OK, so writing a book isn't so easy. I had great plans to cover lots of material that never made it into the book. My charter was to cover all the USAF and VNAF A-1 units that flew the Spad during the Vietnam War. That covers a 15 years and seven units for the VNAF and 9 years and five units for the USAF. So I could not get into any great depth with the 'word budget' of 35,000 words I was allowed. In my mind, much was left unsaid, but that's life. When I do my website refresh, I will do my best to bring some of the things that weren't covered in the book into the website.
But it does have 80 images, many of which are previously unpublished. I feel good about that. There are also 30 color profiles done by artist Jim Laurier who did a great job interpreting what I wanted each one to look like.
Many of these new images will also appear when I do a 'tech refresh' on skyraider.org. That will take some time, and volunteers to assist would be more than welcome. I will also split off my A-1 Combat Journal website to give it more prominence.
The book is scheduled for an early 2013 release, so watch for it. Once again, the title will be, USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War.
Thanks for reading, SpadGuy
This blog is for the purpose of discussing all things Skyraider. My Skyraider experience is with the USAF as a Sandy pilot in Vietnam. Feel free to ask questions or start a new topic of discussion that is Skyraider related.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Book Update
I am getting to the point where I need input from any of you who either flew or worked with Skyraiders. There are thirteen Skyraider units I must cover for both the USAF and VNAF. I would appreciate short stories (paragraphs, not pages) and or any photos you might have from the time you spent with the A-1.
I would need to know the unit you were affiliated with, the base, and your background before and after your A-1 tour. This information can be emailed to me at spaddrvr@gmail.com
Thanks,
SpadGuy
I would need to know the unit you were affiliated with, the base, and your background before and after your A-1 tour. This information can be emailed to me at spaddrvr@gmail.com
Thanks,
SpadGuy
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Working on a book
Hello again, I need to update you on what has been keeping me busy and off the streets for the past several weeks. I have been chosen to be the author of an Osprey Publishing aviation book to be titled, USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War. I flew Skyraiders at the very end of the USAF Skyraider experience, from Oct '71 to Oct '72. All USAF Skyraiders were passed to the VNAF in November 1972. Of course the VNAF continued to use the A-1 until April 1975. This book is to be the next of their Combat Aircraft Series with an anticipated publish date of 2013. That seems like a long way off, but my deadlines are not.
Input for artwork complete. I just completed the first delivery of material on 1 Feb 2012 which provided input to the two artists involved with this book. One of the artists produces original art for the cover. Osprey uses original art work on the covers of their books to depict a scene chosen by the author featuring, in this instance, the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. The scene I have chosen shall remain undisclosed at this time, perhaps later I will reveal it. The other artist produces aircraft profiles showing various markings and ordnance configurations for both the USAF and VNAF Skyraider squadrons. There were 6 USAF units and 7 VNAF units that operated Skyraiders during the Vietnam War between 1960-1975. There will be 30 Skyraider profiles in the book. These are completed and next comes the writing.
Writing and image selection deadline 1 May 2012. I am just getting into the writing part which for any book is the real challenge. I have quite a bit of material for the USAF part, but the VNAF section and the early USAF period will be challenges for me. I have gathered a substantial amount of material in the 15 years that my website, http://skyraider.org has been in existence. (How that started is a story for another time). My challenge will be to weave the various stories that I have into a coherent, logical way to accurately tell the story of all the units involved.
How you can help? If any of you were involved with Skyraider operations with the USAF or VNAF between 1960 to 1975, I would love to hear from you. My goal is to provide fresh content, different from that which has been told in books and magazine articles since the end of the Vietnam war. Also, I would like to show all-new, previously unpublished images showing the Skyraider from all units covering all time periods. I am seeking input from flyers, maintainers, and others who worked with or around Skyraiders. If you are willing to contribute, contact me at spadguy@mindless.com and we can arrange your participation. TIme is short, if you wish to help, please contact me promptly.
