A-1 Skyraider - How it got it Sandy name
Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:37 am
Re: A-1 Skyraider - How it got it Sandy name
Sat Mar 23, 2013 11:51 am
The poor, misunderstood Skyraider. The link above took me to a photo of a VNAF A-1H, but I didn't see the SANDY story.
SANDY was just a radio callsign used by A-1 crews performing combat search and rescue (CSAR); this callsign is still used by A-10 CSAR assets today. According to Wayne Mutza's excellent "The A-1 Skyraider in Vietnam", by Aug 1965, USAF A-1's began sharing the CSAR mission previously owned by the USN. The A-1s were rotated from Bien Hoa, SVN from the 1st ACS to Udorn RTAFB for this special mission. As the story goes, Capt JW "Doc" George was asked upon his arrival at Udorn what callsign they'd be using and he simply kept his departure callsign from Bien Hoa. His replacement followed suit, the chain remained unbroken, and the rest is history. (There was a rumor, which I can't locate the source at the moment, that "Sandy" was chosen at Bien Hoa as it was one of the pilot's dog's name.)
Regardless of the dog rumor, the rest of the above is true. The only discrepancy is with the squadron. Mutza lists George as coming from the 1st ACS, while Byron Hukee's book "USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War" and my interviews with a 602nd ACS pilot from 1965 indicate that the SANDY rotation was primarily associated with the 602nd; later pictures of their hooch emblem (once the unit moved permanently to NKP) includes the motto "Original Sandy". The confusion is not surprising, as the 1st and 602nd were sister squadrons in the 1965 time range and it is common to see photos identifying members and/or aircraft from one unit as being from the other and vice versa. Some well known photos show the skull and crossbones "Raiders" logo on the fin on a few 602nd birds, but the caption almost always reads "1st ACS".
The other highly misunderstood detail is the plane's designation. The basic series was originally the AD, for Attack, Douglas. The first variant was the AD-1, and so on. When the new DoD aircraft designation system was instituted in 1962, the airplane was re designated A-1, with the first model being A-1A, and so on. As the AD-5, -6, and -7 were the models used by the USAF in Vietnam, the converted designations were A-1E, H, and J. One twist is that sub variants of the wide-body AD-5 (AD-5N and AD-5Q) were found to be different enough to warrant their own letters and the A-1G, and EA-1F were born. The USAF also used the G, however its differences were so slight as to make it difficult without checking the serial to tell an E from a G, just as it is difficult to tell an H from a J.
So ... not every airplane is an AD-1, in fact few of those survive ... but one could say that "they were all A-1's". And not every USAF airplane was a SANDY - it just depends on the mission it was assigned that day. Now the 6th SOS used SPAD as their unit callsign and rarely adopted SANDY, even when flying CSAR, and other folks in the A-1 community would use the nickname Spad for the A-1 but breaking out those details is another story for another time ...
Ken
SANDY was just a radio callsign used by A-1 crews performing combat search and rescue (CSAR); this callsign is still used by A-10 CSAR assets today. According to Wayne Mutza's excellent "The A-1 Skyraider in Vietnam", by Aug 1965, USAF A-1's began sharing the CSAR mission previously owned by the USN. The A-1s were rotated from Bien Hoa, SVN from the 1st ACS to Udorn RTAFB for this special mission. As the story goes, Capt JW "Doc" George was asked upon his arrival at Udorn what callsign they'd be using and he simply kept his departure callsign from Bien Hoa. His replacement followed suit, the chain remained unbroken, and the rest is history. (There was a rumor, which I can't locate the source at the moment, that "Sandy" was chosen at Bien Hoa as it was one of the pilot's dog's name.)
Regardless of the dog rumor, the rest of the above is true. The only discrepancy is with the squadron. Mutza lists George as coming from the 1st ACS, while Byron Hukee's book "USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War" and my interviews with a 602nd ACS pilot from 1965 indicate that the SANDY rotation was primarily associated with the 602nd; later pictures of their hooch emblem (once the unit moved permanently to NKP) includes the motto "Original Sandy". The confusion is not surprising, as the 1st and 602nd were sister squadrons in the 1965 time range and it is common to see photos identifying members and/or aircraft from one unit as being from the other and vice versa. Some well known photos show the skull and crossbones "Raiders" logo on the fin on a few 602nd birds, but the caption almost always reads "1st ACS".
The other highly misunderstood detail is the plane's designation. The basic series was originally the AD, for Attack, Douglas. The first variant was the AD-1, and so on. When the new DoD aircraft designation system was instituted in 1962, the airplane was re designated A-1, with the first model being A-1A, and so on. As the AD-5, -6, and -7 were the models used by the USAF in Vietnam, the converted designations were A-1E, H, and J. One twist is that sub variants of the wide-body AD-5 (AD-5N and AD-5Q) were found to be different enough to warrant their own letters and the A-1G, and EA-1F were born. The USAF also used the G, however its differences were so slight as to make it difficult without checking the serial to tell an E from a G, just as it is difficult to tell an H from a J.
So ... not every airplane is an AD-1, in fact few of those survive ... but one could say that "they were all A-1's". And not every USAF airplane was a SANDY - it just depends on the mission it was assigned that day. Now the 6th SOS used SPAD as their unit callsign and rarely adopted SANDY, even when flying CSAR, and other folks in the A-1 community would use the nickname Spad for the A-1 but breaking out those details is another story for another time ...
Ken
Re: A-1 Skyraider - How it got it Sandy name
Sat Mar 23, 2013 5:05 pm
Re: A-1 Skyraider - How it got it Sandy name
Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:44 am
I believe this well-circulated USAF photo shows the "standard" Sandy load, including CBU, rockets, and single minigun on the left stub; they often carried another fuel tank on the right stub. TT was the code of the 602nd SOS, the airplanes were likely based at NKP but on a SAR alert at Da Nang, SVN, hence the ocean and terrain. Also note lack of US star and bar insignia on the fuselage and top of wing. It's hard to tell from the lighting, but this may be one of the many A-1s which had a black belly painted later in the war. The weapons pylons outboard of the stub look light but it's hard to say about the stub, centerline tank, and belly. Would guess this photo was taken 1970-1972.
