Word: flak
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...home base exclusively from the sky, there seems little way to reduce the risks for U.S. airmen. But the losses are by no means one-sided. Last week U.S. air strikes damaged or destroyed 355 North Vietnamese barges, 165 bridges, 147 trucks, 69 railroad cars, 58 oil dumps, 36 flak sites, and 2 SAM sites-also a new week's record...
...jets returned to the big oil-storage tanks outside the port of Haiphong, claimed afterward that cumulative destruction of the complex now stood at 90%. Though monsoon clouds hampered raids north of the Red River, American planes elsewhere in Ho Chi Minh-land pounded 41 smaller fuel depots, bridges, flak sites and more than 230 barges...
...James Kasler, 40, of Indianapolis, who is dubbed by his wingmates a "one-man Air Force." A World War II tail gunner and six-kill ace in Korea, Kasler in five months of flying missions over the North has limped home four times with his F-105 riddled by flak or MIGs, has seen 30 SAM missiles ("They're long, very slender and a dirty-yellow color") zoom up in his vicinity, tangled in the longest dogfight with MIGs thus far in the war (17 minutes). Six weeks ago, Kasler flew as co-leader of the raid on Hanoi...
...four-plane flight that Kasler commands as part of the 354th Tactical Fighter Squadron claims to have destroyed or damaged 219 buildings, 66 barges, 53 railroad cars, 44 trucks, 36 fuel tanks, 28 bridges and 16 flak sites-a record for any such air unit. And, miraculously, in 72 missions Kasler has yet to be shot down-though statistically, every American airman is downed at least once by the time he has reached 60 missions. The Indianan has an explanation for that too. Says he: "The best way to survive is by being aggressive...
...night, the 200-odd planes of the 460th-the largest wing in the Air Force-criss-cross the skies of Viet Nam, snaking up infiltration trails, dodging mountains, flying through thunderstorms and flak, alone, unarmed, and always looking for Charlie. It is the toughest flying in the world, as its pilots-all veterans of proven skill-know all too well. In the past two years the "Recce" wing has lost 27 crews, including the six men aboard an RB-66 that was shot down last week northeast of Hanoi. But, says Captain Gale Hearn, 34, a onetime flying instructor...