After an exhausting session with Victoria's Secret Police, Ed Rasimus
blurted out:


Keep in mind that some of the report information may not be accurate.

Well that can also happen with supposedly contemporaneous unit
histories. If you happen to have a copy of the CNA list or Chris
Hobson's excellent compilation handy...

Quick example.

3 Nov 1966 RF-101C from 45th TRS hit N of the DMZ and pilot jumps out
over the GoT. Pilot listed in the official Oct-Dec 1966 unit history
is Capt Denis Haney and therefore his name is in the CNA list and
Hobson's.

Fast forward to 8 Feb 1967 when the 45th lost its next Voodoo. The
pilot was also hit near the DMZ and jumped out over the GoT. The
Jan-Mar 1967 unit history (and CNA, Hobson) lists Capt John Rogers.

Minor detail, the names are reversed. But how could the Oct-Dec 1966
unit history have the wrong name (specifically a guy would would eject
two months later)? Easy, the Oct-Dec 1966 unit history is dated 28 Jan
67...but clearly it was not important enough to maintain
contemporaneous records under the Sqdn CC at the time. I suspect the
unit history guy had to scramble and come up with a Oct-Dec report
sometime in the middle of Feb 1967, and simply dated it 28 Jan.

How do I "know" the unit history is wrong (I had just turned 10 y/o
the day after the first loss)? Two guys that knew Rogers (but don't
know each other) confirmed the event. Can't get much more detailed
than the guy's Flt Commander that PCS'd a couple days after the
shootdown.

The core facts such as call-sign, target for the day, time, date, and
maybe weather can be captured after the fact,

Most of the time...99% or so as a WAG.

but the relationships, actions and (in those days) lack
of audio/video capture of the visuals and radio calls
makes it difficult to get the tactical situation.

True, afterall it is the last guy with the chalk (or the Target Arm)
in the debrief that wins the fight.

As we old tuskers head off to the elephant graveyard, there will be
fewer and fewer recollections of what "really" happened and more and
more pointy-headed academics telling us what it was actually like.

Indeed, I've gotten at least two or three, "no ****..." I was
responsible for such and such tactic from guys who say the other guy
is full of ****.

But the diverse quality of unit histories from your war is amazing.
Honest! I've read some great ones with detailed diagrams of tactics,
and grossly uninteresting ones where the additional-duty sqdn
historian simply went through the motions. Compared to WWII or Korea
unit histories, SEA comes in a distant 3rd. As Marshall Michel has
said, the stuff at Maxwell has pretty much been "mined" for all the
nuggets a researcher can find.

And...as great as Michel's "Clashes" is (and it is GREAT), he was more
than a little kind when detailing some of the gross buffonery. See
page 195 for his desciption of Falcon 74 (Stanley/O'Brien both
rescued) and Falcon 75 (Wells/Hildebrand both POWs). And Michel does
not agree with Ritchie's firm belief that Carl Bailey and "Fang"
Feinstein shotdown Kula and Matsui on 29 Jul 1972.

But I digress...

Juvat (sincerely humbled by the shadow of gentlemen like you Ed)