FlyPast 06.2018

June 2018 FLYPAST 63

Left centre

EA-1E 135152 is maintained

in airworthy condition

at the Dallas, Texas

attraction.

Left

An air-to-air view of A-1E

139606.

Left

The Cavanaugh single-

seat Skyraider carries

the markings it wore with

VA-165 ‘Thunderbolts’ on

the USS ‘Oriskany’.

Below

EA-1E 135152, with

the Cavanaugh Flight

Museum’s Goodyear-built

FG-1D Corsair behind.

500703

seemed capable of taking on almost

any role, other than air-to-air

combat. But even that occasionally

came within its remit during the

Vietnam War, when the Skyraider

became an unlikely MiG killer.

To prove this was no fluke, the

venerable warrior performed the feat

not once, but twice.

Four A-1Hs of VA-25 ‘Fist of the

Fleet’ were launched from the carrier

USS Midway for a RESCAP – rescue

combat air patrol – mission on June

20, 1965. A USAF pilot was down,

and every effort would be made to

bring him back.

Once in the operational area,

137523 call sign Canasta 573, flown

by Lt Charles W Hartman III and

139768 Canasta 577, piloted by Lt

Clinton B Johnson, were attacked

by two Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17

Frescos. Manoeuvring violently, the

Americans managed to elude the

North Vietnamese pilots.