Thuds, the Ridge, and 100 Missions North

How the Republic F-105 got good at a mission it was not designed to fly.

  • By Carl Posey
  • Air & Space magazine, March 2009
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Flying out of Takhli Thailand Thuds also dispatched enemy aircraft felled by the F-105’s Gatling gun. Flying out of Takhli, Thailand, Thuds also dispatched enemy aircraft, felled by the F-105’s Gatling gun.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE US AIR FORCE

Photo Gallery (1/11)

The F-105 earned fame as a bridge-buster.

See more photos from the story

Video Gallery

Dodging Missiles

Dodging Missiles

F-105 pilots recall the dangers of flying over North Vietnam.


F-105 Walkaround

F-105 Walkaround

Get a close look at the National Air and Space Museum’s Thunderchief.



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According to Thunderchief pilot Michael Brazelton, the heavy fighter could make “860 knots on the deck, well above the speed of sound. Trouble with going so fast so low is that the canopy starts to melt. We had a double canopy, with coolant between the layers.”

Raw performance aside, the Thunderchief was “a pretty amazing airplane,” says Ed Rasimus, who went through a later class at Nellis. “We used to do a nuclear profile [training flight]. There was a radar mode you could fly at 500 feet. Gear and flaps up, you’d engage the autopilot, set up terrain avoidance, fly 400 miles, deliver a [mock] nuclear weapon on a target, and take the stick back at 200 feet on final.”

The Nellis grads were sent off to the frontlines separating East and West. Some went to bases at Bitburg and Spangdahlem, West Germany, others were assigned to Yokota Air Base in Japan. From the bases in Germany and at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa and Osan, South Korea, the pilots began standing alerts, nuclear weapons tucked into their airplanes’ bomb bays or hanging from wing pylons, waiting for the terrible moment to arrive.

The moment never came. Fate had something else in store for the Thunderchiefs and the men who flew them.


on the nights of August 2 and 4, 1964, two U.S. destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy, reported an attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Exactly what occurred has been debated for a generation, but, whether real or contrived, this became the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and a call to war.

“We went down the next day or two,” says Cooper, whose F-105 squadron was based in Japan. The pilots flew into the Royal Thai Air Force Base at Korat, Thailand. “Wasn’t much there when we got there,” he says. “Camp Friendship was the U.S. Army’s. Thais had a little flying school on the other side of the field.” Cooper chuckles, remembering those early days. “We come in, a fighter squadron and all its munitions. C-130s coming in every 15 minutes dropping something out.”

Those were uncertain times. No one knew if U.S. involvement in Vietnam would trigger Chinese or Soviet intervention. “We were doing all sorts of lines [nuclear missions] on all sorts of maps for all sorts of targets,” says Cooper.

Korat soon became a comfortable little Air Force city. For a time, the -105s—the nukes in the bomb bays replaced with fuel tanks—provided muscle for the CIA’s campaign against Pathet Lao insurgents. Until 1966, the Thai and U.S. governments denied that the aircraft were operating out of Thailand, but it was an open secret. Thunderchiefs were hard to miss.

At the 1854 Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War, British cavalry were ordered to attack withdrawing Czarist artillery brigades. By the time the order cascaded down the chain of command, however, it misdirected the British horsemen into a hail of fire from Russian guns. The debacle caused a furor in England, and inspired Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to pen “Charge of the Light Brigade,” with its mournful refrain: Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred.

Just over a century later, something like that infamous charge was performed in modern dress, this time with airplanes, and with the Russian weapons hidden in the forests of North Vietnam. And this time the action was not completed in a single day, but recurred, every morning and afternoon, weather and politics permitting, for more than three years. Charge of the Light Brigade, meet Groundhog Day.

The Republic F-105 Thunderchief, the main aircraft involved in the drama, had never been intended to play the role of a strategic bomber. Rather, it had been created to make a single, low-level nuclear strike—to use its potent stinger once, then die, like a bee.

In January 1952, the U.S. Air Force was seeking such an aircraft, one that could penetrate enemy territory and take out military bases with both conventional and atomic weapons. At Republic Aviation’s Farmingdale, Long Island plant, such an airplane was already taking form as Advanced Project 63 under legendary Russian émigré designer Alexander Kartveli. Republic Aviation was awarded the contract, and the YF-105A first flew on October 22, 1955.

The F-105 seems to have accreted around the single Mk-28 thermonuclear bomb it would carry in a fuselage bomb bay. About the size of a mansion-grade hot-water heater, the weapon could deliver anything from 10 kilotons to more than a megaton of explosive power. The Republic design team took the tubular fuselage of the company’s F-84, a fighter-bomber used extensively in the Korean War, and gave it an area-rule pinch at the waist to improve the transonic behavior of what would become a Mach 2-plus airplane. Wing-root inlets were swept forward to prevent engine stall, and a new Pratt & Whitney J-75 turbojet replaced the proposed J-71. In an era when guns were so 1950s, compared with missiles, someone added a 20-mm Gatling in the Thunderchief’s nose.

In 1957, a year before the F-105 entered service, the Air Force had Republic upgrade it with new navigation electronics and radar for all-weather operations, a fire-control system, and a more powerful version of the J-75 engine. The changes yielded the fully evolved, stiletto-shaped F-105D. The aircraft’s 45-degree swept wings measured, tip to tip, not quite 35 feet—about the same as a Piper J-3. But it was no trim little thing. The -105’s vertical stabilizer towered 19 feet above the ground, about the height of the vertical stab of a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, and its fuselage was only about 10 feet shorter than the Fort’s, making the F-105D the largest single-engine jet aircraft ever sent to war.

With some fanfare, the D model entered service in September 1960. Wrote a New York Times reporter: “The Air Force rates the Thunderchief as the most devastating system of destruction ever controlled by one man.” Accordingly, only high-time fighter pilots were sent to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to learn how to wield that power. “You had to have a thousand hours before they let you fly the thing,” recalls Michael Cooper, a Nellis grad. He’d won his wings in 1955, and had been flying North American F-100s. “We transitioned to the -105s in the summer of ’63. I went down to Mobile, Alabama, and picked up a brand-new airplane. Took it home.” Cooper still remembers the serial number, 62-4372. The aircraft flew until 1980, when it crashed during a NATO training exercise in Denmark.

“It was a great airplane,” says Cooper. “Not much of a fighter. But it was so much faster than everything else. The Navy F-4s, we’d fly right through their formations,” closing from behind.

According to Thunderchief pilot Michael Brazelton, the heavy fighter could make “860 knots on the deck, well above the speed of sound. Trouble with going so fast so low is that the canopy starts to melt. We had a double canopy, with coolant between the layers.”

Raw performance aside, the Thunderchief was “a pretty amazing airplane,” says Ed Rasimus, who went through a later class at Nellis. “We used to do a nuclear profile [training flight]. There was a radar mode you could fly at 500 feet. Gear and flaps up, you’d engage the autopilot, set up terrain avoidance, fly 400 miles, deliver a [mock] nuclear weapon on a target, and take the stick back at 200 feet on final.”

The Nellis grads were sent off to the frontlines separating East and West. Some went to bases at Bitburg and Spangdahlem, West Germany, others were assigned to Yokota Air Base in Japan. From the bases in Germany and at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa and Osan, South Korea, the pilots began standing alerts, nuclear weapons tucked into their airplanes’ bomb bays or hanging from wing pylons, waiting for the terrible moment to arrive.

