Several of us old farts were privy to occupy the same Vietnam CAS timeline with the Hun..My deployment at Phucat was a transition from our worn out F100's to the newly acquired F4's. The Phantom still receives the accolades just like the Huey most associate with the Vietnam War however as these quotes from the vid reveal nothing came close to Hun's operational numbers..." F100's flew a total of 360,283 sorties more than all the P-51's flew in WW2 and more than all the fighter planes combined during the Vietnam War." This is good vid and certainly a tribute to all who strapped on this grand old fighting machine...

Awesome. I've got two neighbors who were both F-100 pilots. Not many left that flew that awesome plane.

Very cool...


IIRC, one of my cousins flew the F-100 circa 1965-66...

Good stuff

Outstanding video, Woody. Thanks for posting. Great unsung airframe and one of my favorites!

Indeed. It was also a really scary airplane! Who can forget those graphic demonstrations of what "behind the power curve" looked like (well, right up to the explosion). The men who flew the Century series fighters really were acting as operational test pilots and literally finding the edges of the envelope and writing the pilots manual as they went. A tough and smart set of aviators that survived and then to take it out to get shot at too truly took balls.

There are many areas in life where "just one more time" is a moment to be treasured.

I have had the pleasure of "working" a couple of the last sorties of the Hun in '71. As in the film, these were close air support missions for troops in contact. In this case, the 173rd Airborne Brigade out of LZ English in II Corps - the Bong Son valley. By then, the Hun drivers were beyond good at dropping bombs.

How close you could ask for placement varied with the type of ordnance, but it also varied with the plane and crews delivering it. Every FAC knew this, because if the fighter screwed up and caused friendly casualties, it was the FAC's fault. I could be confident placing bombs right at the edge of their killzone from our guys, knowing that the Hun driver would not miss. I was never nearly as sanguine with the F-4 crews.

I have a book by a F-100 guy who, early in his transition to the plane, made that aileron mistake during a formation takeoff. The adverse yaw snap-rolled him right into the ground and he was horrible burned, but survived. One of damn few.

These guys had brass balls,, from our standoff positions I've witnessed them delivering Napalm so low couldn't help think they scorched their tail feathers or fragged themselves with low level Mk-82's. We always knew they were inbound as they trailed smoke for miles !

I had a "one more time" ride in a restored O-2 a few years back. Fortunately, it was a lot less than five grand! Unfortunately, it was indeed just a ride - I was never given the controls. Still, the sights and sounds were there, and I am not ashamed to admit that in the flood of memories, I cried. Powerful stuff, memories.

I could never track down that O-2 I saw on the trailer in Mesquite NV a couple of years ago. I had a couple of mechanics at Cessna who were all willing to go in with me to restore it. I'd have given you the controls Rocky!

Try walking through the graveyard and Davis-Montham and remembering Bureau Numbers...yes, memories are powerful and my career was nothing compared to what you did, Rock.

I would never say that, jorge. Anybody who strapped on a military machine put his balls on the line with every brake release.

I'm sure your logbook(s) have a couple of ink bottles of green ink. As for me, only drops...

Damn.

As did I when I visited the AC-47 several years ago with my grandson's. Couldn't help think how lucky I was to be granted this opportunity when so many of my brothers were not.."Powerful stuff,memories" ..indeed !

Received Hun support several times back in those days. They did their job well.

Thanks for posting this Woody. Of all the different type of planes that came through transient I was most qualified on the Huns. The Iowa ANG had C models with no flaps and they landed "in a hurry"! The opening of the video showed crew chiefs doing a "saddle back check" of the accumulators. When the different ANG units found out we knew how to turn F-100s we got a lost of them. Their drag chutes required a bit of finesse to install since the chute went into the belly and the jaws were under the rudder. Their drop tanks didn't vent when you refueled on the ground and we had to pop the over the wing caps. Dang near busted the drop tanks on one. I don't think I ever ran as fast before or since to pop those caps! As an E-3 I trained a few E-6s and one E-7 how to install the drag chute.

Outstanding book here about the Misty pilots with their F100's at Phu Cat, great read for any Vietnam vet: https://www.amazon.com/Bury-Us-Upsi...;sr=1-1&keywords=bury+us+upside+down

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I have always enjoyed your youtube postings.

I opened this thread expecting to see pick up trucks.

Absolutely!

And every collective pull.

True American heroes. Great video.

