Posted on 06/28/2016 11:21:20 AM PDT by C19fan
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a legendary aircraft — an icon of the Vietnam War and the archetype of the third-generation jet fighter designs that entered service in the 1960s. More than 5,000 of these heavy supersonic fighters were built, and hundreds continue to serve and even see combat in several air forces today. But the Phantom’s record in air-to-air combat over Vietnam — especially when compared to its successor, the F-15 Eagle, which has never been shot down in air-to-air combat — has left it with a reputation of being a clumsy bruiser reliant on brute engine power and obsolete weapons technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
I debriefed a two star Marine General who flew one of our birds once. He had all kinds of upper class brass around him. He told me (corporal) he had all kinds of problems with the avionics. I think he read my mind. I figured he did good just to fly the thing and return to tell about it. I was thinking what an enormous set the man had. The corporal replied “I’ll get right on it General” and I promptly left.
VMFAT-201(Cherry Point), VMFAT-101(Yuma) 1970-1974
As a kid I loved it when they flew low over my neighborhood in El Toro, CA.
I cannot describe how loud they were without using the f word!
Gigantic behemoth of a fighter.
I prefer the original F-4!
“The only ‘advantage’ it had was brute-force speed but no gun.”
Later models had a gun.
Brick. Coke machine. I heard it was a piano.
But the point is the same.
Nighttime ‘burner takeoffs. Fox-4s rolled sequentially in groups of three; where I was there was no jet noise until they lit off, then a tail of flame, must have been forty feet long and the ground shook until they cleared the active. Got to the horizon before the afterburners winked out. They were pounding NVA tanks near Loc Ninh. Loved what they did.
Easter Offensive, June 1972.
“I flew the F-4B and the F-4J during 1967-1970.”
I was with VF-96 and worked on both models. We deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin on the USS Enterprise.
That bird cost my hearing, or at least a significant part of it, but it was one impressive machine. Our shop placed the last F-4 left in USAF inventory on a range in Eglin. It was the end of an era.
Here’s more of 191st FIG F-4’s at SANGB on June 23, 1990- “The Last Scramble”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGMkQvVF0S8
Spent about a year (69-70) at MCAS Beaufort stripping F-4’s down to the bare frame and then putting them back together again.
A couple of manufacturing runs use a potting compound called Triple 7 (777). Looking like green baby crap, it was used to ‘pot’ every single electrical plug and socket on every piece of equipment on the plane and the engine.
Turned out that after about 5 years or so, the 777 would start to break down and became runny. But even worse, it became semi-conductive.
So every panel and piece of equipment that could come off, had to come to off, and every single electric connection on the plane had to be depotted, cleaned, and then repotted with a new compound.
Then every panel had to be rung out and signed off. At that point we put it all back together.
And then a Marine pilot with a lot of testicular fortitude had to take up on a check ride.
Good Times!
The emergency procedure for the F4 for
“Out of control below 10,000 feet, EJECT”
Actually it was a GREAT plane. Could dogfight, haul a crapload of bombs, all kinds of specialty pods and preform lots of different missions.
A black smudge with an airplane at one end.
Yep. Every O-6 and above in the Air Wing was deaf as a 90 year old.
About a million years ago, my brand new wife and I were traveling across Florida on State Road 60 headed for the east coast. We were just past Lake Wales at the more or less north end of the Avon Park Gunnery range when I noticed a pair of Phantoms flying low and maneuvering like they were on a roller coaster.
My wife is not an avid "window looker-outer" and had her head buried in a book.
Presently, one of the jets descended to a really low altitude and was closing on us. I think he had the gun pipper on us.
I estimate he wasn't more than a hundred feet off the deck. I had peel my wife off the head liner of the car.
Dogfights were thought to be a thing of the past, hence no integral gun.
Saw one at radar cal with "phantom shit" scratched into the soot. Had to laugh.
Great video! I was there that day. Have some pics with them still tailing their drag chutes. Funny, it rained for our farewell event for the F-16 alert mission in 2008 too. Weather was so bad, they could only taxi.
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