brickhistory

Great. Just f)ckin' great. A dude who can do it and write about it. Just what a former scope dope who thought he could write marginally about it needs. That was some awesome reading! I hope greasy is still flying and writing. You should write that book. You'd be able to buy your own personal Viper from the success. Very nice, sir.

Winner! Outstanding, sir, outstanding! More of this by officers and NCOs is what the leadership should get. Telling the emperor he/she has no clothes is the only way to stop stupidity.

Remember the cuts/VSPs, etc of the last two years to cut bodies to pay for new equipment? Now we're cutting more equipment to pay for that new equipment. And to add back to the bodies we just cut. Nice...

With respect, ugh! One of the WORST books ever. His apology for US actions in WWII, his 'understanding' of the Japanese, and his complete disregard for historical accuracy made me throw this in the trash. His "Flags of Our Fathers," about his dad being one of the Iwo Jima flag-raisers was very good, but it was so obvious that he had a bunch of left over material from the research on that one that he cobbled together this POS. B-25 "Billy." Indeed.

A). Which one? B). I'd argue that the one who really 'needed killing' is just now getting his just desserts. I just found out, after telling a good friend about the book, that he was one of the GCI controllers during the 1980s. Weapons School, 422, et al. He's still hinky about talking about it. But he was surprised and glad to hear about this book.

German Training Center Holloman AFB It's been since '04 when I wrote about a group of Phantom phanatics (groupies) having a pilgrimage to honor the 20FS and its training of the last German Rhinos and subsequent closing that I've been back to Holloman. I thought there were even more Tornadoes now (in excess of 40-ish?) German Air Force in the US Fact Sheet

Don't forget ze Ghermans mit der numerous Tornadoes. Might be able to see some neat stuff up close there as well.

Cloudcroft - 20/30 minutes from Alamogordo, really nice, up in the mountains, think Sedona-lite. If you are looking to get hammered and laid, probably not the place.

Ok, so how sad is it that I spent my Saturday night finishing this book? It's either a very good book or I'm just pathetic. These facts are both true. Steve did a very good job with a fascinating subject. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but let me say the craftmanship is very good, he lets the pilots and maintainers tell most of the story and fills in the historical context as needed, but it doesn't overwhelm. The guys who flew the MiGs had some big brass ones due to the difference in Soviet mentality for maintenance compared to the West - use and throw away vs. repair and replace. So the US maintenance guys had to find ways to keep the Soviet stuff going long after its design life was expired and flight suit guys had to aviate with the things. Scary to me... Some amazing flying stories and a great lesson in realistic training. And the fact of "Bandit 69." You couldn't make that up. Well done, sir!

I've been E-3'd, E-8'd, FACP (CRC-lite to the young 'uns), and even a little E-2 time. Fair comments about lack of experience (which gets displayed over the freq for the AOR to hear) and as soon as that experience is gained, you are yanked into other positions. Fail on leadership/crew manning by KTIK. As was amply demonstrated by the Black Hawk shootdown - inexperience WDs supervised by an inexperienced (some would argue unqualified SD) played their part in getting people killed. Not the only role in that tragedy, but certainly not an 'extra's' part, either. So, to the non-ABM'ers who scoff, I hope you will learn a little about the job/platforms before opening fire 'just because,' but I don't hold my breath. To the ABM'ers, don't try to earn the respect of your controllees respect by adopting their habits. That comes across as "Hey, Butch, whaddya wanna do now? Huh? Huh" like the old cartoons where the little yippy dog is fawning all over the big bulldog. Earn it by doing a good job then it doesn't matter what 'they' think.

Steve, I had already pre-ordered via Amazon when you made your offer. And for your SA, I got my copy from them today and have just started it. Forward by John Jumper...

Norman, OK due to OU (chicks, larger age relevant grouping, good prices.) Edmund, OK, nice houses, decent prices, more the upper-end family environment. Around the base itself, in my opinion, not so much. There are other good areas, but it's been too long for my experiences there to be of any help.