The moment never came. Fate had something else in store for the Thunderchiefs and the men who flew them.


on the nights of August 2 and 4, 1964, two U.S. destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy, reported an attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Exactly what occurred has been debated for a generation, but, whether real or contrived, this became the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and a call to war.

“We went down the next day or two,” says Cooper, whose F-105 squadron was based in Japan. The pilots flew into the Royal Thai Air Force Base at Korat, Thailand. “Wasn’t much there when we got there,” he says. “Camp Friendship was the U.S. Army’s. Thais had a little flying school on the other side of the field.” Cooper chuckles, remembering those early days. “We come in, a fighter squadron and all its munitions. C-130s coming in every 15 minutes dropping something out.”

Those were uncertain times. No one knew if U.S. involvement in Vietnam would trigger Chinese or Soviet intervention. “We were doing all sorts of lines [nuclear missions] on all sorts of maps for all sorts of targets,” says Cooper.

Korat soon became a comfortable little Air Force city. For a time, the -105s—the nukes in the bomb bays replaced with fuel tanks—provided muscle for the CIA’s campaign against Pathet Lao insurgents. Until 1966, the Thai and U.S. governments denied that the aircraft were operating out of Thailand, but it was an open secret. Thunderchiefs were hard to miss.

The aircraft acquired the usual derisive nicknames. Where Republic’s P-47 had been the Jug, the F-105 became the Thud. The origin is unclear. Some said “Thud” echoed the sound of an F-105 crashing in the jungle. Some attributed it to Chief Thunderthud on the “Howdy Doody Show.” As with many such sobriquets, Thud quickly became a term of endearment. The -105 might be a bear to maintain, but the pilots loved its power, speed, and resilience. Thuds came home with large bites taken out of them by missiles and flak. The pilots prided themselves on doing the work of a five-man bomber crew at or beyond the speed of sound, 100 feet above the jungle, flak and missiles and MiGs everywhere.

Cooper’s squadron was in Thailand about 30 days before rotating back to Japan, where the pilots resumed their nuclear watches. When they returned to Thailand in the spring of 1965, it was to a second field at Takhli.

“Takhli in October ’65 was not much more than when the Japanese left,” recalls Dick Guild (rhymes with “wild”). The base had been built by the Japanese during World War II. “When I first got there we had a mess hall, officers’ club where you could make sandwiches,” says Guild. “We slept in hootches, eight beds to a side. Common washroom, the sinks filled with crickets. No air conditioning. Mosquito netting. Movies in the mess hall.” He grins. “It reminded me of Terry and the Pirates.”

He prefers the rough Takhli to the comfortable, Americanized base it became, with swimming pools, a new officers’ club, and individual air-conditioned apartments for the pilots. “Living alone and flying combat is really a bad idea,” he says.


by february 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson had approved Operation Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign by the Air Force and the U.S. Navy intended to crack the North Vietnamese spirit. Because the two services did not play well together, planners divided North Vietnam into six route packages, or PAKs, later splitting the sixth into VI-A and VI-B. PAKs I, V, and VI-A belonged to the Air Force, and II, III, IV, and VI-B were the Navy’s. Da Nang-based Marines would share PAK I with the Air Force.

All seven areas were bad, but VI-A was the worst. Bristling with anti-aircraft defenses, it contained the main rail and road routes to China, which intersected at Hanoi. Pilots called Hanoi “downtown,” where, as the 1964 Petula Clark hit put it, “everything’s waiting for you.”

Superposed upon the PAKs were complicated rules of engagement, which put such targets as power plants and airfields out of bounds. Nothing in a 30-mile

circle around Hanoi or a 10-mile circle around Haiphong could be hit. The ships pouring supplies onto the Haiphong quays were also off limits. And heaven help

the hapless jock who strayed into a 20- to 30-mile buffer zone along the Chinese border.

Pilots could defend themselves from attacking MiG fighters, but could not hit them on the ground. Surface-to-air-missile sites were fair game if they were active; while under construction, they were safe. Targets were selected in Washington, often over a White House lunch, when the president and secretary of defense, sometimes aided by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mulled over the military’s proposed target list, picked some out, and had them relayed back down the line to Saigon and, eventually, to Korat and Takhli. Once something became a target, it remained one. If it wasn’t wrecked on the first raid, it would be attacked again and again until it was. Most Sundays the Thuds went downtown.

Rolling Thunder escalated so gradually that the North Vietnamese were able to harden their defenses and hide critical supplies. Their web of anti-aircraft guns and Soviet surface-to-air-missile sites was soon the most sophisticated air defense system in the world.

The word among Thud pilots was that by their 66th mission they would have been shot down twice and picked up once. Put another way, they had about a 60 percent chance of completing the 100 missions north they were required to fly. (Their frequent sorties into Laos didn’t count.) For pilots on permanent assignments, 100 flights took about six months to accrue. For those rotating in from Japan, the requirement could take a couple of years.

Whether on permanent or temporary duty, a Thud pilot knew that he was in a knife fight with his good hand tied behind him.

at first light, the morning forces at Takhli and Korat would begin assembling for breakfast, briefing, and a good deal of study, with each four-ship flight learning what fragment, or “frag,” of the total day’s work Saigon had given them. By mid-morning, the pilots were on their way to their aircraft, wearing about 80 pounds of G-suit, parachute, and survival gear. Once the fliers were strapped into their machines, they taxied to an ordnance pit, where ground crews removed the red-flagged pins from the bombs.

“On PAK VI, we’d have eight [750-pound bombs] on the wings,” says Guild, or combinations of 500-, 1,000-, 2,000-, and 3,000-pound bombs. “I liked the 3,000. They

didn’t work for bridges, but for taking out flak pits….” He smiles, his hands describing a big blast wave propagating outward. “I dropped CBUs [cluster bombs]. You could see them down there, pop pop pop pop, but the guns just kept shooting.” He wasn’t fond of napalm. “God knows where it’s going to go.”

“The F-105 flew like a heavy T-38,” says Brazelton. “Even with bombs on it, I could do an aileron roll. My favorite [configuration] was a centerline tank and a 3,000-pounder under each wing. A lot sleeker.”

The classic PAK VI mission, says Rasimus, was “always a package, 30, 40, 50 airplanes,” including a Douglas EB-66 electronic countermeasures aircraft, F-4 Phantoms to fight off MiGs, and Wild Weasels, two-seat F-105F or -G models used to counterpunch anti-aircraft defenses.

Once airborne, the four-Thud formations headed for a herd of Boeing KC-135 tankers flying 30-mile-long racetrack orbits over Thailand. “Each [formation] had their own tanker,” says Rasimus. “They’d fill everybody up. Tanker would head north, take us up over Laos, about halfway to the target. We’d quickly cycle through again and drop off with full fuel.”

“It took about half our gas to get up there,” says Brazelton. “But once refueled, we could fly a long way, a thousand miles.”

The F-105s would then head into North Vietnam, flying at 18,000 to 20,000 feet. Going into PAK VI, the pilots followed two main approaches. One took them out over the Gulf of Tonkin, where they then turned to the attack. The other took them along a mile-high branch of the Day Truong Son (Long Chain of Mountains). Paralleled on the south by the Red River, this narrow complex of karsts and dense-canopy forest points southeast toward Hanoi. Americans called it Thud Ridge, after the men who were lost there and the F-105 detritus littering its rough slopes.

