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Rolling Thunder by Robert Taylor.
Flying down Thud Ridge at just below the speed of sound, Jack Broughton leads an
F-105 Thunderbolt raid on the power plant at Viet Tri, North Vietnam, March12,
1967. The target was destroyed. |
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Rolling Thunder by Robert Taylor
- The Signatures
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Lt Colonel Harold W Bingaman
'Bing' Bingaman joined the service in 1951, serving first with the 510th Fighter Bomber Squadron at Langley Field. Flying the F-105 out of Thailand with the 355th TFW, he first saw combat over North Vietnam in September 1966 taking his Thud Jinkin Josie III through the Rolling Thunder Operations - missions involving visiting flak sites on the legendary attack on the Viet Tri power plant, and targets in Hanoi.
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Lt Colonel Max C Brestel
Max Brestel was commissioned and received his wings in 1957. While a member of the 354th TFS he was the first American pilot to shoot down two MiGs in the Vietnam War whilst flying an F-105 on a raid against the Thai Nguyen steel mill on March 10th 1967. He flew a total of 247 combat missions, including 107 over North Vietnam.
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Colonel Jacksel M Broughton
Graduating from West Point in 1945, Jack Broughton was initially assigned to Europe, flying P-47s and P-51s. Converted to jets at Nellis AFB, he flew a combat tour in Korea in P-80s, and a second tour in F-84s. After various operational positions he led the USAF Thunderbirds for three years - the world's first supersonic acrobatic team. Jack commanded 2 tours in South east Asia flying the F-105 during Rolling Thunder missions. In his long career he accomplished being combat ready in every Air Force Fighter from the P-47 to F-106. During 4 combat tours he flew over 216 combat missions. Jack has written two highly respected books - Thud Ridge and Going Downtown, both first hand accounts of the air war over South East Asia. He retired from the Air Force in 1968.
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Colonel Leo K Thorsness
Leo Thorsness flew 92.5 missions in the two seater F-105F Wild Weasels. The job of these specially equipped models was to pinpoint the North Vietnamese SAM (surface to air) missile sites, by getting the sites to activate their radar and fire their missiles at them, so that F-105s could see, attack and destroy the SAM ground radar sites. On April 19th 1967 for one such mission with the 357th TFS, Leo Thorsness was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. On April 30th his luck ran out- he was shot down just 7 missions short of his combat tour. Taken prisoner, he spent six years as a POW in North Vietnam.
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