When we put ourselves under a surgeon’s knife, we usually also put ourselves into the trust of someone who knows his craft and can work under pressure, particular when things start to go really bad. For instance, as a patient, it would be reassuring to know that the doctor about to work on me had also been a carrier-based light-attack naval aviator with the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, and that he was the young A-4 pilot in a famous series of photos taken during a mission to the heart of North Vietnam in 1967, right in the middle of the aerial campaign known as Rolling Thunder.
On April 25, 1967, Lt. (j.g.) Al Crebo, of VA- 212, flying from the carrier Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31), took part in a raid on an ammunition depot near Haiphong, the port city for the capital of Hanoi. As Crebo approached the target, climbing to 8,000 feet to begin his delivery dive, an SA-2 exploded nearby. He recalls:
“I was assigned to the afternoon strike. There was considerable consternation in the air group because the morning strike group had sustained significant battle damage, including the loss of an A-4C from VA-76. Our good friend Charlie Stackhouse was shot down [by a MiG-17], and we didn’t know if he had survived the ejection. Fortunately, as we found out later, he was alive but had been taken prisoner.
This story is from the March - April 2021 edition of Flight Journal.
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This story is from the March - April 2021 edition of Flight Journal.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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Scourge of the Allied Fighters
IT HAD TO BE THE MOST HELPLESS FEELING in the world: you're at 25,000 feet over Europe knowing that your primary function is to drop bombs-or flying escort for the bombers while being a slow-moving target for some of the world's finest shooters. However, you have John Browning's marvelous .50 caliber invention to give some degree of protection. Unfortunately, you're absolutely helpless against flak. Piloting and gunnery skills play no role in a game where sheer chance makes life and death decisions. For that reason, the Krupp 88 mm Flak 18/36/37 AA cannon could be considered WW II's ultimate stealth fighter. You never saw it coming.
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