In article ,
av8r writes:
Hi Peter

The first operational deployment to Viet by F-102's was actually on the
21st of March 1962. Deuces of the 509th FIS deployed to Tan Son Nhut.
They returned 8 days later on the 29th. For the next year during Water
Glass ops, they rotated every six weeks with U.S. Navy AD5Q's.

Thanks. Not to pick nits, but an AD-5Q and an EA-1F were teh same
airplane, redesignated after the 1962 MacNa-fit which unified the US
Service's designation systems. (Pity, 'casue there were some that
really got around. The Lockheed L-100 was, simultaneously, the C-130,
the R8V for the Coast Guard, the GV-1 for the Marines, and the GV-1U
for the Navy. ) I've always wondered what the EA-1s would have done if
something had actually been flying around at that time. Maybe they
were going to microwave it to death. Or, perhaps, pull up alongside
and have the EMs in back fire a bradside with the .38 revolvers in the
survival gear.

Project Bell Tone 1 commenced in December 1960 with six F-100D's of the
510th TFS were deployed to Don Muang Airport. They were replaced by six
F-102A's of the 509th FIS nine months later.

Again, thanks. I didn't realize that Bell Tone started that early. I
do know that later on, part of the USAF Air Defence Detachment at Don
Muang ended up as dedicated support for the King. Was that also the
case during Bell Tone?

Peter, let's keep this thread going if possible. It's extremely
interesting. Are you interested in F-102 losses in country?

By all means. It was an interesting period in our history. The
Kennnedy Administration and Kruschev's government (Was it an
Administration? Or, perhaps a Regime? I don't know) were constantly
playing Challenge and Response, with a bit of James Bond and Matt Helm
thrown in. Kruschev always seemed to underestimate Kennedy's, and the
U.S.'s resolve. You'd think that in a logical world, the response to
the Berlin Wall Crisis in '61, with the National Guard and Reserve
callups, and the deployment of significant forces to Europe, would
have been enough of a warning sign that sticking the MRBMs in Cuba was
a Bad Idea.


I used to love watching the F-102's of the 59th FIS roaring around while
I was at Goose Bay, Labrador (June 64-June 67). The odd time a Deuce of
the 57th FIS would come down from Kef for a visit. Lots of good Bear
hunting back in those days too.

We used to see them a lot when I was a kid, a bit before. New England
was teh birthplace of SAGE, and in the early '60s, Lincoln Labs and
Mitre were supervising SAGE tests against fast high-flyers. local ADC
Deuces, F-101s, F-106s, and the occasional F-104A from Westover would
practice intercepting single B-58s coming down the East Coast.
Needless to say, we got boomed a lot.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster