In 1970 I photographed a squadron of Phantoms at Ton Son Nhut airport, SAIGON. On their tails was the lettering AC.
Aparently little is known of this squadron and the sighting of these markings and photographs is quite rare. 1(Several minutes later I was photographing Curtiss C46 Commandos and a Boeing 1939 Stratoliner so there was a lot of unusual stuff there not to mention a Bearcat at the entrance to the military area of the airport). Could someone please advise me of the details of the AC F4 Phantom squadron.
“AC” tail-code for RF-4 12th TRS/460thTRW at Tan Son Nhut …
Thanks for that. So fast. Is TRW short for Tactical Reconnaisance Wing? Were they a deliberately obscure unit or was it simply the case that they were just a little out of the mainstream operations and therefore were little known.? The reason I ask is because a Dutch correspondent has said that pictures of these airraft with their AC markings are very rare.
Yupper… TRW=Tactical Reconnaisance Wing… TRS is Tactical Reconnaisance Squardron… And yeah, I had a tough time finding photos…
It appears that there were Aussie pilots and GIBs in that unit too…
www.angelfire.com/…/RAAFPHLYERS2.htm
That may have something to do with the rarety of photos…
Site for USAF Aussie-manned model of RF-4C
1/32 Revell RF-4C Phantom, 67-0448, “Carolina Kangaroo”
http://aussiemodeller.com.au/pages/Gallery/Aircraft/Loughman_RF-4C.html
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The Bearcat and markings as mentioned above.
These are not military aircraft as such but the C46 was operated by Air America, the CIA’s airline.
there is a ton of information on that unit, right here on FSM forums, just go back and look at the two oldest Phantom group build postings
AC was the tail code of Bernie’s RF Phantom unit in Vietnam, and the subject of at least one of his builds,so, any tidbits of info he shared with us might be from his time with them
part of the problem with photos might be based on continuity, or the lack of it,the unit was stood down in 1971, and recreated on the same day