Ken wrote:
Here are a few A-1E, A-1G, or A-1E-5 ... hard to tell without looking up the serials.
"Sweet Marlene" of the 602nd SOS, NKP, Thailand. Looks like all ordnance was expended, save the remaining rockets in the LAU-3 pod on Station 6. The basic LAU-3 had innards of wood and cardboard and was considered disposable and will likely be dropped when/if the remaining rockets are fired. Also interesting that no tailhook is visible. These were frequently not included when airplanes went to the VNAF and many aircraft were traded back and forth over the course of the war. Learn more about this airplane and one of her pilots in this video:
http://vimeo.com/66038238VERY unusual Skyraider. I've got pics of USAF-marked ones with no tailhook and the VNAF "tall spike" antenna, but had so far never seen one--either USAF or VNAF--with the USAF standard VHF antenna and no tailhook.
So is this an ex-VNAF airplane that USAF mounted its own antenna on, or is it a USAF airplane from which the tailhook has been removed for some reason?
Turns out I have three other pics of 514 in my photo-database. Just looked two of them up, and the tailhook is clearly visible in both. So it's a USAF Skyraider which is missing its tailhook in this pic for some reason.
One of the pics has the TT 514 on the tail, as shown here, and the dark block below the middle canopy section, as shown here, but it does not have the SweetMarlene name on it. No date on that pic. In the other pic, it just has white 514 on the tail, no TT, and no dark block under the canopy. That one says Tan Son Nhut, 1970.
But the story gets even more interesting....
In all three of my photos, the airplane has neither the standard USAF Collins 37R-2 type antenna, nor the VNAF "tall spike," but a mystery third type that I've noted on three or four other (camoed) USAF A-1Es. Been wondering what that antenna means; thought it just might have been a late replacement/substitute for the Collins. But now that I've seen it on an airplane that I know was once equipped with the Collins, I now suspect that it might have been mounted for some sort of special use. I know that some USAF Es were drafted for mysterious "special" duties--perhaps that antenna has something to do with such use. (I suspect we'll be talking more about that antenna in the "Skyraider Questions" thread, if Ken or anyone else is interested.)