24jul07

24 July 2007

Japanese Aircraft Night - Milt CO

Good morning Specs, <S>

Some of you may recall a song by “The Vapors” called Turning Japanese. (1980)

<Chorus>

Turning Japanese

I think I’m turning Japanese

I really think so

Turning Japanese

I think I’m turning Japanese

I really think so!

It was kind of a cheesy 80’s song, but I thought it would make a good theme for tonight’s mission.

Meet at 8:00 p.m. Eastern in LWO or LWB and pick out your favorite Japanese steed; Zero’s I believe are the fastest ride of those available, the N1K has good cannons, and the Ki84 seems to land in-between with guns and turn rate.

Since the Japanese planes typically will not absorb much punishment, fighter sweep is again the mission for this week. Make fuel 75% or grab a drop tank for range if available & necessary.

So- lets go get into a nasty turn-fight, and try to return to base in one piece when ammo is exhausted. I am hoping we’ll meet with more success returning alive than last week, only one or two of us made it back after the initial run in with a single B-17 flight that was capably manned. L

For that reason, I’d like to see us stick to jumping fighters unless it’s just unavoidable for the first hop tonight.

After we get #1 Hop behind us, we’ll revert to Fighter Of Choice and continue to take it to them until each of us retires for the evening.

That is all, I look forward to flying with you fellas. <S>

Blue Skies,

MILT

July <CO>

Good evening Spec's!

I felt like Tuesday nights "all Japanese" mission was allot of fun, I think we had much better luck with the Japanese planes than we did with the Corsairs the week before.

Again, seven Specialists were in attendence including myself were Luft, Seal, Fuze, Joker, Skesis & Rostr. I had forgotten that Skesis now goes under the name Ihranune, but I did figure it out mid-evening; right about the time I learned that "Ihranune" is difficult to type while in combat. <S>

After flying some quick aerobatics over the field, we were off on our first hop.

The first sortie went well, the only hitch was when Seal got Disco'ed just as we took off.He got back pretty quick and it didn't take very long to find the action, and I think just about everyone got a kill in that first volley. I managed a kill and two assists before getting nailed... which brings me to my next thought of the evening, the Japanese planes that turn really good don't go so fast, have light armor and a small ammo load. My peashooter was outta spitballs when I bought the farm. They sure are fun to fly though! <S>

It was heartening to see that allot of the guys stayed with the Japanese airplanes throughout the evening, I think the plane of choice was the Ki84. I must apologize to those that read my initial email and picked out a Zero for the initial run; my opinion was based on historical hoopla, the Zero seems to get allot of credit for being the Japanese fighter of choice during the war... now I'm thinking it was simply the one built in the greatest numbers.

I flew the Ki for 3-4 sorties, then transitioned back into my F4U. I upped in a 1C, lost a wing to a B-24 that was playing dogfight with us. (Fuze got him though <S>) I managed to get it back to a field and ditch it, and only lost nine perkies. Not too bad, I was happy to have survived the encounter and subsequent landing.

So- it's short and sweet AAR this week, I didn't manage too many notes this time around, I suppose due to the distance flown to target.... we got spread out a bit over the evening, so I am sure I missed some good stuff. I did see allot of bomber formations, at one point Fuze, Joker, and I think Luft as well were surrounded by 9 flights of B-24's with scorts. Quite a terrifying sight.

I hope to come up with somthing decent again for next week, one Tuesday left in July and then it's..... Swoose's turn? <<S>>

I certainly hope you guys had fun, that what really matters to me most when I think these out; I probably worry too much I guess since this is my first shot as CO.

I should mention before wrapping this up that the highlight for the evening is when Fuze attacked a formation of bombers with Joker in tow, he got two of them before he lost his engine, then managed to glide half a sector and land the kills. Pretty amazing! <SALUTE FUZE> I think Joker may have finished off the last one?

That's all I've got for now, see you guys next week! <S>

Until then, blue skies!

~ Milt