Word: viets
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...increase in the number of U.S. military "trainers," now limited to 55. The aide also hinted that the roles of the trainers might be enlarged. The subject remains highly sensitive on Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress find it politically prudent to recall that U.S. involvement in the Viet Nam War began with only a handful of advisers. Soon after reporters began filing their stories from Air Force One, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the Defense Department was considering lifting the ceiling on trainers. But White House Deputy Press Secretary Larry M. Speakes denied the report. Reagan settled that...
...fundamental problem with close air support is that the Air Force does not like the subservient task of aiding Army troops. It provided that service grudgingly during the Viet Nam War, preferring the glory of long-range bombing runs and dogfights with MiGs. Only in the last decade has the Air Force produced a good close-support plane, the A10, which can fly slowly enough to find enemy tanks, is sturdy enough to take hits, and is capably armed with a simple and effective 30-mm cannon. Tactical Air Command pilots ridicule the A10, joking that they fear being...
...Paul Thayer flew one himself to check out reports of serious problems; when he landed, the nose wheel failed to come down and he had to adopt emergency procedures. Some experts now believe that the very concept of such a multipurpose plane is wrong. They point out that in Viet Nam, Navy pilots who specialized in either dogfights or bombing missions outperformed Air Force pilots who tried to do both...
Which has proved deadlier in combat? The Sidewinder, easily. During the Viet Nam War, Sidewinders shot down their target 24% of the time, Sparrows only 8%. Improvements to both missiles do not seem to have changed their batting averages. Israeli officials have told Americans that Sidewinders killed far more of the 80-odd Arab jets downed over Lebanon last year than Sparrows did. One reason: most aerial duels are fought at less than the Sparrow's minimum effective range (which is secret). In a close-range dogfight, the Sparrow's great speed often causes it to zip right...
...been developing such traits ever since his 1967 graduation from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania as an engineer. He joined the Air Force and was assigned to a team at Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base that analyzed why U.S. planes were shot down so often over Viet Nam. He did so well that the Air Force sent him to Florida Tech to get an M.B.A., then posted him to the Pentagon in 1972 as one of the youngest officers ever to join the research and development team of the service's Deputy Chief of Staff...