs. Oh well, might as well bore in and get something else. I saw something for Lang to hit and concentrated on my own attack. I could see the buildings and some surviving oil tanks so i angled the aircraft a bit in order to get the most advantageous drop. It was about as fine a bomb run as i ever will make. The closest thing to perfection i will ever achieve. It was soo good that even the flight path just right. A little right rudder and full speed for the GArden just like old times. Forget about our planned and briefed egress route, we're out of here! Except that Lang was still moving at a crawl and swiftly becoming one of the few aircraft in the area seeing as mostly everone was on the way out by now. So i turned around and went to help. Seems he was lost a bit so i ordered him onto another target as i got the guns ready. I shot up the most convenient thing i could find, the POL site. From about .8 of a mile out i hosed down the area and saw multiple explosions where the tracers were hitting. Zoomed low over the smoke and flames with some light AA shooting at me but no joy for them. Lang finally made his attack (and missed!) ans so we were back to our planned egress sseing as i was heading in the right direction. Ordering the LT to close up, it was back to the hills and clouds, with the knowledge that SAM could come up and swat us down at any moment. with that in mind i kept the engine going all out until i was sure that we were out of range. Was a hairy flight and Lang is now officially in the Doghouse! He is on every tough mission until he shows better performance.

Hey Mike, once you get your head wrapped around how to be one with the SPAD you'll be in for some truly amazing times. I don't think i've ever flown anything that can do what the A-1 does time and time again.

Thanks for the vid The funny thing is that i've seen many beatdowns where older cats just wiped out young trash talking punks. What a lot of people don't realize on a street level, the older they are more dangerous they actually become because they just don't give a @%&% anymore.

10APR72 Mission 40! Another mik run LT Hill and i had it easy today. No ground fire and all our bombs fell within the area of a football field. Seems like the enemy is breaking.

9APR72 Sometimes i wonder why we make it unscathed in areas that have wall to wall guns but lose people on missions which should be a walk in the park. Took two flights to hit a minor league base that was actually a glorified truck park. Everything was going just fine on the approach to the target, we were all coming in hard and the North Vietnamese only had a single 100mm gun firing at us. The anticipation of making a single pass and back to the O club was dashed when Capt Leigh Autry's aircraft took a direct hit just before weapons release. We made the enemy pay for getting Autry but the target was not worth his death. BTW-Cliff...Really want to put the foe at a disadvantage? If at all possible, try to lure the enemy to between 35-40,000ft and watch their performance degrade. Get them to chase you and you'll be able to open up the range enough to allow easy head shots or back shoot them when they turn away. UP-Damn, sounds like the motherboard got fried. I' ve been thinking of a new comp for some time because my E-Machines has a bad reputaion for PSU burnout. Hope you get back in the cockpit soon.

7APR72 Pretty much a milk run. Did a recce mission right after a B-52 strike. Between the flak supression and the BUFFs, there was nothing worth wasting ordnance on so we went home. Only hassle came when we were inbound. Just into Laos, some triple A opened up on us. We dodged the fire easily and continued with the mission.

5APR72 This mission was something different. Apparently, we were taked with taking out some infantry at a North Vietnamese arty site. Whatever, it seemed to be damn important considering all the strikes going into the area. I mean everything from six B-52s to F-4s, Marine Skyhawks to you get the picture. All of it was going to the same place. I thought about going with a second flight but decided against it due to the hassles involved if forming up wasn't spot on. So it was me 2LT Karl Atterbery CAPT Leigh Autry 2LT Klaus Broughton. Visibility was fine, no clouds and only a slight haze. The flight was the usual routine, the only worry was flying over AA sites over Laos. The timings were also important and by the time we turned near Uborn, i knew we were behind a bit. I wasn't that concerned as we flew along serenely at 10,000ft. Flights were checking in frequently and everything was in motion. At 30 miles out, the first calls came in. flak supression flight hit every AA site within ten miles of the target and someone fired an anti radiation missle. I knew there was a SAM site somewhere in RP1 and i suspected it was taken care off when radar alert calls dropped off. We could tell that the flak was intense due to a Navy A-7 being daowned and others calling out that they were hit. At 20 miles out we went to attack speed and then enjoyed the sight of a shower of bombs from the BUFFs walking across their target. Their aim was dead on since every few seconds, secondary explosions went off and one knew when the arty site was hit when a series of blasts went off that reminded me of a CBU drop. Finally it was our turn. Everyone else was turning away except for a Navy guy in a A-7 (wingman to the the guy who got shot down) and as he turned away we went in. Everyone hit the guns and i'll take out the primary. I dropped down, swung a hard S-turn to let the guys in first and went for it. Everything went perfect except for one thing. I must have gotten some kind of buck fever since i let loose with all my CBUs and MISSED! DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just kept on going , jinking like mad now seeing as a bunch of tracers were reaching for me. Boy was i upset and i sure didn't want to try it again. You see, we had the advantage of surprise and a downhill foothil slope attack. Even the guns were in the wrong place to defend against us effectivly. About two and a half miles out the decision was made. Turn around and do it. The boys were doing a good job of keeping the enemies' heads down a bit, even if the ground fire was still rather intense. As i bore in, the tracers came for me again. I jinked as best i could, but i knew i had to get it on this pass. The plane was carrying ten napalm canisters and i was set to drop them ALL on this one pass. Everything was going my way until i had to straighten out for the napalm. Then a series of flashes and noises told me the aircraft was taking hits but it was too late. Ordnance was on it's way and so i slammed the throttle and pulled into a brutally tight turn to get away from the guns. As i streaked away i was ready to call the boys together when lo and behold, i flew over two SAM launchers. Talk about a Find! I quickly switched to guns and circled back. This area was really something before today. If every mission was like this we would have never had a single problem winning this war outright. By the time we were finished everything was blown away. The SAMs, the Arty, and our target. We still don't know who those guys were that we dropped on. My guess is that they were either the SAM personel or probaly some North Vietnamese top brass. Either way, they were(well)done with that napalm. Thank God for Dow Chemical Corporation.

