post from an old fart

[flaps]

posted this on the usmc forum. thought i might post here. 2 years ago i attended a 40 year reunion of my tbs 5-68 class. out of about 200 grads, 95 showed up. we lost over 12 guys in vietnam, mostly grunts. we had a memorial stone dedicated near the front door of the museum at quantico. tbs was truly a milestone in our lives. i was truly blessed to have worked with so many talented and dedicated marines over so many years. not sure what the future hold for you guys but you already have a lot to be proud of.
all the best to you fine young men and semper fi.


ed flanagan
old f4 rio,vmfa 314 vietnam 214 missions , '69-'70
got out and flight tested tomcats with grumman for 30 years
ret'd usmcr in '91
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some pics
the day before we got commissioned at quantico, 9 nov '67
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dad pinning on my bars
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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2505/...39d_z.jpg?zz=1
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some tbs shots
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little creek
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some vietnam shots (spent half my tour as a FAC w/1st marines)
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taken while running an airstrike just north of danang, aug, '70
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2nd PH from gen tom miller. general miller set many f-4 speed and altitude records in the in the early '60's. widely regarded as the father of the marine harrier. passed on a few years ago.
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phantom over mt fuji,dec,'69
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small sea story follows,

on 7 dec 1969. we're drilling holes in the sky over mcas iwakini about 20 nmi south of hiroshima.

i key the mic and transmit,

"hiroshima tower this is the enola gaye. i'd like permission for a second pass, over."

5 days later i'm in vietnam dropping naphalm on little yellow people..go figger!
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saftey report from my first night bombs and rockets flight lake george target , florida, june '69 (LIVE AND LEARN)
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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2095/...401_z.jpg?zz=1
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general chapman was no happy
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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3226/...1bb_z.jpg?zz=1

from the troops when i left active duty in '72
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isfahan, iran 1977
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tomcat asymetric wing sweep test, 1988. me and chuck sewell (deceased)...
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tomcats over iwo jima, 2003
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first flight of the last tomcat, 1992
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still do a little yanking and banking in acrobatic gliders today
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top of a loop
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/2925142...n/photostream/
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at my brother's promotion to 0-6 in the army reserves. i read his promotion orders
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at the museum at quantico last year.
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i haven't been able to ski in several years.so i do this.
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and this
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still get a bit of Pt in.
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like to hear from some of you young fellas...i'm green with envy. wish i was still doing it.(bet i could, too!) it was a great honor.
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semper fi, you guys
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the flanagan kids
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http://farm1.static.flickr.com/106/2...4ef5e7bd_o.jpg
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[CAMike]

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for your service.

 

[Fog]

Great stuff. Thank you. Now tell the truth, OF: Did you ever turn on your radar (APQ-72 or AWG-10) in VN?

 

[Lovebug201]

Great stuff. Thank you. Now tell the truth, OF: Did you ever turn on your radar (APQ-72 or AWG-10) in VN?

......
Not the OP, but we did fly MigCaps and BarCaps. So if the radar was working then we turned it on.

I can tell you the B-52 crews are not happy when you light them up over Laos on a dark night :tongue2_1

 

[flaps]

as i recall, we had great radar availavibility with the f4b's in vietnam. better than the awg10's in the j's.

 

[voodooqueen]

I bet that was quite the reunion--

 

[Fog]

as i recall, we had great radar availavibility with the f4b's in vietnam. better than the awg10's in the j's.[/QUOTE

Reason for the Q was that my Marine RIO friends said they spent most of their tours in RVN calling altitudes on bomb-runs and hardly ever had occasion to turn-on their radars. Despite the fact that the Navy & Marines used the Phantom extensively in the air-to-mud role, they never spent any $$ to install a multi-mode radar or to make it also an effective all-weather attack platform (a la the USAF F-4E,for example). At least the Navy finally did that w/ the F-14, but less than a hundred were converted to the "D" configuration.

 

[flaps]

I bet that was quite the reunion--

yes it was. hopefully the young gents here will have one in 40 years, also.
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[flaps]

as i recall, we had great radar availavibility with the f4b's in vietnam. better than the awg10's in the j's.[/QUOTE

Reason for the Q was that my Marine RIO friends said they spent most of their tours in RVN calling altitudes on bomb-runs and hardly ever had occasion to turn-on their radars. Despite the fact that the Navy & Marines used the Phantom extensively in the air-to-mud role, they never spent any $$ to install a multi-mode radar or to make it ialso an effective alll-weather attack platform (a la the USAF F-4E,for example). At least the Navy finally did that w/ the F-14, but less than a hundred were converted to the "D" configuration.

..
it could be argued that true autonomous all weather attack went away with the intruders. of course, being the dinosaur i am, i can't speak for capabilities of the super hornets.
i had a little over 400 hours in the d model of the f14 and would not say it had a true all weather attack capability, although the growth potential was there.

 

[Catmando]

ed flanagan
old f4 rio,vmfa 314 vietnam 214 missions , '69-'70
got out and flight tested tomcats with grumman for 30 years
ret'd usmcr in '91
..
[/URL]
​

Wow, that is a lot of missions within only a year, especially so soon after being winged. Congrats.

The North was closed then, so what were you guys hitting? CAS? Laos or Cambodia?

Our Navy RIOs took a much longer time after VT-10 and the RAG to get into the war. How was the Marine pipeline and training so different and so much quicker then than the Navy's?

 

[flaps]

i didn't go to cambodia about 19 times as i recall.
i was in vmfa 314 (not 314 missions). had 214 missions including 65 ov-10 missions as a FAC .the army was quite busy in northern I corps (having relieved the 3rd mar div) the marines (a4&f4's) out of chulai and usaf f4's out of danang were quite busy supporting them. read 'operation ripcord'. also, the first marines around danang were reasonably busy (operation pickens forrest). lotta nape and snake.
not sure the navy guys flew much over once a day off the boat... 2 hops a day was not uncommon out of chulai.

"Our Navy RIOs took a much longer time after VT-10 and the RAG to get into the war. How was the Marine pipline and training so different and so much quicker then than the Navy's? "

pretty sure the navy rio's had a more robust air to air syllabus than the marines in '69. we got almost no air to air stuff. did drop a lot of little blue bombs, though.