"Anatomy of an Airstrike" - 10 AM at the museum in Pensacola

[OUSOONER]

All,

I got this off the Naval Aviation Museum little alert ticker I get from them on facebook.

For those of you in Pensacola, retired Captain John Paganelli is going to give a presentation describing how airstrikes were planned and executed in Vietnam. He was assigned to VA-86 on board the USS Independence.

It looks like it will be an hour long, but would definitely be something worth looking into. If you go, let me know how it was! Wish I could've been there. Pass on the information to your buddies.

10-11AM @ the museum on Saturday, February 20th.

 

[PR1 H]

Damn I wish I wasn't so far away. That would be awesome to attend.

 

[nzachman]

I'll probably go to that. Is it civilian attire or khakis? I'll pass on all the info to my fellow OCS grads down here.

 

[OUSOONER]

It's open to the public so civvies of course.

 

[Mumbles]

I wonder if Capt Paganelli was a very junior JO during the alpha strike, (goat rope) against Syrian positions in 1983 that resulted in several jets getting shot down....including Indy CAG's A-7!

 

[OUSOONER]

I looked him up on LinkedIN and it looks like he got out in 85. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-paganelli/12/619/b60

I don't know how recent this was. Your time frame would have had him in around 30 years in '85.

 

[BusyBee604]

Vietnam Airstrikes

I wonder if Capt Paganelli was a very junior JO during the alpha strike, (goat rope) against Syrian positions in 1983 that resulted in several jets getting shot down....including Indy CAG's A-7!

If the CAPT retired in '85, he would have been a very senior CDR or CAPT in '83, not a JO.

BTW, for any of the newer AW members interested in first-hand accounts of Vietnam Airstrikes: There is a roughly year old thread on this Forum titled "There I Was" stories of a Vietnam era A-4 Driver. A handful of of NVN strike stories by myself, the world-famous Rondebmar & others.
BzB:icon_lol:

 

[rondebmar]

Guess I'll not make it...1500 miles round trip...and have a full schedule Saturday working with Forgotten Soldiers Outreach...

However...would be interesting to hear all about how the airstrikes were "planned"...

As for the "execution"...BTDT - several times over.

(Veiled hint of sarcasm intentional!)

 

[rondebmar]

Shoot, Hugh!! Check the times of our posts...we just had a Forum "near miss'!! LOL!!

 

[BusyBee604]

Shoot, Hugh!! Check the times of our posts...we just had a Forum "near miss'!! LOL!!

Hmmmm, wonder if we hit the "post" key at EXACTLY the same micro-second, would it be like the comet that hit Jupiter head on??? Would it qualify as a mid-air???:icon_smil
BzB

 

[Catmando]

The blurb states Capt. Paganelli flew A-4Es off the Indy. That would place his Vietnam experience between 1964 and 1967 when VA-86 transitioned from A-4Es to A-7As.

I would love to hear his presentation, as the planning and execution of an Alpha Strike over heavily defended enemy territory is a fascinating subject, and not one well known.

 

[OUSOONER]

If I wasn't in Corpus I'd be first in line. I hope it makes it's way onto youtube. Or at least someone takes good notes and gives a good synopsis of the whole presentation. I own a video called "Target For Today" and it's a no shitter about a typical bombing raid by the 8th AF. It shows what goes down the night before and you actually see all the major players doing the acting.


EDIT: Hey what do you know? Look what I found. If you have an hour and a half...you won't feel like you wasted it. If you're really antsy..skip past the first 5 minutes. They just give a background of the air war over Germany. The planning starts around the 5th minute.

 

[CommodoreMid]

I recently read a good book on the subject recently- Carol Reardon's "Launch the Intruders." It goes through VA-75's in 1972 with discussions of late war Alpha strikes, etc. Really fascinating, though not exactly a light read.

 

[OUSOONER]

Did anybody go to this today? Thoughts?

 

[nzachman]

I went today. He touched on the roles of all the different aircraft in the wing, the preparations they made before launching, and some pretty cool gettin' shot up stories. The part I found interesting was the fact that F-4's often made strafing runs just prior to the air wing entering the bombing zone to reduce AA. I always thought that they just flew air-to-air combat missions.....the more you know.

The talk was really meant for folks who had no clue about Naval Aviation though; he spent much of the time on carrier ops, of which I already knew most of what he talked about.

All in all, it was well worth the hour!