3APR72 Got called in to support an ARVN push and we delivered. Decided to take three flights onstead of one and it paid off. Was a long routine flight as usual until we got word from the FAC that they had contact. We got there about 10 minutes later and being the first in, i drew ground fire and was hit a number of times. I had to break off my attack but being a target for the guns let the boys come in unopposed and they went to town in the target area. Checking up on my plane's condition, i found all was well and joined in the fun. We had so many napalm and cluster bombs striking Charlie that we didn't even have to switch to guns. The FAC was happy, the ARVNs were happy, we were happy and so home we went. Now i got an idea about where the enemy is placing heavy machine guns amongst their ground troops. Next time i have something in mind to drop in without getting shot up.

Trust me on this one... Give them CBUs and Napalm then watch them go to work.

Pere Ubu-Final Solution

http://forum.combatace.com/topic/49956-the-double-ds/page__st__140 UP, this info can help some. Since WOV Gold changed things, i have some new areas on my personal map now.

In WOV Gold there's no worry about the guns not being agressive. Also in WOV Gold, the loadout for my wingmen (flying A-1s) is a mix of CBUs and Napalm. They always unload the Napalm first, CBUs next, then go to guns. En masse, that's a whole lot of hurt going down on Charlie!

Hey UP, congrats on the MOH! I'm very familiar with the area from the Ca river to the DMZ. Ben Thuy for example, can be reached with ease via the Garden. As a matter of fact, a wide area to the northwest of the Arrowhead is a safe place for pilots. Upriver towards the hills and at the river mouth south of Vihn is where you have to keep alert. LOTs of flak at both locations.

Actually, just about everywhere here has "Good Samaritan" laws. The court will most likely throw the case out. "Minimum force" is quite a tricky thing to judge as well as how much of a threat is present. I'll use myself as an example. I have a knee that is in such bad condition i can't even run across the street. What am i supposed to do in case of attack? I sure as hell can't run for it. Also you have to factor in where i'm at. Until recently, i lived in one of those gang infested Barrio neighborhoods that you typically see in a Hollywood film. Like it or not, my first inclination is to factor threat by ethnic type, gender and age. Then i figure on numbers and the probabilty of weapons and what type. Sometimes i also have to factor in gang affiliation(s)and/or turf issues. I've been arrested and locked up before but i always got away clean in the end. Chances are my opponnent won't have the same kind of record. You see, sometimes you have to know just what will fly in court and what the jury will buy. Let me sum this up from my personal experiences and observations. Say i'm going to the 7-11 to get beer late at night and someone jumps me. Maybe i'll do six months at the most for not having a concealed weapons permit for my legally owned and registered pistol. I'll skate on my knife because it's legal to carry as long as it's in open view and i'll probaly get 30-90 days for my brass knuckles since they are definetly illegal. The above assumes that me, being 40 years+ and having an obvious physical imfirmity kills the attacker deader than hell. However, knowing the courts around here and the comparisons between someone like me and a typical punk? No big deal, it's a walk. Don't bother with the bail because you probaly won't do more than 10 days MAX and will just pay a fine for the violations listed above. Gotta love living in places where common sense is applied.

Just a litle info... Flew four missions today. I accidently closed the game once and it crashed on me twice. If i ever come into a significant amount of money, i'm going to get the the most state of the art custom gaming rig i can find. Hate to waste hours for no result.

