"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
news:TG5ag.20821$ZW3.10392@dukeread04...
He was rated in the single seat F 102 Delta fighter and flew
combat air patrol/intercept over the Gulf of Mexico. That
was when the Russians were flying Bear bombers down the east
coast to Cuba and then over the Gulf. Her did not have
enough flight time to go to Viet Ban, although he and some
of his buds did volunteer. The F102 was not used much in VN
because air-to air intercept was not a problem, ground
attack fighters were used more in VN.

He had to be a pretty good stick in order to fly those early
Century Series fighters.

You can say THAT again! I'm getting sick of people who don't know the first
damn thing about flying high performance airplanes making fun of a guy who
did it.
The 102 was a drag queen. Just dealing with the Ps loss to drag rise turning
from base to final made a man of most pilots flying this airplane. Then
handling the drag curve on final finished the education.
In the 102, you were either damn good, or you were damn dead!
Dudley