F-4 Question

Ed Rasimus wrote:

On 29 May 2004 17:36:07 GMT, (MLenoch) wrote:

I just saw the History Channel presentation of the Army's 7th Cav. Part of the
segment described the battle at Il Drang, where Col. Moore called Broken Arrow.
The Col. said that the call produced aircraft holding above his position from
5000' to 35,000'.

snip

Two Questions: Is that true, were there that many aircraft engaged and
available for him that day?

Probably not. In 1965, the build-up was just starting and there
wouldn't have been a lot of airpower available that quickly. The
carrier force would have been up at Yankee Station to the N. and the
bulk of S. Vietnam aircraft would have been F-100s and what used to be
called COIN aircraft (Counter Insurgency) like A-26, B-57, A-1 and
T-28.

I can't remember for sure, but Intrepid may already have been acting as a limited
attack carrier on Dixie Station at the time, operating A-1s and A-4s only.
Westmoreland wanted his own carrier for the south. Also, all carriers routinely
spent a few days at the start of each deployment/return from port visit on Dixie
Station, hitting targets in SVN, to get back into combat mindset before going north
again.

The force in Thailand at that time was prohibited by international
agreement with the Thais from operating in SVN.

snip

OTOH, they would send temporary detachments to SVN on occasion. The 563rd TFS sent
six a/c to TSN on 25 June 1965 and flew CAS missions from there (carrying 16 x M117s
each) for a couple of days. The Ia Drang fight was in November IIRR; other units
may well have done the same.

Guy