GASCAN39

OVERVIEW 2Lt Charles "Chappy" Sinclair, flying F-105Ds with the 44th TFS, Korat Thailand in 1965. FRAG INFO MissionType/Location Strike/Vinh Warehouses TAKEOFF 0910 CALLSIGN Chevy SIZE PACKAGE 4 LOADOUT 8 750 pound bombs each NARRATIVE Awakened at 0330 by loud knocking on the door. "Mass briefing at 0400 gents" the duty hack shouted as he knocked on each door along the hall. 2 March, 1965, the day I would be aquainted with Operation Rolling Thunder. Glad I called it quits early at the O club the night before. No one was spared from this briefing, it was standing room only. An overview was given, it was to be 100% effort, all of our birds at Korat, along with the birds out of Takhli. Once the brief ended, we all rushed to the ops office to look for our flight info. I was to be part of a four ship launching at around 0900. Captain Kringelis was going to lead three of us newbies up to Vinh to bomb a warehouse. It was to be my first combat mission, having completed my famhops around the different route packs. Weather was to be scattered clouds, so plenty of visibility (for us and the Air defenses!) At 0800, we hop the line van, and head out to the jets. I have tail #406, one of our few remaining silver jets. "Maybe the sunlight off my wings will blind the gunners" I muse to myself as I depart the van. Pre flight was done fairly quickly, allowing us to be in the cockpit for a 0850 engine start. I look for Kringelis' jet to taxi for me to follow, but I see him sprint past me, heading to a spare jet. This means I will be the first out of the chocks, and as briefed will take off first. (We strived to stay on schedule, and briefed if some one had to switch jets, the order was shuffled with that guy going last) There I was, a young 2LT, leading a four ship of thuds up norht! Departure was as briefed, though with me in the lead hoping not to screw up. Heading NE, and not having to refuel due to hitting in SE corner of the North. I called "over the fence" once we crossed into the north. We had briefed a low level from the IP to the target. "Vampires, let's take it down" I called, then rolled my thud over to get down low. I leveled off and held speed at around 450-500 knots. I was startled to see two darts over my head, but remembered there were to be F-8s flying TARCAP for us. The radio was silent....for a bit. "Chevy Flight, Red Crown. Bogies, bearing 020, 50 miles, heading west" The Shangri-Las singing "Leader of the Pack" quickly disappeared from my head. "Chevy flight, arm 'em up" I said....Followed at the appropriate moment with "Chevy flight.....PULL" I started the pop up as we briefed, and at around 12 grand, rolled inverted...the rest of CHEVY falling in trail. "Target 12 low" I state, as I haul in the stick to roll into a dive. Once at the right height, and with the pipper positioned short of the target, I pickled a pair of those WWII era gp bombs and made my jet lighter. I initiate my pull out, and observe the bright flash in my mirrors, "Direct hit with secondaries lead!" I hear two state. He pickles his entire load onto the adjoining warehouses. I hear both three and four call when they rolled in. A made a circle around the area, looking for potential secondary targets. I roll in on and industrial facility near the PT Boat docks. After two passes, there is an inferno along the waters edge. The radio is alive now with multiple bandit calls. I am done for the day, and call "CHEVY flight, check in, rejoin" "Two copy" "Three copy" After what seemed like forever, I called "Chevy Four, check in" No answer. "CHEVY flight, one quick pass around the target area, don't be a hero, but look for wreckage or a chute" We make one pass while forming back up, to find nothing. Three reported taking some flak, so I checked his aircraft over once back at altitude. His jet was full of holes. He had good needles in his pit, so I decided we would hit the tanker track and try for home. An older wiser pilot might have diverted. We all topped off on gas, and returned to Korat. The rest of the way home was eerie, radio silence was putting it lightly. We arrived overhead in the pattern, three trailing back early for a straight in approach. If he had a rough landing, resulting in a closed runway, we had the gas to divert. Once in the chocks and shut down, I crawled out of that hot pit, and headed to debrief. We heard nothing on our missing man, they had him listed as MIA. A rough first mission, my baptism of fire saw a great fellow pilot lost forever. We would drink a toast to him.

My only suggestion is to keep them coming. You have inspired me - I am immersed in SF2V right now. Got multiple campaigns going. My idea was a humble tribute to "There I Was....." a cartoon that appeared in the back of every issue of AIR FORCE. Basically, alot of old war stories drawn into a cartoon to illustrate the story a bit. There were some hilarious ones.....but mine would be serious war stories, kind of AAR style....

"Now how in the hell did you get the beans above the frank!?!"

fan based sounds good

Yep, I am on it as of two weeks ago.....

