At the A-7 Corsair II's peak in the mid-1980s, some 30 US Navy squadrons flew various versions of the aircraft, including six Naval Air Reserve units, and these many of these units saw action across the Middle East.By the time the jet saw combat in Operation Desert Storm (1991), there remained only two fleet squadrons – many fleet squadrons having either disestablished or transitioned to the F/A18 Hornet – but both of these units (VA-46 and VA-72) played a...

Featuring many first-hand accounts from the pilots who flew one of the greatest attack aircraft ever built, an insightful account of some of the most thrilling aerial combats that took place during Vietnam.The Skyhawk was involved in Vietnam from the very beginning, including the first offensive operations in 1963 into Laos, and the Pierce Arrow operations immediately following the Tonkin Gulf Incident of August 1964. Navy and Marine Corps A-4s quickly established ...

A detailed examination of the F-8 Crusader, the primary naval fighter when the conflict in Vietnam escalated in 1964, versus its opposite number in the Vietnamese Peoples' Air Force (VPAF), the MiG-17.Revered by Naval Aviators as the 'last of the gunfighters' due to its quartet of Colt-Browning Mk 12 20 mm cannon, the F-8 Crusader enjoyed great success against VPAF MiG-17s during the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1966–68. Close to 500 examples served with no fewer th...

The second instalment of the history of this photo-bird aircraft type, featuring illustrations throughout.Although the Crusader was built first and foremost as a Navy interceptor, as has often been the tradition with US fighters, a photo-reconnaissance variant was also produced by Vought. The photo-bird's first operational test came in the autumn of 1962 when its overflights of Cuba alerted the world to the likely presence of medium-range ballistic missiles on the ...

An illustrated combat history of the 'last of the gunfighters', due to its quartet of Colt-Browning Mk 12 20 mm cannons.The F-8 Crusader was numerically the most populous fighter in the US Navy at the start of America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict in 1964 – some 482 F-8C/D/Es equipped 17 frontline units. It enjoyed great success against North Vietnamese Mig-17s and Mig-21s during the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1965-68, officially downing 18 jets, which rep...

Arriving on station with the USS Ranger (CVA-61) in early December 1967, the first Corsair II squadron became operational immediately and sustained its first combat loss three weeks later.This book tells how the A-7 soon proved its worth supporting ground operations in South Vietnam. As it continued to serve in the ground support role, the navy swiftly introduced the A-7E which soon ran into difficulties with supply lines - perhaps on account of what many perceived...

The Mustang was born from a British WW2 specification to North American during 1940. The prototype was completed within 117 days but the RAF was not happy with the aircraft's performance and suggested replacing the V-12 Allison with the more powerful RR Merlin. The result was a superbly fast and maneuverable aircraft that had the range to escort Allied bomber forces on raids deep into occupied Europe. A total of 15,469 of the type were built and used in combat until the Korean War.This boo...

Aces At WarThe American Aces SpeakEric HammelAdding to his acclaimed The American Aces Speak series, combat historian Eric Hammel comes through with yet another engrossing collection of first-person accounts by American fighter aces serving in World War II, the Israeli War of Independence, the Korean War, and the Vietnam WarAs are the other four volumes, Aces At War is a highly charged excursion into life and death in the air, told by men who excelled at piston-engine and jet-engine aerial co...

A detailed, illustrated combat history of an aircraft described as a legend in its own time. The A-1 was designed for use in World War 2, yet proved so versatile and capable that it saw service in the Vietnam War some 20 years later.Nicknamed the 'flying dump truck', the A-1 was a key component in naval air wings from the end of World War II into the 1960s, allowing the aircraft to play its part in the escalating conflict in Vietnam. Both A-1 attack and EA-1F airbo...

The complete story of A-6 combat operations during the Vietnam War, illustrated throughout.Designed in the years following the Korean War and then manufactured for over 30 years starting in 1960, the A-6 quickly became the most capable attack aircraft in the US Navy's stable. The first squadron, VA-75, made its initial deployment directly into combat in south-east Asia in 1965, and, over the next eight years, ten US Navy and four Marine Intruder squadrons would con...

A fully-illustrated account of the duels between the carrier-borne interceptor of the US Navy and the agile MiG during the height of the Vietnam air war.The Vietnam War placed unexpected demands upon American military forces and equipment. The principal US naval fighter, the McDonnell F-4 Phantom, had originally been designed to defend the Fleet from air attack at long range. However, its tremendous power and bomb-carrying capacity made it an obvious candidate for ...

We could call this book “Special Operations Recon Mission Impossible.” A small group of highly trained, resourceful US Special Forces (SF) men is asked to go in teams behind the enemy lines to gather intelligence on the North Vietnamese Army units that had infiltrated through Laos and Cambodia down the Ho Chi Minh trails to their secret bases inside the Cambodian border west of South Vietnam. The covert reconnaissance teams, of only two or three SF men with four or five experienced indigen...