Had a scooter driver bring his napalm drop so low in front of us that he flew through his own fireball and when he came out the other side, he was trailing flame in those ares behind his wings and tail where there was a vacuum.
He did a sharp snap roll for us and climbed up and away to our cheers. Can’t beat close air support with an airshow at the same time!
What squadron were you with?
VMA-223 the Fighting Bulldogs.
We received a NUC and a PUC for the most sorties
in 66 and 67. Then I was transferred to VMA-311 the
Tomcats. Then went home in May of 68.
We were A-4s but Prowlers were added later on.
Many was the time we helped ordinance load bombs.
had a little lift for the 1000lb.ers but we loaded
every thing else by hand, two guys to a 250 and 4 to
a 500. A scooter with full racks was a vicious beasty,
those daisy cutter fuzes all sticking out and a load of
20mm rounds.
I remember working on some and all of a sudden my eyes
and nose were running like crazy and I realized they had
flown through or dropped some CN/CS.
CAS for Marines was always the best cause
our pilots had to rotate as FO’s so they
knew what they were doing.
Knew a couple of great officers in 66 when things
were a bit more relaxed, they treated us like
equals as we kept them in the air, later it got
rinky dink so no fraternizing.
A shame, cause you just naturally did a better job
if you knew them personally, more like WW1 or II.