I have written a bit about the Republic F-105D based at Takhli Thailand.

But here's some stuff you probably didn't know about it.

The Thud is famous for it's missions in Vietnam where almost half of the F-105s built were lost.  It was a dangerous mission flying over Hanoi, sometimes twice in one day.

I was a bomb load crew chief for the afternoon missions.  I would wander up and down the flight line in my blue pickup making sure bomb loads were delivered to the right airplanes and help out if any of load crews were having problems.

First lets remember the F-105 was not designed as a tactical bomber or a fighter.  It was designed for a specific mission...nuclear weapons delivery.  It was designed to fly supersonic at low altitudes to evade radar and then to 'lob' a weapon on target.  It would pull up into a loop and as soon as it was vertical the weapon would be ejected from the bomb bay and continue up in an arc and fall onto the target.  The Thud would roll out on top of the loop, make down to the weeds again, and head for home.  It had an internal bomb bay which was supposed to carry a nuclear weapon.  But in Southeast Asia it was instead fitted with an 390 gallon fuel tank to augment the 1150 gallon internal tanks. 

I had seen the LABS maneuver performed once, by a B-57 at the Lakeside range on the west shore of the Great Salt Lake.  It used a practice bomb.

The typical load for an F-105D were 6 750-pound bombs on the centerline MER (Multiple Ejection Rack).  A 450 gallon fuel tank on the inner pylon of each wing.  The left outboard pylon usually sported a Sidewinder missile and the left outboard pylon an ECM pod.  The is load was nicknamed 'Iron Hand'. 

When the Wing got permission to bomb the Paul Doumer bridge in Hanoi it was almost chaos for the load crews.  The planes were already with Iron Hand loads and we had to reconfigure the aircraft.  Safety regulations went out the window.  The wing tanks were downloaded with fuel in them.  The centerline MER was downloaded with bombs attached.  They were moved to the side of the revetment.

The fueling crews had to mount a 650 gallon fuel tank on the centerline and fuel it.  My load crews had to load a 2,000 pound bomb on the inner pylon of each wing.  We were loading and fusing bombs at he same time the centerline tanks were being refueled.  The guys in the bomb dump were hauling out 2,000 pound bombs as fast as they could.

But the mission left on time with all the aircraft and the bridge, the main rail line between Hanoi and China, was destroyed.

Serving with the 355th was a year I'll never forget.

Here's a parody the Thud pilot's sung and a short film of the Thuds flying out of our sister wing at Korat.

The sound isn't all that great so here are the first two verses of the song:

Come and sit by my side at the briefing,
We will sit there and tickle the beads,
Then we'll head for the Red River Valley,
And today I'll be flying Teak lead,

To the valley he said we are flying,
With a Thud of the plane to the earth,
Many jockeys have flown to the valley,
And a number have never returned 

I have a 1/48 scale model of an F-105D sitting on the hutch of my desk.  It doesn't have a pilot's name on the side but it's nicknamed 'Polish Glider', a euphemism for 'Thud' or 'Lead Sled'

I have book called The Aviation Art of Keith Ferris.  There is a two page spread of a Wild Weasel F-105G.  It's titled 'Big Brass Ones'.  I think every Thud pilot who flew into the Red River Valley had Big Brass Ones. 

The F-105, like most Republic aircraft, required a lot of runway for takeoff.  It's been said that if a runway 1,000 miles long were built Republic would design and aircraft that needed every inch of it.

In closing one anecdote close to my heart.  I carried cooler full of soft drinks for my load crews when they got thirsty working in that heat.  One afternoon just before takeoff I was cruising the revetments when a pilot flagged me down.  Lt. Shively was his name.  He said, "Have you got any drinks left sarge?"  I got out, opened the cooler and handed him one.  He thanked me, told me he'd buy me a beer when he got back and then proceeded to board his aircraft.  But he never made it back and I never got my beer.  He was shot down and became a POW.  After the prisoners were released I sort of kept track of him because I wore his bracelet while he was a POW.  He became a lawyer in Portland or Seattle and died a couple of years ago.

Noel

 

Thanks for posting this, Noel.

The book Thud Ridge (published 1969) by Colonel 'Jack' Broughton offers an interesting narrative of these times and is certainly a book worth a read for anyone who wants a perspective on what it was actually like to fly those strike missions in the F-105. It is somewhat unique in having its combat missions very accurately transcribed as a result of Broughton being interested in hi-fi and stereo equipment, affording him the opportunity to use a small tape machine in the cockpit of his F-105, to record all of the radio transmissions on these strike missions, providing as it did, an extremely accurate means to recall the missions in the book exactly as they occurred, rather than relying purely on memory. The book's descriptions of dealing with SAM launches and MiG interceptions whilst inbound to make strikes on the North of Vietnam, whilst also having to follow all kinds of self-imposed ridiculous engagement rules, makes for an enlightening read.

Broughton was a controversial figure for many years as a result of a court martial and investigation into an alleged breach of the rules of engagement and an attempt to cover it up through the destruction of some gun camera evidence (see here for details). It was whilst Broughton was in the Air Force career wilderness as a result of all this, that he found the time to write the book. For many years, his support for two of his officers who allegedly let rip with their cannons on a Soviet cargo ship (which had fired upon them on their ingress) whilst they were egressing the target area, led to a lot of officers with career progression in mind, distancing themselves from him, but it's worth noting that privately, most people who had been at the sharp end of operations had a lot of sympathy for people who shot back at stuff which was officially 'off limits', which is a common theme of the Vietnam War and the accusations that political considerations meant that the troops in Vietnam were often being asked to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. It's interesting to note that eventually, the support of people such as Chuck Yeager - whom the Air Force had mistakenly hoped would be a willing hatchet man in the Court Martial procedure - the usefulness of the content of Broughton's book, and its critical suggestions, eventually led to the Air Force purchasing several thousand copies of Thud Ridge, and placing it on required reading lists for new officers.

If anyone has never read that book, I'd recommend doing so, as it offers a unique perspective on the fights in the air, as well as the fights in the halls of command, which pilots had to deal with at the time.

 

Edited June 21, 20223 yr by Chock

I read Thud Ridge Chock.

Broughton was my vice wing commander when I was over there.  I recall the Turkestan incident very well.

When the Thuds came back from their missions that morning they saw the Turkestan in Haiphong Harbor.  Two or three of them taxied back to the pad on the runway instead taxiing to their revetments.  The M-161 guns were reloaded and they were refueled.

They went back and shot up the Turkestan claiming they had been fired upon earlier that day.

When they came back the guns were removed from the aircraft, taken to the salvage yard, and cut up with torches.  As he states in the book the gun camera film was also destroyed.  My hootch mate was the one who destroyed the guns.  I don't think that was mentioned in the book nor was he fined for having those destroyed.

He was court martialed and fined for the destruction of the film.  The president of the court was Chuck Yeager and he wasn't going to let Broughton be hung out to dry.

After Broughton retired he flew a Grumman Goose in the Caribbean for a buddy for a while until he determined the aircraft wasn't safe to fly anymore.

Jack Broughton wrote another book about flying out of Takhli.  'Going Downtown'.  And another one called Ruper Red Two about flying F-106s out of Grand Forks AFB (I think) in North Dakota.

I've read them all and recommend them to anyone interested in a fighter pilot's life.

Noel