I am a retired air force retired veteran 1991-2011 and I love all my Vietnam veterans of all the branches! If it were not for their actions , the lessons learned would not have been able to bring the current ( at least in my time) training , so I say this with ❤ in my heart and appreciation in my soul WELCOME HOME AND THANK YOU! to me your accomplishment is not going to be forgotten
I was in the Avionics shop of Trip Trey for that "Cruise"......Proud to have worked on 201 and all of my aircraft. At one point, The Bear did a hands off landing on America, when we gave him the thumbs up that the ALS was fully functional. The man had brass balls.......Semper Fi
Served in VA46 66-69 remember $hide well.Left the squadron before you went Med cruise in 69.Was an AE transfered to VA82 in 69 and made a Viet Nam cruise with them in 69.Great years in VA46,learned a lot.
Go Dave, slinging that bird around like a 20 year old, I love the 60s and 70s era jets, so much class and just amazing guys that flew them without all the tech they have now, stick and rudder flying, the A-4 was a truely great aircraft
The DOD / USN should officially credit them with the second kill. I know there was only visual confirmation of the missile impact, but none made of the MIG going down. However, even IF the MIG made it back to the airfield, I could almost guarantee it would have been out of commission for the remainder of the war.
My favorite combat aircraft of the Vietnam war was the F4 phantom big j79 engine's on that thing had speed and power the only thing I didn't like is the stupid generals and the designers didn't think of putting a gun on it they thought it was all beyond visual range
They inserted two squads of us to blow up a *hit load of bangalore torpedoes that had been dropped in a rice paddy. Don't ask me how. I don't know. It was pretty lonely out there but as we were walking up the valley in the distance we could hear a fast mover coming. It was a Skyhawk and he flew right past us so low I could have hit him with a baseball. He stayed on station till we piled them up set a pencil detonator and got extracted. Very good feeling having him circling around.
George, I'm also the editor of the A-4Ever Skyhawk Journal magazine and interested in publishing your comments. You can contact me at sa-journal-editor@a4skyhawk.net Dave
Dave, I remembered seeing you while watching "Seconds from Disaster" when you told your story of the USS Forrestal fire in 1967. You were with Senator (then Lt. Commander) John McCain on that day.
My name is Tom Deschamps, and I was stationed on the America (CVA-66). I actually saw this plane (different pilot) at the Vero Beach air show several years ago. Very cool!
Jess, you’re very observant about the “pop” sound at 8:05. I have never noticed it and have no clue what it might be. All of those passes were flown at 200kts as agreed with the car promoter. They wanted me to make the passes at 150kts, but I said no, as there was no rocket in the ejection seat. An engine failure at 150kts and 30’, would have me crashing in three seconds. 200kts would at least have given me time to turn towards the grass and flare, while avoiding the crowd.
