Forum: Air Power

I saw this quote today on the front page.

Quote:

Willie, how long can you tread water?

-- CDR Randy Duke Cunningham, after his and Willie's F-4 took a missile hit over NVN and he dashed for the coast.

I was told by a certain F-105 pilot once that in Vietnam pilots were instructed to fly for sea if they were low on fuel or took damage because "the enemy controlled the ground, but we controlled the sea" and in that case they could send rescue for them quicker. So this quote kind of intriqued me.... Gums... Snake-1.... a few others out there, cough cough!

-Aaron

F-16.net Sponsor

Salute!

'tis true.

There were also a few places north of Rte 7 that had relatively unihabitated areas.

I once circled at 1500-2000 feet with a Jolly there without seeing anybody or recieving groundfire. 20 miles away was a different story.

My flight (wasn't with them that day) picked up an entire B-52 crew closeby without seeing anyone. Straw 02.

later,

Gums wrote:

picked up an entire B-52 crew closeby without seeing anyone. Straw 02.

Awesome! It always makes me feel good to hear of successful ResCAPs, especially for a large crew, like the BUFFs.

Things almost went South for Cunningham and Driscoll. They punched out a couple miles off of the beach, and both reported seeing sampans coming their way almost as soon as they hit the water. However, they too had a great ResCAP team that turned the sampans into Swiss cheese, and neither one had to take an involuntary trip to Hanoi.

A d@mn shame what has happened to Cunningham...but that's a story for another thread.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

Forum: Air Power

Swim Willie, swim! By God boy, Swim! (Vietnam)