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During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Sent Updated World War II Bombers to Hit Laos
War is Boring ^ | May 23, 2016 | JOSEPH TREVITHICK

Posted on 05/24/2016 10:59:57 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki

More than four decades after the fall of Saigon, Washington is still holding on to various classified details about its fight in Southeast Asia. Among the Pentagon media arm’s still-secret records are photos and video of updated World War II-era bombers the U.S. Air Force sent to hit Laos.

In May 1966, pilots and crews from the 603rd Air Commando Squadron brought eight B-26K Invaders from their base in Louisiana to Nakhon Phanom Air Base in Thailand. Desperate to stem the flow of troops and supplies flowing down the Ho Chi Minh Trail from North Vietnam, the flying branch had sent the modified planes to help hunt down enemy convoys.

“It was a fantastic improvement over the old aircraft,” Air Force colonel Joseph Kittinger, a veteran of the deployment, said in an official interview in 1974. “[But] the aircraft wasn’t designed for what we were using it for.”

War Is Boring obtained this and other previously secret internal oral histories through the Freedom of Information Act. As of April 2016, the Defense Media Activity said it had at least two classified items relating to these sometimes hair-raising missions in their archive.

Well before the United States became embroiled in its war in Vietnam, the Douglas B-26 Invader had a storied history in the American military.

Originally called the A-26, the planes had attacked German and Japanese forces during World War II, bombed North Korean and Chinese formations during the Korean War and become a sometimes infamous symbol of small wars and covert actions in the early stages of the Cold War.

For its time, the twin-engine Invader boasted an impressive top speed of over 350 miles per hour combined with a range of 1,400 mile

(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: a26; aerospace; aviation; b26; laos; thailand; vietnam; vietnamwar; ww2
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To: elcid1970

That, my friend, is funny.


81 posted on 05/24/2016 3:50:57 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: sukhoi-30mki
They also flew PV-2 Neptunes in Vietnam...:)

(Didn't look like this one, though...)

82 posted on 05/24/2016 4:18:06 PM PDT by rlmorel ("Irrational violence against muslims" is a myth, but "Irrational violence against non-muslims" isn't)
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To: VR-21

I like the way you think.


83 posted on 05/24/2016 4:40:57 PM PDT by sport
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To: Pelham

I know your rationalization for the “defeat” ( we won and left!). I respectfully believe that is bull $hit. It is an attempt to shift the blame to others than the Democrat party murderers of 1 million Vietnamese. It does not work with me because it is not accurate. The Democrats assassinated 1 million Vietnamese freedom loving people— 1 MILLION!!They cut off the MONEY!!


84 posted on 05/24/2016 4:52:24 PM PDT by WENDLE (Why is the FBI dilly dallying? LET'S GO!!)
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To: DJ Taylor
The American people’s just rewards for abandoning a valiant ally during their time of need could have been that the chickens came home to roost...well said - the real villains are of course the people themselves - the feckless, childish American public who become all aroused and enthused by the likes of Kennedy's ringing rhetoric, and then when the going gets rough and particularly when they're asked to start sacrificing for the cause, become all too ready to listen to the likes of Walter Cronkite who said that the North had triumphed during Tet and John Kerry who accused our own troops of murder and rape before the Senate - better to run away and forget the whole affair as soon as possible than to stay and see it through - but that only delays the reckoning, and we're on the edge of finally paying the price for that disgrace of so many years ago....
85 posted on 05/24/2016 5:41:04 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: WENDLE

“I know your rationalization for the “defeat” ( we won and left!). I respectfully believe that is bull $hit. “

Well it’s hardly my rationalization. It’s information culled from McMaster, Bruce Palmer, US Grant Sharp and various other military officers who were deeply involved in Vietnam. If you want call bullsh*t on them then be my guest.


86 posted on 05/24/2016 6:04:33 PM PDT by Pelham (Trump/Tsoukalos 2016 - vote the great hair ticket)
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To: Intolerant in NJ

The feckless, childish American public is still with us to this day.

The other day at the office, one of my young co-workers asked me how it was that I served multiple tours in Vietnam as a combat infantryman and I didn’t get PTSD. My rather flippant answer was “I didn’t get PTSD in Vietnam, I gave it.”

However, this PTSD question made me wonder what PTSD is and what the symptoms are, so I did a little research on the subject and found that I did indeed possess symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concerning a traumatic and very stressful incident that occurred during my last tour in Vietnam. I was a professional soldier when the traumatic incident occurred and had accumulated over six years in Vietnam engaged occasionally in close combat with a vicious and cunningly capable enemy, but the traumatic event was not as a result of close combat with this enemy.

One day when I was totally focused on closing with and destroying the enemy, something caught my eye, I looked around and found a new enemy had unexpectedly appeared behind me; it was the American people. The same Democrat Party who had originally sent me to Vietnam promising that, “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty,” had now sided with the Communists I was fighting. They were parading in the streets of the United States under a Viet Cong flag, were quoting from Mao’s Red Book, and were spitting on and flinging insults at returning Vietnam Veterans. Then, a Democrat led Congress cut off funding for the Vietnam War, American combat troops were withdrawn and we abandoned a valiant ally to their fate.

