Mud movers, tank busters, ground attack, no matter what you call them, if you're a grunt, you love seeing your own and you hate seeing the enemy's. They can make life on the ground short and unpleasant!
Now these guys shoot down other aircraft, have cool call signs and get all the press:
And these guys crush cities and then bounce the rubble:
Now this next group of guys, in many instances do "all of the above", but they do it close to the ground, real close!
And these are their rides -
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| US Navy Skyraider |
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| US Air Force Skyraider |
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| The Royal Air Force Does It! |
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| The US Navy Does It! |
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| Of Course, the Air Force Does It |
And you better believe the Marines do it!
Old school guys did it!
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| P-47 Jug |
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| RAF Typhoon |
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| RAF Tempest |
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| Luftwaffe Ju-87 G-1 "Kanonenvogel" (Cannon Bird, those are 37 mm cannon pods under the wings!) |
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| Red Air Force Ilyushin Il-2 Штурмовик (Shturmovik or Storm Bird) A very tough opponent, it was the A-10 of it's day. |
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| AH-64D Apache |
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| Mi-24P Hind F |
So let's saddle up -
Let's move some mud -
Then call the ball...
Yeah, let's break stuff!
Busy, busy... err.. wait. Wrong post.
ReplyDeleteBut do those mud-movers have GLITTER?
No, but they've been known to turn tanks into glitter.
Delete(And you ARE up early!)
Here at Ft Indiantown Gap we're close enough to the air to ground range that you can hear the GAU-8 30mm cannon when the A-10s do their gun runs. Awesome sound.
ReplyDeleteClose can be exciting.
DeleteThen again...
When I was stationed on Okinawa I had to go up to one of the Marine bases to re-qualify on the M-16, turns out that the rifle range was kinda sorta in the middle of an artillery range. That is, the guns were well to our rear, the targets way out to our front somewhere. It was interesting to hear the guns fire and here the shells go chugging overhead.
So close can be fun, but there is such a thing as "too close".
But I do love me some gun runs. Especially the A-10 variety!
Another good one Sarge continue on.
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly!
DeleteI love those Sandys. I can't help it. I just do.
ReplyDeleteMe too. There is something brutally awesome about that bird.
DeleteI just might do a whole post dedicated to them. Thanks for the idea LL!
Another vote for the Skyraider here.
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe that the Wright Brothers invented the airplane just because they wanted to be able to get medieval on people from the air.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
Delete(Not that I think I'm a pharaoh or something...)
Loved the pic of the AF Skyraider in the revetment with the standard Sandy load of CBUs and "Daisy-Cutter" extender fuses on the Mk-82 500 pounders.. And are those 1000 or 2000 lb "pencil" ordnance being dropped "bombs ripple" by the F-4?
ReplyDeleteWell, according to the information I have access to, the max carry weight of the F-4 is 18,650 pounds, which includes bombs, missiles, pods, external tanks and such and as I see 17 bombs coming off that jet along with a center-line tank, my first guess would be that those can't be any bigger than M-83s, i.e. 1000 pounders. But in reality I think those are Mk-82s, i.e. 500 pounders. The picture didn't come with any caption. But based on weight alone they can't be Mk-84s, there are too many of them. And they don't look big enough to be Mk-83s.
DeleteSorry I couldn't find any better data.
After a long discussion over at Facebook. A number of guys, who really do seem to know their stuff, it seems those are practice bombs, BDU-45s.
DeleteCrap, crap, crap! I WANTED REAL BOMBS!!!
So, I think that's my final answer Virgil. (Next time I look closer. Damn, blue bombs on a post about ground attack. Geez!)
Well, unless the Flag Exercise rules have changed, you don't get to drop real unless you drop cement first, so I guess you're just one sortie too early on the pic.
DeleteYeah, that's the story. I wanted to show them training for the real thing!
Delete(To my certain knowledge, those rules still apply.)
That last pic is great. That day was probably the modern day version of an air-to-ground Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know what the tally was here as compared to the Falaise Gap in WWII. But yeah, many Iraqis (those who survived) walked back to Irag in '91!
Delete