“We flew down the center of Thud Ridge,” recalls Guild. “If we skimmed it to the south we would get hammered out of Phu Tho and Quan Tri. If we skimmed it to the north, we would get hammered from that valley. I think it was just too hard for them to put AAA guns or SAMs on Thud Ridge.” Later in the Rolling Thunder campaign, a heavy-lift Russian helicopter added weapons to the ridge.

“We’d go to a target line abreast,” says Cooper. “The Thud had a pretty good automatic nav system if you were bombing Vladivostok with nukes, but if you’re bombing bridges up in the mountains, you can’t even tell which valley or which slope.”

“In the cruise in, we’d be on altitude hold, autopilot,” says Rasimus. “Not a whole lot of threat. Once down, it was hand flying. You’d want to be jinking a little bit. In the target area at 540 to 600 knots: 4-G pull up, zoom climb, 4-G pull down on the [30- to 40-degree] dive angle, drop it at about 3,000 feet above ground, down to about 1,000 [feet above ground level], then 4 to 5 Gs recovering. After they left the target, it was everybody for himself.”

Enthusiasts then had a chance to go trolling for things to strafe with the Gatling gun. It took a while for everyone to see the folly of risking a multimillion-dollar airplane to whack a 10,000-ruble truck, or pitting the 20-mm Gatling against 57-mm artillery, or looking for dogfights. “A lot of people were lost who shouldn’t have been, screwing around with a MiG-17,” says Cooper. “We could depart from it faster than a missile could track, separating at the speed of light.”

That blazing speed made the Thud difficult to protect, says Brazelton. “One time they were thinking of sending F-4s on MiG escort. As we approached the target, we went a little faster, then a little faster. Pretty soon they couldn’t keep up with us. We were happier when the escorts stayed away. If there were any MiGs up there, there were plenty of -105 pilots eager to pull the trigger.”

Even with the disadvantages of the F-105’s weight and poor turning ability, when the smoke cleared, it was Thuds 27.5, MiGs 22, with 24.5 Thud victories credited to that fossil nose-mounted gun.

Going in or coming out, if someone got hit—and someone almost always did—the Thuds usually kept moving. “In 1966, when a guy got shot down, if he wasn’t picked up in the first 90 minutes, he wasn’t coming out,” says Rasimus.

“In PAK VI, if someone went down across the Red River, we’d continue on, but the wingman would stay with a crippled bird,” says Guild. “If someone went down on the way out, we would continue egress, try to get to him later. You don’t want to pinpoint the downed guy.”

Brazelton had almost finished his 100-mission tour when he got smoked. It was August 7, 1966, north of Hanoi. “I was dropping CBUs on a 120-mm anti-aircraft site,” he says. “A 57-mm must have hit me right in the belly. I rode it for a minute or so, told them I was ejecting. They couldn’t do anything, just too many guns. I didn’t ask them to.” (Brazelton spent the next six and a half years as a POW.)

Coming off the target, the F-105s stayed together and headed for the tankers. They took enough fuel to get back to base, where, some four hours after their takeoff, the afternoon shift was preparing the next charge against the Russian guns.


the 388th tactical Fighter Wing settled into Korat, the 355th into Takhli. As pilots and aircraft were lost at the rate of five or six a week, replacement air crews and aircraft flew in, the Yokota units to Takhli, Kadena units to Korat. Thud pilots from Europe also arrived.

There were rivalries. In his memoir, Thud Ridge, Colonel Jack Broughton, then vice wing commander at Takhli, refers to Korat as the “Avis wing.” Over at Korat, the word was that Takhli had some people interested in becoming heroes. Some accounts make both wings sound like Texas Aggies about to play the Longhorns. There are tales of the “pressure bar” at Takhli, where pilots recited stuffy Pentagon nonsense about their incompatibility with “normal management techniques,” yelled a few obscenities, sang some unprintable songs, and shattered their bottles on the floor.

The late Gene I. “G.I.” Basel, in his 1982 memoir, Pak Six, describes impromptu wakes at Takhli for lost comrades. Pilots from the day’s raid would run a gauntlet of hurled beer bottles, trying to reach the far wall, called Thud Ridge, unscathed.

Both bases adopted Australian bush hats and kept their missions tallied on the rims. Pilots tend to be superstitious. That bush hat couldn’t be left on the bed or on the dresser. Crickets in the wash room were not to be smushed. At Korat, a mustache rendered the pilot bulletproof; shaving it off was tantamount to suicide.

“We drank more than we needed to, but I always tried to get six or eight hours sleep before a mission,” says Cooper. “A hundred missions in six months: That’s 16 or so sorties a month. Every 16 days you’d get four days off. I tried to make Bangkok the center of my universe.”

Guild’s main memory of Takhli is “being tired all the time.”

Behind the wild-bunch reputation, the Thud crews were a pretty serious lot. “I tried not to think big thoughts in those days,” says Cooper, “but I really wondered whether I’d see my kids again.” He also worried about the prisoners of war. “A bunch of good buds up in that hell. I thought about that a lot.” According to former POW Mike McGrath, now historian of a POW organization, of 207 fighters and fighter-bombers downed over North Vietnam, 99 were Thuds.

The Thud experience was not for everyone. “We had people, when it came to the point where they had to fly, they’d quit,” says Rasimus. “One kid got shot down on his first mission, got picked up, came in when he got back, and handed in his wings.”

There was good reason to fear the daily gallop into North Vietnam. “The losses were appalling,” wrote Rasimus in his 2003 memoir, When Thunder Rolled. “The class of nine that had been six weeks ahead of mine at Nellis lost four. The first short-course class of ‘universally assignable’ pilots lost 15 out of 16, all either killed or captured…. For every five pilots that started the tour, three would not complete it.”

Wrote Basel in his book: “I walk the streets and still grieve for them, and for those that did return, for all the others and for myself…. What was it all about? This magnificently orchestrated event that accomplished nothing. Casualties of this monstrous charade, we ask, For What?”

For others, the combat habit acquired in Thuds proved impossible to kick. No one was required to return to the unfriendly skies of Southeast Asia, but many did. Karl Richter flew his 100 missions out of Korat, then signed up for 100 more. Near the end of the second tour, he was killed on a run into PAK I. Several years after their first 100 missions, Rasimus, Cooper, and Guild also came back for another 100, this time in F-4 Phantoms.

Some returnees might have hoped to finish the thwarted work of Rolling Thunder. But most seem to have been drawn back to the metaphorical Balaclava by memories of the adrenaline rush, the camaraderie, the exhausting, exhilarating life spent on the edge, doing work only the brave can do.

At the same time, the Thud pilots understood that they risked everything to achieve results that were often questionable. It reminded Rasimus, who grew up in Chicago, of stealing hubcaps. 

Long-time contributor Carl Posey writes from Alexandria, Virginia.

 


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Comments (27)

outstanding article! I can identify with the Thuds. This was my time, maybe a bit later.

USAF veteran(1957-65)

Posted by Al Sorensen on January 22,2009 | 05:54 PM

So the Viet Nam war was lost in the first few years because of the restrictions put on bombing missions. How different would the war have turned out if those restrictions weren't there? How many of those 50,000 lost would still be with us? How many pilots needlessly became POWs? Who do we have to thank for those unnecessary losses? More importantly, why are we still making the same mistake of needlessly restricting our military? So that people will like us? Let’s ask the North Vietnamese how much the like us for not wiping them out when we had the chance. Or the North Koreans. Or the Iraqis after the first Gulf War. Or the Russians. Or the Germans after the first war to end all wars. Yeah, being nice in a war works out really well for us.