Thanks for posting this visit with the F-100 pilots and that airplane. We lived in Tucson in those days and had numerous interactions with pilots and base officers, and have spent a lot of time at DM - including graveyard visits in the years since. It was a bit past my time, and I was not privileged to serve - but I had such deep appreciation for those who flew the various AF planes over there. Of course, I still do. DM seemed to be the departure point for many to Viet Nam, and our proximity to all of that led to some interesting experiences. Too many to tell here but:
a fellow educator was in the Air Guard and flew an AF cargo plane (C-130, maybe?) over there and back just about every other weekend for quite some time;

a youngish AF Academy grad finished up his fighter prep at DM and decided to sell his 3 year old Corvette just before he left - he thought it was too much for his young wife to manage and impractical for her - it was HP/4 speed but otherwise vanilla with no powered options - exactly what I had been seeking - I was fortunate to see the ad and meet him before he left, and still have that Corvette;

until our campus building was completed, we were housed in an abandoned WW2 hangar at the airport next to DM and, one morning, heard a strange whining sound followed by a huge "WHUMP" not far away. When we got outside and around the building, an Air Guard F-100 had hit the ground on final - less than 100 yards from where we were. It was probably due to the same trait mentioned in the video;

listening to the Phantoms getting ready to run out seemed like the loudest thing I ever had heard.

Thanks again.

Korea was still going.

What was the concept of the 'Super Saber' over the F 86 Saber? For that year.....why?

The '86' is one of the classiest designs.

My dad wasn’t even a pilot and nearly got killed twice by F-100s. They were a handful in the early days and it wasn’t safe to be anywhere around the flightline or the tower when high stress made pilots forget about the little things.

Fine video. Thanks for posting.

The need for speed. the F-86 was subsonic, the F-100 the first operational super sonic fighter in the USAF.

I knew the 105’s were unforgiving but not the 100’s. Learnt a little today. I can’t imagine how tough combat was for everyone involved. Thanks for sharing the video.

This is my own answer not a cut and paste version...The 86 was a good aircraft but also had its problems early on as did the 100..The 86 design concept of a flying tail was an extraordinary advantage over its nimble Mig adversaries and carried over to the many Century series fighters that would follow including the F-100...The Hun was the first in that series supersonic capable in level flight a great asset especially flying from point A to B but also allowing the aircraft to get out quickly if pushing a bad position in dogfight scenarios or after deploying weapons....How I wish my ride would have had bug out capabilities !

Great video, thanks for posting.

We are so lucky to have people here who "walked the walk." Any time these in depth threads come up, I sit back and listen, enjoying the input of those who have been there.

I had a QC inspector working for me. An older fellow, semi retired. Over coffee in the break room, I learned that he was on the development team that rolled out the P-36 Seversky. He had a lot of experience with those old war birds. Did his time in the European theater. Few over 50 missions in B-17's. Shot down twice, and had to parachute out.

The airshow was coming to town, and he wanted to go up for a ride in the B-17 that was going to be there. The price scared him off-$500.00. His health was failing, and I just couldn't stand the thought of him missing that flight. Our boss was a cheap prick bastard. He was also a vet. I convinced him to have the company foot half the bill for the flight. I hit up everyone at work, and we got it covered. Jack and I went to the airshow, walking around the airfield looking at all the old warbirds. We were on the tarmac when they called Jack on the PA system to come to the B-17 parked among the other planes. We went over there and the flight crew was waiting to greet Jack. We had supplied them with as much info as we knew about Jack and his career. The guys were so good to him. He had no idea he was getting a flight and as it sunk in, the tears flowed. It was so cool to be able to reunite this old flight engineer with the plane that brought him home so many times. He suited up, climbed aboard, and off he went. I don't think I've ever seen a happier man. The next day he came into work, there was a flight jacket draped over his chair, signed by the crew, and a picture of him sitting at his old post on the plane.

Special thanks to those who did "walk the walk". We're lucky to have you among us.

That was a great vid.

My Dad transitioned at Luke to Super Sabres from F106s, he'd flown F86Ds. Not super fond of the Hun and its tricky landing behavior, frankly, but Dad figured out the plane and learned to enjoy it. He barely missed winning the Goldwater Trophy, he got second, and was ready to go. Thing was, he made major at Luke and majors apparently don't fly wing, so he ended up commanding an O-1 FAC detachment out of Vinh Long instead.
But gosh, what a great video. I needed a hanky.

I think I'll forward this one to Dad. He's got the cash, and if he can stir the stick, it'll be worth it.

Thank you Woody that is a great video.

Dave, it was an Army requirement that any FAC who supported US ground troops had to be a qualified fighter pilot. That was to insure (in their minds) that the FAC was intimately familiar with the limitations of the fighters, and the capabilities of the ordnance. One effect on the Air Force was that a lot of majors got pulled out of fighter cockpits to fill FAC/ALO (Forward Air Control/Air Liaison Officer) command slots. As with your Dad.