An Interesting Detour: Flying the RAF’s Lightning “In 1966, I was a Weapons Instructor at the Interceptor Weapons School at Tyndall Air Force Base, flying F-106s. I’d been an air defense guy since I first started flying for the Air Force, first as an F-89 ‘back seater’ then as a pilot. With Vietnam heating up, the need for ‘Thud’ drivers was urgent, not air intercept pilots, so I had my application for F-105 training ready and ready to submit for an assignment. “I got an assignment alright, but instead of going west, I was sent east and the best tour of my career.” So begins Colonel Robert ‘Bob’ Priest’s tale about his flying tour in the Royal Air Force’s jet interceptor, the Lightning. Classic sports car Conceived in the late 1940s by the then-English Electric Company, the Lightning first flew in 1954. Sleek, elegant and with all the necessary bits crammed into as small an airframe as possible, the Lightning was the first British-built aircraft to exceed Mach 1 in level flight. Eventually, the jet’s top speed clocked at over Mach 2. American designs of the time, like the Republic F-105 ‘Thunderchief’ or the Convair F-106 ‘Delta Dart’ were going bigger; much bigger. The ‘Thud,’ in which Bob Priest thought he’d see action in Vietnam, was twelve feet longer and more than six tons (!) heavier than the RAF’s Lightning. To put it in automotive terms, the Lightning was more like an MG sports car as compared to the large-block Chevys and Dodges of the day. Pure and simple, the Lightning’s design was that of a point interceptor against the perceived Cold War threat of Soviet bombers. Thus, time to altitude and speed were of paramount importance to intercepting the enemy as far from the United Kingdom’s shores as possible. The P1 prototype had two turbojet engines; mounted in a unique ‘over and under’ configuration, shoulder-positioned sweptback wings, low mounted horizontal stabilizers, nose mounted intake and cockpit recessed into the fuselage above the intake. From some aspects, the Lightning looks remarkably like a MiG-21. The placing of the wings also dictated a long, spindly undercarriage for the jet complete with narrow, high-pressure tires. One of the first things manifested during the testing period was the Lightning’s lack of endurance. This was a problem that would dog the fighter throughout its career, although much time and effort went into increasing its ‘legs.’ Another item brought out during testing was the aircraft’s phenomenal climb ability. From releasing the brakes to reaching 40,000 ft, just over two and half minutes would pass. For a 1950s jet, this was stunning performance; indeed it was still able to hold its own in this category well into the 1980s. Never produced in great numbers, only 329 being built, the Lightning was supposed to have a service life of around ten years. Due to many policies and decisions that are beyond the scope of this article, it soldiered on for a quarter century in several variants starting with the original production run of the F1, armed with two 30mm cannons and two infra-red air-to-air missiles, the Red Top. Later marks went all the way to the F6, which featured an improved avionics suite, better missiles, a large ventral tank and the ability to carry overwing fuel tanks (overwing because the stork-like landing gear precluded hanging anything below the wings). This extra fuel capacity went a long way to curing the Lightning’s ‘short legs’ as did the retro-fitted aerial refueling capability using the ‘probe and drogue’ method of tanking. A Yank in the RAF Similar to the famous ‘Eagle’ squadrons of World War II where Americans manned RAF squadrons and served under British orders, the RAF and the Americans had had a robust exchange program for many years. In the program, a pilot or crew, depending on type of aircraft, would serve in a sister nation’s squadron, fully immersed in that country’s way of operating and living. As an example, the RAF had one of its pilots flying in a USAF F-117 squadron as recently as 2003. Thus, then-Captain Bob Priest was surprised, but pleased to find he’d been selected for the program in 1966. In November of that year, he arrived in the UK to serve the tour he calls “the best time of my career.” Before being allowed to climb into the Lightning, however, Priest recalls having to prove himself in a more docile jet, the Hawker Hunter. “At RAF Chivenor, in the southwest of England, I had to go through a check out. It was not particularly challenging, but it gave the RAF a chance to size me up. They were checking me out to make sure that I could really fly before trusting me with anything hotter. “It also gave me a chance to learn the language and get used to some of the idiosyncrasies of English jets versus American aircraft. “For example, the Hunter used a hand brake control system instead of the toe brakes I was used to. You had to squeeze the handle on the stick to apply brake pressure while moving the rudder to steer. You could always tell a new guy by the weaving around during taxi. Looked like a drunk was taxiing. But, the Hunter was a lot of fun to fly. “After that, I moved to the RAF’s Lightning training base of the time, RAF Coltishall. I was put in with a class of other RAF pilots, from guys coming right out of flight school to those transitioning into the Lightning from other types. “It was because of that mix that my initial assignment changed. The Wing Commander who was going to take over the newly reformed 11 Squadron was in my class and we hit it off during the course. He asked me if I’d go with him, along with several others in the class already assigned to the squadron. I said “Sure.” “So it was that I went to RAF Leuchars and had the time of my life.” At Leuchars, Priest joined the squadron, flying the brand new F6 model, with his first operational flight on July 3, 1967. A year later, he had racked more than 600 hours in the jet. Says Priest of the jet, “The cockpit was tiny; my shoulders touched both sides. The instrumentation was ‘unusual’ to say the least. For example, the airspeed/mach indicator was a horizontal tape display. Other instruments were scattered around the cockpit wherever they could find room. “To operate some switches, you had to cross hands and switch the stick to your left in order to get to everything. It was a handful as compared to flying the F-106. “It took me a lot longer than I liked to get comfortable with instrument flying in the Lightning. Since that had to be second nature to be a good intercept pilot in order to focus on operating the radar and weapon systems, I didn’t like the initial adjustment. But I managed eventually. Climbing into the jet required a long climb because ladder had to go up nearly 