Vietnam era F-4s Q

I could well have been mistaken and some of those log pages are pretty hard to
read at times. What I mostly remember was that we had Tree birds for some time
at Misawa in the 475th which went to Kinsan to the 3rd TFW, later to become the
8th TFW. I was in the 391st in Misawa and reported into the 80th at Kinsan in
Feb 72. I left in Feb 72 and reported in to the 8th TFS at Holloman, departing
there TDY to Tahkli under Constant Guard inApr 72 Most of what I "know" about
when the Tree birds were transferred to SEA came from Dean Gushwa who followed
me to HAFB a month after I did. He told me how much the 80th guys were wining
about not getting to go and how one of the birds was shot down shortly after
arriving.

When I saw 550 on the post guarding Area A/C and AFMC HQ I recalled the tail
number, looked it up, and saw that I had flown it.

I make no pretenses about being a historian and I don't track tail numbers.
There are plenty of other guys out there doing that for me. You guys willhave
to figure it all out. NOr do I know much at all about the Tree program except
we flew them and input performance report at debrief. You guys gotta give me a
break, I was a Lt then LOL


Smartace 11's comment about the a/c being transferred in April '72 is most
confusing
as at least the 8 initial Combat Tree birds were transferred earlier, because
kills
were scored by Combat Tree-equipped a/c in February (Lodge/Locher's first
kill, at
night) and March, and the first combat incident involving a Tree-equipped a/c
that's
mentioned in Red Baron occurred on 15 January 1972, with another on 17
January.
There were two Red Baron incidents in Dec. 1971 involving USAF F-4s; in
neither of
them are the a/c credited with having Combat Tree. FWIW, Thornborough says
the
transfers took place in Dec. '71/January '72, so the timing works out.
Michel in
"Clashes" says early in December, but doesn't specifically cite a source for
that.

Guy