All for now,
SpadGuy
Input for artwork complete. I just completed the first delivery of material on 1 Feb 2012 which provided input to the two artists involved with this book. One of the artists produces original art for the cover. Osprey uses original art work on the covers of their books to depict a scene chosen by the author featuring, in this instance, the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. The scene I have chosen shall remain undisclosed at this time, perhaps later I will reveal it. The other artist produces aircraft profiles showing various markings and ordnance configurations for both the USAF and VNAF Skyraider squadrons. There were 6 USAF units and 7 VNAF units that operated Skyraiders during the Vietnam War between 1960-1975. There will be 30 Skyraider profiles in the book. These are completed and next comes the writing.
Writing and image selection deadline 1 May 2012. I am just getting into the writing part which for any book is the real challenge. I have quite a bit of material for the USAF part, but the VNAF section and the early USAF period will be challenges for me. I have gathered a substantial amount of material in the 15 years that my website, http://skyraider.org has been in existence. (How that started is a story for another time). My challenge will be to weave the various stories that I have into a coherent, logical way to accurately tell the story of all the units involved.
How you can help? If any of you were involved with Skyraider operations with the USAF or VNAF between 1960 to 1975, I would love to hear from you. My goal is to provide fresh content, different from that which has been told in books and magazine articles since the end of the Vietnam war. Also, I would like to show all-new, previously unpublished images showing the Skyraider from all units covering all time periods. I am seeking input from flyers, maintainers, and others who worked with or around Skyraiders. If you are willing to contribute, contact me at spadguy@mindless.com and we can arrange your participation. TIme is short, if you wish to help, please contact me promptly.
All for now,
SpadGuy
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Was the Skyraider the Best Close Air Support (CAS) Platform Ever?
I am often asked whether the Skyraider was the best ground attack and CAS ever built. My answer is a "qualified" yes. It is a qualified answer because my data points are taken from my experiences flying the Skyraider during the war in Vietnam... and the threats to air operations from that area and time period.
So is today's threat level far above that which we experienced in Vietnam? The answer to that question is yes and no and it depends on what part of the world you talk about. During my time working and planning in the air operations center (AOC) in USAFE, there certainly were many areas of that area of responsibility (AOR) where a slow moving aircraft such as the Skyraider could never survive, let alone reach the target area. But on the other hand, there were many areas in the AOR where Skyraiders could survive, and that area was principally Africa. [ Note: Africa is now included in the new African Command (AFRICOM), so these countries are no longer the responsibility of USAFE ] Many of the nations in Africa that have either terrorist cells operating and/or indigenous rebel factions seeking to overthrow the national government are making do with the same types and kinds of weapons systems that we faced in Vietnam. This includes principally small arms such as AK-47 type assault rifles and similar caliber weapons. Additionally most have various forms of automatic anti-aircraft (AAA) weapons such as 12.7mm, 14.5mm, 50 caliber, and larger calibers ranging from 23mm up to 57mm and higher. These are threats in which the Skyraider survived in Vietnam, and could survive in today.
But the wild card then and now is shoulder-fired small IR SAMS such as the SA-7 and the much more effective modern variants that have proliferated following the Vietnam War. Depending on the countermeasures that would be available to a modern Skyraider (we had NONE in Vietnam besides good lookout and somewhat aggressive maneuvering!), operations still may be possible in that type of threat environment.
Now let's discuss some of the factors that made the Skyraider such a good CAS platform. Its strongest assets were, relatively long endurance, its large and varied weapons load, and its ability to take hits and return to base. And lest I forget, the most important asset was its SLOW speed. More on this later, but first I will discuss the other assets listed above.
Long Endurance - The CAS mission generally requires extensive coordination with friendly forces on the ground and the forward air controller (FAC) resulting in extended mission lengths. The Skyraider actually carried more external fuel (3000 lbs, or about 450 gallons) than it did in its internal fuel tank (2280 lbs or 380 gallons). This amount of fuel allowed for combat missions in the 5 to 6 hour range, depending on the distance to the target area and the amount of time in the target area. My longest mission was the Bowleg 02 SAR mission, where I logged 5.4 hours. I landed with less than 100 lbs of fuel (about 15 gallons). For an 18 cylinder engine with 2,700 HP, this was not much!