12 feet. In addition to a flight suit, G-suit, helmet and gloves, another necessary garment was the infamous ‘poopy’ suit. This hot, uncomfortable immersion suit gave at least a small chance of survival to an unlucky pilot forced to eject at sea. Once settled into the tiny space, Priest set up the cockpit like he wanted, flipping switches and setting knobs in preparation for engine start. If he were sitting active alert, waiting on the klaxon to send him aloft against a target, all of those actions would have already been accomplished. Cranking the two Rolls-Royce Avon Mk. 301 jets was fairly straightforward. A small starter motor fueled by a noxious mixture called “avpin” spun up to very high RPMs with a distinctive “whee” noise, followed by the spool up of the Avons. A check of engine temperatures, fuel flows, etc. and it was time to taxi. With the limited endurance of the jet, ground operations were held to a minimum. Indeed, if the launch were an actual ‘scramble’ against a target, Priest would have been rolling, with a wingman, in 90 seconds or less. “At take-off,” Priest recalled, “I’d climb out with GCI (ground control intercept – a radar station) control, using 100% power to get to altitude. “For a VIP or airshow-type of take-off, I’d use full afterburner (the Brits call it ‘reheat’), level out, then pull about 4G’s and go straight up If I held the jet down on the deck before climbing, I could get 450 knots before the runway’s end and then go vertical. “The Lightning was a decent dogfighter and handled okay, but that really wasn’t what it was designed to do. It accelerated well and slowed down quickly as well. With its almost 1:1 thrust to weight ratio, it was an excellent climber. It was very responsive to throttle inputs, but you had to be sensitive at some settings. “Landing was fairly hot due to the high wing loading, but unless you had a crosswind, it was no big deal. With a crosswind, however, it could be a handful to get down. With the slab-sided fuselage and a 60-degree swept wing, a crosswind could really shove the jet around close to the ground. “One of the things I used was the F-106 technique of landing in a crosswind with one wing low. It was a bitch to do at night, but it really helped under those conditions. The RAF, however, looked askance at my wing down landings.” Scramble! Of course, the sole reason for the Lightning’s existence was to defend the UK from air threats. During Priest’s tour with the RAF, that threat occurred primarily from the Soviet Union’s long-range bomber force. The most numerous foe that Priest intercepted as the Tupolev Tu-16, NATO code-named “Badger.” The Badger was a large, four engine jet bomber, capable of intercontinental range and able to carry nuclear weapons. It was a definite threat and one the RAF took seriously. Priest described what a scramble was like, “We always had two birds on alert, 24/7. They sat in what was called the ‘QRA’ hangar (quick reaction alert). The pilots and ground crews lived there while on alert, always dressed and ready to respond. “We had a ‘squawk’ box in the crew room that connected us to the local GCI site. We could get the information from GCI as they detected a target and determined what to do about it. “For instance, they’d call, “Two Lightnings to two minutes” which meant for us to strap in and be ready to crank engines. “If the scramble was given, we started and taxied to the runway, lit the ‘burners, and climbed while taking the heading GCI was feeding us via radio. “The Lightning’s FCS (fire control system) was not that sophisticated and would bite off on chaff (bundle of radar reflective material ejected by a pursued aircraft) pretty easily, so we stayed tuned to GCI and used our eyeballs quite a bit. With only an IR (infra-red) missile for a weapon, we had to get in close anyway. “We usually picked up the ‘bogey’ about 300 miles out, over the North Sea and shadowed him until another flight relieved us as the bomber flew down the British coast outside of controlled airspace. “I intercepted this one Badger and the Russian pilot and I exchanged waves and camera shots. He indicated for me to do a roll, so I did. After I pulled in again on his wing, I motioned for him to do it. He declined. “Another time, I intercepted a Badger over the English Channel and tailed him until the (RAF) Wattisham jets took over. That Badger later buzzed a US Navy aircraft carrier at low level and crashed when he went too low. I watched the news replay later the same day.” Mach 2 Flameout It was while flying chase during a missile test that Priest recalled one of his most memorable Lightning flights. “The IR missile seeker heads kept getting pitted from flying through rain and snow. This pitting really reduced their ability to detect any kind of heat source so they were not the greatest thing to take to a fight should we need them. “The RAF engineers came up with a seeker head cap that could be ejected by compressed air if you needed to lock to a target. That ejection capability had to be tested throughout the full operational speed range of the jet; so 11 Squadron drew the task. “I was flying chase on an RAF test pilot who was supposed to test the system going full out. We had just gone through Mach 2 when a fire warning light in my cockpit got my attention. It’s never a good time to get a fire indication but going that fast was even worse. “I stopcocked the number 1 (lower) engine. I was later told that had never been done in the Lightning going Mach 2 so I had no idea how the jet would handle the stress. Next, I hit the fire extinguisher, called “Mayday,” and took a heading for home. “Luckily, the fire light went out and the jet stayed together, but now I had the problem of getting down in a hurry with only one engine. I set up for a simulated flame out approach which was not something Lightning pilots trained for, but I remembered it from my F-106 days and it worked in this case In case of ejection, I wanted all the altitude I could get right up to landing. “I landed ok and after the jet was taken apart, we found that a burst air duct had let hot air from the 15th compressor stage burn into the fuselage. Could have been worse, but I’m here to tell the story, so it turned out okay.” Postscript In August 1969, Bob Priest’s English interlude came to an end. It was time for him to rejoin the USAF. When he did, he did find himself with orders to Vietnam but not in a ‘Thud.’ The McDonnell-Douglas F-4 was assuming the workload of the F-105 so after checking out in the ‘Phantom,’ Priest did find himself in Vietnam. After nearly a year of combat there, he was shot down by a surface to air missile, but was rescued by the USAF’s search and rescue forces.