1APR72 Turns out i was the fool today. Took Heffernan on a strike today. It should have been strickly routine and the first half was. We had a long lazy flight to the target. We had flak supression from a pair of Marine A-4s and we made a hell of a drop on the camp. The big error was on the way home. About 15 miles into our return trip a pair of 100mm guns reported by a Recce Phantom turned up near our flight path. I ordered Norm to go in and i would follow about 20 seconds later. He made a run but something must have happened since he pulled up without firing. I was seconds from pulling the trigger when his plane was blown apart by a hit. He got out but there's no way he had a chance to run. I did what i could. Got the guns and shot up some VC that were in the area. My mistake, someone else pays the price. BTW-Cliff. Don't worry too much about your pilot. I'm pretty sure EVERYONE here has scored an own goal a few times.

Squirrel Bait- Skag Heaven Any Nirvana fans should check them out. WAY better than the Seattle guys.

I was reading of this case yesterday on the Daily Mail site. Next month i plan to go to the British Consulate in LA to begin proceedings for a visa. One thing i am taking to the UK with me is a zero disrepect attitude from punks and a healthy contempt for the system when i do have to deal with cops and the courts. Two years ago some guy near where i lived shot dead someone trying to break into his house,the perp also had a some kind of weapon in his hand. The homeowner gunned the dude down THROUGH the door and the law here said "good job". The more i read of these things in the UK the more i figure on smuggling my guns. Wanna play "Hard Man Gangsta"? I'll show you how it's done. 24/7,365,366 on a leap year it's on. Better to be tried by 12 than carried by six.

30Mar72 What did i tell you? I knew the end wasn't in the cards. So i spent time back in the States as an IP and also got qualified on the A-7. Did the Pentagon thing for a short while and despised it as well as the the Cocktail circuit that comes with it too. I called in some markers and got myself sent to Thailand. The timing was right and i got command of the 1st SOS. Intell gave some hints but the NVA really got ambitious this time. This is a really big attack from the DMZ all the way down past the Central Highlands. Well, we got the call and we answered! Damned if i'm so new here that i still don't have the names of everyone here straight. loaded with 4 CBUs and 10 Napalm canisters each, we set out to lay some hurt on the foe when we got to them. Quang Tri was our destination and we had to take a roundabout way to get there. Who knows what they got in Laos now? To avoid any nasty suprises with heavy AA, we fly down to Ubon before swinging east. About 30 miles out and we begin getting the calls for help. Everything made for a textbook Cavalry to the rescue attack except that i forgot to set my switches correctly and so didn't drop anything on my first pass. The enemy had no problems with their weapons though. I heard the sounds of the aircraft taking hits and saw tracers go by me. Damning myself for my stupidity i gave thanks that it wasn't anything major ( A pair of .51s) and set up for another attack. Everyone was a pro and we took the pressure off the ARVNs below. 2LT Hefernan (sic) in particular, was especially ferocious in his attacks. Looks like i found a new wingman.

Thanks to all! I've been looking at this pilot and i think he's going to make a career in the USAF. Somehow, i got the feeling that the "peace" in Vietnam won't hold and something is going to happen in the future.

7July68 Guess what? We had another bombing halt! By now we all know that Washington is a bigger threat to us than the North Vietnamese are. EVERY single time we had the enemy on the ropes we let off. Well, we got Chanh Hoa as a target and you can bet that the guns are there again as sure as can be. About the only advantages we would posses is a night time strike and a whole lot of flights hitting targets in the vicinity. More flying targets to disperse the fire and more flak suppression working a small area. Well, we took off and set course. 8 of us loaded with MK117s, Rockeyes, and Napalm. I didn't want us to be late so we didn't bother circling, just flew on at a slow enough speed to allow everyone to get together before we got to a nav point just west of Da Nang. As usual, what seemed routine soon went wrong. Even going slower than usual, we still were coming in ahead of the others and there is no way we should do this alone. At 15 miles from the IP we circled. Our flak supression flight had already checked in but there was no way they were going to make it ahead of us. Even if they were in F-4s, there's no way it was going to work out if we went straight in. When the time was right we all went in. Me and Wiggins after the primary, the rest after the numerous guns. By then the area from the target to the river was absolutly filled with aircraft but we still drew fire. Wiggins drew some intense fire but he drove on in. I got lucky as i was above and behind him and so didn't draw attention until i was way into the dive. We blew away the target as well as other things down there, then began wiping everything out that we could find. A fine time was had by all. We weren't alone in the action as other flights did their thing also. The mayhem went as far as the Arrowhead. That's where LT Sumner was shot down. I really wished he stayed nearby but when you let the boys loose, they will go far and wide to hunt down a target. Unfortunatly, the target can and will shoot back. After i figured enough damage was done (and i was also winchester) i called them back together and we flew home. It was during the regrouping that i noticed Sumner was missing. After the intial debacles in this DID challenge, i learned how to use the aircraft in a manner that would keep me alive. No hero types need apply. Going after a target requires a sense of timing that will allow others to assist you in completing the missions and staying in one piece. Knowledge of the operational area was decisive. It allowed for a safe approach and withdrawal with the least amount of exposure to the enemy defense as possible. Safe flying was also a priority. An altitude minimum was strictly maintained no matter what. It does no one any good to fly into a cloud only to find it has a rather large rock inside it. The aircraft itself is probaly the single greatest factor in succeeding with the missions. I'm sure that i would have been shot down a half dozen times easily if i wasn't flying the toughest plane in the WO series. A few times i resigned myself to death but still made it home despite hits that would have reduced anything else to an earthbound mass of scrap. The added abilty to go slow and low also was a big plus. On some Armed Recce missions there was no way any fast mover was going to do a good job. The weather and terrain would have combined to wreak havoc on attempts go do the maximum damage. Forget about it, i would have crashed countless times in anything other than an A-1. Too bad i can't keep flying this angel in further adventures. Cater PS-Those two shootdowns? I noticed they appeared after my comp crashed those couple of times. The campaigns won/loss has been bugging me for a few years now. Still can't figure that one out.

