Lt. James Cater

For those of you outside the US, you don't have the right to critisise(sic) one of our (inadvertantly) best comedians. To be honest, Rush does occasionally nail an important point, but he's fun to keep track of so one can see how many times he can put his foot in his mouth on certain issues. The likes of Danny Glover provide far lesser entertainment. Hollywood is filled with third rate "activists" who would be skinned alive in anything but the most stage managed public debate. They are much less fun due to the leftist (inadvertantly or not) lack of humour. At least Rush gives you something to research about.

7NOV66 Went on a mission that was according to plan until LT Hill went Tard near the IP. Lost time trying to get him back into formation and so fell behind the other flights going into the area. Finally had to send him to the target while i did my thing up above. Luckily, it made for a high-low attack and things worked out fine. Hill got the target and i got a piece of what was a perfectly laid out group of POL tanks. Better luck next time i figure. Not much in the way of AAA until bombs were on their way. Maybe repeated strikes in the area are wearing the North Vietnamese down. Low and fast until we got to the Garden and back to altitude and home.

The Star Ledger is something. But if you really want laughs, check out the Jersey Journal. I've seen comic books that had higher literary accomplishments. For those out west, try getting a copy of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

07NOV66 Between getting wounded, being banged up in a crash and Administrative duties, i wonder how long it will be before i finsish my tour. Intell got some solid information about a truck park and so we had to deal with it. Normally we would send at least a flight but i thought it was no big deal and so decided on just taking 2LT Curtis Clifton on the mission. The weather was as perfect as can get and take off was a delight as well as climbing up to our cruise altitude of 12,500ft. Since we didn't want to deal with any flak on the way to the target area, we went due north out of Pleiku until we reached Quong Nam, then turned west. It was a nice flight. The sun shining brightly, not a cloud in the skies, unlimited visibility, etc, etc. What a way to experience a war, eh? As we closed in, we set the switches, went green and waited for the proper moment. At what felt like the right time, i gave Clifton the order and down we went. A nice smooth dive, easy on the controls, get the aimpoint right and "OH @% THERE'S FLAK HERE!?!?! DAMNIT!!!!! Since i prefer a smoother attack profile i was apparently chosen as the easier target. I jinked as much as possible but since this was the bomb rum, the available range of manuvers was rather limited. As i heard Clifton calling "bombs away" i settled on the target and released just as i saw the first of Curtis's bombs going off, then pulled up hard and rolled the aircraft into a hard right turn to clear the area. By now i knew we had a big problem. Heavy light AAA had now opened up and we had missed the target also! As i was down and low, trying to figure on the next move, something flashed by the plane. TRACERS! As i pushed on the stick to get over the treetops i heard a hit somewhere. Soon after the moment i glance to the side and see light damage to the right wing. It seems Clifton was in trouble too because his response on orders to attack the target again were in the negative. Right then i kew what had to be done. Hoping for the best, i told Curtis to head back to base and began setting up to finish this and go home myself. The trucks were in an area which resembled somewhat of wide shallow bowl and so i hoped i could pop over a side and make a fast gun run as i zoomed in. Yeah right! As i made my way to what i hoped was a good point to begin the attack, i noticed the bigger stuff going off at altitude. Damned if ol Wingie decided to climb within range of those guns. And so it goes... Over a ridgeline i go, full thottle and trying to keep as low as possible. the closer i get, the better i feel. Perhaps the enemy are distracted by Curtis. Just over a mile out, the gauntlet begins. Th first fire came from 10 o'clock then from 11, 1'oclock until it was pointless to do anything than stare through the gunsight at the target. It's a weird feeling knowing that your are dying. Time stills and you move in a deliberate stumbling. It's some sight to see the tracers connecting the guns to the aircraft. Vivid flashes of hits virtually right in front of your eyes. How much longer before you are an earthbound fireball? The trucks were in front of me and i pulled the trigger, despite the situation in a careful controlled manner to avoid the guns jamming. Through the flames and explosions, the execution countinues. It's even worse now, you don't even have the benefit of facing the firing squad. Hit after hit slams into the plane. Holy Jesus! If this was some zoomie, fast mover, super science "modern" jet it would have long since been history! The controls are severly mushing and so i guess this is it. But no! The sound of metal on metal ceases and i'm still flying. Forget about flying according to plan, i countinue in a straight line and head for altitude, then change course to the south. It's harder than it seems. Rudder gone, an aileron shot away, flap gone. I KNOW the engine took hits, i saw those right through the gunsight and so i wonder if it will fail soon. But no! The Wright growls on and so i'm allowed the chance to putt home. The landing took some work but i got the plane down. Time to send the manufacturer a letter of thanks. Perhaps i should talk to the Chaplain too? EDIT-APPARENTLY I FORGOT TO "ACCEPT" THE DEBRIEF AND SO THIS MISSION DID NOT COUNT!

No ECM available for a A1 Skyraider circa 1966.

Thanks for the info. Guess i'll take radars into account now also when i plan a mission.

Looks like the end of an era in New England and time to rebuild.

