Comments by "Colonel K" (@Paladin1873) on "Not A Pound For Air To Ground" channel.

As I recall, the F-104 was designed to be an air superiority fighter, but often served as point defense interceptor. With such short legs, limited payload, and few missile options, I don't think it would have made a very practical escort fighter. The F-102 and F-106 were designed as ground radar guided strategic interceptors to shoot down the Russian Bears and would have made poor escort fighters. The F-105 was really a tactical nuclear bomber pressed into the fighter-bomber role. My own boss flew F-100s in Vietnam on fighter-bomber missions, a role it was not originally designed for. He considered it the last true Air Force fighter until the advent of the F-15. The F-4 did excellent yeoman service in whatever role it was pressed into. It had to be galling for the USAF to accept this Navy fighter because we didn't have anything comparable at the time (we did soon develop the F-4E with an internal gun and leading edge slats for greater maneuverability). This was largely blamed on the "bomber mafia" that had forever ruled the Air Force until about the time we left Vietnam. Once the "fighter mafia" completed their takeover, they pushed hard for the F-15 and F-16. I came on active duty in the middle of all this in 1978, almost a decade after the F-104 was retired from the USAF. I was initially stationed next to a Texas Air Guard unit that was flying the last of the F-100s. Within a year these were retired and replaced by F4D Phantoms. Five year later I watched as the very last F-105s, all Wild Weasels, landed at Kelly AFB to be turned into static displays and training aides for our Air Base Ground Defense program. Now they're all gone , these century series fighters, and much of the romance seems to have disappeared with them.
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The heroic action of the crew of Liberty ship Stephen Hopkins deserves more that passing mention. In the short but fierce close range battle the crew of Stephen Hopkins fought back with incredible valor despite being greatly outgunned. As the Armed Guard crew of the ship's lone 4-inch (102 mm) gun fell, volunteers replaced them, including US Merchant Marine Academy cadet Edwin Joseph O'Hara, who single-handedly fired the last shots from the ship's 4-inch gun before he too was killed. O'Hara and Captain Buck were both posthumously awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal for their actions. Navy reservist Lt. (j.g.) Kenneth Martin Willett, commander of the Armed Guard detachment which originally manned the ship's 4-inch gun, was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. The fifteen survivors of the attack spent a month at sea in a lifeboat before finally reaching Brazil.
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A lot of fighter pilots badmouthed the Falcon as unreliable. Thanks to field modifications ordered by Colonel Robin Olds during the Vietnam War, the AIM-9 Sidewinder largely replaced the AIM-4 Falcon in relatively short order. Like many others, I shared this low opinion of the AIM-4 when I entered active duty in 1978. By this point the Falcon was slowly being phased out, but its tarnished reputation remained. During my first assignment I was tasked with supervising the writing of airmen promotion tests. We would bring in senior NCOs each month who were technical experts in their chosen Air Force Specialty Code. One of the teams I supervised was composed of air-to-air missile technicians, so it wasn't long before I asked them why the Falcon was so undependable. One of the NCOs had served under Robin Olds in Vietnam and he shook his head at my comment, then responded by saying, "Lieutenant, there was nothing wrong with the reliability of the AIM-4. We caught hell from the pilots, but we told them they were employing them incorrectly. The missile was doing exactly what it was designed to do." I want to thank you for setting the record straight about the how the Falcon missile system worked and why this led to its poor success rate. Maybe a few old retired missile techs are nodding their heads in approval.
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The H was a rare bird. We had one on a pedestal mount at Hanscom AFB near Boston, MA when I was stationed there from 1986-1990. I believe it's still there.
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@slv8535 It was originally designed to be an air superiority fighter even though it couldn't turn worth a damn or operate at low speed. In its early years of service It did assume the role of point air defense interceptor against incoming Soviet bombers until teething problems were resolved with the F-102 and F-106. It was also modified for use as a fighter-bomber in the Vietnam War and for NATO air forces. By most accounts I've read it performed this role fairly well, but one need only look at the high loss rates to know it was not the best aircraft for the job, nor was it a plane for inexperienced pilots.
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@lookythat2 Thanks, I did not know about the AIM-26 so I looked it up. Apparently it became operational, but never entered widespread service like the Genie. By the way, my brief research also revealed the only USAF aircraft to launch a live nuclear armed Genie was an F-89J which now sits 90 minutes away from me as a static display at the Great Falls airport.
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@manuwilson4695 Possibly, but if they had put a nuke on it, you'd have a guided Genie. 🙂
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Very informative video. Shades of WWII, the US was flying fast, less maneuverable aircraft and needed to adapt its tactics accordingly.
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It's too big to be a MiG, so call it a PiG.
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And one must always be on the lookout for Jolly Green footprints left in the office by some disgruntled PJ.
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How would you produce a 30 kt wind across the simulated deck or its rolling and pitching?
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@seadog915 How would a wind machine work without the jet running into it during takeoff? The turbulence the wind machine creates would not accurately duplicate wind over the deck. In fact, it would be a detriment. Building a deck on land that can maneuver like a ship would be another problematic undertaking and cost a fortune. Why do any of this when for no added cost you can use an existing aircraft carrier? Plus you won't be simulating anything; all testing will be real and accurate.
