Blog

The beautiful Thunderbirds flying cross county in their North American F-100D Super Sabre aircraft. The first time I saw the Thunderbirds was at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico at a summer airshow at the bases open house. I was used to seeing F-100's flying over my home town, Portales, New Mexico but I had never seen them in their beautiful red, white and blue markings painted on beautiful polished aluminum. When they took off thunder rocked me and then they disappeared. It was quite for several minutes and you could hear a Santa Fe train in the distance. The Thunderbird Narrator was talking to the crowd about the history of the team and the different aircraft they had flown since their beginning in 1953. Just when I was wondering if they were actually coming back the announcer said "ladies and gentlemen, your United States Air Force Thunderbirds". And just like that they came over the crowd from the rear, very low and line abreast, and it was a beautiful shock and awesome opening to the next thirty minutes of the air show. It was a beautiful New Mexico day with a deep blue sky, and the aircraft and their performance  was highlighted with the sun bouncing off the polished aluminum and the red, white and blue markings.  I was completely astounded with the whole show and to this day have been an avid Thunderbird fan. 

Over the years the team has flown newer aircraft and although  they have been the same wonderful team, I'll always remember them best in the Super Sabre.

Hi,

I wanted to share how this image came to be.  In 2010 the daughter of a Misty FAC (Fast Forward Air Controller) pilot contacted me to buy a picture of an F-100F explaining that she wanted to show her son's what type of a/c her Dad flew did in the war.  Like most people who go to my site and buy a print, I usually inquire about thier interest in the aircraft.  She wrote back telling me her Dad was a Misty FAC pilot who was shot down over Laos in 1969 and he and his fellow pilot in the two seat F-100F were still listed today as MIA/KIA.  At the time her father was killed she was still very little and didn't remember him.  She told me about how she had read everything about the Misty FAC pilots and thier mission, and had even attended a Misty FAC reunion to get to know the kind of guys her dad hung out with.  She told me the pilots had welcomed her into their family and she now had new friends she felt like she had known a long time.  I wrote  and told her I wanted to create an artist illustration of an F-100F Super Sabre in Misty FAC markings over Vietnam to honor all of the Misty pilots, crew chiefs and support crews involved in their mission.  I  researched everything I could on the a/c and the mission.  Growing up 19 miles from Cannon AFB, New Mexico I was no stranger to the F-100 as I had grown up with them flying over my house in Portales and loved the sight of them and their particular distant rumble jet sound.  But I knew very little about the Misty FAC mission other than they worked as a "Fast FAC" over potential ground targets where smaller, slower propeller driven a/c like the O-1 were shot down.  As always I went to one of my favorite technical sources, retired USAF M/Sgt. Dave Menard who was crew chief on Misty a/c and numerous other F-100's in Vietnam.  He advised me on the load carried on missions, bases,  units, etc.  (Note! I'm sad to say that Dave Menard passed away recently)   I also read personal stories in two wonderful books called BURY US UPSIDE DOWN and MISTY.  These are two of the best and you feel like your right there with the pilots when you read them.  

After I finished creating the print,  I sent it to the daughter and she seemed very pleased with it.  Since then it has become a fairly popular picture that many Misty pilots have been interested in.  I always feel if I can make the pilots who flew an a/c in combat happy, then I'm doing my job.  I was recently honored when Air & Space contacted me to ask permission to use the print to help illustrate an article they were doing to honor the Misty Pilots.  I was very happy to be a part of that article as many folks now days know little about the Misty story. Please go to  http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/The-Misty-Mystique-187893451.html  to read the article and learn more.  Recently I was again honored to be asked by the editor for the Super Sabre Society's journal "The Intake" to reprint the Air & Space article, and to use the picture on the front of their web page.  Visit  www.supersabresociety.com

if your a HUN fan.

 Lastly,  I was again pleased to be asked by the docent at the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor to use the Misty FAC image on their web site to describe to visitors the Misty FAC mission as the museum has acquired an F-100F as a new addition.  

I'm often asked about the Gulf of Tonkin coastal area I used in the picture.  It is from a picture taken by a good friend of mine,  USMC Col Enis Olin who took the picture during an O-2 FAC mission in 1969..  The location is believed by Misty/Laredo FAC  pilot Brig.Gen.Ross "Rosie" Detwiler (ret) to be the mouth of the Dong Hoi River, as he flew over it often.  Read General Detwiler's book THE GREAT MUCKROCK AND ROSIE, one of the best Vietnam air war books I've ever read www.amazon.com/Great...Rosie-Ross-Detwiler/.../1458203.    Sadly my friend Col. Olin  traveled west  a few years ago, but I feel he would approve of my use of it.  He probably would say he would have preferred to see a Marine A-4 Skyhawk in the picture instead of "some air force pukes" airplane(jokingly), but he would still like it.

The North American F-100 Super Sabre has always been one of my very favorite airplanes.  Like many North American aircraft, the F-100 looks sexy from any angle.  I never get tired of building models of it and hopefully can get to one of the air shows in the county where the Collins Foundation's F-100F is flying in Misty markings.  http://vimeo.com/22241898.  And also maybe I'll save a princess someday who wants to grant me one wish.

Thanks for reading my blog.  SUPER SABRE'S FOREVER!