Kill Markings

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Here’s a shot I took on my scond tour during VIetnam. F-4D number 463 stopped off for a short visit and I managed to get a shot of her while aircraft maint. did whatever they were doing. Take a good look at the top markings.

2

Hello Bob!

That’s a spectacular shot - there are not so many people out there who can claim to have photographed that famous bird while it was in service!

But I can’t quite make out the top markings - what’s there?

Can you post that photo in higher resolution?

Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

3

It’s a Ryan Fire Bee drone. The same type they would launch from a DC-130.

I tried posting a larger shot from a short time later after the people left.

4

So, seven air-to-air victories!

Any idea who was flying this airplane? Is the pilot’s name just below the windscreen?

5

No idea, I stayed away to sort of keep the peace between the crew Chiefs and our squadron. They didn’t like us so we kept our disatance except when necessary to keep the friction down. We were the most unpopular squadron on the base, and were tolerated at best. Other squadrons would do what they could to us, such as hold up releasing our vehicles from motor pool, slow down supply requests, and so on. Anything to make it harder on us. Eventually we did find a way to get back at them through visitor control mistakes they would make.

6

66-7463 was assigned to 2 different flight crews. The first was Major Ivy McCoy (Pilot) and Major Fred Brown (WSO). The second was none other than Captain Steve Ritchie (Pilot) and Captain Chuck DeBellevue (WSO). I believe McCoy/Brown were responsible for the first kill, with Ritchie/DeBellevue being responsible for the remaining 5.

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the-story-of-the-last-mig-kill-scored-by-f-4d-66-7463-the-highest-scoring-us-combat-aircraft-since-the-korean-war/

7

Makes you wonder, who got the drone and what’s the story behind it. Recon drones were a fairly expensive piece of equipment so you normally would not blow one out of the sky without a very good reason. I took these shots on my second tour in 1974, just before the war ended.

8

HMMMMM. I have a spare F4-D kit in my stash that I was going to do up as a Navy version but an in flight 463 with 5 kill markings lauching a sidewinder sounds intriguing.

Would go nicely with my Col.Olds Scat.