Posted by Mitchell on January 22,2009 | 07:09 PM

"and Wild Weasels, two-seat F-105F or -G models used to counterpunch anti-aircraft defenses."

What this sentence does not convey, is what comprised the counterpunch. The Wild Weasels flew ahead of the mission in an effort to intentionally draw the fire of heat-seeking missiles. Once their instruments alerted to SAMs, the pilots had to (1) spot those fast moving buggers, (2) successfully evade them, and (3) turn into the launch site to take it out.

Is it any wonder that so many Wild Weasels were shot down?

My father - a Wild Weasel - told me, he once had a "Dr. Pepper" (taken from the TV commercial jingle) because he had three SAMs coming at him from 10 o'clock, 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock. He survived that mission and the war. Thank goodness.

Posted by Margie on January 24,2009 | 03:11 AM

Is it just me, or does the photo of the EB-66 with the 4 F-105s look faked? All the bombs appear the same size despite having been presumably dropped at slightly different times, they're not in the same place laterally with respect to the aircraft that presumably dropped them, and they're all pointing in almost exactly the same direction. And what, exactly, were they hoping to hit under all that cloud cover?

Posted by Matthew Velazquez on January 30,2009 | 05:28 PM

Another example of the lessons purchased with American blood in the Korean Conflict" not being learned. Too bad we did not have a General Schwartzkopf (sp?) in place to guide our efforts in Vietnam. Although, even he may have been overruled by the politicos in Washington.

Very much enjoyed to article as basicly the same engine was used in the F-106 I worked on in 1960-1963.

Freddiev

Posted by Freddiev on January 31,2009 | 10:59 AM

Cooper's remark about having to have 1000 hours of time before they would let you fly the 105 is not necessarily true. I was one who barely had 500 hours and transitioned from the F-100C at Bitburg AB, Germany to the 105 in June of 1961. There were several other pilots in the 23rd TFS and 36th TFW who had about the same experience as I had. This was also true of the 49th TFW at Spangdahlem AB, Germany. In all, this airplane was the cadillac of the fighters - roomy, fast, very stable and a fabulous ride - once you got it off the ground. I also did a combat tour in the F-4D/E - great airplane for combat but it was really a maintenance nightmare, a bit squirrely at the higher airspeeds and we always sweated fuel. It burned prodigious amounts of it. The 105 at the Air and Space museum was originally a 36th TFW bird and I flew it from time to time. The one at the Air Force Academy is a composite of several wrecked 105's but the tail and number was on my bird at Bitburg - 60-0482. This is a great article and web site.

Posted by John Schroeder on January 31,2009 | 01:23 PM

The Thud article was great, but the highlight was reading about Mike Brazelton and seeing the picture of him in front of an F-105.

When I came back from flying Army helicopters in Vietnam in 1971, POW bracelets were all the rage. One day a table was set up in front of the post exchange where I was stationed, and some organization was selling bracelets. I wanted one bearing the name of one of the two men my unit had left behind in Cambodia, but the people selling them said they didn't have a list of the names they'd brought, so I had to settle for rummaging through the ones on the table.

I found a bracelet bearing the name of Captain Michael Brazelton, US Air Force. I didn't recognize his name, but Brazelton was familiar because there had been a cheerleader named Sue Brazelton a couple of years ahead of me in high schoo. Since I didn't have a better reason to choose another name, that's the bracelet I took, and that I wore until the POWs came home in 1972. It was only later that I learned from my sister that Mike was Sue's older brother.

I was stationed in Germany when the POWs came home and I took off the bracelet that had Mike Brazelton's name on it. In the many household moves made since, the bracelet itself has gone MIA. I'd like to have been able to give it to him one day, but it's enough to know he made it home.

Thank you for a great magazine and a great article, and especially for filling in some of the blanks on "my" POW.

Mike Brazelton, if you read this -- thank you for your service and Welcome Home.

Jim Kurtz
Morningside High School Class of 1965

Posted by Jim Kurtz on February 1,2009 | 02:43 PM

I was a captain flying the Thud out of Korat Christmas
day '66 to June 20, '67. It's nice to have our aircraft
remembered as it is usually absent from most displays.
The article is fabulous and realistic. Thanks again,
DWT, retired businessman in Texas

Posted by David W. Trekell on February 1,2009 | 11:42 PM

What a great article. I have been an aviation nut since I was 5 years old. I could tell the model of the bird just from the sound the engines made. Later, I was to be allowed to fly for the USAF and ended up as a Wild Weasel Bear at Tahkli in the 333rd/355th (Nov '68-Jul '69). It was great to see, then Col, John Girado in the story. In 1975-77 I served under Maj. Gen. Girado when stationed at Macdill AFB, FL, in USREDCOM/J5. There are many stories about the "Thud" that I will always remember. It was a solid bird that could take punishment and still get back. If you had enough fuel you could outrun any airplane "on the deck." Just wish for one more ride in one of them. Jim Bradley, WW#520.

Posted by James E Bradley on February 2,2009 | 03:41 PM

Great article! I was in Brazelton's flight the day he was shot down. In those days, some of us carried tape recorders to document the radio calls during the missions and mine caught Mike's last transmissions. When he first got hit, he declared he would "ride it to hell and back before he would eject". 30 sec or so later he called he was bailing out. Since we never got a call from him on the ground, we were never sure he made it. After the mission, I made a copy of the tape and sent it to his folks to keep their hopes alive that he would return. Thankfully, he did.

Dick Guild and I returned for our second tours in 1972 in time for Linebacker II as part of the Rivet Haste F-4E program which became the 555th Triple Nickel.

Posted by Tim O'Keefe Jr on February 4,2009 | 11:40 AM

In late 64 and early 65 I was in Thiland with the 355th. I spent my whole tour at Korat. The story says the 355th was at Takhli. I know I didn't spend my whole tour on the wrong base. Could anyone verify?

Posted by Jim Lovejoy on February 4,2009 | 05:48 PM

Fantastic article. This is a worthy tribute to then 1st Lieutenant John Shatz who was the best of the best F105 maintenance officers who served in Thailand during the bombing campaign over North Vietnam called Operation Rolling Thunder in the 1966-1967 time frame. As Flight Line Maintenance Officer for the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron which I commanded for a time John and his crew chiefs and specialists provided our fighter pilots with the most reliable, best performing aircraft you could ever ask for. Not only that but he was one of us, a pilot himself who joined with us in evereything we accomplished. He exuded confidence, was a man of good humor and a man of his word. Thank you John.

Posted by Colonel Kennith Hite USAF (Ret) on February 4,2009 | 07:30 PM

I was a weapons mechanic on the Thud at McGuire AFB in the NJANG. The thing was massive and we literally thought it had been built by Caterpillar as a bulldozer and disquised as an airplane. It was one solid flying machine and the pilots loved it. You always knew when it was in the pattern with its distinctive roar. The worst job for a weapons guy was to remove the bomb ejector foot to replace a gasket, must have been a million nuts. The job always went to the new guys. You had to be careful loading the Gatling gun with the 20mm, they fired electrically and static electricity could cook them off. Great airplane.