Didn't VFC-13 deploy with VFA-106 to Germany to train with JG73 and their Migs?

That is hilarious, I am trying to imagine unstrapping, pulling the flightsuit down, squaring up to drop a deuce, and fly at the same time. To be covered in your own excrement and then have someone else throw up on you, that had to be a rough day!!

This should be an outstanding addition......Tango Mike

What about the "Air Battleships" you know, the turtel, shark, eagle. Can't remember where those can be found.... Maybe to cheesy and unairplane like (Though I must admit, I tooled around in all of them a few times!)

"We want to get the hell over there. The quicker we clean up this G--damned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the G--damned Marines get all of the credit." - General George S. Patton, Jr (addressing to his troops before Operation Overlord, June 5, 1944

Close calls happen all over and where you least expect it....I remember an up close and personal encounter with an F-16 from Hill flying low level from Vance AFB. I was fortunate enough to get (beg) a ride with a UH-1 from Ft Sill to the Airshow at Vance in '85. I had moved one of the rear seats to face forward just aft and between the AC and Peter Pilot for our return to Sill. After being up for some time, they mentioned to me to keep an eye peeled for fast movers. (Hell, the Vipers were still preflighting when we left VAFB, maybe half hour head start?) Wasn't long - I scanned to the right, and saw one, before I could call F-16, three o'clock, he was passing across our nose same altitude. And no joy on his wingman. The AC just pointed to the ground in front of us, and I got to experience a little negative G rather abruptly. We happened to be passing over some Native American museum with an outdoor tour, and you know - you can hear a Huey from miles away. So someone HAD to be looking skyward, and had to do a double take as we appeared to make a gun run on them!!! I have heard of many close calls in Iraq, the Army and Marines fly their helos differently, most flight ops to FOBs are at night, and all of these birds are converging on a tight LZ at night, approaching from different directions. The potential is there.......................

wow, I am glad I downloaded this one. First sortie, bagged three -21s. The cockpit looks great, really thorough detail. Excellent read me, folks should read those sometime! Fascinating about the early builds having cement ballast where the radar should go!!

"Word Up" re-emerged (by Korn); it rocked to. Who could forget - Atomic Daww Aww Awg, nothin but the dog in me...... bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay

Does that mean we flunked funk? Get the flunk outta here! I got no funkin' video to show, just my glass platform shoes with dead goldfish inside them............

88. What's our Vector Victor? 87. When do you return? I can't tell you,it's classified 86. Auntie M, Auntie M, it's a twister

I was eight or nine, I remember an OV-10 Bronco and an He-162, both of which I put together in one day, the paint on both of them looked like technicolor vomit!

Slider - Goose who's butt did you kiss to get in here anyway? Goose - The list is long, but distinguished. Slider - Yeah, well so is my Johnson.

Charlie: Excuse me, Lieutenant. Is there something wrong? Maverick: Yes ma'am, the data on the MiG is inaccurate. Charlie: How's that, Lieutenant? Maverick: Well, I just happened to see a MiG 28 do a... Goose: We! Maverick: Uh, sorry Goose. WE happened to see a MiG 28 do a 4g negative dive. Charlie: Where did you see this? Maverick: Uh, that's classified. Charlie: It's what? Maverick: It's classified. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Iceman - "The trophy for second place is in the ladies room" Goose - "AAHHHH HAAAA HAAAA HAAA HAAA, aw, you kill me, you really do!"

excellent book, excellent game (at the time) still have my Amiga in storage, (and probably the game too!); Then there was the movie.......... Took a date to see it, not exactly a romantic film! And they did not do the book justice......Great footage of the Intruder in some parts of it. I can think of one realistic part in the movie, making the flight surgeon puke!!!!

"Come on Mav, do some of that pilot $hit!" I thought there was a sequel - "Hot Shots" I think it was called!!!! "Roger, Dodger, chilli willi milli vanilli"

migrated from some other site, have not stopped lurking since! I have been playing the series since around the time of the Walmart fiasco. Yes, I am a fanboi, now bite me stigler

Shhhhwwwwiiiinnnggg! I was hoping someone would do this! Yeah, gov'na, let's give those blokes what fo'!

I agree with Julhelm, nice work! I just started flying this excellent "What if" again recently. Would love to see anything besides the plain grey wrapper most modern birds are in!

Great job on this one, my nose gear even moves. I love the scheme on the FB (lizard I think it was called) Was it not unusual for them to carry four fuel tanks, while on alert? Seems like I saw pix of that, just wondered what type of room they would have left for the SRAM if they had to load extra tanks like that. I love that this model kind of had everything as far as countermeasures, I know alot of jets from that era did not have internal cm, kind of an afterthought.....