Folks don’t realize how big it was, made our A-4s look
tiny.Nothing quite like the sound of those two engines
in afterburner. Our living quarters were about a mile
from the runway but you couldn’t talk when one was taking
off. We got used to it but on tapes we sent home the
conversation would just be replaced by this ROAR.
They brought some up to Chu Lai back when we just had
matting runways and it was amazing watching it buck
down the runway on take off.........of course they
lost some bombs and racks too. Was nearly struck
by shrapnel from a 500 lb. frag. Most of the time they
didn’t have enough travel to arm but this one went off
about 200 yds away from our flight line. A chunk
the size of a hamburger bounced off the main strut of
the bird we were changing the brakes on, about six inches
above our heads and went into the belly tank.
the guy working with me and I cut it in half, I kept it
for years but lost it along the way. Nasty, sharp, jagged
edges.