Posted by ron krantz on February 5,2009 | 09:58 AM

I flew the F-105 from Takhli in 1965 with the 562nd TFS. I spent two weeks in Saigon in "Out Country Planning" Working for B/G George Simler. "Same day, same route, same time" was so bad, Gen Simelar had ordered me to stop at all TAC bases on my way back to Takhli and "brief" every squadron that he wanted to see the last line of each strike report read "This mission flown in accordance with all frags and directives." When he told me this, he stomped his foot and said "Listen closely to me, now; "I want to read this on every mission strike report!" He stomped his foot several times, this time and winked his eye. I had worked for him on Okinawa and knew his style quite well. He only wanted to "READ" it. He was appalled at the indifference of PACAF, DOD and the WH. I spent three days going from base to base putting out the word to “Plan YOUR mission!” Losses went down after this directive. Few understood that Simler was in a fight and on the side of the pilots. It was a constant fight with an incompetent DOD!

Posted by Ben H. Allen on February 6,2009 | 11:36 AM

This wonderful article was sent to me by a cousin who had stumbled on the name "Dick Guild". As a published author of a Guild genealogy in USA and Canada, he thought I might recognize this person. I did not. If anyone of you could have Dick or a member of his family contact me, I would greatly appreciate it. I would hate to miss the opportunity to include him in the Guild records. Thank you gentlemen, for all you have done.
Margaret Guild Lambert
gamgend@yahoo.ca

Posted by Margaret Guild Lambert on February 6,2009 | 01:46 PM

I'm trying to locate former Maj. R.E. Stone USAF who was shot down July 2, 1967 flying Barracuda 02, a F-105 while attached to the 357th TFS, 355 TFW out of Takhli. Maj Stone was critically injured and had numerous broken bones preventing him from getting freed of his chute or to assist in his own rescue. My friend Anthony Hanson strapped on his M-16 and rode the cable to its end (150 Ft) and dropped the rest of the way to the jungle floor where after a brief search he located Maj.Stone clearing him of his equip Hanson dragged Stone to a nearby clearing where they were hoisted out together by Clementine 1 a single engine UH2 which was attached to a HC-1 combat SAR Det. on board the Guided Missile Frigate USS Reeves. The Helo crew dropped Maj. Stone off at the Dodge Falls probably another ship with medical facilites. Hanson E-5 was later awarded the Navy Cross for this rescue. Anyone with info. on Maj. Stone please contact me.I spent 5 years as a SAR crewman on all 3 SAR stations off North Viet-Nam and am trying to match up rescuees with the helo crews we have our reunions every 2 years see hc7seadevils.org and helos4ever.net

Posted by John D. Birch AMSC USN Ret. on February 9,2009 | 02:53 PM

I'm sure John Shatz was a good maintenance officer BUT I'll guarantee you one thing, he never turned a wrench on a Thud. So he really didn't know that much about the airplane. In theory maybe, but as far as being out there hustling on the ramp, when it was 100 to 120 degrees, he never got up into the hell hole (FF-55)to install an iron maden.

There is only one master of the Thud as far as maintenace was concerned, and that is a man named JJ Smith. From Seymour Johnson in 1962 THRU 1980 at George AFB, when the Thuds went to the guard. JJ was the man of all men as far as F-105 maintenance went. Believe me he was the best. JJ was not a maintenance officer that walked around with a brick and a clip board in hand. He was as knowledgeable as any person that came from Republic Aviation. JJ was a crew chief that showed a Technical Representive how to repack a main landing gear strut without removing the landing gear door.

I'm sure John Shatz did a good job as a MTC officer But you got to turn wrenches to know the real deal on maintaining Thuds.

Thud Crew Chief

1967-1979

Posted by Jim Gagnon on February 12,2009 | 09:58 PM

Thanks to those who served our country in this long war. The statement "good hand tied behind my back" perfectly exemplifies the perennial problem in Viet Nam. Civilian control of the military doesn't have to mean civilian micromanagement, as with detailed target selection by civilians for the F105 pilots. Later, when General Creighton Abrams teamed with civilian leaders to turn the war around, a more rational era ensued. The seldom acknowledged tragedy is that the military did not lose that war. Over time, the great sacrifices of men like those F105 pilots will be thoroughly vindicated by future scholarship. Too many factions have too much invested in conflicting opinions to give the public a truly balanced assessment. But I, for one, want to register my unstinting admiration for what the Thud pilots, and all others in that war, gave our country in blood, sweat, and tears.

Posted by Chatham H Forbes Sr on February 20,2009 | 01:28 PM

Korat-1965-66

Colonel Sams [Saber], wing commander, a F-100 pilot, checked out in the F-105 by flying his first ride on a mission to Laos...He later flew a few missions to NV before he was grounded by the 7th AF....

Command Post at Korat

Posted by Herman Westbrook on February 23,2009 | 07:22 AM

As the son of a wild weasel I thought it might be interesting to some of the readers to take a look at my father's web (Robert R. Huntley aka Otter-1) site that tracks the history of all 833 F-105's built:

http://www.ygbsm.com

Bob Huntley

Posted by Robert E. Huntley on February 24,2009 | 11:17 AM

Do you have a list of 100 mission survivers? I know of 1 Tom Lockhart from W.V. he now lives in Arz. Thanks. EDITORS' REPLY. We know of no such list. You might try the US Air Force Association, or the Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, or post a query on a forum or website devoted to the Vietnam air war.

Posted by Fred Lugar on February 26,2009 | 11:13 AM

I was lucky enough to be a flight line mechanic and Crew Chief on the F-105 during its initial testing and competiton flying at Edwards Air Force Base from 1955 through 1959. When we began the program with the first two"A" models we knew we had something special. Those first aircraft had the J-57 engines and no variable air intake ducts nor were they swept shaped but still the aircraft was very fast. When we got the "B' models for testing it really blew our minds. The "B" model had the new J-75 engine and variable intake ducts that greatly improved the aircrafts performance. At that time we were in competiton with North Americans F-107 for the Air force contract. When the F-105 started making its'speed runs and was timed by telemetry at mach 2.3 we knew we had a winner.It was not long after the speed runs and a successful cruise program that Republic was awarded the contract.

Through all the different phases of testing the only real problem we encountered was fuel cell leakage. Engineering tried several different methods of sealing the tanks but never completely solved the problem. I subsequently went back to the factory at Farmingdale where I worked in the final assembly test area and finally spent my remaining years as a Tech Rep assigned to several different Air Force Wings. I was always proud of the performance of the aircraft and how well it scored in all the ORI competitions. A good deal of my working lifetime has been spent on the F-105 and I would say that it was a most rewarding time. It is especially gratifying to read such a splendid article about the Thud in your magazine

Posted by Leo Gagnon on March 6,2009 | 12:08 AM

What great article! I was a weapons mechanic at McConnell AFB in Kansas, then went to Korat which had both 105's and F4-E's. I thought it was interesting how the F4's had to be retrofitted with the gatling gun which was considered 'obsolete technology'. The photo of the crew loading the gatling gun shows a B model but I didn't know the B's went to SEA. As a 6'4" weapons mechanic, it was a pleasure working on the Thud as its wings were high off the ground. I had to work on the Phantom for a few months and never could get used to crawlimg around under the thing, banging my head on all those drain tubes! The Nickle was the best of the century fighters and while at McConnell I was told that the Air Force had considered putting the 105 back into production but Republic had already destroyed the tooling, can anybody confirm this? Thanks again for a great story.

