Talk:561st Weapons Squadron
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Some Wild Weasel History
editI was with the 561st from 1971 to 1972 when they had F-105's. For our role in Linebacker we received the US Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" for Valour. Our airplanes flew over enemy territory looking for SAM sites--the way the SAM sites were typically spotted is that the North Vietnamese would shoot SAMs at our aircraft, allowing us to know where they were, and we'd have to then duck the approaching missiles. One way to do this was to fly directly at the missile and then swerve away at the last second. Sometimes there'd be many missiles fired simultaneously at our planes. We developed a homing system that would lock onto an enemy radar site even if they turned the radar on and then off--I've heard stories that the North Vietnamese radar operators were so afraid to turn on their radar (our "hunter-killer" teams would blow up their radar site once we got a radar signal from them) that their officers had to hold guns on them and order them to turn on the radar. There's an F-105 Wild Weasel parked in front of the hospital at Mather Field in Sacramento, Calif. in case anyone wants to take a look at it. I can't believe how primitive the plane looks today compared to modern aircraft. The first Wild Weasel squadron was the 354th TFS in Thailand, flying six F-100's, and after 45 days they had no airplanes left. The concept of the Wild Weasel began in 1966, with just four F-100F Super Sabres, with other planes added later. The Wild Weasel acronym YGBSM stands for "You've got to be shitting me", which was what Capt. Jack Donovan (an electronics warfare officer or EWO) uttered when he was first told what the Wild Weasel mission was. The casualty rate for Wild Weasel aircrews over the span of the Vietnam War was 63%. The F-105 could hit Mach 2 at altitude (Mach 1 near the ground) but the SAM missile could go Mach 2.5. 70.237.15.131 (talk) 04:47, 10 June 2010 (UTC)Sgt. Rock
Removed Section
editI have removed the section titled "Vietnam War" for the following reasons:
- The entire section is not referenced to any source;
- The narrative includes inaccuracies (e.g. implies the squadron was activated when the 23d Tactical Fighter Wing replaced the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing;
- Much of the narrative is not related to squadron operations, but to the Wild Weasel mission and would be more appropriate at that article, if properly sourced;
- Although most sites that repeat this section verbatim are clearly mirror sites of this article, the wording at least raises the possibility of WP:COPYVIO. Lineagegeek (talk) 14:57, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
"The Last Great Fighter Squadron" listed at Redirects for discussion
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A discussion is taking place to address the redirect The Last Great Fighter Squadron to this article. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 June 20#The Last Great Fighter Squadron until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Thryduulf (talk) 19:43, 20 June 2021 (UTC)