Wasnt there, but from everything I have read (Route Pack Six, etc) the real F-105 sorties involved in-flight re-fueling inbound before leaving Thailand and tankers were awaiting their return to Thailand. Read more than one account of a Thud floating in on fumes after leaving RP6...bear in mind that means it had essentially 90% fuel on board when it left the safety of Thailand for roughly a 20 minute there and out to the tankers again...in WOV you are often tasked to make the entire journey on one fuel load whereas in reality they would have used nearly three times that.
So, without aerial refueling, it is not all that much fun. There is a way to hack the game into essentially reversing fuel flow at a set throttle position (someone exceedingly better versed in the game mechanics discovered this, NOT me) thus adding fuel while flying, but only at a controlled point (just like aerial refueling). Say you set the hack for 23% throttle, in that case when the throttle was set to 23%, the fuel flow reverses and you gain fuel at an adjustable rate. This allows you to mimic receiving fuel. I used this technique (again, someone else discovered it) and applied it to Starfighter2 most excellent NF-104 (the rocket assisted one) and could thereby extend the range of the jet by essentially adding gas after reaching altitude (which also enabled me to burn all of the fuel in the dash since I could refuel anywhere, but you can impose limits on yourself).
Can also get all formal with it and set a tanker in a mission profile, rendezvous / fly formation with it and use the throttle setting you determined in order to add fuel, then off you go to spread democracy.
Dont like it? I dont care...just giving you options...you could wait until 3wire implements aerial refueling...or you could just live with it...either way I still dream of Alyssa Milano.