Posted by Brad McDonald on March 10,2009 | 10:20 AM

In 1972, I was a 14 year old 9th grader. I wore the POW Bracelet with the name CPT Michael Brazelton on it until he came home. Everyday I poured through the lists of returning POWs until the day I saw his name. I still have those lists folded up in a box that contains my bracelet and other memorabilia from those years. I was so proud and happy the day I saw Michael's name. I can still remember seeing him on a talk show (I think it was Dick Cavett Show) I was so proud to tell everyone that he had appeared on that show. I grew up and married a career military man in the U.S. Army Special Forces. The U.S. Military and the people who serve will always have a special place in my heart. CPT Michael Brazelton, if you read this, thank you for your service to our great Country, and I'm so glad you came home!!!! EDITORS' REPLY: We've heard from a number of readers who had Michael Brazelton POW bracelets.

Posted by Susan Witt on March 24,2009 | 08:46 AM

I don't beleive that any acft but nickel was as great as it was. I worked on F105F at Korat loved that airplane I crewed 62-4424 at one it crown 7 with it sitting on a pillow. I asked about it I said one good thing deserved another. I worked F102,B66 f4D&e and F16 but the best was the nickel.

Posted by Rayburn Glosup on March 30,2009 | 07:34 PM

I truly enjoyed this article. I have a great interest in the Viet Nam War as I was a 1969 high school graduate and many of my friends ended up serving there. I have a special realtionship to the F 105 as I grew up less than five miles from the Republic factory. You could here the jets taking off and landing time and again each day. They would bank over my house for landing and in the morining to early afternoon you would set that shiny reflection in the sky. The sound of the afterburners kicking in. I'll never forget the sound of those guns being tested either. Growing up in the fifties and knowing that nuclear bombers were flying over my house was as reassurring as it was frightening. I often drive New Highway around the end of the runways and come up passed the 105 on display at the US Airpoer Museum on the old grounds of Republic. What and awesome sight of that masterwork parked next Long Island's other most famous plane, the F 14 Tomcat.

Some useless trivia: who knows that Gerlado Rivera used to sweep floors at Republic?

My condolences to the families of those who never made it back. My hat off to those who flew the 105 and helped form a legend.


John Wevers
Jamesport, NY

Posted by John Wevers on April 1,2009 | 04:41 AM

My father was a 100 mission survivor, Capt. Albert "Bert" Zellers. He was an EWO with the 333rd stationed in Takhli. I never knew or understood what my dad had done over there until he passed away and I petitioned the folks at Randolph for duplicate medals, but the certificate that accompanied his DFC sure makes him sound as close to a hero as you can get. On this mission they loitered in an area drawing fire so the EB-66's could get in to an area that had SAM sites that were not previously known about.

My dad loved this plane more than anything else in the world. Visits to the museum at Wright-Patt were special to him. He'd make a bee-line to the Thud like a kid in Target heading for the toys. Once there he sometimes served as an unofficial tour guide. He'd walk folks around that plane like it was his, answering questions the entire time and proudly telling them that he had hours in that very plane.

I really enjoyed this article,

Steven Zellers

Posted by Steven Zellers on April 3,2009 | 02:08 PM

As to Thuds article, so much was wasted in out of line details that the real ones were not even mentioned.
There was plenty of flying information for us readers that so much desapointment just came over reading such article. At least for those brave men and such wonderful machines, some respect and color is still due. I expected much more than what was printed by Carl Posey, maybe he just wasn´t there when real flying was done. Sorry amigo.

Posted by Ismael E. Champsaur Westerlin on April 5,2009 | 07:49 PM

I spent a tour at Korat, 1971-72 with the 388th Tac Fighter wing, 388 Avionics Maintenace Squadron. My primary aircraft were the F-105F and G models of the then 6010th Wild Weasles, and later the 17th Wild Weasle Squadrons. I worked the APN-131 Doppler Navigation equipment. By that time, parts were hard to get, no spares to speak of, and lots of broken airplanes. Of all the aircraft I worked on during my career, the Thud was my favorite. I was told the nick name Thud was the sound the aircraft made on landing, or when it hit the ground. Another nickname was the "Triple Threat". It could strafe you, bomb you, and if you threw something at it, it would fall on you. We lost many a good plane, and crew, over enemy territory, as well as a few in ground crashes, landing and taking off. If asked to do it all again, With the Thud, yes. Great story

Posted by James Berwick on April 6,2009 | 02:43 AM

I was a 100 mission pilot in the Thud. I flew about 1 year later then most of the article addresses. I was at Takhli from Aug 67 to Mar 68. The tactics had changed drastically. We flew into Hanoi as they did in WWll, in a large gaggle of 16 airplanes in what was called pod formation, relying on our jamming equipment to keep us safe from the SAMS. Our wild weasels led us in, giving us info where they thought our biggest threat would come from. The odds of survival did not change regardless of the tactics. Out my class of 16 from Nellis, 9 were shot down and 1 quit after his first Pak 6 mission. GI Basel, whom you mention in the article, was part of my class and was shot down on his 79th. Thanks for the article, as this wonderful fighter is often overlooked in favor of the dashing F-4 when talk of Vietnam Airwar is mentioned!!

Posted by Ron Venturini on April 26,2009 | 09:57 PM

Remembrance profile started for COL. ROBERT E. KLINE, F-105D pilot lost over North Vietnam on 2 Nov 66 after less than 30 days in-country, while serving with the 421st TFS of the 388th TFW based at Korat RTAFB - listed as MIA presumed deceased.

Link:
http://airforce.togetherweserved.com/usaf/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=Profile&type=Person&ID=80680

Posted by Mike Bell on May 19,2009 | 11:39 AM

I, too, wore a bracelet with Captain Michael Brazelton's name. I wore it for several years and in 1973, as a senior in high school, I stayed home and watched the POWs come home. I cried and waited for Captain Brazelton and when he emerged from the plane, I cried and cried. I wrote him a letter and included the bracelet. One day I received a reply to my letter. I still have that letter, safely tucked away in my cedar chest. To this day, I always think of Captain Brazelton and wonder what became of him. If anyone knows of him, please tell him he has never been forgotten.

Posted by Susan McKinney Bushey on June 1,2009 | 10:59 PM

I was in the USAF from 1966-1974. My first duty station out of Lowry AFB Colorado tech school for weapons mechanics was McConnell AFB first with the 23rd MMS and then transferred to the 562nd TFS. I spent about 18 months in Kansas working on the F-105 B,D,and F models in the weapons relaease shop.

When my orders came down for SEA I first got sent to the weapons release shop at the 388th MMS at Korat RTAFB for 6 months and then got moved to the 355th MMS at Takhli RTAFB to finish out my first tour.

I alternated working in the release shop with maintenance debriefing when someone needed a break. At Takhli I was in the pylon shop and got real familiar with the inboard multi weapon pylons and the outboard universal pylons.

We also checked out the launching equipment on the AGM-78, and AGM-45 missile.

My last duty station before discharge in 1974 was the 35th MMS at George AFB California, again I was in the weapons release shop but this time I split my time between the line truck "Rocket 7" working on this time F-105 D's and the F-105 G models along with the F-4 C,D,E and the German F-4G models.

Some nights on the swing shift seemed never ending, what with maint control asking for a estimated time of completion
and how much longer will it take.

