Operation Nickel Grass [Yom Kippur war supply airlift]

Various ^ | Fri, 12/13/19 | Various

[daniel1212]

I have a friend of mine who was an Air Traffic Control supervisor working in the Radar Approach Control at Lajes AB in the Azores when this airlift was in effect. He told me that they had C-141’s and C-5’s lined up 10 miles apart streaming out over 100 miles coming into Lajes to refuel.

Today Antifa and some of Soro's clients would staging protests.

[Tallguy]

“Syria had an eight-to-one advantage in tanks”

Target rich environment for the IDF tankers. It was a very near-run thing, but the tough Centurion Tanks operating from high-ground were relatively invulnerable to Syrian T-62 tanks. Centurions could depress their guns and fire down on the Syrians... the T-62’s could not elevate their guns enough to return fire. Probably wouldn’t have mattered since Soviet doctrine was to charge ahead and overwelm an enemy position rather than take potshots.

[daniel1212]

Thank you, Mr. President, for fulfilling your role in providence.

Would should also say thank God in particular for (among others) of the Gen. Paul K. Carlton, MAC commander. Search "Carlton" in the article.

[daniel1212]

and he walked past the burned out Syrian tanks with charred bodies hanging out of them. He said it was just surreal.

Yes. ..after several abortive efforts, an effective cease-fire finally took hold Oct. 28. Israel suffered 10,800 killed and wounded-a traumatic loss for a nation of some 3 million persons-plus 100 aircraft and 800 tanks. The Arab nations suffered 17,000 killed or wounded and 8,000 prisoners, and lost 500 aircraft and 1,800 tanks.

[Redleg Duke]

I commanded a field artillery battery in the Illinois Army National Guard when this went down. Two FO jeeps with trailers were at Camp Lincoln, down by Springfield, waiting to be brought up to my armory. I had been waiting on them some time.

I got a call from my battalion commander, advising me that my jeeps and trailers were onboard a USAF transport, bound for Israel. I told him that if they were going anywhere else, I would have been pissed!`

[SaveFerris]

yep

[Georgia Girl 2]

Mr. GG2 told me that he couldn’t believe how many Israeli pilots were wearing Tony Llama boots. Wink wink. Just like we were never in Cambodia.

[jjr153]

Thank you for the info on the F-5, I did not know most of that before. I did know that the T-38 was based on the F-5 as we had both at McClellan. The F-5 and T-38 looked like darts hurtling through the sky. As I said, we were a major supply and logistics base, Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) we did major upgrades on F-4’s, F-11’s I think F & E but don’t remember. We also got the A-10 Warthog towards the end of my enlistment in Dec 76.

Because of our proximity to Travis AFB, 40 mi. away, We had many C-141 and C-5 aircraft doing touch and go’s on a regular basis, only once did I see an SR-71 from Beale AFB do a touch and go. It got so that we didn’t even look after awhile because we could tell which aircraft by it’s sound on takeoff or landing.

Even though the Vietnam War was still on the AF put me at McClellan after tech school in Apr 73 and then promptly forgot about me until my enlistment was up in Dec 76.

Thank you for the article and the info. It brought back good memories of when I was still young, dumb, and full ...

[daniel1212]

Thank you for the info on the F-5, I did not know most of that before.

That's OK; neither did I! I do have an interest in planes though, and so I did a little research to post.

Even though the Vietnam War was still on the AF put me at McClellan after tech school in Apr 73 and then promptly forgot about me until my enlistment was up in Dec 76.

Thank you for your service. I was too immature to enlist in that era, and my number for the draft was too high (they had gone to a lottery system) but i was pro-military, with my dad being in the Army years before, and we liked war movies.

[SunkenCiv]

Some claim that in retrospect the decision not to strike first was actually a sound one.

Only the most ridiculous apologist for Israel's Labor Party would claim that. They were taken by surprise because of hubris and incompetence. But anyway, LOVED the book, read it, uh, over ten years ago I suspect.

[Eleutheria5]

Golda Meir was having a nervous breakdown because she knew what was coming.

[SunkenCiv]

Her water carriers claim she didn't know it was imminent, at all. In a late interview she said she was scared of making a preemptive strike, but it was because of the possibility of not being effective at it, thus escalating a conflict which could have proved unsustainable. After the fact, Kissinger claimed Israel had been warned against any repeat of 1967, that the US wouldn't send one screw if it happened, but he also said it would be good if Israel were "bloodied".

[archy]

Some claim that in retrospect the decision not to strike first was actually a sound one. While Operation Nickel Grass, the American airlift of supplies during the war which began October 13, did not immediately replace Israel's losses in equipment, it did allow Israel to expend what it did have more freely.[5] Had they struck first, according to Henry Kissinger, they would not have received "so much as a nail."

Until after they used their first nuke, after which all bets were off, it would have been a whole new ballgame, and nowbody would have wanted the next 60 to go off.

[archy]

“The frontiers were mostly defended by short term conscripts.”

I was with an Israeli friend from Haifa who I had met during the tragic 1972 Munich Olympics in Munich. He invited me to come visit him a year later, which I did. When his tank unit got called up, he asked me to accompany him so I could return his taxicab to Haifa.

Instead, we got sent out to pick up his fellow reservists who had caught rides to military checkpoints but needed a ride on to his deployed unit's location. His C.O. found out I had been a US tank crewman and asked if I could help get their 17 tanks ready for the backed-up crews; they had fewer that 1 man/vehicle at the time. I told him getting the 2 Browning co-ax machineguns and the tank commander's .50 would be no problem, and once he got one other gunner available, we could boresight the main guns.

About the third day he came over with a 9mm Uzi, and asked me if I was familiar with them, which I was since the West German Army used the MP2 Uzi as their tanker's weapon. He kind of smiled, gave me the weapon and 5 loaded magazines in a pouch, and told me not to expect and visiting Syrians or Jordanians to be very interested in checking for an American passport before beheading me.

We were on the Jordanian frontier. Aside from those serving with Syrian forces elsewhere, for the most part the Jordanians did not come into the war.