The 366th TFW, "The Gunfighters"
in Viet Nam flying the Mcdonnell
F-4 Phantom II. The F-4 was a twin engined fighter aricraft whose evolution led to an outstanding Close Air Support, bombing, and enemy suppression capability. The F-4 had already proven its mastery of the skies and when combined with its leading edge air-to-ground capabilities, the F-4 became an early pioneer of the multi-role aircraft. First designed for the U.S. Navy, the Air force saw its great potential and intigrated the F-4 into its own inventory and formed its first training wing of F-4's at Mcdill AFB in Tampa, Florida. The Air Force then created the first operational wing of F-4's at Davis-Monithan AFB in Tucson, AZ. About that time frame, the Navy made the F-4 Phantom II its front line fleet aircraft. The F-4 became "the King of the skies" over Viet Nam. It was tough, big, loud, smokie and deadly. My father was a "Gunfighter" 1969-1970 Da Nang AFB RSVN. My father was also the first GE Tec Rep assigned at NOTC China Lake when the Navy recieved its first 2 F-4's there for weapons tesing. And my father was one of the first GE Tec Reps assigned to the USAF's first training wing for F-4's at McDill AFB, and he was one of the first GE Tec Reps assigned to the USAF's first operational Fighter Wing at Davis-Monithan AFB. And then he was the Senior GE Tec Rep for the U.S. Navy pacific fleet of F-4 phantoms. He had a long history with a lot of firsts with the F-4 Phantom II, but he was most proud of being, A "Gunfighter".