Our shop had three eight hour shifts(days,swings,and mids)and could get jammed with F-4 pylons,Mers, and Ters, F-105 pylons, missile launchers and other equipment needing repair/inspections.

We also did the required ASM-11 checks on the Aim-9 launchers and the weapons release systems checks using the AWM-13 tester.

Posted by Mike Folks on July 15,2009 | 10:12 PM

In 1963 a few of us having just graduated (maybe 350 hrs total) from Luke in the Hun were selected for the few slots available for Thud training at Nellis. There we joined our eventual PACAF Sqdns as they transitioned to the Thuds. These Sqdns of the former 8TFW at Itazuke moved to Yokota and became the 6441 Provision TFW. We deployed for Sqdn rotation to Korat starting in 1964. There Davy Graben of the 36th TFS survived and brought home the first significant AAA damaged (major tail damage) Thud on a mission while escorting an F101 recon over Laos. We continued rotating Sqdns to Korat. Most missions were over Laos killing a lot of Communist trees. Even so, the AAA was heavy in many places like "Happy Valley". N. Vietnam did not pose significant AAA threats at that point, in fact, I flew a wx recon mission over N. Vietnam and didn't even bother to wear a survival vest. Laotian AAA hammered us significantly, however. Many of our missions were in support of Air America. Later our Sqdn rotations were moved to Takhli. Gradually stateside Sqnds were sent over to relieve the 6441 TFW as we still had SIOP commitments in Korea. When a call was made for volunteers to go back to Thailand and lead transition missions for the stateside units until they could cut their teeth, Col Peters of the 35 TFS denied all those who volunteered and remarked that when a dedicated effort would be allowed to actually achieve success (we were in the Tit for Tat game at this point) he would volunteer the entire sqdn to go back to finish the good fight". He believed this war would yield only attrition. Later I was at McConnell training pilots transitioning into the Thud. There one of my students was Cliff Cushman---a most remarkable person---1964 Olympic Silver Medalist in the 110 meter high hurdles. Shot down he was listed as MIA and finally KIA. He, like so many who lost their lives, will always be remembered.

Posted by Lee B. White on October 30,2009 | 01:43 AM

To answer the questions posed by someone questioning the EB-66 photo, I flew the Thud on these missions occasionally -- they were called 'Sky Spot'. The EB-66 had better navigation gear, so we joined up with it and he called 'pickle' when over the designated target. These missions were always flown over 'low threat' Route Packs (2-4) (and only when the target area was overcast). The bombs in the photo appear to be two thousand pounders, which we carried -- one under each wing. All were released at the same moment, so the photo shows the view from above just 2 or 3 seconds after release. They are all in the same direction because that is how the fall initially, then nose over after a few seconds of free fall. Having been there in 1967 I can attest to the validity of the photo.

Gordon Jenkins
(100 missions over NVN)

Posted by Gordon Jenkins on January 25,2010 | 03:25 PM

Someone was asking how to get a list of 100 mission F105 pilots. Best place to start would be the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association.

Gordon Jenkins
F-105 100 Missions (Dec 66- Jul 67, Takhli)

Posted by Gordon Jenkins on January 25,2010 | 03:32 PM

Gordon Jenkins wingman Jan 6,1967 Maj R.E.Stone shootdown and rescue bu HC-1 Det 15. Please contact me.

John Birch Navy SAR RET.
jdbirch61@yahoo.com

Posted by John Birch Navy SAR RET. on February 1,2010 | 06:34 AM

My close friend, Maj. Joe Grimaud survived 100 missions as an F-105 pilot during the Vietnam war. He presently lives in Chapin,SC and is currently in the running as our congressman in the 3rd congressional district of South Carolina.

Posted by Coleman Hatfield on May 1,2010 | 03:09 PM

My tour at Korat began on 1, March 1966 in the Propulsion shop. I later transfered to the 388th TFW QA for the remainder of my tour. My DEROS date was on 1, March 1967,
the date the big B-52 base in southern Thailand opened.

Posted by Gerald L.Stewart Sr. CMsgt. USAF Retired on May 8,2010 | 02:39 AM

My good friend Joe grimaud who lives in chapin,south Carolina was a wild weasel pilot flying the f 105.Joe flew 100 missions over north Vietnam. Joe and I have been friends for the past 60 years. Have always enjoyed talking with him about these missions.

Posted by Coleman hatfield on May 24,2010 | 12:11 PM

In 1964, I was married to a Lieutenant Edwin I . Emmons who went through the Webb AFB Undergraduate Pilot Training class of 66-D. In 1966, we heard that Steven L. Dongus (a classmate of this group)was shot down over the South China Sea while in a F-105 based in Okinawa. He was never recovered, according to "hearsay." His wife's name was Sandi. She was nine months pregnant when he went down. Can anyone confirm Lt. Dongus' status? He was originaly from Indianapolis, Indiana, and was a graduate of Butler University. Thanks!

Posted by Dr. Gay Chedester on June 30,2010 | 05:20 PM

I am very proud that those who served now have a permanent place at USAF Museum where they belong.
100 Missions North opened in 2009 and represents all who
served during those times.
The best the USAF produced and continues the great
heritage.
God bless you all. May America always have this quality of
men and women.
David Holmes
Brother Capt Bruce Holmes

Posted by David Holmes on July 21,2010 | 08:30 PM

Just a word about Karl Richter, My CO,Capt King, at Det 7, 6922SW, Korat RTAFB, was his roommate. On the day he went down over Laos I will never forget the gloom that filled our ops area. I have never been able to confirm it but our CO made the comment that Lt Richter had already complete his second 100 missions but had not been credited with two missions due to paperwork snafu. He was actually flying his 102nd mission. Like I said, have never been able to find out one way or the other, but I will say one thing for sure, those pilots and back seaters were some of the bravest guys in the world, bar none, no matter how many missions they flew.

Posted by Roy Shamblen on July 27,2010 | 11:19 PM

Just a word about Karl Richter, My CO,Capt King, at Det 7, 6922SW, Korat RTAFB, was his roommate. On the day he went down over Laos I will never forget the gloom that filled our ops area. I have never been able to confirm it but our CO made the comment that Lt Richter had already complete his second 100 missions but had not been credited with two missions due to paperwork snafu. He was actually flying his 102nd mission. Like I said, have never been able to find out one way or the other, but I will say one thing for sure, those pilots and back seaters were some of the bravest guys in the world, bar none, no matter how many missions they flew.

Posted by Roy Shamblen on July 27,2010 | 11:19 PM

Dr. Gay Chedester,

I graduated from Butler in 1967 and knew Steve Dongus well.
I have detailed information about his loss as provided by his 80th TFS leadership. Contact me at jekingjr@citlink.net

Thanks

John King

Posted by John King on September 28,2010 | 12:27 PM

I read this story back when it was first posted on this web site. My Father was at Korat RTAFB Thailand in 1966. He was "Wild Weasel #99" then "Capt. Vincent A. Scungio". & in the first graduating class of Wild Weasel 3 (3-1), these first Crews & their F-105F Wild Weasel (WW) Thunderchief's left Elgin AFB 25, May 1966 & arrived in Korat 30, May 66.

My Dad's Pilot then, "Maj. Robert Brinckmann" was the Squadron Commander & my Dad was the Senior Electronic Warfare Officer of the 13TH Tactical Fighter Squadron. Their first few WW Missions were flown with the F-100F "Hun" WW Crew that Killed the first SA-2 Site in Military History on 22, Dec.65 "Capt. Allen Lamb (Pilot) & Capt. Jack Donavan (EWO)".

