For A-6 Intruder Lovers.....

[HeyJoe]

Texaco

How about big brother? In Desert Storm, there was lots of gas so we'd launch KA-6Ds 15 minutes ahead of main package so they could hit USAF tankers and top off thereby doubling number of baskets. "Our" tankers would follow us to 'the fence" and wait for us at our egress point in case anyone needed immediate gas.

HJ Photo

 

[C420sailor]

What a cool lookin' airplane.

 

[A4sForever]

How about big brother? In Desert Storm, there was lots of gas so we'd launch KA-6Ds 15 minutes ahead of main package so they could hit USAF tankers and top off thereby doubling number of baskets. "Our" tankers would follow us to 'the fence" and wait for us at our egress point in case anyone needed immediate gas.

That is such a great idea -- and a luxury "we" never had ... tanking w/ the Air Force when it actually counted, that is ... I tanked a few times off a KC-10 while in the A-4 ... and hated it

The closest we ever came to a "big boy" consolidation was hooking up w/ KA-3's based out of PGUM and KDNA ...

 

[A4sForever]

"Tanks a lot" , Bruddah ....


photo by A4sForever

 

[scoolbubba]

What an ugly, nasty, awesome airplane.

 

[ACowboyinTexas]

And what a cat shot for the 56K tanker...yeah, i miss it...a little.

 

[HeyJoe]

Lots of gas

As good as it got was having your own mission tanker in form of KA-6D

HJ Photo

 

[HeyJoe]

Gas galore

Even better was the Texaco truckstop in the sky! A wet dream for fighters...

East meets West as Tomcats from Red Sea and Persian Gulf carriers meet up over Iraq during Desert Storm

HJ Photo

 

[Catmando]

A day at the office, on Gov't time......

 

[Pugs]

When I cross decked to 114 in 92' I of course didn't see it anymore and it kind of fell off the radar. As an AO, it was an awesome weapon; iron bomb with missle stuff hung on it - cool! Just curious.

I didn't fly them (obviously) but VA-36 and 65 flew a lot of them during ODS off TR where the standard WAS package was a Skipper, a pod of Zuni's, a rack with four Rockeye's and a couple drops.

Alas, I was mailing my transparency film during the war stateside for processing and a package showed up minus the four rolls of film so I have a couple rolls of transparencies is all and I don't think I have any shots of the loadout.

 

[Catmando]

F-4s were greedy gas guzzlers, and liked to suck the A-6 tanker dry.

Snoopy's Strike Ops Air Plan; Courtesy of (then) LT W. E. Girard, artist; and "Yossarian" LT Thompson.

[Second Edit: I didn't notice it when I posted the cartoon, but that date - 10 May 1972 was fairly famous:

I believe it was the first day of Linebacker II, and also the day that both the Air Force and Navy downed a number of MiGs, including the 3 MiG kills of Cunningham and Driscoll.

Just an interesting coincidence. I assume that airplan was signed at zero-dark-thirty, before well before the historic events of the day ensued.]

 

[HeyJoe]

A day at the office, on Gov't time

......Desert Storm timeframe

HJ Photo

 

[HeyJoe]

One night at the office

HJ Photo

 

[SteveG75]

Some of my favorites pics:

The Eagles of VA-115:

28 Mk-82's. Static display but we did fly this once (CO's last flight, NUW to NFL).

22 Mk-82's on the cat. Check out the A-3 and A-7 in the background.

Live by the sword, die by the Swordsmen. I believe this is Desert Storm era.

Lizards on ice. My old squadron.

One of my favorite photos. 200' AGL on the VR-1355 (I want to say this is the north end of Bumping Lake).

 

[Fog]

SG75: 200' on VR-1355 is a classic, great shot. A little lower & you could see the trout in the river (just before taking the tops out of the trees)!