Skyraiders ...

[BOF]

132515 at NATTC Memphis.

What a brilliant thread this is, fantastic pics. The one of 132515 really takes me back. I remember visiting Memphis on a cold, wet Saturday at the end of Feb 1982 and the A-1 was in the Fire Training Compound along with the 4 AF-1E's seen in the background (wonder what happened to them?) plus some early F-4s and a load of early A-4s plus two TS-2A's. Public Affairs were so bemused that 3 crazy Brits (actually it really was an Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman!) would want to visit them they did an article for Naval Aviatin News, great memories. The photo of 132532 at MASDC is wonderful and gives me a MASDC Inventory Number I hadn't got.

Byron quotes a figure of 330 USAF A-1s in his book and that ties in with the total I noted when doing research some years ago. However, I would say that is 75 short - although they don't appear on the active inventory records there were 75 A-1E carcasses on the MASDC USAF inventory, for parts reclamation. They came from NAF Litchfield Park as MASDC took over the Navy Storage function and "appeared" in MASDC statistics in FY66 (01Jul65-30Jun66). They'd all been Stricken by the USN at Litchfield in 1963. They went straight onto the USAF inventory at MASDC, not appearing on any MASDC Navy records. These carcasses were obviously picked clean and then sold in June 1970 to the Consolidated Aeronautical Yard on the other side of Davis Monthan, near Pima. I remember speaking with someone in the Yard about 12 years ago and he remembered them as the first airframes they processed into scrap, I've identified 74 of the 75. I've seen one or two pics of them at MASDC sitting in a big block together.

As I said at the start, great thread, thanks to all the contributors.

Regards,

Barry Fryer

[Snake45]

Hi Barry! It looks like we have another Skyraider "True Believer" in the house. Welcome aboard!

[Snake45]

We've already met 132528:



It's pretty much the Poster Child for USAF use of VNAF Skyraiders: USAF "borrowed" it for several months in 1965, then it went back to VNAF, then went back to USAF, and then back to VNAF again, and finally escaped to Thailand in 1975. (It might still exist somewhere.)

In addition to several pics similar to the above, I've also got photos of it in SEA camo in both USAF and VNAF service. Hadn't seen any pics of it in its 1965 USAF hitch (when it would have been in gray), and then last night I found this in the Mutza book:



Is this really the same airplane, or not? Discuss....

[Larry Kraus]

Working for Erickson Aero Tanker has some fringe benefits.Our maintenance hangar in Madras is currently sheltering a few of Jack Erickson's museum pieces.I'd never had the chance to climb around a Skyraider before.

[Snake45]

Amazing! I hadn't realized that any of the AD-4Ws were still around. Apparently one of the ex-Swedish target tugs.

She's a beauty! Great pics, too--thanks for posting them!

[Ken]

Larry, cool shots! I thought I was familiar with all the flyable A-1's but I was surely unaware of this one, thanks.

Snake,

Was there another E/G ending in "28". I don't doubt Mutza, however slight differences in the exhaust panel, the swapping of blue room canopies and the loss of the black antenna on top of the vertical fin are noticeable. Just curious. And, so hard to tell, but is that a piece of tree limb hanging visible just behind the main gear tire?

Last question. Please confirm which Mutza book and the page. I feel like I'm seeing this photo for the first time, can't believe I overlooked it.

Incidentally, I see the photo credit is Bernie Fisher. A friend of mine has always said that Bernie had some spectacular photos of an airplane he flew though heavy tress yet made it back to base with. The photos have never surfaced and the story is that Bernie lost most of his stuff in a fire. Would be neat if some, like this one, were saved elsewhere.

And didn't Jump Myers end up buying Bernie a nice camera since he wasn't a drinker???? Just sayin ...

Ken

[Snake45]

Snake,

Was there another E/G ending in "28". I don't doubt Mutza, however slight differences in the exhaust panel, the swapping of blue room canopies and the loss of the black antenna on top of the vertical fin are noticeable.

You are learning well, Grasshopper! Couple other clues you didn't spot yet, though.

Last question. Please confirm which Mutza book and the page. I feel like I'm seeing this photo for the first time, can't believe I overlooked it.

Ken

The Mutza A-1 Skyraider in Vietnam book, page 86.

[SIDSIKO]

There were several "28's" in use with the USAF, a date of the incident would help, if known.
A-1E's, 132428 and 133928
A-1G, 132528

[Snake45]

There were several "28's" in use with the USAF, a date of the incident would help, if known.
A-1E's, 132428 and 133928
A-1G, 132528

132528 is what we're trying to figger out if this is.

132428 was a training aircraft at Hurlburt. Got a photo of it as such, in camo, which puts it after this picture. As of yet I have no evidence of any A-1Es coming back from SEA to Hurlburt for training use, though it seems that most of if not all the Hurlburt training airplanes* went to VNAF when USAF got out of the Skyraider bidness.

So that leaves just 133928, which was totaled over Laos on Sep 12, 1966. Right service, right timeframe, right part of the world--I think we have a winner!

*Except maybe a couple that went to museums.

[SpadGuy]

[/Incidentally, I see the photo credit is Bernie Fisher. A friend of mine has always said that Bernie had some spectacular photos of an airplane he flew though heavy tress yet made it back to base with. The photos have never surfaced and the story is that Bernie lost most of his stuff in a fire. Would be neat if some, like this one, were saved elsewhere.

And didn't Jump Myers end up buying Bernie a nice camera since he wasn't a drinker???? Just sayin ...

Ken[/quote]
The part about the fire is true. While out of the country, Fisher's house in Idaho was lost in a fire. Don't know about the camera.

Another interesting note. When A-1E 132649 was returned to the States as a surviving MoH aircraft, it ended up at Hurlburt Field. The ops officer there at the time was none other than Jump Myers who piloted the delivery flight to Wright-Patterson for its entry into the USAF Museum. Very fitting I believe.

[Snake45]

Very cool story, Hook. Thanks for sharing it.

[Ken]

Stories like this make me wish I understood base Public Affairs, unit historians, and Combat Camera better (as well as the national archives). There may very well be photos of Jump saddling up to take 649 from HRT to FFO but it seems like they are hard to find ... or I simply don't understand the process.

Ken

[Ken]

I wonder if this could be the same airplane caught at different times, 132528? First seen with the "6T" of the 6th SOS, likely at Pleiku. Looks like it carries the name "War Monger". In the second shot, it has the castle-style rear canopy and "EC", which was the original code of the 1st SOS (later changed to TC). You can also just make out the remnants of a VNAF lion head on the cowl. Both shots seem to show the taller VNAF-type VHF antenna and the non-standard centerline tank common to many Pleiku photos. Photos from skyraider.org





These two kits represent 528. Note both use the "ET" tail code of the 6th, which is plausible, because, as far as we know, "6T" was a later mod after the unit began reguar SAR dets at Da Nang. Model source unknown.

Ken

[Snake45]

Yup, that's our buddy, 528. I just finished logging that photo from Skyraider.org on my list.

And just last night, I noticed that the photo of the right side of the airplane in Mikesh's Flying Dragons book has it with the blue back room! Otherwise, same GG/W VNAF markings as often seen elsewhere.

Of the two models (they're models now, not "kits" anymore ), the lower one is more accurate as it has the VNAF-type antenna and no tailhook.

[Mark Allen M]

Good morning Snake, since your one of those master modelers, what's the process used to tint the windows blue on that last model. Looks really neat like that. Is that some sort of film applied or some kind of spray? Or did the model producer have it fabricated that way already in the box? I'm not a model builder but I'm always fascinated by the attention to detail some of you guys go lengths to achieve.

Thx Mark