A year an a half ago, I finally found the F-105D Pilot that was their wing-man & the last person to see them alive. Needless to say he still remembers the AAA Guns hitting their Aircraft & seeing the Engine catch Fire before having to evade a Missile that had his number on it.

In my heart I feel that All the Men that went into Harms Way North or South, are Heroes. But these WW Crews were a very special breed of Warriors. We as Americans should never forget the Sacrifices of so many. Past, Present & Future, I Salute You All.

Respectfully,
Vincent A. Scungio Jr. WW#2549
machete1ww2549@yahoo.com

Posted by Vincent A. Scungio Jr. on July 1,2011 | 03:47 PM

I went to Takhli with the first personnel sent there from Yokota. I was in an armament crew and we were the last people to send the pilots off. I sent off the first pilot who did not return. I sent a number of others as well, some of who did return; Col Cherry, for one who I remember as he was the only Black pilot in the 6441 at that time at least.

I stayed home from work the day the prisonors were released to see if he made it. Sure enough, he was like #7 to step off the plane. They came off by how long they had been in captivity.

It was an interesting time in a 20 year old's life. It was dream-like at times. Nobody could ever make up a script as to how things went.

A few years ago now I purchased a book that supposedly listed all the aircraft lost in the war then. There was no mention of the day when none of the planes returned or the days when 4 or 5 returned. Funny thing about history, eh? One of the things that aggrivates me most about the whole situation is the lack of credit for the 6441st and the lack of honesty as to what occured early on @ Takhli. I don't know what else to say except they have slighted a bunch of people who gave their all and are forgotten.

Posted by Pete Wass on July 11,2011 | 08:29 PM

For information,

Lt. Michael Brazelton was shot down in his 11th mission in F-105D 62-4370 on the 7th of august 1966, on that same day 4 more Thuds went down. A true American Hero. Thank you for defending our Freedom!

Posted by Bart Kievit on January 2,2012 | 03:00 AM

After graduating from pilot training in June 1965, I chose the F-105, completed training in March 1966, and promptly went to Takhli. It didn't take long for me to realize that the powers to be in Washington were not really trying to win this war with the awesome amount of airpower we could bring to bear on N Viet Nam. The thrill of flying the magnificent F-105 outweighed the possibility of being shot down that all fighter pilots store in the backwaters of their minds. The F-105 was so tough and fast that we felt invincible. I was in the 357th TFS with Mike Brazelton and remember when he and others were lost. I ran into Mike in the late 80's at a pilot seminar in L.A. Other than a few grey hairs, he hadn't changed much. It was great seeing him again. Sadly, I have lost track of most of my flight commanders and wingmen from that exciting time in our lives. If any are within shouting distance, there's always "Happy Hour" in Prospect, Oregon.

Posted by David K. Dargitz on July 10,2012 | 08:54 PM

What a fantastic article and even more moving responses! My Dad was also one of the few who flew the "Thuds", a Wild Weasel,and Op Rolling Thunder. I was about 13 when he retired and fairly young when Vietnam was in full force so I hardly understood the impact that all of the service men and women involved, and especially the elite group of Fighter Pilot's, had on so many of our lives--then and now!
Sadly my Father passed away in 1986, and though I inquired often about his missions, he remained quiet about all of them with one exception--when his good friend (and wingman I believe) Merwin Morrill was shot down (again I think in Aug 1967).
My Dad flew his 100 Missions landing at Korat AFB on his 100th with a Welcome Committee" waiting with champagne upon his arrival. I have a 2 minute video of his take-off and return landing that my Mom had transfered onto VCR from 8mm film for me. Some of the guys in the group look very familiar (possibly from pictures found in books about the Thud pilots). I'm working on transfering that video to disc so that I can post it on line so that others may enjoy it or recognize themselves or a family member.
I'm trying to compile a timeline and history of my Father's military life so if anyone knew him or know someone who might, please email me! I have his records from when he retired but they seem to have gaps in them and I am trying to piece together the whole thing. My Hero, I miss him so much...My Daddy...

Major Lawrence L Friedman, USAF Fighter Pilot---

Last stationed (and retired at) Williams AFB, AZ / We were at Itazuke in Japan between 1960-1963

Debra Friedman Thomas airrosezona@yahoo.com

(former AZANG Medical Specialist, 161st Air Refueling Group, Phx Sky Harbor)

(Proud to say that 2 of my 5 children are also serving in the Armed Forces...my oldest daughter is in the Air Force- since 2000 and my only son is a Master at Arms in the Navy, currently in Bahrain)

Posted by Debra Friedman Thomas on October 26,2012 | 02:03 PM

Don't mean to be charged with heresy but I'm currently researching the mix of Century planes with an eye on how they might have been used better in combination with one another -- and yes, I'm one of the few who isn't a big fan of the F-4. In fact I've already soundly convinced myself from research and pilot testimonials that the F-106 produced in real numbers could have been an excellent MiG-21 MiGCAP fighter to accompany other planes.

My two questions are:
--Could the F-101 2-seater have been modified for use as a Wild Weasel (though of course not for heavier strikes - just for Wild Weasels) in addition to its Recon role? Or was it too fragile for taking flak and/or too hard to maneuver to avoid SAMs already launched and/or too difficult to keep from pitching up?
--[here's the heresy]: could the F-107 have been a better bird for the strike roles of the F-105, taking into account Mach-2 speed, in-built cannon, and equivalent range -- and yes, I know as a one-seater it could NOT have done Wild Weasels, I mean for everything BUT that task....

Posted by Michael Kraig on November 17,2012 | 11:22 PM

One error about the designer's origins: Kartveli was Georgian, not Russian.

This was _the_ machine that I grew up wanting to fly!

Posted by Will S-G on December 23,2012 | 01:10 AM

The F-105 was awesome! And the pilots who flew here were the greatest! They knew that the odds were against them...with half of the 833 production line lost. Hundreds died or were captured. Among the amazing pilots were Billy Sparks, Tom Kirk, Bob Middleton, Gene Smith, Mo Baker and G.I. Basel. It was Basel's book, Pak Six, that inspired me to make a documentary about the pilots and ground crews. You can't forget the dedicated ground crews who worked 25-hours a day in unbelievable conditions. My documentary, Forgotten F-105 Warriors will honor these men. If you want to see some of their interviews, please contact me.

Posted by Patzi Gil on January 16,2013 | 12:52 PM

Regarding the article's photo taken in Guam, the USAF Col. standing at left with hands on hips is Col. Edwin "Duffy" Laveigne of Port Sulphur, La. Sadly he passed away last week. Great guy.

Posted by Richard Cosse" on February 22,2013 | 08:25 PM

Kartveli was Georgian, not Russian. Georgia was part of the Russian Empire when he immigrated, but Georgians existed allready centuries, millenias before a Russia as state started to exist.

Posted by Arem on April 27,2013 | 02:15 AM

Served on the flight line in takhli, august of 1967 to august 1968.i was a crew chief on a quite a few of the f105's that were shot down and some that had survived. The thing i remember most was the great relationship between the great pilots and the ground crew.I would like to here from anyone that served thier durring that time. Dan Hammerschmidt, Ed Nabozney to name a couple that were there.

Posted by Barry T Grill on May 9,2013 | 09:46 PM

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