ABM above two-star? Not yet. Likely? One day, sure. KTIk had (has?) an ABM WG/CC. There are numerous ABM squadron commanders flying and ground control units. The comparison of pilots to ABMs for GO doesn't exactly hold as the percentages of each as a measure of the USAF officer corps is very skewed. Me, I like to believe it's the officer not his rating that makes the rank. However, your point is valid. Only been a few non-rated four stars despite there actually having been some good ones (not all are shoes.) However, it is the Air Force. If you know the basic rules going in, b1tching about it doesn't help. Besides flying E-3s and E-8s, there are also the ACS - Air Control Squadrons and the Sectors (ANG though). I had the best time of my mediocre career at an ACS. Finally got to be a leader not just a technician - scope dope or pilot, doing the job is a technician's bit not a leader per se. I volunteered for ALO duty but that was before ABMs (weapons controllers in the day) were 'rated,' thus I was turned down. Pity, would've been fun. Also, as was pointed out above, ABMs, except in rare instances, don't 'command' the air battle. There have been ABM mission commanders. However, in flying E-3s and E-8s, note that those are coded as 'combat support.' Act accordingly. Finally, coke bottle glasses from early on were my windmill. I would have like to have had a shot at being a USAF pilot, but that wasn't in the cards nor do I know if I would have made it. However, you don't have to be a pilot to contribute to the mission. Just don't take yourself (or 'them') so seriously. Controlling is an art - I was pretty competant but there are some who are one with the radar and can be freakin' awesome at adding SA to a fight. Others can be huge SA leeches and suck it right out (sts). Good luck.

