F
AST, SLEEK AND deadly, the
F3D Skyknight was designed
and built by Douglas as a
carrier-based night ighter
in the years immediately
after World War Two. Initial
development and production took time,
as jet technology was still in its infancy,
and the type wasn’t to see action until
late in the Korean War. That said, it gave
a good account of itself in combat and
scored several MiG-15 kills.
The pace of ighter development in
the late 1950s and early 1960s was rapid
and the F3D was soon replaced on thefront line by newer types such as the F-4
Phantom II. However, it wasn’t the end
for the Skyknight, as it had been turned
into an electronic warfare platform by the
time the Vietnam conlict started under
the EF-10B designation. Its large interior
provided ample room for the latest
electronic equipment, and its primary
role was protecting American bombers
from the maze of surface-to-air missiles
(SAMs) spread over North Vietnam.
Lt Col Wes Corman and VMCJ-1 ‘Golden
Hawks’ arrived at Da Nang air base on
April 17, 1965, to begin operations with six
aircraft. The number of machines assignedto the unit in theater varied, but there
were not usually more than 10 EF-10Bs
present at any one time.
On April 5, 1965, just four days before
VMCJ-1 deployed to Da Nang, a Strategic
Air Command (SAC) aircraft brought
back pictures of the irst SAM site under
construction around Hanoi. By mid-July,
the area around the North Vietnamese
capital and the important Haiphong
harbor was jammed with missile sites.
The ban on attacking these installations
was lifted immediately, which gave the
EF-10B an opportunity to provide ECM
support on the strikes that followed.‘Drut’ into battle
The EF-10B, which was nicknamed the
‘Drut’, was armed with a pair of 20mm
guns, but didn’t have ejection seats
for its two-man crew — unusual for
a jet. Both crew members had to rely
on an escape hatch in the event of an
emergency egress.The EF-10B electronic warfare version of the Skyknight played a
vital but often overlooked role in Vietnam. Combat Aircraft talks to
some of the brave men who flew the type operationally in those
deadly skies in South-east Asia.REPORT Warren E. Thompson
An EF-10B
Skyknight landing
at Da Nang AB
in 1967. This was
getting close to
the end of the
squadron’s use
of this aircraft in
Vietnam.
Jerry Parks via
author62 October 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net