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@seadog915 Running into planes and damaging decks? Wouldn't that be much more likely to occur during landings? How are you going to simulate a moving ship and create realistic wind conditions for an aircraft approaching your ground based carrier deck?
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It's pronounced Ma-Goo' as in the cartoon character Mr. MaGoo.
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They had one on permanent static display at a park when I was a kid in Florida in the early 60s. I never liked the look of it and much preferred the oval gape of other Sabres. This video only reinforces my belief it was a dog.
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@tomsthomas1139 If automotive designs are any indicator, you are right.
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We called it the Bomber Mafia. After Vietnam it was the Fighter Mafia that took over, which would help explain why the F-15 was designed and fielded as an air superiority fighter of the first order.
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I presume it has to do with the three Gs the plane is pulling. The only way you can pull positive Gs is in a fairly tight turn, loop, or split S. The effect of these Gs is to create an upward acceleration of the projectiles above the line of sight of the gun barrels relative to the target. In other words the rounds are climbing above the target in a greater arc than they would if the two aircraft were flying straight and level. Since practically all dogfighting involves constant turning, diving, and climbing, having your gun barrels tilted downward will counteract the effect of the increased bullet arc that results. But if you are ambushing an unsuspecting aircraft or bombers flying straight and level, you are now shooting too low. Added to this is the effect of spin on a projectile. The flight path of projectiles will curve toward the direction of their longitudinal spin. From the shooter’s perspective this means rounds spinning clockwise will curve to the right and those spinning counterclockwise will curve to the left. This is called the Magnus Effect, and applies to any object that is rotating along its axis while moving through the air. It’s caused by the difference in air pressure from one side of a spin to the opposite side. Think of it as akin to the torque or gyroscopic effect that caused planes such as the Sopwith Camel to snap sharply to the right and turn sluggishly to the left. Now imagine some pilot in aerial combat trying to maneuver his fighter while simultaneously estimating range, bullet arc, and curve while aiming at a target and trying to avoid being jumped by another aircraft - all at the same time. It’s amazing they hit anything.
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I see some debate over whether missiles were superior to guns. Such bickering makes no sense to me. It is not an either/or argument. You can have both, just as a bomber or fighter can carry an assortment of munitions. One size does not fit all in combat. Even 11B (infantry rifleman) don't just carry a rifle; they also carry grenades, knives, and occasionally Claymore mines.
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Aren't those Furies at 10:45?
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Now cover the FJ4/B Fury.
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@seadog915 How would you avoid hitting them on takeoff and landing? How do you eliminate the turbulence they create?
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Well told.
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My association with air-sea rescue is rather tenuous and pretty much limited to developing an assessment test for USAF Pararescue (PJ) candidates in the 1980s. But I do have three somewhat related stories I'd like to share. The first involves a late friend of mine who began his Air Force career just after WWII when he was assigned to a B-17H Dumbo. During a training mission the plane developed engine trouble and the pilot ordered the crew to bailout over the base. His frightening initiation into the "Caterpillar Club" proved to be unnecessary as he witnessed the pilot safely land the plane shortly after his own parachute touched ground and planted him firmly on his tuchus. He decided maybe air-sea rescue wasn't the smartest life choice. He eventually became an Air Force armorer and gunsmith. The second story involves one of the few movies made about the Air Rescue Service. While I was completing my last active duty assignment at the Pentagon, my newest supervisor and I were getting to know each other. When I mentioned my much earlier work with the PJs, she asked me if I'd ever seen the 1964 movie "Flight from Ashiya". I responded that I had watched it a couple of times as a kid. She then wistfully added, "My Dad was in it. He was piloting the first SA-16 Albatross during the takeoff sequence. Whenever the movie's on TV I try to watch it just for that scene, and for a moment it's like he's still with us." The third story isn't so much about air-sea rescue as it is about one of the crash boats, specifically R-1-661, an 85 footer that was kept in active service at Tyndall Air Force Base, FL. I grew up in the area and spent a lot of summers at nearby Mexico Beach. Anytime we went to Panama City, Florida we would pass by Tyndall AFB and see the handful of reddish-orange, yellow, and white painted crash boats which were used for drone recovery. All the other boats had long since been decommissioned. In 1971 the USAF decided to donate R-1-661 to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, but the plan fell through. Subsequent donation efforts failed to varying degrees and she eventually wound up a rotting derelict beyond salvation. But before this final ignominy afflicted her, I was assigned as a young lieutenant to supervise the writing of promotion tests for the small career field of USAF enlisted men who manned these boats. One of the senior NCOs we brought in to write the tests had been chief of this boat. Having grown up watching PT-109, They Were Expendable, and McHale's Navy, I was all too willing to pick his brain about the very similar crash boats (which, incidentally, had stood in for PTs during the filming of PT-109). My main takeaways from these discussions were the career field was a dead end, but the fishing opportunities were great.
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We had a Sabre Hog on static display at Hansom AFB, MA when I was stationed there in the 1980s. I read it just received a fresh coat of paint this year.
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