(Didn't look like this one, though...)
Posted on 05/24/2016 10:59:57 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
More than four decades after the fall of Saigon, Washington is still holding on to various classified details about its fight in Southeast Asia. Among the Pentagon media arm’s still-secret records are photos and video of updated World War II-era bombers the U.S. Air Force sent to hit Laos.
In May 1966, pilots and crews from the 603rd Air Commando Squadron brought eight B-26K Invaders from their base in Louisiana to Nakhon Phanom Air Base in Thailand. Desperate to stem the flow of troops and supplies flowing down the Ho Chi Minh Trail from North Vietnam, the flying branch had sent the modified planes to help hunt down enemy convoys.
“It was a fantastic improvement over the old aircraft,” Air Force colonel Joseph Kittinger, a veteran of the deployment, said in an official interview in 1974. “[But] the aircraft wasn’t designed for what we were using it for.”
War Is Boring obtained this and other previously secret internal oral histories through the Freedom of Information Act. As of April 2016, the Defense Media Activity said it had at least two classified items relating to these sometimes hair-raising missions in their archive.
Well before the United States became embroiled in its war in Vietnam, the Douglas B-26 Invader had a storied history in the American military.
Originally called the A-26, the planes had attacked German and Japanese forces during World War II, bombed North Korean and Chinese formations during the Korean War and become a sometimes infamous symbol of small wars and covert actions in the early stages of the Cold War.
For its time, the twin-engine Invader boasted an impressive top speed of over 350 miles per hour combined with a range of 1,400 mile
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
That, my friend, is funny.
(Didn't look like this one, though...)
I like the way you think.
I know your rationalization for the “defeat” ( we won and left!). I respectfully believe that is bull $hit. It is an attempt to shift the blame to others than the Democrat party murderers of 1 million Vietnamese. It does not work with me because it is not accurate. The Democrats assassinated 1 million Vietnamese freedom loving people— 1 MILLION!!They cut off the MONEY!!
“I know your rationalization for the “defeat” ( we won and left!). I respectfully believe that is bull $hit. “
Well it’s hardly my rationalization. It’s information culled from McMaster, Bruce Palmer, US Grant Sharp and various other military officers who were deeply involved in Vietnam. If you want call bullsh*t on them then be my guest.
The feckless, childish American public is still with us to this day.
The other day at the office, one of my young co-workers asked me how it was that I served multiple tours in Vietnam as a combat infantryman and I didn’t get PTSD. My rather flippant answer was “I didn’t get PTSD in Vietnam, I gave it.”
However, this PTSD question made me wonder what PTSD is and what the symptoms are, so I did a little research on the subject and found that I did indeed possess symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concerning a traumatic and very stressful incident that occurred during my last tour in Vietnam. I was a professional soldier when the traumatic incident occurred and had accumulated over six years in Vietnam engaged occasionally in close combat with a vicious and cunningly capable enemy, but the traumatic event was not as a result of close combat with this enemy.
One day when I was totally focused on closing with and destroying the enemy, something caught my eye, I looked around and found a new enemy had unexpectedly appeared behind me; it was the American people. The same Democrat Party who had originally sent me to Vietnam promising that, “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty,” had now sided with the Communists I was fighting. They were parading in the streets of the United States under a Viet Cong flag, were quoting from Mao’s Red Book, and were spitting on and flinging insults at returning Vietnam Veterans. Then, a Democrat led Congress cut off funding for the Vietnam War, American combat troops were withdrawn and we abandoned a valiant ally to their fate.
I was ordered out of the country in 1972, and when I arrived at Travis Air Force Base, purposely in the dark of the night, I was advised to change out of my uniform and put on civilian clothing to avoid being attacked by the American people when I entered San Francisco. I was not at all surprised when a few decades later these same people elected a Marxist-Communist as President of what was once my country.
Yes, the deep, burning hatred I feel for the Democrat Party to this day could be diagnosed as a symptom of PTSD, and I assure you, every Vietnam Veteran I know feels the same way.
And you've got two aircraft mixed up
Martin A=30 Baltimore was a export/lendlease only light bomber originallky designed to a French order, later supplied mainly to RAF.
Martin B-26 Marauder was the later medium bomber you are thinking about, which nobody wanted to fly.
g
Nice PBY Catalina in the background.
Of possible interest to you...
ping
Actually I was referring to the Marauder being nicknamed the “Baltimore Whore” (no visible means of support, due to the short wings), not just the “Baltimore”
The good ol’ B-26 Invader! This daughter of a 13th Bomb Squadron, ‘Grim Reaper’, bomb/nav thanks you!
I built the model in high school :) then as now I see certain old warplanes really should be graded as flying works of art and all restoration societies get full benefit of that fact. There are few twin engine jobs that give me the “masterpiece” feeling, and this is one.
Didn’t know about the wing problem. It still looks so slick it looks like it’s upgraded puppy might be out kicking ISIS’ ass, mopping up after the A-10s. Depleted uranium is expensive, I do believe.
But you have to allow the pilots to have the option of wearing the old fashioned gear and leather jackets, if they choose. The morale quotient must abey the negatives ;)
The Catalina also definitely is in the flying artwork category. Unique and successful.
Somewhere there is a picture of Teddy wearing his Brooks Brothers jungle fatigues when he visited Vietnam early in his Senate career.
bkmk
While he was in Vietnam, Obama announced that Boeing would sell them 100 Boeing 737MAX200 airliners for $11.8-billion. I wonder if he is giving Vietnam a loan to buy the planes?
There is a military version of the Boeing 737 called the P-8 Poseidon . It is used by the U.S. Navy to replace the P-3 Orion anti-submarine plane. The P-8 Poseidon is based on the Boeing 737 airliner airframe.
I wonder if Vietnam is going to militarize those Boeing 737’s?
Boeing_P-8 Poseidon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_P-8_Poseidon
Boeing_737_MAX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX
They ARE gorgeous ships! I’ve read about companies taking enthusiasts up for short hops. The Collings Foundation and Incredible Adventures are two affordable choices. If a passenger has pilot certification, the price is quite a bit loftier for the privilege of taking over the controls. I haven’t seen a group with the B-26 in its flight inventory, but, I hear, the Collings Foundation is in the process of restoring an Invader!
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