remained overnight and ew another
mission there.”
He recalled working with the F-15s from
Soesterberg for air combat training and also
being on sorties where the Eagles would try
to intercept them. They also trained with the
aggressor F-5s from Alconbury.
A more public excursion was undertaken
by a South Dakota ANG aircraft to that year’s
Mildenhall Air Fete in Suffolk. The arrival
of the Corsairs prompted Waddington to
organise a photocall for aviation enthusiasts
on Saturday, May 18. An A-7D from each
unit was presented along with a two-seat
A-7K from the 174th TFS.PRAISE FOR THE CORSAIR II
The A-7 could be armed with 500lb (227kg)
and 1,000lb (453kg) dumb bombs, AGM-
65 Maverick air-to-ground missile to attack
armour and had a 20mm M61A-1 Vulcan six-
barrel cannon. For self-defence it could carry
AIM-9P Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.
Lt Col Pierce had high praise for the
A-7: “It was a great airplane for the reserve
forces. It had tremendous capability with a
computerised system for bombing and to my
mind, though I am prejudiced, it was one of
the most accurate bombers that the air force
had prior to precision-guided munitions. Itwas pretty good for fuel economy too. It may
not have been the fastest but could y a lot
longer at low level than most other ghters
the air force had at that time. It was a great
low-level interdiction airplane.”
Lt Col Dardis was also complimentary
about the Corsair: “It could carry a big
payload and was a good platform from
which to deliver weapons. The upgradednavigation system had a projected map
display that was aligned with the inertial
navigation system [INS]. This was very
useful for ying at low level. Overall, it was a
very good airplane.”
Coronet Buffalo was the last time these
ANG units visited Waddington. Although
a squadron would be assigned to one
forward base, these sometimes changed.
For example, the 175th TFS/South Dakota
ANG deployed to Brustem in Belgium in1988 under Coronet Stone. The 174th TFS/
Iowa ANG also went to this base in 1990 for
Coronet Canyon.
The Waddington deployment came to
an end on June 8, 1985. Looking back
on Coronet Buffalo, the highlight for Lt
Col Pierce was: “getting to go against
other nations’ airplanes and their pilots
was a very good experience. It was also
interesting to land at bases in Europe I’d
never been to before”.
He added: “It was a great opportunity for
the three [ANG] squadrons to interact and
deploy together and get a feel for what it
would be like in a wartime scenario to y each
other’s airplanes and have the maintenance
personnel work with each other.”
Summing up his experience, Lt Col
Dardis said: “We had some good missions
throughout the European theatre. To be
able to y in different airspace and work with
those air traffic controllers and in challenging
environments was valuable training.”
For a period during the Cold War there
were regular Coronet deployments to
Europe, with the UK receiving many of
them. However, the number of aircraft
sent for Coronet Buffalo means it is fondly
remembered by aviation enthusiasts as one
of the most notable events of that era.40 Aviation News incorporating Jets July 2018“...they did things with
those Phantoms that
I didn’t know was
humanly possible.”
Coronet Buffalo was the largest Corsair II deployment to visit the Lincolnshire base during the Cold War. Iowa Gold Star Military Museum-Camp DodgeThere was an unprecedented detachment of 36 A-7s to Waddington for Coronet Buffalo in 1985,
but visits by US units to Europe were commonplace during the latter part of the Cold War.36-40_usaf_a7DC.mf.indd 40 06/06/2018 11:03