F-100D Super Sabre "The Hun on Close Air Support"

F-100 in Vietnam

Fighter and Close Air Support missions

On 16 April 1961, six Super Sabres were deployed from Clack Air Base in the Philippines to Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand for air defense purposes; the first F-100s to enter combat in Southeast Asia. From that date until their redeployment in 1971, the F-100s were the longest serving U.S. jet fighter-bomber to fight in the Vietnam War. Serving as MiG combat air patrol escorts for F-105 Thunderchiefs, Misty FACs, and Wild Weasles over North Vietnam, and then relegated to close air support and ground attacks within South Vietnam.

On 18 August 1964, the first F-100D shot down by ground fire, piloted by 1st Lt Colin A. Clarke, of the428th TFS; Clarke ejected and survived. On 4 April 1965, as escorts protecting F-105s attacking the Thanh Hoa Bridge, F-100 Super Sabres fought the USAF's first air-to-air jet combat duel in the Vietnam War, in which an F-100 piloted by Captain Donald W. Kilgus of the 416^th Fighter Squadron shot down a Vietnam People’s Air Force MiG-17, using cannon fire, while another fired AIM-9 Sidewinder Missiles. The surviving North Vietnamese pilot confirmed three of the MiG-17s had been shot down. Although recorded by the U.S. Air Force as a probable kill, this represented the first aerial victory by the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam. However, the small force of four MiG-17s had penetrated the escorting F-100s to claim two F-105s.

The F-100 was soon replaced by the F-4C for MiG CAP which pilots noted suffered for lacking built-in guns for dogfights.

The Vietnam War was not known for utilizing activated Army National Guard, Air National Guard, or other U.S. Reserve units; but rather, had a reputation for conscription during the course of the war. During a confirmation hearing before Congress in 1973, Air Force General George Brown, who had commanded the 7^th Air Force during the war, stated that five of the best Super Sabre squadrons in Vietnam were from the Air National Guard. This included the120th TFS of the Colorado Air National Guard, the136th TFS of the New York Air National Guard TFS, the174th TFS of the Iowa Air National Guard and the 188^th TFS of the New Mexico Air National Guard. The fifth unit was a regular AF squadron manned by mostly air national guardsmen.

The Air National Guard F-100 squadrons increased the regular USAF by nearly 100 Super Sabres in theater, averaging, for the Colorado ANG F-100s, 24 missions a day, delivering ordnance and munitions with a 99.5% reliability rate. From May 1968 to April 1969, the ANG Super Sabres flew more than 38,000 combat hours and more than 24,000 sorties. Between them, at the cost of seven F-100 Air Guard pilots killed (plus one staff officer) and the loss of 14 Super Sabres to enemy action, the squadrons expended over four million rounds of 20mm shells, 30 million pounds of bombs and over 10 million pounds of napalm against their enemy.

The Hun was also deployed as a two-seat F-100F model which saw service as a "fast FAC" or Misty FAC in South Vietnam and Laos, spotting targets for other fighter-bomber aircraft, performing road reconnaissance, and conducting Search and Rescue missions as part of the top-secret Commando Sabre project, based out of Phu Cat and Tuy Hoa air bases.

By the war's end, 242 F-100 Super Sabres had been lost in Vietnam, as the F-100 was progressively replaced by the F-4 Phantom II and the F-105 Thunderchief. The Hun had logged 360,283 combat sorties during the war and its wartime operations came to end on 31 July 1971. The four fighter wings with F-100s flew more combat sorties in Vietnam than over 15,000 P-51 Mustangs flew during World War II. After 1965, they did not fly into North Vietnam and mainly performed close air support missions. Despite the April 1965 dogfight, the air force classified the engagement as resulting in a "probable" kill, and no F-100 was ever officially credited with any aerial victories. No F-100 in Vietnam was lost to enemy fighters, but 186 were shot down by anti-aircraft fire, seven were destroyed from Vietcong attacks on airbases, and 45 crashed in operational incidents.