Lt. James Cater

Looks really good. Getting it off Amazon in a few weeks.

27-28SEPT79 Have had a rather active time. Over Bad Hersfeld it was a madhouse of a brawl at low level with MIG23s,27s,Yank A-10s and the same bunch of us with the exception of Hughie Tuck. There were a lot of missiles zipping about and one had to be very careful about one's tail. Twice i launched at 23s only to have another's sidewinder beat mine to the kill. Harassed and damaged a 27 with the Adens but just as i had him dead to rights, i was out of ammo! Also at that moment some more 23s and two flights of MIG21s came into the are so it was home Jeremy and don't spare the horses. As (bad) luck would have it, Tuck lagged behind and after dodging numerous heat seekers, finally caught one from a 21. Thankfully he bailed out and made it back fine. In the meantime our base was under attack but it was broken up by F-15s and not a bomb fell anywhere near. We have replacement pilots and they could see the closest MIG go down in flames about 8 miles off. Rumour has it that it was a MIG23 flown by a top Russian ace who was downed by a Yank pilot of the 21st TFS who made ace himself! Almost forgot to mention...Gardner, Hillwood, and Tuck all scored. Mig27, MIG23, and MIG23 respectively. All with sidewinders. On the 28th i did a solo recce run over Fulda. Comfy enough ingress, over Fulda i was being tracked by something and shortly on the homeward route i found out by what. A pair of MIG23s. I thought it was going to be easy peasy with the missiles but both failed to guide! That led to a low level 2v1 that was not very fun. However, staying constantly turning and changing headings and height, i got one fixed right during a hard starboard turn and gunned him down. The other then buggered off so back home it was. There was some more attention from other enemy AC radar but i managed to get right down to grass level and lost them. http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31019-clipboard-u9/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31020-clipboard-u10/

I know i'm late to post about this but what the heck. Piper was a great heel and could cut top notch promos matched only by a few in the business. Due to how things are done now, we'll never see the likes of him or his kind again.

"If you're born poor, it's not your mistake. But if you die poor, it is your mistake" Seen way too many people go from nothing to something via one way or another. At least here in the USA if you can't get your s**t together, it's pretty much too bad for you. You might not be a millionaire when all is said and done, but at least you sure as hell won't be at the bottom of the barrel.

SEP/79 We are still at it despite the losses. The Fulda mission with Marshall was a really nice job. Take off, 5000ft, and to the target. Some rather fierce action was going on further to the SW and we were hoping some cover would head our way as surely the enemy were going to be up in force. Fortunately, we only briefly were tracked by someone's radar but some Yank F-15s cut in and took care of them. I hit the fuel tanks nice and fine with a pair of CBUs while Ken dropped on a nearby group of T72s. Then it was a smooth trip home. Braunschwieg was another bad story. Went with P/O Alfred Tuck, F/O Leonard Hillwood, and P/O Colin Gardner to do some ground support for the Germans holding the area and it didn't turn out well at all. Just as we got into the area we came under attack from the foe from 10 O'clock high and so turned into them and engaged. I promptly shot down a MIG 23 and soon after Gardner scored also. Lucky for us the was all for enemy fighters as the rest were a flight of MIG-27s doing the same as us, ground support. Well we quickly dropped our rockeyes on the enemy tanks and went after the MIGs. I got one with the remainding sidewinder from a 12 O'clock shot as he was making a rocket run over the Braunschwieg city AA defenses and then it was a matter of chasing the rest around. We didn't get any of them but we forced them to drop their ordnance and be defensive against us rather than shooting up the Germans below. So now it's time to go home as more enemy AC are coming into the area. I turn onto the course back to base, call everyone together, and then the usual chaos ensues. Everyone takes their sweet time about it and MIGs take advantage. Tuck and Gardner get shot down in quick fashion by a pair of MIG 21s. I quickly reversed course and attacked the MIGs head on to distract them and it works, much to my regret. Spent the next few minutes dodging madly about at low level doing my best to avoid two Russian nutters who are doing their best to kill me. Well here i still am. One apparently crashed and the second was so determined i had to lead him over to a nearby airfield and dodge in circles at low speed, low level over the AAA until they happily shot him down. Good news is that Tuck and Gardner were safe after bailing out. Bad news is that we lost two more birds. Just to note...About 50 miles to the south some Yank F-15s were absolutely butchering the Russians in a big fight. They must have shot down at least 15 of the enemy while only losing two, according to what we heard over the radio. When are we going to get any kind of support of like that? http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31013-clipboard-u7/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31014-clipboard-u8/

This is nice stuff. Thanks!

Sept/79 A fine mission that went bad. P/O Sammy Hallowes and i took off and went straight to the target area with only minor course corrections. Closing in, a SAM site took a shot at us but only attracted our attention as we made multiple rocket runs and wiped it out. Knowing MIGs were coming, i called for a regroup and set off for home. Hallowes made a slow sweeping turn to the north and was hit and shot down by a SAM fired from another site to the NE http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31011-clipboard-u6/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31012-img00014/

I just noticed that the settings on the campaign is normal and weapons unlimited. I always went hard/limited in the past and always will. i don't know how these slipped past me. As it is, there isn't much in the way of weapons variety for the GR3 nor is it a walk in the park flying normal difficulty.

SEPT79 Things have been going steadily worse. We are suffering casualties reminiscent of May 1940. Air support at Hof cost us when Field and FLT/LT Downing both crashed evading a MiG bounce and P/O Eric Connors was shot down by a SAM near Erfurt when he tried for a direct route home instead of staying to the south over the hills. Things didn't get any better on an armed recce with SQN LDR Ken Marshall to Magdeburg. I thought it was a perfectly pointless mission and would run into enemy fighters in strength but at least we lucked out in a way. We flew circles over the city as we didn't have the fuel to venture very far in case of trouble. didn't find anything of note but the enemy was vectoring aircraft over the area. Bagged two SU15s with sidewinders and turned for home. Marshall flew over a AA gun and got his plane stictched but we made it home. Not that it any good as we didn't find a thing and there were grumblings concerning the enemy aircraft. Apparently some are in the opinion that i'm a glory seeker concerned with the scoreboard and not our mission. Which leads to the bloody shambles over the Fulda gap. Two flights went up on a CAP. Two of us came back. It was a right fiasco with the enemy doing the usual with the unexpected. We came into the area from the NE at 5,000 ft and turned south to engage the foe over Fulda. The main enemy force however, came from the north and did very well for openers. Duncan and F/O Donald Lock went down instantly. It turned out to be SU-17s escorted by MIG-25s. A fight was on and i quickly got a Mig-25 with a missile from 12 low as they closed. Then the scramble began. When all was said and done only P/O Sammy Hallowes joined up on the way home. F/O Dennis Allen, P/O Phillip Dalton, P/O Sammy Read, and P/O Alfred Tuck were shot down in the melee as well, only Tuck surviving as well as downing a Mig-25. The squadron is now in rather dire straits. Note- in the brawl i also accounted for three SU-17s with cannon fire. http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31003-clipboard-u3/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31004-clipboard-u4/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/31005-clipboard-u5/

19Sept79 Did a recce flight today. Spent virtually whole time at treetop level and thankfully only drew minor ground fire at the objective. Went to altitude once back over the front but no joy on leg home. Nice milk run. http://combatace.com/gallery/image/30995-clipboard-u2/ http://combatace.com/gallery/image/30996-img00011/