This is a quick follow on description of plans for the “war and remembrance” thread that began with Air War Vietnam: Remembrance at 40 Years – All Days Come From One Day and continued with Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue: Part #1 – Sandy Superb, and Dangerous Sky – Combat Rescue: Part # 2 – Wolf FAC. It’s main purpose is as a lead-in and an intro to upcoming excerpts from Dave Snako Kelly’s book, Not On My Watch.
As Midway departed earlier than expected in April ’72, Dave would begin his second war
cruise, eventually accumulating over 200 combat missions in the A-6 Intruder. While all fighter and attack aircraft flew multiple types of strike/bombing missions – both large strikes called “Alpha Strikes” and small armed reconnaissance missions in two plane sections – the Intruders flew without question the toughest, most dangerous missions of the war – night low level single plane strikes deep into North Vietnam. Later in my career, I accumulated over 600 hours in the A-6. It’s a great airplane, fun to fly, especially low and fast down some river gorge, but I didn’t want their mission then and I wouldn’t want it now. Snako’s stories of the VA-115 A-rabs are great reads … coming now. Continue reading
Everyone at one time or another stumbles across something or someone that sends their mind cascading back in time to people and events that have shaped their lives. Aviators in particular are notorious for that instantaneous hands in the air “and their I was, flat on my back, running out of airspeed, altitude and gas… but here’s what I did…” – airshow time at the bar. Late 1999 I experienced that moment when daughter Tracey – made in Hong Kong 1972 in the midst of the war over Vietnam – announced she was bringing home for Christmas an F-14 Tomcat type naval aviator. The result was really my first effort at story telling by actually writing – The Ghosts of Christmas Past…Fly Navy, the BEST Always Have. 