Check around. Microsoft made MW4 free last year. Actually, i would suggest looking in Mektek first. Perhaps sometime soon i'll look into dealing with the Ruckus, because it's been ages since i dropped.

For starters, i'm a devotee of one pass haul ass. A number of strikes are planned with the getaway in mind. Unless it's a milk run target, you will only be giving the gunners multiple chances to shoot you down. As for my wingman... I couldn't send him home. I needed him on the attack and if left alone he will not stand a chance against the North Vietnamese flak. Remember, we are flying in A1s. The cruise speed makes them especially vunerable to any serious AA.

I'm using first generation but i've especially noticed after appplying mods.

Hey Viggen, Welcome back! Being away from here for extended periods reminds me of when i hit the streets in August 2006. I was homeless for about a year until i scored some living quarters. Even then i didn't have any internet until i lost that place,hit the streets again for a brief period until i am got where i am now. Even during all that i still managed to check things out a few times at public library computers every once in a while and i thought about here and WOV all the time. It was something to look forward to once things came together.

We all know that your guys aren't the brightest when you set things for hard. But is there a way to tweak a wingman so that he doesn't go absolutly brain dead when a radar is looking at him? I've had a few times where wingman seemingly fought every order to rejoin and tried to go on their merry way. Every time all you hear is "Spike" and it's pretty much guaranteed that for the most part, your mission just got shot to hell since wingie will never really respond to your orders to rejoin for the rest of the flight as long as you are in a threat area with radars. Anyone else have that experience and what did you do?

I never had a computer during Mechwarrior3's heyday. I first became involved during the Mechwarrior4Mercenaries era. As a matter of fact, i have everything comepletely updated to the latest MekPak and would be dropping everyday if i was able to get past the my Ruckus MM211 wireless. I can see the lobby, but i can't join due to something in the Ruckus. some kind of firewall built into it. I haven't found a way to bypass it. I still fire Mercs up every once in a while and do a campaign so i can fight on Solaris. My favorite brawler Assault,i used it in certain servers a lot. Check out the speed for 95 tons!

1NOV66 This is another mission that has me really upset. I'm going to start a thread to find out how to mod things so that wingmen don't go spastically tard when there is an enemy radar on them. Had lots of problems with LT Eskew as he went wild 4 times on the approach to the IP and was defective abortion level spazz after the target run. Could not keep him with me and so he got shot down. He just countinued to turn back every 3-4 seconds after i ordered him into formation I'm actually amazed i got out alive since our timings were blown by feeble wingman response programming.

Looks like i screwed up somewhere. After finishing the above mission i checked my pilots recored and realized that i didn't "accept" the milk run and so the above is the valid one. I messed up the dates as well but i'm pretty sure this mission was on 30APR66. I'll post more details in later when i edit this but i'll say that it's a miracle that we both didn't get shot down.

28APR66 A milk run! Took off with 2LT Curtis Clifton on a low level recce flight and found not a single thing no matter where we flew. Thought about hunting those guns that have been shooting at us but we'll wait for better weather.

In short order we wiped out a platoon sized element and home we went. Perhaps in the future we should look into heading up over the DMZ to see what we can find if we do too quick a job helping our guys on the ground. BTW, that was mission number #9. The pic shows the result of me and Eskew dropping 9 CBUs on enemy positions.

26APR66 Seems like the VC had been moving a lot of men into the Ia Drang valley recently. A lot of sightings have been coming in from aircraft spottings and Army patrols and so the Higher Ups decided to send us out hunting for Charlie. Lt. Hill and i got the call and trust me, there was nothing we wanted to do less than go out on this mission. The weather was pure garbage. Just horrible beyond words! The rationale in sending us up was that the conditions were so bad that nothing else could manuver around low in the murk better than an A1. Before i could mention anything else, they also noted that the Ia Drang was just south of the base and if the VC set up a base camp in the area, they'll soon bring in heavy weapons and emplace all kinds of heavy AA. What could we do? We resigned ourselves to the flight ahead and got ready. Knowing the terrain in the area, i decided to check the maps really good to get an idea what we were in for. The valley itself wasn't the problem, it was what was between the base and the valley. Pure insanity to go flying, the clouds are right down to the level of the strip! Ok, if we have to do this, we demanded whatever weapons load we wanted. Suprisingly, the Wing Weenies agreed! Off we went into the wild grayish, foggy, rain swept, mountain, hill, and ridge concealing yonder! For the sake of LT Hill, i decided to leave the navigation lights on. As bad as things were he would need all the help he can get. I still couldn't belive it. The damn Air Force actually ordering us to commit suicide. I won't trouble anyone about the flight to the valley but let's just say it was a low level flight of terror. Getting near the valley, we dropped down to just over the trees and began to hunt. It took a few moment but damned if we didn't find Charlie! We got the break of our lives as they were in the middle of the valley and the clouds miraculously were not low over them. I made the first pass, dropping a CBU. Things were still to the point that i really didn't feel comfortable with the approach so i ordered Hill in. LT Hill is really an top ground attack guy and he didn't hesitate. ALL five CBUs were loosed on his pass. Damn that gotta hurt! Once we got a pattern set up it was all over for the VC. Hill had a pair of Minigun pods under his wings and was loaded up with five CBU also as well as eight CBU 25/A dispensers. While Hill made multiple strafing attacks, i alternated between shallow angle CBU deliveries and low, slow, straight and level passes raining frags over the area. After a while we couldn't find any more signs of activity down there so we decided to go home. If anything the flight home was even worse and the runway wasn't even visible until we were virtually on top of it.

