[sukhoi-30mki]

an A-26 flies somewhere in Southeast Asia. U.S. Air Force photos

[vetvetdoug]

Col. Kittenger was famous for many free fall records from altitude that were recently broken. I got to meet him and fly a biplane with him around twenty years ago.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger... Another chapter in an amazing life.

[2banana]

Not long ago I was shooting WWII .50 cal ammo in training...

[WENDLE]

We won the Vietnam war. Our Prisoners were all released. The Communists signed a peace treaty . we came home . Democrats then cut off the money and supplies to South Vietnam. The South had no bullets ,bombs, planes ,tanks ( that ran) and the North invaded in violation of the treaty and we had less that 5000 remaining American, all in Saigon when Vietnam failed because the Democrats did not want that victory and stopped funding the self defense of the South. Absolutely true.

[BuffaloJack]

So, we bombed Laos.
Laos was a staging area for the VC.
It needed bombing.
In war you kill enemy and destroy stuff.

[batterycommander]

I saw one of those crash in WWII (1944) when I was a toddler living next to an airport. It killed 17 people.

[PAR35]

Also used at the Bay of Pigs (although some of those were B’s and C’s, not the re-engined Ks).

[Doogle]

I've seen em

[RayChuang88]

However, those A-26's were extensively modernized to operate in Vietnam, including a complete modern avionics suite. Remember, during the Vietnam War we also used the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, essentially a piston-engine attack plane that dates from late in World War II.

[Sergio]

bkmk

[Shark24]

My father-in-law (RIP) flew over 150 night missions in them in 1968. Incredible man and pilot. One of the birds he flew is in the air park at Hurlburt.

[vetvetdoug]

The B-26 had one of the most archaic egress systems in the USAF inventory. First one had to remove the canopy, then crawl out and jump. No ejection seat, No drop out from below and lots of airplane to miss on the way out.

[ExNewsExSpook]

B-26 was a notoriously difficult plane to fly. Most of the crews trained at MacDill Field in Tampa (now MacDill AFB). The unofficial motto during World War II was “one a day in Tampa Bay,” reflecting the number of crews who crashed leaning to fly the B-26.

[pabianice]

So too the WW II P-2.

[HerrBlucher]

[Doogle]

The “TA” tail letters indicate the 609th out of NKP most likely “69”

[AFreeBird]

Damn, that sucker is armed for bear.

[Jack Hammer]

This is a secret???

[rlmorel]

They also flew PV-2 Neptunes in Vietnam...:)

(Didn't look like this one, though...)

[Joe 6-pack]

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