23. AN A-1 PILOT FROM PLEIKU

Jack,

Your account of the battle of Kontum was excellent. I was an Air Commando Squadron Air Force pilot flying A-1 Skyraiders out of Pleiku from June 68- June 69. I will certainly keep your site for my future reading and memory refresh, and I need more refreshers as time passes.

Regards, an A-1 pilot

REFLECTIONS: Some of you will remember those A-1's as they lumbered through the sky, more like flying tanks than aircraft. Today, we have the A-10's but in Vietnam the A-1's were the best. I have many memories of those wonderful "Hobos" flying low and slow- mixing it up -as the tracers raced up to meet us. SOG was a unique mission that required us to fly into Laos and Cambodia to insert Special Forces recon and hatchet teams. We were on our own in Cambodia but we had great air support in Laos. I never knew the names of those Air Force A-1 pilots but I remember their courage. I remember making an approach to an LZ on a bad day in Laos when off my right wing I saw this big old flying tank - A-1- slowly flying along my side... I watched the tracers picking at him and thinking he was taking hits for me... Yeah, I remember you guys...