F-18E CAG...

[Hurricane363]

... where these A/C ever used on ops? And by that i mean most operational a/c use low vis marking. My realquestion, could i do a CAG bird with a full bomb load?

Cheers

Mat.

[Platypus]

Though it's not E versions, the CAG/CO birds from VFA-103, VFA-102 and VFA-32 (to my knowledge) went to combat (or at least were configured with A/G).

EDIT

Not VFA-102.

Edited January 24, 2009 by Platypus

[GreyGhost]

Sure, they carry iron like all the dirty birds ...

Gregg

[Ken Middleton]

as mentioned, yes...courtesy of the US Navy Newstand

VFA-115

[Reddog]

When I was in the Navy, all of our CAG birds worked just as hard as our regular birds. In fact, they were treated just like any other birds in the squadron and were only singled out during special cerimonies like change of commands and stuff like that, other then that, they were just another ordnance hauler.

HTH

Reddog :)

Edit: can't believe I mispelled ordnance, that's about as bad as spelled fuze as fuse. :o

Edited January 25, 2009 by Reddog

[graves_09]

When I was in the Navy, all of our CAG birds worked just as hard as our regular birds. In fact, they were treated just like any other birds in the squadron and were only singled out during special cerimonies like change of commands and stuff like that, other then that, they were just another orndance hauler.

HTH

Reddog :o

Follow up question: Did only the CAG fly the CAG bird or could anyone fly it? Did the CAG ever fly in an A/C other than the CAG bird?

[Spongebob]

All the time to both...as RedDog said, the "CAG" aircraft is just another aircraft in the squadron...same with all of the named planes. The only real exceptions were (as Reddog said) special events like changes of command, photo flights, fini flights, etc. or if certain aircraft were equipped differently, then maintenance control would issue the aircraft appropriately.

HTH

Spongebob

[Spook498]

VFA 2 had some mission marks on their color bird from this last trip for the Persian Excursion. They even had a crossed out donkey. Seems an errant JDAM landed on a corral. The plane was home 2 weeks, and they then took off all their mission marks, including the donkey kill....