North American F-100 Super Sabre - Phan Rang Air Base
The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a jet fighter aircraft that served with the
United States Air Force (
USAF) from 1954 to
1971 and with the
Air National Guard (
ANG) until
1979. As the first of the
Century Series collection of USAF jet fighters, it was capable of supersonic speed in level flight, and made extensive use of titanium throughout the aircraft.
The
F-100 was originally designed as a higher performance follow-on to the
F-86 Sabre air superiority fighter. Adapted as a fighter bomber, the F-100 would be supplanted by the
Mach 2 class
F-105 Thunderchief for strike missions over
North Vietnam. The F-100 flew extensively over
South Vietnam as the
Air Force's primary close air support jet until replaced by the more efficient subsonic
A-7 Corsair II. The F-100 also served in several
NATO air forces and with other US allies. In its later life, it was often referred to as "the Hun," a shortened version of "one hundred."
The
F-100D arrived in
Southeast Asia in 1962 and began flying combat missions, used primarily for close air support and ground attacks within South Vietnam.
On 18
August 1964, the first F-100D to be shot down by ground fire was piloted by 1st Lt
Colin A.
Clark, of the 428th
TFS; Clark ejected and survived. On 4
April 1965 an F-100 piloted by Capt
Donald W. Kilgus shot down a
North Vietnamese Air Force MiG-17, using cannon fire. Although not officially confirmed, this represented the first aerial victory "kill" by
US forces in
Vietnam.
The Hun was also deployed as a two-seat F-100F model which saw service as a "Fast-FAC" or "Misty-Fac" (forward air controller) in North Vietnam, spotting targets for other fighter-bomber aircraft and conducting
SAR (
Search and Rescue) missions as part of the top-secret
Commando Sabre or "
Misty"
Operation based out of
Phu Cat Airbase. It was also the first
Wild Weasel SEAD aircraft whose specially-trained crews were tasked with locating and destroying enemy air defenses. Four F-100F Wild Weasel Is were fitted with an APR-25 vector radar homing and warning (RHAW) receivers, IR-133 panoramic receivers with greater detection range, and KA-60 panoramic cameras. The RHAW could detect early-warning radars and, more importantly, emissions from
SA-2 Guideline tracking and guidance systems. These aircraft deployed to
Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base in
Thailand in
November 1965, and began flying combat missions with the
388th Tactical Fighter Wing in December. They were joined by three more aircraft in
February 1966. All Wild Weasel F-100Fs were eventually modified to fire the
AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile.
By war's end, 242 F-100
Super Sabres had been lost in Vietnam, as the F-100 was progressively replaced by the
F-4 Phantom II and the F-105 Thunderchief. The Hun had logged
360,283 combat sorties during the war and its operations came to end on July 31, 1971.
By
1972, the F-100 was mostly phased out of USAF active service and turned over to tactical fighter groups and squadrons in the Air National Guard. In
Air National Guard units, the F-100 was eventually replaced by the F-4 Phantom II, A-7 Corsair II, and
A-10 Thunderbolt II, with the last F-100 retiring in 1979. In foreign service,
Danish and
Turkish F-100s soldiered on until
1982.
Turkish F-100-units were used during the invasion to
Cyprus in
1974.
Together with
F-104G Starfighters they provided close air support to Turkish ground troops and bombed targets around
Nicosia.