Yeah right, I just don't know how in hell I survived two combat deployments during the "most brutal" two years ('66-'67), of strike ops over NVN... WITHOUT A
"BACK-SEATER"!
Although the above is a friendly 'poke'; in retrospect, on countless occasions I could have used that additional assist in flt planning, pre-flight, nav, wpns sys op, lookout, inst/glide slope monitoring (night/IFR), comms, emerg assist , and much, much more. I believe A-4 losses would have been reduced significantly with an NFO aboard.
The only downside to having a "hitch-hiker", was that every time we lost a F-4J "Pfantum", A-6A "Intruder", or RA-5C "Viggie", we had 2 shipmates down in extremis, instead of one!
*A-4C Modex 604 & A-6A Modex 406 (below), both downed same day w/ both Pilots rescued, 406s B/N KIA
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BzB