I grew up in Valdosta GA, home of Moody Air Force Base. Loved seeing the Phantoms fly overhead. Saw the Thunderbirds flying T-38s. Moody now has A-10s, last I heard.
My first assignment as an Air Force intel officer was at Moody, at the end of the F-4 era. Our birds were equipped with an EO/laser designator bombing system called Pave Spike—essentially a laser bore-sighted to a TV camera. The WSO kept his camera focused on the target, and the laser would stay locked (in theory) on the same thing. In the hands of an experienced crew, it worked fairly well, but it took some time to gain proficiency.
While I was there, the wing actually failed an Operational Readiness Inspection because our wing commander assigned some of our best crews to the mission planning cell. Our bomb scores were horrible and we got a do-over three months later, thanks to the intervention of the 9th AF/CC (the wing commander at Moody was one of his fair-haired boys). Second time around, the best crews were in the cockpit and we passed with ease.
Thoroughly enjoyed my time at “Moody by the Swamp” and supporting old double-ugly. There were some amazing moments, like the time an eight-foot gator crawled onto the ramp and under the wing of an F-4 that was ready for a mission. Probably only time in Air Force history that a sortie was cancelled because a gator didn’t want to give up his shady spot. Or the time our Assistant Deputy Commander for Operations got fired for using an unauthorized swizzle stick at the bar.
Nothing like the rumble of a Phantom two-ship lighting the burners and rolling down the runway.