Large and Varied Weapons Load - The Skyraider has 12 weapons station certified for 500 lb class stores and three more certified for as much as 3,000 lbs each. With a maximum gross weight of 25,000 lbs, it could carry more ordnance than the four-engined WW II B-17 bomber. Depending on the expected mission and target type, we carried a mixture of "hard" and "soft" ordnance. Hard ordnance was general purpose bombs such as the MK-80 500 lb bomb and the older (now obsolete) M-117 750 lb bomb. These were not well suited for CAS as they could not be safely dropped close to friendly troops (generally no closer than 1,000 meters).
Soft ordnance, on the other hand, was able to be employed much closer to friendly personnel on the ground which was often required in a troops in contact (TIC) situation. The Sandy load (shown above) had a mixture of cluster bomb units (CBU), rockets, white phosphorus bombs, 20mm, and 7.62 mm rounds that could all be used as close as 100 meters to the target, and some of it much closer than that.
Ability to Take Hits - The Skyraider is legendary with regard to its ability to take battle damage and return to a base where the damage could be repaired, and the aircraft returned to service. The A-1
shown here took a large caliber AAA round through the right flap near the wing root and suffered extensive damage to the aft fuselage, but was landed safely at NKP, repaired and returned to service.
This brings me to the most important reason why the Skyraider (IMHO) was the absolute best CAS aircraft to ever be employed in combat. The low speed (relative to jet aircraft) of the Skyraider, though frustrating to the pilot, was the reason it was such an effective weapons delivery platform in a CAS and SAR environment. Now some might argue (perhaps correctly!) that this was also the reason that 201 USAF Skyraiders and another 65 USN Skyraiders were lost in Vietnam in the nearly nine-years of combat operations*. But back then, that was deemed an acceptable loss rate in order to accomplish the mission. The bottom line was, when you needed close, CAS, you needed Skyraiders.
* Vietnam Air Losses, Hobson, Midland Publishing, 2001
So is today's threat level far above that which we experienced in Vietnam? The answer to that question is yes and no and it depends on what part of the world you talk about. During my time working and planning in the air operations center (AOC) in USAFE, there certainly were many areas of that area of responsibility (AOR) where a slow moving aircraft such as the Skyraider could never survive, let alone reach the target area. But on the other hand, there were many areas in the AOR where Skyraiders could survive, and that area was principally Africa. [ Note: Africa is now included in the new African Command (AFRICOM), so these countries are no longer the responsibility of USAFE ] Many of the nations in Africa that have either terrorist cells operating and/or indigenous rebel factions seeking to overthrow the national government are making do with the same types and kinds of weapons systems that we faced in Vietnam. This includes principally small arms such as AK-47 type assault rifles and similar caliber weapons. Additionally most have various forms of automatic anti-aircraft (AAA) weapons such as 12.7mm, 14.5mm, 50 caliber, and larger calibers ranging from 23mm up to 57mm and higher. These are threats in which the Skyraider survived in Vietnam, and could survive in today.
But the wild card then and now is shoulder-fired small IR SAMS such as the SA-7 and the much more effective modern variants that have proliferated following the Vietnam War. Depending on the countermeasures that would be available to a modern Skyraider (we had NONE in Vietnam besides good lookout and somewhat aggressive maneuvering!), operations still may be possible in that type of threat environment.
Now let's discuss some of the factors that made the Skyraider such a good CAS platform. Its strongest assets were, relatively long endurance, its large and varied weapons load, and its ability to take hits and return to base. And lest I forget, the most important asset was its SLOW speed. More on this later, but first I will discuss the other assets listed above.
