Quote:
Originally posted by Superman
I have a favorite fighter jet and it's the F-16. Seems to me it's the 550 Spyder of the air.
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So you like F-16's, eh? Here are a few at AMARC:
Joeaksa,
My MOS was 96-H. During the Vietnam era this was called "Technical Observer", but was later renamed "Aerial Intelligence Specialist". New name, same job: Aerial recon. (the 96-H mos is now completely redesignated, as the Mohawks were all decommissioned and the specialty was reassigned to egg beaters)
I'll not bore you too much with the history of the aircraft, but will provide
THIS LINK -
THIS LINK - and
THIS LINK.
During the Vietnam ers, satellite imagery was not as good as it it now. Probably because it was mostly non-existant. So our little birds flew around with cameras, IR, and SLAR to detect enemy movement and report it back to base. Or to take photos for planning. Some Mohawks were even fitted with ground attack weaponry, and called "Whispering Death".
The people who flew in them just called them "widowmakers." They had such a low survivability rate that were were instructed to eject at any sign of mechanical failure. (Engine out? EJECT! - Rudder malfunction? EJECT! - A/C failure? EJECT!!)
I was stationed at Fort Huachuca. The others in service were stationed in Korea and Germany. All of us had the same peacekeeping role; which was "training." (We really did have missions, but were all "classified" and so were called training missions)
Pretty much, I think our job then was what the UAVs are doing now.
Side note: Four OV-1C's were used by the US Customs Service in the '70's to mid '80's to intercept drug smuggling aircraft. The OV-1C's were modified ex-US Army machines with military equipment removed.