Al Worden goes west
- Thread starter murphey
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write-stuff
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Yep, another hero moves on.
Brad Z
Final Approach
RIP Al. Gotta feel for the CM pilots of moon landing missions. Circled the moon with the stress of wondering if your crew in the LEM will make it back to lunar orbit. So close but never getting to step foot on the moon. None of the CM pilots of lunar landing missions ever made it back up to EVA on the moon. Lived life in relative obscurity compared to their moonwalking brethren. Everybody knows Neil Armstrong, most know of Buzz Aldrin, but Michael Collins was generally a trivia card answer.
David Scott and John Young, CM pilots of pre-lunar landing missions Apollo 9 & 10 did make it to the moon on 15 & 16. Jim Lovell, CM pilot of Apollo 8 would have made it to the moon on Apollo 13. Regardless, all of those guys were quite brave, but considering what the life expectancy of fighter pilots in Southeast Asia at the time, it probably didn't seem like that bad of a assignment.
David Scott and John Young, CM pilots of pre-lunar landing missions Apollo 9 & 10 did make it to the moon on 15 & 16. Jim Lovell, CM pilot of Apollo 8 would have made it to the moon on Apollo 13. Regardless, all of those guys were quite brave, but considering what the life expectancy of fighter pilots in Southeast Asia at the time, it probably didn't seem like that bad of a assignment.
Doc Holliday
En-Route
Fighter pilots didn't have it that bad, the North only had a small fleet of Migs. The bombing runs into the North proved treacherous.
The lower life expectancy was the helicopter guys, there were more of them and the environment they flew made them very susceptible to ground fire. Those losses were high.
3393RP
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One statistic from the Vietnam War plainly illustrates the risk bomber pilots took. About half of the F-105s manufactured were shot down during the war. Getting a 100 mission patch entailed a lot of exposure to SA-2 batteries.
Doc Holliday
En-Route
Yep. A tough job for sure.
The weapons of the day also required going down and playing in AAA to get good hits. "Fighters" also dropped a lot of bombs. F-8s, F-4's Navy, USAF and Marine and shockingly the F-100 really did yeoman service along with the A-6s, A-4's, A-1s and F-105's . About the only fighter I can think of that didn't drop bombs were the very small dets of F-104s and F-102s.
Precision guided weapons and aggressive SEAD has allowed us to build and operate in a high sanctuary that has saved a lot of us thanks to the hard lessons the VN Aviators learned.
Doc Holliday
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denverpilot
Tied Down
Someone non-aviation asked me about that recently so I looked up the numbers for VN. Wow. Tough all around, but the heli crews really got beat up more than the rah-rah history shows of today or movies make it seem. Thousands.
pburger
Pre-takeoff checklist
I met Al this past January at an weekend event in Florida. Several of us got to land at the Shuttle Landing Facility and toured the Kennedy Space Center, among other things that weekend. Al was one of the hosts of the event. I don't know the circumstances of his passing, but when I last saw him he was full of life. He was a featured speaker at the Friday night banquet, he rode one of the tour buses all day Saturday, and was an overall great host for the whole weekend. I got a signed copy of his book, Falling to Earth, which I still haven't read yet. Al had recently relocated from Florida to Houston, and I was looking forward to seeing him at aviation events and meetings here. Godspeed Al...