Maybe Hans-Ulrich Rudel? Stuka pilot with those stats. Ernst Udet was a WWI ace with 62 (second behind Richthofen) then the chief of aircraft design/procurement (rough translation of his title) for the pre-war Luftwaffe. Fall guy for Goering for the failure to develop heavy bombers or enough fighters. Committed suicide in November 1941.

Yes. After trying through the chain of command to correct something heinous done by a 1 star Wing Commander and getting stiff-armed, I went and narkedto the IG. 5AF investigated, found it did involve a GO and kicked it to PACAF, who investigated, found it involved a GO, and kicked it to AF/IG, who investigated, found I was correct, made the GO write a letter of apology for gross violation of an AFI, but he was not officially reprimanded nor was the action he took overturned. The GO retired as a 3-star. You'd be surprised at what Big Blue decides is not 'in the best interest' of the service. I can fully believe that there's something to the Metzger story with some senior leadership. I just wish it was brought into the daylight by something better than this venue.

There are some very interesting nuggets within the hysterical article. Too bad they went all 'psycho-b1tch' in the editorial tone versus just laying out the facts as they know them and letting slip some of the allegations at the end. If those allegations and insinuations are legitimate facts, then why not report them and let the chips fall where they may?

Galley slave in the Pentagon. Big boss was TDY in the UK. Deputy was in an (then) XO meeting about the USAF response to part 1 of a two part CBS News series on 'dangerous' DoD flyovers. One of our subordinate offices at the FAA's ATC Command Center called us to tell us about the 1st WTC, no clue it was something bigger at the time. Went to tell the XO meeting, back in the office in time to see hit #2. Followed by a near non-event for us as the plane hit the Pentagon. We were 180 out from the impact point and that big building absorbed most of the force before it got to us. A weird movie-theater Dolby-like rumble in the feet... Some left then to South Parking which was where the impact was. I stayed behind to close up/answer calls from families as my wife (and kids) were at Ft Leavenworth attending GCSC. I was ordered out to North Parking and had no idea of what hit. Could only see the smoke plume. Worked my way out to the FAA's ATC Command Center to help out the AFR buds from our subordinate office who happened to be on duty - it was a part time gig until then. (I wound up going Reserves and getting an AGR gig there afterwards as an air defense liaison. I profited from the attack, kinda sad in a way...) Normally, there's 5-6K worth of IFR flights displayed on the CONUS 'big board.' By the time I got there, there were 35. All fighters or tankers. That's when it hit me.

Steve's in the background

1. Bags should be for those who fly - front end, middle, back end in an aerospace vehicle as it is a utility uniform specially designed for the aviation environment - NOMEX properties, etc. Make allowances for UAV pilots/sensor operators? 2. Missileers wear what they are directed to. Throw the flag at the USAF leadership that decreed the change - leather jackets included. 3. Back in the dark ages, I wore the old 'crew blues,' transient alert-type two piece fatigues with the oh-so-stylish polyester 'dickie.' That was replaced at whatever cost by the blue crew uniform (blue flight suit), followed by the all-purpose 'everybody's special' green bag. All of the above were/are pointless. Wear the green fatigues/BDUs/ACUs to/from alert, then put on your sweats and bunny slippers like has always been done. 4. I then went to a FACP GCI site - BDUs, pup tents, duece and half trucks, 1st generation M-16s, M-79s, and M-60s but still in use in the early 1990s. 5. Then went to AWACS and JSTARS where the green/desert flight suit was the duty uniform. Worst item ever for comfort outside of the 60-70 degrees with 45% humidity weather range. You stew in your own juices when it's hot/muggy and you suffer incredible 'shrinkage' when the Oklahoma or Korea winter slides right in via the body-length zipper. I couldn't even wear the black tennis shoes, er, boots so popular due to having Frankenstein-ian feet. 6. Fini assignments on Air Staff and FAA HQ where blues followed by the post-9/11 'warrior' uniform policy, so quickly back into bags or BDUs. BDUs were the best uniform of the bunch. Comfy, take the shirt off if it gets hot, can do shit with out worrying about trashing it, etc, etc. Never got around to ACUs before retirement, so no comment there. Blues are just cheesy. Bags are pretty useless unless actually flying/hanging out in the squadron. If you fly, you get to wear a bag. If you don't, you don't. But everybody gets the PT uniform. Now that's BTW, silk scarves were also used to protect the pilot, mainly figher type, from serious neck chafing - to the point of rawness - from the endless, but life-saving vitalness - of having to keep his skull on a swivel during long missions. WWII Mustang and other long-distance escort pilots would be doing the lighthouse imitation for 5-8 hours per sortie. If he didn't see the other guy, there was a good chance he wasn't going home.

