On 10 Jul 2004 00:27:24 GMT, "ian maclure" wrote:

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 10:53:48 +0000, WalterM140 wrote:

I believe that is the first time I have heard of the F-102 as a "safe
aircraft"! Were they really?


Compared to flying F-105's to Route Package Six, they were very safe when
compared to flying an F-102 over Houston.

Nice of Walt to provide us a comment about driving 105's to RP VI.
But, flying Deuces day or night, in any kind of weather, mostly out
over the Gulf in a cockpit you could barely see out of and with an
under-powered J-57 doing the pushing was not a piece of cake.

Non-responsive.

Absent the folks shooting at you and the fact that Air Intercept
is usually a regime thats less hazardous inherently than moving
mud, both are equally hazardous.

High powered jets will kill you for any number of seemingly
minor lapses in concentration, judgement, or luck.

And things like "Route Package Six" were part of the problem in
Vietnam. Why fergawdsake, set up predictable in/out routes for
raids. Apparently this is what happened for a long time.
Meant the NVA could set up their SAMs and AAA along those routes
and concentrate their fire.

Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks. "That's where the money
is" was his answer. Why did we us the routes we did? Because they led
to the targets. NVN is a small country. The targets of meaning are
clustered in a smaller area of flat land and coastal plains. If you
start from A and go to B, there are only so many ways to get there. In
the days before GPS, visual nav means finding landmarks like Yen Bai,
the "dog pecker", Thud Ridge, Phantom Ridge and the "porkchop" to use
as pilotage checkpoints.

There were a lot of variations within the theme. We could get to Hanoi
from Thud Ridge, crossing from Laos and back out via Laos; or from
Laos and out to the Gulf; or from the Gulf and back out feet wet; or
from the Gulf and out via Laos. But, eventually you have to get over
the target and that's where the defenses are.



IBM

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Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8