Long Endurance - The CAS mission generally requires extensive coordination with friendly forces on the ground and the forward air controller (FAC) resulting in extended mission lengths. The Skyraider actually carried more external fuel (3000 lbs, or about 450 gallons) than it did in its internal fuel tank (2280 lbs or 380 gallons). This amount of fuel allowed for combat missions in the 5 to 6 hour range, depending on the distance to the target area and the amount of time in the target area. My longest mission was the Bowleg 02 SAR mission, where I logged 5.4 hours. I landed with less than 100 lbs of fuel (about 15 gallons). For an 18 cylinder engine with 2,700 HP, this was not much!
Large and Varied Weapons Load - The Skyraider has 12 weapons station certified for 500 lb class stores and three more certified for as much as 3,000 lbs each. With a maximum gross weight of 25,000 lbs, it could carry more ordnance than the four-engined WW II B-17 bomber. Depending on the expected mission and target type, we carried a mixture of "hard" and "soft" ordnance. Hard ordnance was general purpose bombs such as the MK-80 500 lb bomb and the older (now obsolete) M-117 750 lb bomb. These were not well suited for CAS as they could not be safely dropped close to friendly troops (generally no closer than 1,000 meters).
Soft ordnance, on the other hand, was able to be employed much closer to friendly personnel on the ground which was often required in a troops in contact (TIC) situation. The Sandy load (shown above) had a mixture of cluster bomb units (CBU), rockets, white phosphorus bombs, 20mm, and 7.62 mm rounds that could all be used as close as 100 meters to the target, and some of it much closer than that.
Ability to Take Hits - The Skyraider is legendary with regard to its ability to take battle damage and return to a base where the damage could be repaired, and the aircraft returned to service. The A-1
shown here took a large caliber AAA round through the right flap near the wing root and suffered extensive damage to the aft fuselage, but was landed safely at NKP, repaired and returned to service.
This brings me to the most important reason why the Skyraider (IMHO) was the absolute best CAS aircraft to ever be employed in combat. The low speed (relative to jet aircraft) of the Skyraider, though frustrating to the pilot, was the reason it was such an effective weapons delivery platform in a CAS and SAR environment. Now some might argue (perhaps correctly!) that this was also the reason that 201 USAF Skyraiders and another 65 USN Skyraiders were lost in Vietnam in the nearly nine-years of combat operations*. But back then, that was deemed an acceptable loss rate in order to accomplish the mission. The bottom line was, when you needed close, CAS, you needed Skyraiders.
* Vietnam Air Losses, Hobson, Midland Publishing, 2001
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Let the Blogging Begin!
Well here goes nothing! 12 years ago I felt the same way as I do now. Back then, I wanted to have a website, but really didn't know how to begin, AND more importantly, I did not know what the website would be about. Then, quite suddenly, I got it. I heard a news piece about the fact that it was the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Air Force and there were big celebrations planned. The year was 1997, and I began to think that it was the 25th anniversary of my combat tour in Southeast Asia flying A-1 Skyraiders out of Nahkon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. It seemed that it might be a subject worthy of a website. And the rest as they say, is history.
Skyraider.org has been online for more than 12 years. It grew from the original A-1 Skyraider Combat Journal to include the partner site of the A-1 Skyraider Association Website. It took countless hours of scanning and image editing to create all the content for both sites. A large part of the work was devoted to creating written content for the sites. But once I had the "vision" it went ahead in a straight-forward manner. Now, I am hoping this "blog thingy" will have a similar outcome. I can already tell that the learning curve will be steep. I have spent about three hours trying to decide what design elements I need, and have already switched sites from WordPress to Blogger. Time will tell which one I settle on.
Skyraider.org has been online for more than 12 years. It grew from the original A-1 Skyraider Combat Journal to include the partner site of the A-1 Skyraider Association Website. It took countless hours of scanning and image editing to create all the content for both sites. A large part of the work was devoted to creating written content for the sites. But once I had the "vision" it went ahead in a straight-forward manner. Now, I am hoping this "blog thingy" will have a similar outcome. I can already tell that the learning curve will be steep. I have spent about three hours trying to decide what design elements I need, and have already switched sites from WordPress to Blogger. Time will tell which one I settle on.
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