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Folks, did 78th FS ever have a two seater in the squadron? Never seen one, I am just curious,,,

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Enthusiast Joined: Jul 17, 2007 Posts: 99 Status: Offline

Yeah, every squadron has some "Family models" as we call them 2 seaters. Generally each squadron if they're not a training squadron will have 3-5 family models.

Now only if I could see one family size Bushmaster... their pics are hard to come by as they don't exist anymore...

Newbie Joined: Mar 19, 2007 Posts: 13 Status: Offline

The two D-models when we closed down the 78th were 91-469 and 91-476. 469 later ended up in the mud in Charleston (both aircrew were fine) after we became the 55th - motor crapped out over the harbor.

469 - http://www.f-16.net/f-16_fighting_falcon_airframe-3512.html

476 - http://www.f-16.net/f-16_fighting_falcon_airframe-3519.html

Thanks mostro, I searched for Bushmaster birds in the gallery but not all pics are captioned with proper keywords, so I did a search with a keyword "78" only, found many pics I missed the first time. Hate the crappy size though... the 469 shot you sent is very nice, I will see if I can make a nice wallpaper out of it.

If I recall correctly, all 78th birds were reassigned among the other Shaw units? What general purpose two seaters served in an active squadron like 78th back then, training and familiarization?

Enthusiast Joined: Jul 17, 2007 Posts: 99 Status: Offline

We would generally schedule the family models on regular sorties unless fuel was an issue as they don't carry as much naturally. But it wasn't a big deal to fly the family model along with the single seaters. Every once in a while you'll hear of one flying a combat sortie.

And probably incentive flights for you guys... Thanks for the replies...

Newbie Joined: Mar 19, 2007 Posts: 13 Status: Offline

After the 55th sent their jets to Cannon and the 78th stood down, we just repainted our old jets and stood up as the new 55th. I'm pretty sure most of the old 55th guys got dispersed amongst the 3 other squadrons, but the jets were all old Bushmasters with new tail flashes. I'll choose to remember 384 as a Bushmaster, but that's just me.

Maddog's spot-on with the average D-model's day to day routine.

I still remember putting that engine in 469. We changed it in Hill cause the other motor had high oil consumption when we got there. It stayed in there for a year before it crapped out. I remember seeing 476 being a sub flyer for demo practice when 3 of our birds were detail out for demo for the year. We had this hot flight dock that used to fly in the back seat. But most of the time the back was empty. I will see if I can dig up any pics before we shut down.

I never got to find out about the reasons, killing 78th, but not 55th for example. To an outsider, it would look like 77,78,79 would have made more sense instead of 55, 77, 79. Though, like I said I don't know the reasons and if the sh*t rolls like it does in the Army, I would understand that...

Newbie Joined: Mar 19, 2007 Posts: 13 Status: Offline

We were told the 78th was on the chopping block because the 55th was an older, more prestigious (read: combat decorated) squadron. Didn't make much sense to most of us to scrap the sequence of 77/78/79, but we weren't making the call.

Prestigious... Ok... For the good old days and boys who flew the mustangs...

Didn't a block 42 D-model that's now at Luke get a MiG kill? I remember seeing the green star under the canopy.

Enthusiast Joined: Aug 09, 2005 Posts: 76 Status: Offline

Yes, can't recall the s/n, but yes a shaw D did have a mig kill. I think it was the first ever A120 kill from a 16 too.

update: Source is Wikpedia under combat Service:

On 27 December 1992 a USAF F-16D (serial 90-0778) from the 363rd TFW/33rd TFS, piloted by LTC Gary North shot down an Iraqi MiG-25 in UN-restricted airspace over southern Iraq, marking the first USAF F-16 kill and the first AMRAAM kill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-16_Fighting_Falcon

Elite 1K Joined: May 10, 2005 Posts: 1089 Status: Offline

One of these days we'll find out who the DCC was on it when it was with the 19th. I recently solved the DCCs on the 2 Jastreb killers from Deny Flight....this is the last puzzle piece for the MiG killers.

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Two seater Bushmaster...