A Deeper Look...

Douglas A-1E Skyraider at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
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Some of you no doubt recognize that opening photo from juvat's post on Monday, which detailed the circumstances of Bernard Fisher's Medal of Honor. So now you're probably asking yourself why I'm using that photo again and the answer is fairly simple. I looked at the picture then did a double take when I saw the tail hook. Seeing the tail hook made me look at this (the bit in the circle) -

That circled bit looks an awful lot like a Navy/Marine Corps Bureau Number or BuNo. Let me explain something here which may not be apparent to the casual reader. That is, the Navy and the Air Force tend to paint/mark their aircraft differently. Using the Skyraider as an example, Air Force aircraft look like this -

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Note the big white "tail number" on the vertical stabilizer, "517," preceded by the smaller number "27" underneath the "AF," which stands for (duh) "Air Force." (FWIW the first number is the last digit of the year the aircraft was built, in this case 1952. Apparently all USAF Skyraiders were marked with 1952 as the year of manufacture, Joe Baugher's website has this to say -

The following serial numbers are out of sequence. These were A-1 Skyraiders transferred from the Navy to the USAF and assigned USAF serial numbers based on their BuNos, prefixed by 52. USAF records indicate that there was an abortive attempt in 1968 to assign 53, 54 and 55 as prefixes to newer model Skyraiders as they were acquired by the USAF, but later in that same year the records show that the prefixes were all changed back to 52. This means that all USAF Skyraiders, no matter the model, were assigned a 52 prefix. (Source)

The "TT" tail code indicates that this aircraft belonged to the 602nd Special Operations Squadron out of Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Navy Base in Thailand. (I had no ideer that NKP belonged to the Thai Navy.) (Source)

Navy aircraft look like this -

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Part of the BuNo is painted on the tail and the entire BuNo is painted on the fuselage under the horizontal stabilizer (see detail below). The big letters indicate which carrier "owns" these birds (USS Intrepid (CV 11) in this case), the Navy also paints the squadron number on the bird as well (VA-176 "Thunderbolts" here) and something the Navy calls the modex or "side number" -

A modex is a number that is part of the Aircraft Visual Identification System, along with the aircraft's tail code. It usually consists of two or three numbers that the Department of the Navy, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps use on aircraft to identify a squadron's mission and a specific aircraft within a squadron. These numbers are painted conspicuously on the aircraft's nose—or, on helicopters, sometimes on the aft portion of the fuselage or forward portion of the empennage. Modexes are also painted less conspicuously on other aircraft areas (i.e., fin tip, flaps, etc.). Shore-based aviation units use either two-digit or three-digit modexes, while carrier-based units always use three digits. (Source)

Detail showing the BuNo and the tail number mismatch.

The two Skyraiders depicted have modexes of "404" and "409." (Note that the BuNo under the horizontal stab does not match the number under the "AK," I'm still digging into that. Might be a future post, might not be. Odd that.)

Anyhoo Major Fisher's aircraft originally came from the Navy, but for some reason that particular aircraft had the BuNo and a non-standard tail number ("32649"). That may (or may not) have been standard practice for that squadron. While all that is interesting, for certain values of interesting, the odd markings on that bird aren't the point of this tale. Chasing down all of that information led me to chase this down as well, remember the caption of that photo on juvat's post?

This was the actual aircraft he flew on the mission.  It shortly thereafter was shot down and badly damaged but was recovered, refurbished and now is on display at the US Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB.

 Well, yes and no. Here's another photo of 32649 from the NMUSAF -

This Douglas A-1E was severely damaged in combat in South Vietnam. It is the aircraft that was flown by Maj. Bernard Fisher on March 10, 1966, when he rescued a fellow pilot shot down over South Vietnam, a deed for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The aircraft was restored and is currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo)
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Actually Major Fisher flew this aircraft after it had been damaged and then repaired and returned to service. Joe Baugher's website has this to say -

52-132649 Douglas A-1E Skyraider

Ex USN BuNo 132649 transferred to USAF. Used in rescue of downed airman March 10, 1966 at Special Forces camp at A Shau, for which Maj Bernard G. Fisher was awarded the Medal of Honor. This plane is now on display at National Museum of USAF, Dayton, OH. The plane at Hill AFB, UT is actually a VNAF Skyraider made up to look like this aircraft. There is a photo of this plane lying on a scrapheap (not sure of the date). With 1st Air Command Squadron 34th Tactical Group , this plane caught fire and crashed while on interdiction mission near Can Tho, South Vietnam Mar 21, 1965. Both crew KIA. Air Force claims they recovered this plane with CH-54 Skycrane and repaired it at Tan Son Nhut AB and returned it to Bien Hoa and repaired it. (Source)

That mention of "Both crew KIA" made me sit up and ask "Who were they?" A casual mention of crew having been killed in action with no mention of who they were. That bugs me, these guys gave their lives, we should know who they were. Well, the A-1 Skyraiders website answered the question for me, after some digging. The first clue was the date the men were killed, 21 March 1965. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial website provided this after a search for casualties on that date -

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Two Air Force captains KIA on the same date, had to be the crew of 32649 I figured. I was correct. Searching the Wall's website further, yielded the following -

Captain Campbell was a member of the 1st Air Commando Squadron, flying A-1E Skyraiders, out of Bien Hoa Air Base, RVN. He and Captain Jerry Hawkins were KIA when their aircraft, serial number 52-132649, caught fire and crashed during an interdiction sortie near Can Tho. The aircraft, was deemed salvageable and was airlifted, to Tan Son Nhut, Air Base, where it, was repaired and returned, to the 1st ACS. On 10, March 1966, this Skyraider, was flown, by Major, Bernard Fisher, when he performed, a daring rescue, of a fellow, pilot, at the A Shau, Special, Forces Camp, a feat, for which Major, Fisher, was awarded, the Medal, of Honor. The aircraft, is now, on display, at the National, Museum, of the USAF, in Dayton, Ohio. (Source)

Captain Hawkins was a member of the 1st Air Commando Squadron flying A-1E Skyraiders out of Bien Hoa Air Base. He and Captain William Campbell were KIA when their aircraft, serial number 52-132649, caught fire and crashed during an interdiction sortie near Can Tho. The aircraft was deemed salvageable and was airlifted to Tan Son Nhut, Air Base, where it was repaired and returned to the 1st, ACS. On 10 March 1966, this Skyraider was flown by Major Bernard Fisher when he performed a daring rescue of a fellow pilot at the A Shau Special Forces, Camp, a feat for which Major Fisher was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The aircraft is now on display at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio. (Source)

The A-1 Skyraiders page had pictures of these men as well -

Back row: Capt Donald E. Jones, Capt Richard E. Bolstad (POW '65-'73) (2014/02/21), Capt Jerry J. Tighe, Capt William H. Campbell (KIA 65/03/21), Capt J.R. Johnson, Capt V.L. Brown Front row: Maj Gail F. Kirkpatrick, LtCol John J. Knight (1981/08/07), LtCol E.L. Surowiec (2005/04/20), Maj R.A. Jones.
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Back row: Capt Charles C 'Vas' Vasiliadis, Capt E.H. Richmond, Capt B.D. Gregorios (2010/04/08), Capt J.H. Winston, Capt Harland M. "Sonny" Davis, Jr. (KIA 72/07/07 F-4D) Front row: Capt Warthom J. George, Capt Donald S. Hynd, Capt Jerry P. Hawkins (KIA 65/03/21). NP/I: Col E.J. Witzenberger
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It pays to take a deeper look sometimes, guys like these need to be remembered.

Brave men doing a tough job.