NEW GUY (Not a reflective belt in sight) New Wings, New Mission “After only a twenty minute flight check, I was declared ‘operational’ and sent into combat.” So begins Morris Dalton’s World War II tale of nightfighter combat in Europe. In the spring of 1943, Morris Dalton was finally old enough to enlist in the US Army Air Forces. After screening in Knoxville, Tennessee, with hundreds of other aspiring airmen, only he and a relatively few others made the cut for pilot training. He soon found himself in California starting his journey to win his coveted wings. “By February 1944, I’d made it, getting both my wings and a commission as a second lieutenant. More importantly, I had qualified to be a fighter pilot, something I wanted badly. “Then they hit us with some bad news. They wanted to roll most into being instructor pilots. After spending almost a year busting my butt to make it to combat, I sure didn’t want to go back into the training environment. “They offered me a way out if I volunteered to become a nightfighter pilot. Since it was a way into combat and the name still said ‘fighter,’ I jumped at the chance,” he recalls. Up until now, all his flight time had been in single-engine types culminating with the North American T-6 Texan as the most powerful he’d yet flown. All the U.S. nightfighters, however, were twin-engined so he went to Hamer Field, California to check out with multiple throttles. He first checked out in the powerful Douglas A-20 Havoc, a big attack bomber with two Wright R-2600 Double Cyclone engines, each flogging 1600 horses and each putting out almost more than three times the power of the T-6. “It was a big step up for a new pilot with less than 300 hours, but wartime created a sense of urgency so my transition was merely routine for those days.” It was there that he also was introduced to the arcane science of radar-guided airborne interception (AI), first used successfully by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Battle of Britain. The RAF had a curtain of ground radar sites that searched the skies for any inbound aircraft. Once detected, controllers would scramble and vector fighters to an interception point where the battle was joined. Once the RAF had defeated the Nazis during days of the summer and fall of 1940, the Luftwaffe turned its bombing efforts to the long winter nights. The previously successful Spitfires and Hurricanes were nearly useless in the dark English skies, so the RAF placed smaller airborne radar in larger two-man aircraft and eventually recaptured the night. Still using the ground radar sites, a GCI (ground control intercept) controller would vector the nightfighter into proximity where the fighter’s less-powerful on-board radar detected the target. The radar operator or R/O, would then provide directions to the pilot until the pilot was able to see the target. A good R/O could verbally ‘paint’ the air picture until the pilot could see and identify the target. Once the pilot had it, the classic hunter and prey scenario took over. In Dalton’s case, the first nightfighter he flew was the bastardized version of the A-20, the P-70. The USAAF, lacking a nightfighter of its own at the outbreak of the war, had plans to introduce the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, a large, fast, very capable nightfighter. Delays in production, however, forced the Army Air Forces to bring out a stopgap fighter, the P-70. By taking the very capable A-20 attack aircraft and placing a radar in the nose, the rear gunner with an R/O, and slapping a belly pack of .50 caliber machine guns, the USAAF produced a very modestly adequate nightfighter. The P-70 was now overweight and slow to climb to combat altitudes. The shortcomings of the P-70, in fact, were so severe that they were never placed in European combat. They did see limited action in the Pacific where they performed marginally through no fault of their crews however. Instead, the P-70 was relegated to nightfighter training duties and so it was when Mo Dalton first took one up. “It was a big airplane but pretty steady to fly. The tricycle gear made it a cinch to land and taxi. Learning to fly with an R/O and follow his control was interesting, much more mentally absorbing than day flying.” By August, Dalton finished his training and found himself on the way to France to join up with his operational unit, the 417th Night Fighter Squadron. It was on a troopship there that he acquired the nickname that would stay with him for the war. Indeed, at squadron reunions, most of his compatriots only know him as ‘Dirty’ Dalton, so monikered after a cartoon strip of the time. The fictional ‘Dirty’ Dalton character wore wide fur chaps and an enormous 10-gallon cowboy hat pulled low over a usually tobacco stained bushy mustache. (Notice the many 'variations' of uniforms. Seems this generation could fight a war as 'adults.') New Aircraft In September 1944, Dalton arrived at La Valon, France, northwest of the French Mediterranean city of Marseilles. It was there that he first saw his wartime mount, the Bristol Beaufighter. A BIG, twin-engined tail dragger, the ‘Beau’ had served as the first effective British nightfighter back in 1940 and soldiered on still although most of the RAF nightfighter squadrons had traded in theirs for night variants of the De Havilland Mosquito. The Beau was quite a change from the P-70. With big 1670 hp Hercules sleeve-valved radial sitting even with the cockpit which was perched on the nose while the rest of the Beau trailed aft, it had a strong reputation as a handling challenge. Dalton says about that, “A lot of guys