Theodore's World

Amazing!

Awesome and frightening, that was a testament to that Israeli pilot's skill and the ruggedness of the F-15.

The United States Marines at Chu Lai were flying A-4E Skyhawks in close air support missions just north of the base during TET '69. As a fuel and ammo haulers we hauled fuel and munitions to the Marines flight line, between the line hauls we helped the ground crews mount and fuse 500 lb. bombs on the A4E racks for a rapid turnaround.

One Marine pilot came in hot(engine running), ordered to be refueled and rearmmed for another close air support mission, we all hopped to it. His A4E wing root near the canopy had a hole in it all the way through that I could do a square dance in, I motioned to it to the pilot, he acknowledged that he knew it was there, while I continued fueling the bird, this was caused from his flying through his own bomb flak in a steep dive. He successfully flew more missions until the higher up's heard of the flight damage and grounded the bird. I'm impressed by the skill of the combat pilots and the guts it takes to risk it all to protect those on the ground. That's the stuff American fighters are all about, it was a joy working with those men, they were always short handed just like us.

Bob I am so glad you got to see it.

Jack wow what a great story, thank you so much for sharing about that.