For A-6 Intruder Lovers.....

[Calculon]

Now that was an amazing read! Amazing story on what the A6 was all about. Can't believe it's been 40 years since LB II as well.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what had happened to CDR Nakagawa who was referenced in the story as having been shot down on the first night. He was repatriated in 1973 then flew again over Saigon in 1975 covering the evacuation... can't imagine how many POWs were able to fly over Vietnam again after repatriation.

Also turns out his a current CAPT in the Navy as well and is a former A-6 guy himself.... even flew in a few of the exact same A-6s as his old man, a whole generation apart!

 

[Flugelman]

Now that was an amazing read! Amazing story on what the A6 was all about. Can't believe it's been 40 years since LB II as well.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what had happened to CDR Nakagawa who was referenced in the story as having been shot down on the first night. He was repatriated in 1973 then flew again over Saigon in 1975 covering the evacuation... can't imagine how many POWs were able to fly over Vietnam again after repatriation.

Also turns out his a current CAPT in the Navy as well and is a former A-6 guy himself.... even flew in a few of the exact same A-6s as his old man, a whole generation apart!

I met then LCDR Nakagawa at the '68 PacFlt / All Navy pistol matches at NAS Miramar. He later was CO of NAS Pt Mugu and last I heard was retired in the Monterey area. A helluva nice guy and pretty good pistol shot.

On Edit:

Just went out to check and found that Capt Nakagawa passed in August, 2011. RIP, Sir
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/mo...-nakagawa&pid=153363570&fhid=6695#fbLoggedOut

 

[Gatordev]

I swear this question was answered somewhere on this site, but I can't seem to find it, so I'll resurrect this thread and ask it here...

It came up in conversation elsewhere about the difference between the KA-6 and the A-6 and when or if the KA-6 went away while the A-6E stuck around and just did buddy stores rather than the internal hose system of the KA-6. To summarize, I'm asking this:

1. Post Gulf War, was the KA-6 retired and the A-6E just did the tanking? Or did the KA-6 stick around until sundown?

2. My understanding is the KA-6 was stripped of a lot of it's hardware, so would an A-6 squadron be plussed up beyond it's normal PAA when underway (like a 10+2) or did they just operate with some reduced number of A-6Es + however many tankers there was room for (like 8+2)?

(I'm making those numbers up...I'm not sure what a VA squadron's PAA actually was, I'm just using them as an example.)

 

[Llarry]

I swear this question was answered somewhere on this site, but I can't seem to find it, so I'll resurrect this thread and ask it here...

It came up in conversation elsewhere about the difference between the KA-6 and the A-6 and when or if the KA-6 went away while the A-6E stuck around and just did buddy stores rather than the internal hose system of the KA-6. To summarize, I'm asking this:

1. Post Gulf War, was the KA-6 retired and the A-6E just did the tanking? Or did the KA-6 stick around until sundown?

2. My understanding is the KA-6 was stripped of a lot of it's hardware, so would an A-6 squadron be plussed up beyond it's normal PAA when underway (like a 10+2) or did they just operate with some reduced number of A-6Es + however many tankers there was room for (like 8+2)?

(I'm making those numbers up...I'm not sure what a VA squadron's PAA actually was, I'm just using them as an example.)

Re PAA, I think the numbers varied somewhat, but what I remember was 10 A-6E and 4 KA-6D on a big-deck CV/CVN.

And at the end of her long career (Desert Storm era) CV 41 and CVW-5 had two A-6 squadrons, each with 8 A-6E and 2 KA-6D, if memory serves.

 

[ea6bflyr]

@SteveG75 might know.