complained about the Beau, but I enjoyed flying it. You had to fly it every minute, and the tail would swing on you in a heartbeat if you let it, but if you paid attention, it did what you wanted. “On take-off, you wanted to get the tail up fast so the rudder was effective. You could use differential throttles to keep straight but that was usually more work than it was worth, just pour the coals to it and get the tail up and you’d be ok. “Likewise, on landing, you kept flying it all the way to the ground. If you got slow, it would drop like a brick. After you landed, however, the pneumatic brakes on it weren’t much good. The Beau, like most British types, used this little paddle switch on the yoke versus the toe brakes we were used to. Since our aircraft were borrowed from the Brits anyway, they usually gave us ‘clapped out’ planes with worn out brakes. Combine that with a supply system that didn’t work (author’s note – The US only used four squadrons of Beaufighters, the 414th – 417th) since we couldn’t get parts for the Beau and, well, you had an ‘iffy’ airplane.” After many hours of cockpit drill – sitting blindfolded in the cockpit until he could readily identify every switch, knob, and control by touch, Dalton took his first flight in the Beau. Since there was only one pilot’s seat, the instructor crouched behind the pilot and gave instructions. Dalton continues, “After only 20 minutes in the local area, my check pilot, a Captain, told me to land, I was qualified.” Placed in the operational line-up, he crewed with flight officer (FO), later second lieutenant, William Work as his R/O. The R/O’s office in the Beau was about two-thirds of the way to the tail underneath a plastic bubbletop canopy. In front of him, he had a set of primary instruments and a radar set, the SCR-720. When scheduled for a mission, Dalton says the mission was usually preceded by a night flying test to make sure the aircraft and its many systems were working before they left on patrol. “We would take a Beau up for 30 minutes or so and check out the aircraft, fire up the radar to make sure it was giving a good picture and so on. I usually didn’t test fire the four 20mm cannons because if I did, then the armorers would have to clean the guns after I got back. A lot of other guys did test fires on a bunch of old landing barges down off the coast, but I rarely did. I trusted the ground guys to do their job and I didn’t want to make extra work for them if I didn’t have to.” As for flying the Beau on patrol, Dalton says, “The Beau had great visibility. I had a big flat panel in front of me and large side windows. Being way up front, I could see in every direction except directly behind me and my R/O would keep an eye out there. “With no superchargers, it wouldn’t get very high. I can remember trying to intercept a German photo ship that would fly over Marseilles every few nights. He would be in the 20’s (20 thousand plus feet), and I’d be hanging on the props at maybe 19. Never could get a shot at him. “At lower altitudes, I thought it handled well. It had pretty good maneuverability and wasn’t really heavy on the controls. “I also got pretty good at crosswind landings in the Beau, I had to. Our field at La Valon, had a dirt runway lying east-west. The predominant weather there was a strong wind from the north called “Le Mistral.” When I say strong, I mean in the 40-60 knot range, sometimes more! “We still had to fly our assigned missions no matter the weather, so I just had to get good at handling the crosswind. Sometimes, when the weather was so bad during the day that it grounded the single engine guys, we even had to send up planes to cover their patrol areas.” Regarding the Luftwaffe reconnaissance ship mentioned above, Dalton tells a story of good ol’ fashioned Yankee ingenuity combining mission accomplishment with ‘acquiring’ badly needed spare parts. “Since we couldn’t get this guy in our Beaufighters, the RAF sent in a Mosquito nightfighter to take care of him. When the ‘Mossie’ landed at our field, we took the crew off for some chatting and dinner in the field mess. Meanwhile, our maintenance guys swapped out the Mossie’s landing gear – wheels and all – with one of our tired Beau sets. They were the same wheels so it worked.’ Dalton continues, “It wasn’t just a prank or to be obnoxious. As I said, parts for the Beau were non-existent in the US supply system. We had a squadron ‘hack,’ a worn out B-25 that we used to search all over the Mediterranean for parts. We even took a load of tires once from a trash dump in North Africa, so you can see that a new set of wheels was a big deal to us. “The Brits were fairly good-natured about the switch and even shot down the pesky photo intruder so everybody got something from the deal.” New Experiences Some other Dalton experiences, “For a time in late 1944, the Germans were flying high ranking officials, gold, and artwork from northern Italy, down the Po Valley, out over the Med and into a place near neutral Barcelona, Spain. This run became so regular that it got a nickname ‘Barcelona Charlie.’ “Our squadron got detailed to stop this run so we patrolled for weeks in December, in some of the worst weather you can imagine. The Germans had a radar altimeter coupled to an autopilot and would routinely fly at 20-30 feet above the water. Whenever we got a crack at him, which wasn’t often because it was difficult to see him on radar that low, our guys had their hands full. We didn’t have an autopilot so we were trying to intercept this guy, at night, in bad weather, right on the waves. “I usually set my radar altimeter to 50 feet so that if I got too close, I’d get a big ol’ red light to get my attention. I never had a crack at him, but one of our crews finally did on the night of December 28, 1944. “That kill got our squadron a Presidential Unit Citation and was, incidentally, the last US Beaufighter kill of the war. Dalton says he never had an enemy engagement despite many intercepts. Since all AI contacts had to go to visual range to ensure the ‘bogey’ wasn’t a friendly, it was fairly common to intercept lots of Allied aircraft that were off course. “One night, a group of B-24s out of Italy flew a night time mission. They wound up being scattered all over southern Europe. We flew a lot of intercepts, creeping up on a target only to see a B-24 lumbering along, completely lost.” Most of the time, Dalton says his patrols were boring unlike another squadron crew, “These guys, and I won’t name names, had bailed out twice due to mechanical problems and ditched at least once during their tour. By then, the R/O was pretty ‘twitchy,’ as you could imagine. “Anyway, this crew took off one night for a patrol and soon after take-off, developed a rough running engine. The pilot told the R/O over the intercom that he was heading back to circle base until the engine ran smoother. If it didn’t, he planned to land. “Well, the engine only got rougher, so the pilot told the R/O, “We’re going in,” meaning “we’re going to land.” “The R/O, however, was spring loaded to leave after all the bad luck in the Beau so far, and bailed out. The pilot didn’t know the R/O had jumped until after landing when the ground crew asked where his R/O was. “The R/O, meantime, had come down several miles away from the field. His chute snagged on the corner of a convent of all places and he just hung there, too high to unbuckle his harness. “The French at first took him for a German and were about to give him a rough time before they realized he as an American. After that, he was ok except the Mother Superior of the convent gave him an earful for some reason! “This R/O was shipped home soon after.” Soon after the war ended in May 1945, the 417th swapped its tired Beaufighters for shiny, new P-61s, but ‘Dirty’ Dalton recalls his first fighter with affection. “I really enjoyed flying that thing.” Sidebar – Sleeve Valve Radial Engines A sleeve valve radial contains the valves in a sleeve mounted between the piston and the cylinder unlike a conventional radial engine with its valves mounted on the top of each cylinder Using a smaller crank that turned at half the speed of the crankshaft, the sleeve moved in an elliptical path, lining up ports on the sleeve with the cylinder that allowed fuel and air to enter the cylinder and expelled the exhaust at the completion of the power stroke. The advantage of the sleeve valve is improved volumetric efficiency because the sleeve’s larger ports improved gas flow into and out of the cylinder and created a higher compression ratio. Aerodynamically, the sleeve valve radial presented a smaller frontal area and thus created less drag for the aircraft to overcome. From a maintenance aspect, however, a sleeve-valved design was a nightmare. It leaked oil like a sieve and had many more moving parts than its more conventional brethren. The design rapidly fell from grace after the war. Sidebar - US Beaufighter kills Although the RAF and other Commonwealth flew Beaufighters in dozens of nightfighter and strike squadrons, only four USAAF squadrons were so equipped, the 414-417th NFS, all in the Mediterranean and European theaters. Even the thought the US Beaus were few in number, they did account for a fair number of enemy aircraft destroyed or damaged. NFS 414th 415th 416th 417th TOTALS Confirmed kills 8 11 4 7 30 ‘Probables’ 1 5 2 4 12 Damaged 1 1 1 11 14 Some of the Beaufighter victories include two by the 415th’s Dr. Harold Augspurger, now a retired dentist. He recalls the Beau as “an aircraft that needed constant attention to detail. It wouldn’t stay trimmed up no matter what you did and you had to work the throttles and brakes carefully once the speed dropped, but it flew just fine.” Dr. Augspurger had two confirmed kills in the Beau. The 417th’s only two kill crew of F/O Jeffery (pilot) and F/O Henderson (R/O) combat report on March 28, 1944 reads, “Took off on a freelance. At 0758, sighted a Ju-88 flying on the deck, heading 030, doing 280 mph. We slowly were able to overtake the ‘bandit’ and opened fire at 800 yards, right on the deck. Fired until within 200 yards when enemy a/c returned fire, hitting us in port engine exhaust and wing. Claim one damaged (later confirmed as a kill). Their second combat was only 3 days later, “Scrambled at 2245 and controlled by “Perform” GCI station. Vectored to within two miles of ‘bogey.’ At 2350 hours, we sighted one Ju-88, heading 240 at about 50 feet off the water. Opened fire at 130 yards, enemy aircraft taking hard evasive turns. Got in a second burst at 110 yards, breaking off at 75 yards. One Ju-88 destroyed.” The above is a magazine article that formed the basis for my book: Assuming the mods ok it, I'll copy Steve's example and gladly sign/ship to anyone who wants to PM me. It not, I'll delete this ASAP.

Out-F*ckin' - Standing reply! Way to go MSgt (ret) McMonnies!

My last two PCS', I did just that via the partial DITY maneuver.

Steve, My pre-order has been with Amazon for over a month. Congrats! Brick

Thank Chr1st! But I would have put Doc in the "General Idi Amin Dada" category. Of course, "Weird Merrill" could be SECDEF and DepSECDEF Doc in close-heinie- trail just like the old days. Dear God, I've got some snakes in my head........