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| Even the tankers were loaded for bear... |
OldAFSarge just posted a
story that brought back some memories... This was back in 1976 when we were both E-4's in our respective services, though we hadn't met. In one of the periodic flare ups that happen with depressing regularity in Korea,
a ruckus occurred on the DMZ that ended up in a lethal fight with axes of all things. This snapshot was taken during our response from the USS Midway to the incident. During our month of "practice strikes" on Nightmare range; conveniently located near the DMZ we operated pretty much round the clock dropping ordinance. I remember taking this shot since the aircraft, an A-6A of VA-115 was assigned as a tanker, and you may notice he's carrying 500lb bombs and sidewinder missiles in addition to the refueling equipment. He brought the missiles and fuel tanks back, but left the bombs on the target. You should have seen what the aircraft actually assigned to bomb looked like! As a historical note at the time CAG-5 aboard the Midway had two squadrons of F-4s (VF-151 and VF-161), two of A-7s (VA-56 and VA-93), and an A-6 squadron (VA-115) handling offense. In a supporting role were VQ-1s EA-3, VMFP-3's RF-4s, VMAQ-2's EA-6s, VAW-115's E-2s, and HC-1's SH-3s. Not a bad turn out for one ship.
4 comments:
Great write-up Pogue.
From your list of assets, one can see that Midway packed quite a punch!
Yeah, Sarge, she was actually a pretty impressive boat, especially when you consider she was commissioned in 1945.
WAY, way late, here, but you know what we used to all A-6 strikes in Vietnam? Mini Arc-Lights, lol
I do remember that term being used... Even though I was an E-2 weenie I always liked the A-6.
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