Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire “...the best men ever to fly a plane in combat were the Japanese...”

Rocky, most kids dunno what FAC means. They would also be puzzled about how one is so trained.

FAC - Frequently Acting Courageous
Training Curriculum - Awake @ 4, flying by 6, debrief by 4, drunk by 8

Whatever Boyington was, he had 6 kills in a year under Chenault, and in the 3 months leading the Black Sheep raised his kills to 28 with the group accounting for some 200. Not to mention being awarded the Medal of Honor. He was also a big part in changing air tactics in the early part of the war.

Phil

For you Pappy fans. My"twilight tour" I was the "Dean Wormer" of Naval Aviation in Pensacola. I had access to the records and yes we had everybody who's ever been a Naval Aviator. Here's Pappy's picture when he reported as a Cadet. Bad ass or what?

Yikes, a low number, but still... thanks for the correction. I knew they flew everything else, but when I was AD they weren't in fighters..

From the article: The newly minted IAF pilots include the first woman in nearly five years and the fifth woman ever to become a fighter pilot in Israel.

I'm not talking air to air combat Rocky, I'm talking about Men flying with ball sacks big enough to use for parachutes, Although I do think you could have parked the USS Enterprise inside of Pappy's ball sack.

His look is perfect!

Here he is smilin'.

The "best men" at anything tend to be highly motivated (or indoctrinated), and highly trained, so early in our participation in the Pacific war, Boyington was likely right.

They also need the right equipment at the time.

I'd put those poor bastards using old, slow torpedo planes to attack the Jap carriers at Midway right up there in the "best men". category. All were shot down, few lived through it, none turned away.

Their entire Navy was very good at the start of the war. Their surface attacks were aggressive and well executed with their torpedo attacks being particularly devastating.

Fortunately they didn't keep up with technological advances, particularly radar, so within a year or two we had them outmatched. Also fortunately, their Naval officers considered anti-submarine warfare beneath them (pun intended), so once our piss poor early war torpedoes got fixed our subs just ravaged their shipping.

I'll disagree. The Israels are very good at what they do, defend their country at short range with solid command and control against a highly studied and understood threat. The average US "fighter" crew (and by that I include USN/USMC Attack aircrew) have a much wider range of skills across a much more diverse threat and are capable of dealing with a much wider range of situations planned and unplanned both with and without air dominance and command and control.

Despite the amount of "woke" training nearly equaling combat relevant training, the "kids" today putting on G-suits are pretty damn good.

Dan, for the youngsters among us, FAC stood for Forward Air Controller. We were not control tower scope dopes, as some assume. FACs controlled the air battle in Vietnam and nearby areas.

The mission was to find the enemy hiding in the jungle below, either by astute observation or by getting him to shoot at you by being a singularly inviting target in your slow and flimsy Cessna. Then, you call up fighters, bombers, artillery, attack helicopters, or even naval guns. Usually, that meant fighters. If there were good guys in a firefight below, the FAC talked to air support centers, every fighter above him, and the screaming ground guys - simultaneously - while being shot at, navigating, advising rescue choppers, and flying his own plane. Every fighter pass and every bomb drop had to be specifically okayed by the FAC, and if the fighter messed up, it was the FAC's fault. Every single thing a FAC said or did resulted in somebody living or dying, including himself.

It was performed mostly by new lieutenants in their first flying assignment. It has been called the most difficult, most demanding flying job ever created.

Wild Weasels, Dustoff, and FAC's had great big giant brass balls.

While everyone else was trying not to get hit, these guys charged into the bullets.

RockyRaab - Did you only fly the Skymaster or did you get any seat time in the OV-10's.

Met him in South Texas 1978! My son has a signed color photo from him!

Maybe so but,

My uncle Horace was a Marine in the Pacific who served under Boyington. He was an enlisted man and was always proud of the fact that he had been with Boyington in the war.

Although he didn't think much of the T.V. program,he did believe Boyington was a good Marine and a good combat leader.

My FAC time was all in the O-2 Oscar Douche.

I suppose the O-2 beat the hell out of farting around in an O-1 at 90 knots in indian country.

Sometimes he was what we needed. The drunk part.. well it was live or die daily...

As to his arrogance, those that have never been at the top of the game sometimes mistake confidence as arrogance. If you know some about how the brain works you understand its almost a requirement as any doubt you loose or die. I see both sides very clearly

I got drunk last night,
Got drunk the night before!
Sing Glory be to God
That there are no more of us,
For the four of us can drink it all alone!
Pass the beer to the rear of the squadron!

I wonder what Papa would have thought of the veteran German ace pilots, they were good too.

I would think the Royal Air Force, specifically the boys driving the Hurricanes and Spitfires up against the 109s during the Battle of Britain, would take issue with Colonel Boyington's statement.