I did too. At least, they said they did and I never corroborated their stories.
So, I guess you must have been stationed at Mountain Home, where you knew those F-4 pilots. Maybe I saw you there, and didn’t know it. Did you fly F-4Ds and Es with the 10th or 22nd or the 417th? I suspect that might be about the only way you could verify that those fighter pilots actually did provide close air support at Khe Sanh, unless you have a hotline to the Almighty. I agree with Gingis, that is entirely possible.
Outside of about 5 miles, I would like Buffs, but closer inside, when I need someone to get down in the weeds, I prefer the fast movers.
By the way, Dragonflys do not have afterburners. They were just Tweets with Talon engines, but you knew that, right?
The F-4 was certainly a wonderful fighter. It could do most anything, it seemed. Not only that, it was beautiful, in the same class of beauty as the P-51.
“...you knew those F-4 pilots. Maybe I saw you there, and didn’t know it. Did you fly F-4Ds and Es with the 10th or 22nd or the 417th? ... the only way you could verify that those fighter pilots actually did provide close air support at Khe Sanh, unless you have a hotline to the Almighty. ...
Outside of about 5 miles, I would like Buffs, but closer inside, when I need someone to get down in the weeds, I prefer the fast movers. ...”
Since Mark17 hasn’t disclosed his flight status, I couldn’t verify what those F-4 pilots at KMUO did or didn’t do earlier, nor what he did when with them. Neither can can he, unless he was flying with them earlier, when they were flying combat sorties to Khe Sanh or wherever. All he has is their unsupported word. I have the same, from numerous fighter pilots I met - wasn’t with them on any of their SEA sorties.
I spent 29 years in uniform; got an incentive ride in an F-4E’s back seat while I was a cadet, temporarily assigned to 43FS at PAED. That about sums up my small-airplane experience.
Was combat-crew rated in B-52s and later B-1Bs; also flight evaluator in both systems. Spent half the career in operational testing of both those airframes and certain equipment for FB-111s, U-2s, and SR-71s.
Worked closely with our counterparts in the small-airplane community, performing operational tests. Our office endured a long history of teaching them, helping them, unscrambling their mistakes. They fought us every step of the way.
What it really taught me was, never take a fighter pilot at their word.
The five-mile rule doesn’t square with what I heard about USMC, from a gunner I crewed with and whose word I did trust. He said his brother was a Marine in country back then; Marines would start fights with any F-4 pilots who happened to show their faces at the bar. But B-52 crewmembers couldn’t pay for their own drinks at the same bar.