I was ordered out of the country in 1972, and when I arrived at Travis Air Force Base, purposely in the dark of the night, I was advised to change out of my uniform and put on civilian clothing to avoid being attacked by the American people when I entered San Francisco. I was not at all surprised when a few decades later these same people elected a Marxist-Communist as President of what was once my country.

Yes, the deep, burning hatred I feel for the Democrat Party to this day could be diagnosed as a symptom of PTSD, and I assure you, every Vietnam Veteran I know feels the same way.


87 posted on 05/24/2016 7:00:18 PM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: tanknetter
The first was the Martin B-26 Marauder. Also known as the Baltimore

And you've got two aircraft mixed up

Martin A=30 Baltimore was a export/lendlease only light bomber originallky designed to a French order, later supplied mainly to RAF.

Martin B-26 Marauder was the later medium bomber you are thinking about, which nobody wanted to fly.

g

88 posted on 05/24/2016 7:43:02 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools - Solon, Lawmaker of Athens)
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To: Oztrich Boy

Nice PBY Catalina in the background.


89 posted on 05/24/2016 7:44:51 PM PDT by exit82 (Road Runner sez:" Let's Make America Beeping Great Again! Beep! Beep!")
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To: DJ Taylor
...every Vietnam Veteran I know feels the same way...I'm with you - I can't claim the - what's the correct word? - privilege? - of calling myself a Vietnam Vet because the closest I got to 'nam was Okinawa for a year and a half in 65-66, but I am a Vietnam Era Vet and I see it as you do - I don't say we lost the war - we threw it away - we were never out to conquer the North, only to stop them from taking over the South - Nixon had pretty much gotten us to that point but when the North renewed their mass invasion after the "Peace Accords" took effect, the Senate Democrats refused to provide the funds and military supplies Nixon had promised and the South, realizing we had abandoned them, collapsed - it was a disgraceful betrayal of South Vietnam and of all those who had fought there to help keep them free - but then again, if the American public hadn't by that time decided they were more interested in watching television and getting on with their careers than in keeping the commitment they had made, I don't think the politicians could have gotten away with acting as they did and the country would have lived up to what Nixon had tried to accomplish in supporting an ally and important far-east foothold against communism.....
90 posted on 05/24/2016 8:56:53 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: floralamiss

Of possible interest to you...


91 posted on 05/24/2016 9:00:14 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Taxman

ping


92 posted on 05/24/2016 9:47:49 PM PDT by B4Ranch (In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.--Orwell)
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To: Oztrich Boy

Actually I was referring to the Marauder being nicknamed the “Baltimore Whore” (no visible means of support, due to the short wings), not just the “Baltimore”


93 posted on 05/25/2016 5:33:01 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: Joe 6-pack

The good ol’ B-26 Invader! This daughter of a 13th Bomb Squadron, ‘Grim Reaper’, bomb/nav thanks you!


94 posted on 05/25/2016 4:15:20 PM PDT by floralamiss
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To: floralamiss

I built the model in high school :) then as now I see certain old warplanes really should be graded as flying works of art and all restoration societies get full benefit of that fact. There are few twin engine jobs that give me the “masterpiece” feeling, and this is one.

Didn’t know about the wing problem. It still looks so slick it looks like it’s upgraded puppy might be out kicking ISIS’ ass, mopping up after the A-10s. Depleted uranium is expensive, I do believe.

But you have to allow the pilots to have the option of wearing the old fashioned gear and leather jackets, if they choose. The morale quotient must abey the negatives ;)


95 posted on 05/25/2016 4:37:26 PM PDT by BiggerTigger
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To: exit82

The Catalina also definitely is in the flying artwork category. Unique and successful.


96 posted on 05/25/2016 4:42:51 PM PDT by BiggerTigger
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To: Jimmy Valentine

Somewhere there is a picture of Teddy wearing his Brooks Brothers jungle fatigues when he visited Vietnam early in his Senate career.


97 posted on 05/26/2016 4:15:21 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine's brother ("Hillary Clinton is a congenital liar." - William Safire)
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To: DJ Taylor

bkmk


98 posted on 05/26/2016 10:14:24 PM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44
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To: sukhoi-30mki

While he was in Vietnam, Obama announced that Boeing would sell them 100 Boeing 737MAX200 airliners for $11.8-billion. I wonder if he is giving Vietnam a loan to buy the planes?

There is a military version of the Boeing 737 called the P-8 Poseidon . It is used by the U.S. Navy to replace the P-3 Orion anti-submarine plane. The P-8 Poseidon is based on the Boeing 737 airliner airframe.

I wonder if Vietnam is going to militarize those Boeing 737’s?

Boeing_P-8 Poseidon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_P-8_Poseidon

Boeing_737_MAX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX


99 posted on 05/26/2016 10:20:36 PM PDT by r_barton (GO TRUMP!!!)
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To: BiggerTigger

They ARE gorgeous ships! I’ve read about companies taking enthusiasts up for short hops. The Collings Foundation and Incredible Adventures are two affordable choices. If a passenger has pilot certification, the price is quite a bit loftier for the privilege of taking over the controls. I haven’t seen a group with the B-26 in its flight inventory, but, I hear, the Collings Foundation is in the process of restoring an Invader!


100 posted on 05/28/2016 7:14:15 AM PDT by taxmanguy (Liberals need to be banished to Baffin Island where they can tax the crap out of each other.)
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