8Jan68 This mission was about as good as it gets. Had to do some Recce and took along Lts O'Neil, Clifton, and Pardo. We hit Khe Phat hard a while ago Wing wanted us to take a look to see if the North Vietnamese were doing anything in the area. So off we went. It was a nice flight. There were some clouds, but we still had plenty of visibility to work with. Khe Phat turned out to be nothing special so i decided to take us to the Arrowhead to check it out. As it turns out, the place was clean also. What a surprise! I thought about going up north of the Garden and probing the Vihn area but decided that it would be better to bring everyone the next time we have a Strike going on nearby.Finally we turned south over the beach and headed towards the river mouth east of Quang Khe. Jackpot! There were some trucks on both banks and sampan traffic in the river. Looks like we caught them waiting to be ferried across. Me and O'Neil went after the targets while Clifton and Pardo stayed back just in case of guns. There was no anti aircraft fire and so we made multiple passes and left things burning. I also found a couple of PT boats and shot them up as well. When i was winchester i gathered up the flight and we set off back to Pleiku. It's official...Everything south of the Ca river has been taken care off. Only some buildings at Chanh Hoa to be destroyed. Let's hope that the Pentagon types don't halt the bombing again. I sure as hell don't want to go through all the trouble again.

Get the WOV GOLD mod and you can fly the ever wonderful A-1H right from the get go! IIRC it can haul 14 napalm canisters. The original Napalm Death!

Can you believe the SPAD withstood 20 14.5mm hits?

4Jan68 Got fragged for a Recce mission and considering the lousy weather, decided to do it solo. Takeoff and climb was routine considering the conditions. Once above the clouds i settled at 10,000ft and cruised north over Laos.There was a flight of Huns hitting the place and so i set a speed that would give them plenty of time to catch up. To be honest, the mission wasn't all that important to me. You see, i was loaded with High Drag MK117s and really wanted to get the primary done so i could fly down and make a quick pass at the Chanh Hoa barracks. The place looks like it's getting reoccupied and so i wanted to say hello to whoever was in residence. Anyways it was a fairly dull flight to the IP. Anvil flight(the F-100s) came up fast and on time. I reached the IP just as Anvil began their approach to the target and so swung into my approach and dove for the ground through the clouds. Trouble became apparent when Anvil came under fire. I hoped that there would be only light AAA in the area and i guessed wrong. So i did the only thing i could do, full throttle and tree top level. The closer i got the more the nerves acted up. Other than a 57mm gun, what else was done there? The answer came quicker than i hoped. For a second or two i thought i was in the clear since i was so low, the heavier stuff couldn't possibly shoot at me. However, they had some heavy machine guns and i was a perfect target for them as all i could do was run the gauntlet. Their aim was true, I saw the numerous flashes of hits to the engine and was scared witless by a burst of flame in my mirrors that turned out to be the rudder being shot away. A few more hits impacted the aircraft and the engine began smoking heavily. By this time i knew Chanh Hoa was a no/go and so i jettisoned the bombs. That saved my life i believe, well that and the sturdy construction of the SPAD. Once again the Douglas product was my saviour. In any other plane i was a goner. The speed increase got me out of there. I kept the throttle open while the tracers hunted for me but the second i figured i was out of range i cut back to avoid an engine fire and climbed to avoid the hills between my position and the South China sea. It was a long excruciating distance to the water. At any moment i expected the engine to go and so i spent some really anxious moments before finally reaching the Garden. Not taking a chance, i waited until i was about 10 miles off the coast until i headed south. Once down near Hue i steered for home and made it. Man, i have got to quit doing stupid things like that if i want to make it out of here.