Another and more delightful result was that a bunch of brand new First and Second Looie pilots like me got sent to Fighter Ground Attack School to become blessed as qualified fighter pilots. Upon graduation, we were given the prestigious Specialty Code of 1111 - Fighter Pilot. Which we held for a whopping two months and never flew fighters. But we were one! Officially, at least.

Speaking of "bug out speed" the O-1 Bird Dog topped out at just over 90 knots, and my O-2 was redlined at 152. In a dive.

I took an F-4 driver up on a "combat familiarization" hop once. As usual, we took significant ground fire, and he kept trying to push my throttles up, mumbling "Get us OUT of here!" He was, let us say, a bit uncomfortable being the VC's primary target. (VC/NVA were well trained to not shoot at a FAC - unless fighters showed up, and then they opened up with a vengeance because they knew that without a FAC, fighters could not attack. They rather disliked us.)

might also forward this to your dad, the truth of it i am not sure. But i did hear some years ago a chopper was on a rescue mission over the superstitions looking for somebody and saw a glint of metal on the ground.
when they came back they found a F86 that had augered in, pilot still in seat, plane loaded with ordance. they removed the live shells and the pilots body and as far as i know the plane is still out there.
there are a number of military wrecks in arizona. long time ago i had acess for a little while to a civil air patrol program showing the wrecks with longtitude/latitude markers and what they were, the planes that is. There are several up on the snow bowl near flagstaff, and a p51 off the road between wenden and quartsite on the desert, and a p38lightening between congress and kingman.
that was before handheld gps units, i wish i had the program now.

Thanks for that little snort of history, Rocky.
In retrospect, it probably would have been better to have experienced infantry officers "Fly Army" in L-19s, or have TAC guys pound some mud before flying FAC missions. The more cross-over, the better, but I don't know how that could have been maximized with the one-year tour thing.

Ron, most people don't understand this, but the attrition rate in aviation until about 1975 or so was amazingly high. I remember a fair number of times where I had to dress up in a little boy suit and sit quietly around a bunch of sad people, this in the VN years. I can only imagine the amount of hardware scattered in states that had training bases like Arizona.
After the mid 1970s, and I guess third-gen aircraft like A=10s, Hornets, Vipers/Falcons, it was hard to get lost or to lose a plane. Even the Century series would blow up for no reason, my Dad had that kind of ejection on a training mission. And he lost his squadron commander because the altimeter tape got stuck....two million dollar jet just gone in a fireball just like that. They found the tape burnt in the wrong reading, with barometer properly set.

But that was a wonderful vid.

The F-100 is also the only American aircraft to shoot down a B-52.

They were training at intercepting bombers when an F-100 lined one up and launched a missile right at it. The pilot insisted that he hadn’t armed the missile or pressed the button. It flew true. The bomber went down. And several of the crew were killed. There were a lot of “Yeah, rights” until they realized that the missile had fired out of sequence. That is to say, if he had actually fired the missile from the cockpit, another missile would have fired first instead of the one that fired.

It seemed impossible, but they finally figured out that moisture had condensed and completed a firing circuit. It was complete coincidence and and literally one chance in a million that it happened at the precise instant that the F-100 was lined up on the B-52 and the missile was locked on it.

Many years ago . . .

There I was up in the Manzanos south of ABQ head down, chain saw roaring and all of a sudden there was this hellacious noise just like an explosion.
Both time it was one of those crazy jet jockeys in their 100s from Kirtland passing over, gonads to the wall and treetop level.
If I had not been deafened by the sound of them going over I bet I could have heard them chuckling as they blasted over the top and west bound in a trail of black smoke.
I'm thinking that the ABQ ANG F100 unit went over in support early on.

Sorry to see the loss of life from the Sidewinder into the B52.
Have been on Taylor where some parts of that 52 landed and one of the jeeps from the recovery efforts was still WAY down the side of the hill.

All of that seems like another lifetime now that I get to thinking about it.

Thanks to all of those who were willing to get down there and mix it up to save some poor ground pounders tail no matter the aircraft you flew!

Outstanding video, Woody. Thanks for sharing.

Good on you and your co-workers, as well as the '17 crew.

Woody,

thanks for posting that.. the Super Sabre was always one of my most favorite jets from the 50s..

Jeff, great story on the old Vet with the B17...

back in the 90s they had a B 24 and B 17 flying on tour here in the NW...

They were actually giving free flights to those veterans whom had been a Crew member
in one during WW 2...

but only B 24 vets got a free ride in the B 24
and B17 vet for a free ride in the B 17..

This was the B-17 crewman with whom I shared a ride a short while ago. Here he is in his old seat as radio operator. Sadly, he was too deaf and too overwhelmed to share many stories with me. And I was overwhelmed by being up in a B-17, too!