HoneyFox, One thing i would suggest is download the WOV Gold campaign and see if you can find out what was done there. No joke, the AAA is now quite scary over certain areas and flying slow, straight and level at altitude will get you shot for sure. I don't have a clue what they did but it's freakishly (and WAY more realistic) deadly.

22APR66(IIRC) We got word of an NVA push against the Marines up by the DMZ so we were fragged to provide some support. Knowing what happened the last time i was on a CAS, i decided on advising the CO to put Eskew onto other duties. He's obviously to valuable to risk in these kind of things. So the lineup looked like this... 1LT Sykes 1LT Hill CPT Croker 2LT O'Neil I had the usual loadout but everyone else was carrying 5 CBUs each. We figured that this would be enough to rain on the NVA's day as well as give a better low level performance for the lousy weather which we should find over the target area. The climb after takeoff was rather nerve racking. Anyone who's been to Pleiku knows about the mountain thats just off at one end of the strip and all the other peaks in the Central Highlands. In perfect conditions it can be a tough task dealing with them after takeoff but in instrument conditions? Let's just say you will be sweating every second until you reach 8,500ft, which is the minimum safe altitude. Any lower and you'll be flying into a stone filled cloud sooner or later. Once safe and everyone in position, we set cruise speed and headed out on course. You can have a really nice time sight seeing in an A1. Compared to the Jet Jockeys, we can enjoy the views provided by nature since we are moving relatively low and very slow. Think about this... For us, 200kts is moving at a fast clip! Things are very calm on the flight. The only flights on the radio seems to be comming from the rear echelon gas and trash types. don't know of any other combat flights besides us. that makes for a pretty lonely feeling. A few miles from the coastal lowlands, it's time to go down under the clouds and the next anxiety filled moment begins. You see, now it's the reverse of the intial climb, if your navigation is off, you'll find out the hard way as the plane turns into a fireball after smasing into a ridgeline that was unknowingly below your flight. But it doesn't happen. At least this time. At about 5,00ft the clouds break and down we go. After a few minutes we fly over where the Marines are supposed to be and begin a slow, careful search for the enemy. My only real concern is if ant light AAA is in the area, they got us cold because we are a perfect target for them. But sure enough, the Marines call for help! They were about 7 miles away and even as i pull up on the stick, i can see the smoke from what must have been a good sized ambush. As one, four SPADs turn towards the fight and prepare to deliver hell. After doing a quick doublecheck of the weapons switches, i got my mind set for the attack. Soon we are there and the order is given. NVA TROOPS, PREPARE TO DIE CHEAP!!!! Seconds later, it seemed that the world exploded. I mean, there were so many flashes and the an unending sound of popping behind my aircraft that i thought i was hit and on fire! As i pulled away and banked, i learned why i thought my plane was a goner. You could see nothing of the NVA positions but a masive dust cloud that was kicked up by a mass CBU drop. Imagine 16 CBUs going off over a spot a little bigger that a football and you'll wonder how anything could survive under the blast. but tracer and rocket fire showed that indeed the NVA were still there and still fighting! They didn't have a chance though, the four of us made multiple pasess, tearing up the NVA with every shot, while the Marines did what Marines do and pushed forward. One funny thing about this fight was an error of mine. I fully intended to let fly with my two CBUs but forgot about the settings and only released one on the initial attack. Setting up for the second pass, i kept being beat to the targets because everyone was so ferocious! I finally figured "to hell with it" and dropped anywhere over the NVA. As it turns out 1LT Hill just happened to be strafing the area and so the NVA really had their heads in a grinder! Before we knew it, that was it! the NVA were done and we were ordered home. Hell, i only dropped two CBUs and two napalm canisters! So back home we went, climbing back to altitude and flying home. Everyone worked like a pro and delivered 100%. We sure gave those guys on the ground a real show. I wonder if we'll get more calls for these missions? During debrief, we got a real surprise. That mass CBU drop? We wiped out an entire NVA platoon with that one. The Marines credited us with a Companies worth of casualties and so now i really got plans for the next CAS!

Crazy Water Buffalo

The flak situation has been solved by the new WOV Gold mod campaign. Now you have to really worry about the guns over hostile terrain!

Cliff, nice to hear of your adventures with the boats's AAA. There are all kinds of crazy things happening with this new mod! It's also quite enlightening to hear of the effect the flak is having on the fast movers. It looks like anyone in a jet is really going to have to respect the AAA.

Hey Vicar, dealing with those Sabres is really a pain. I flew a campaign in one and my squadron did not lose a single plane due to enemy fighters. Dogfighting them is a losing proposition when airspeed begins dropping. Anyways, love your AARs!