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ChesshireCat

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Everything posted by ChesshireCat

  1. to add to this quagmire, I spoke with a crewman off the Saratoga during the Vietnam war. He said they did start to use wing tanks again in 1972 (seems like Bill said late 72). Was that for everybody? I don't know. Napalm was forbidden off the flight deck, but some wings were moved to shore and used it. He said to look for Da Nang based Navy aircraft as this move was done several times gary
  2. I learned that from the previous posts. I have no idea about how it goes together or what other flaws it has gary
  3. your posts are always very informative. I know who to run the EC121 thing thru, as he was the crew chief (or whatever they call it) out of Da Nang. He replaced the EC121 that burnt up if I remember right. Out on the fence radio communications were spotty on a good day, and extremely bad in bad weather. We had to have the relay system(s) 24/7 just to stay alive. Out our way the only folks flying after dark were the big stuff and a couple OV-1's with "sniffer pods." It became a "get me thru the night theme song!" gary
  4. a couple weeks ago I found my Revell Mig25 RBT, and somewhere I have one of Yefrem Gorden's books on the Mig25. Honestly I have not even looked inside in depth (just looking at the bags). It's also a lot bigger than I thought it would be! gary
  5. was just thinking about the gun pods on a Phantom, and I honestly can only remember one time. It was two Marine F4's (no idea what model) following a C130 just lumbering along over valleys just north of the Que Son Valley (have no idea what the proper name was as we called it "Indian Country" and Antenna Valley.") The C130 was carrying several pallets that had four 55 gallon barrels of napalm. They'd push one out and the Phantom would follow the parachute till it hits ground. Then about twenty seconds later the other Phantom would roll in with 20mm cannon fire lighting up the napalm.
  6. been quite awhile since I looked, but think there was a shoot down in very late 68 just south of the Mu Gai Pass by radar guided 57mm AA in Laos. If memory is correct, there were no survivors and they were on scene going thru the wreckage several times. I can't think of any radio traffic going thru it, or as for than know of anybody using them. There was also a C130 that flew a "L shaped" orbit, that did the same thing but stayed on the east side of the fence. His orbit went way south of the Que Son A.O. and all the way north to the DMZ. It was said they monitored NVA radio traffic and had som
  7. have never seen one in the flesh, but there was an EC47 used in conjunction with C Teams operating out of DaNang. I'd have imagined they also worked with MACV teams, but not real sure about SOG. SOG teams made very little radio contact unless it was dire. Even when they did it was thru a laser link system. My base camp was actually an SF camp (A102), and it had a gravel air strip. Might have been too short for a C47, but C7's and once in a great while a C130 could just clear the tree line to the west of it. We did see a couple C123's out there, but 90% were from C7's gary
  8. well I'm going to order two of them. I'm kinda perplexed as to whether the B26b has the long or short wing, but I'll get by. Lets hope this kit has a pretty good bomb bay and detailed nose area. Think they'll sel a ton of them gary
  9. wow! and Wow again! When they did the B26 Invader it was something I thought I'd never see in my life time. Then HKM comes out with an A20 coplete with the stressed skin. I'm looking for them to also do that one in 1/48th scale. This B26 is just the icing on the cake! Revell did the PV-1, and I always wanted them to do the Hudson. So what's left to do before moving on to RAF twins? gary
  10. I've been thinking about doing an experiment with their decals to see if it helps to make them last longer. I normally store my decals in acid free paper or just leave them in the kits they came in. I'm now thinking about a way to vac seal them (seal a meal) to remove all the air from them. If it works, one would save some money gary
  11. can probably show you twenty kits with good old brown decals in the boxes. Now to be fair, I have not looked at their high buck kits, so they may use a better quality decal. I pretty much know that I'm going to have to buy an after market decal set with Hasegawa and Tamiya right from the start gary
  12. I've seen them with napalm, and dumb bombs many times, as well as rocket pods and other stuff. I don't remember ever seeing them with bombs and rockets at the same time, but could be wrong. F100's used to mix it up quite a bit, but Marine jets pretty much stayed with one weapon unless it was napalm. gary
  13. in the world of armor; Academy seems to have taken giant leaps forward over the last couple years. Their kits are half the price of Dragons and nearly as good (some are better). I tried to buy two or three kits from Spru Brothers the first day they got the and they were already sold out! This kit and the new Revell Hurricane are the hot tickets for me this year! gary
  14. We almost never saw a Navy plane dropping a bomb out west. They had their own set of troubles to deal with. We used Marines most of the time, unless it was a B52 or you were in deep trouble and somebody was rolling thru the area with some left overs under their wings. Phantoms almost always had wing tanks going out of Chu Lai and DaNang. A Navy plane would be a rare sight unless it was shot to pieces making an emergency landing (Chu Lai for some odd reason was the main diversionary landing point) if a Phantom in there had wing tanks they were stolen. Wing tanks were a must south of the 17th Pa
  15. their kits are pretty good, but not the best. The decals are going to be trash in 30 months, so forget about putting several in your stash gary
  16. Some how I missed this post first time around. In 1967 I had the paper work to join that Columbus Indiana guard unit. Army got me on Friday and the next meeting was the following Tuesday. Later in life I became friends with a guy that was in that unit and sent to Vietnam. Quite an interesting story on how they got to Vietnam, as they were sent to Florida for awhile to train on AC119's gary
  17. That P26 was there the first time I went close to 40 years ago! Still my favorite air frame over there, Wish they'd put the Fi 156 down on the ground! Another think I loved was seeing Ike playing cards and Truman reading the newspaper gary
  18. I love that place, and everytime I go over there it's like a new place. The WW I stuff is really amazing, and you could just spend half a day there alone. My favorite things are the X planes and the Presidents planes. There's something for everybody in there gary
  19. myself; I'd be lighting a match to my Congressman and Senator's rear end with a very pointed (hand written) letter explaining that this is a complete miss use of your tax payer's dollars. Years back (long enough to still be married) my then wife and I were passing near Ft. Campbell KY. Decided to show her the base I did basic training in. We show up at the main gate and I tell the young MP (everybody is younger than me) that we would like to visit the 101st Museum. He said a blunt no! I asked why, and he had now answer, but made a phone call. Five minutes later another MP shows up and escorte
  20. I thought about sending a letter to the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. Never know they might jump at it gary
  21. they started building the new engines for the B52 a few months back in Indy gaty
  22. during my last "good stuff" inventory followed by a quasi house cleaning, I found a third bottle of Green Spot and another bottle of Killebaggen small batch. You'll never touch Jameson again! gary
  23. By Federal law Boeing doesn't own the blue prints for the F18 or whatever! You are notified right away in a bottom corner of the blue print as soon as you lay your hands on it. They own the part and also the processes used. When somebody says they had access to the OEM blue prints I know instantly it's a lie! An engineer taking a roll of drawings home will get stopped at the gate while they check him out (it's allowed with a special pass). I have seen at least one guy leave the building in hand cuffs that was scanning a blue print that he didn't have permission to view. Also know of seve
  24. I've rode in them three or four times, and most had the folding bench removed. Most had Plasma and blood thickener bottles and basic first aid, but nothing major as doctors rarely rode in one. There was always a large tub of Vasoline and some plastic squares cut out of larger bags for sucking chest wounds. Surgical tubing and hemostats were close by. A ride from the Ashau was roughly forty five minutes to DaNang, so you just have to control the bleeding and keep the sucking chest wounds sealed. Shock was the real killer just like the chest wound. Your crew had to keep the guy alert and talkin
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