Flying the F-105 Wild Weasel over Vietnam - Ekman, Fisher, Schleich, Metz and Johnson
10 Percent True - Tales from the Cockpit
English - September 11, 2021 18:00 - 2 hours - 100 MBAviation Leisure Science aviation history fast jet fighter jet war military flying air force combat fighter pilot Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
F-105 Wild Weasels over Vietnam: 1972. With Lucky Ekman, Fred Schleich, ET Johnson, Fish Fisher and Paul Metz.
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It was a huge privilege for me to interview Fish, Lucky, Paul, ET and Fred, so thank you to them all for giving up their time. This interview took a long time to set up – more than six months – but would not have happened at all had it not been for Fred, and then Lucky, who convinced the others to join.
00:00:00 Introduction
00:07:53 Wild Wesel Beginnings - 1965
00:14:27 Iron Hand
00:15:59 1966 - The Threat
00:17:52 1966-1972 Learnings
00:20:28 F-105 Vulnerabilities
00:22:54 YGBSM
00:30:14 Pilot-Bear Pairings
00:34:16 Hard Crewi ng
00:38:39 Crew Coordination
00:46:27 EWO 101
00:50:17 Shrike or StandardARM?
00:56:18 Kill or suppress?
00:58:42 Russian Advisors
01:00:32 The birth of Hunter-Killer Teams
01:02:05 SAM Tactics
01:17:07 Intelligence Capabilities
01:22:51 Night flying
01:33:46 SAM Evasion
01:39:27 WW Tactics
01:42:07 ECM Tactics
01:45:28 The Enemy
01:49:09 The Numbers Game
01:49:54 A mission that haunts
01:57:51 PTSD
02:05:48 Lessons Learned
02:11:56 Modern SAMs
02:16:01 F-15EX
02:18:37 "Why?"
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