Meet the Pilot Who Flew More Sorties Than Anybody During the Vietnam War!
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- čas přidán 7. 01. 2022
- USS Oriskany suffered the highest loss rate of any US aircraft carriers in Vietnam War during its 1967-68 tour. It lost half of its airplanes and a third of its pilots. One of the pilots who was there would eventually make history by flying more combat sorties of the war than any other naval aviators. His name vas Lt Cdr Denis Weichman, he flew A-4 Skyhawks (and A-7 Corsairs in the late phase of the war) and he summed up no less than 625 combat missions. Being 6 foot 6 inches tall, he could barely squeeze into the cockpit of the 'Scooter' as A-4 Skyhawk was affectionately called. On 11 January 1968, Lt Cdr Weichman was involved in a mission in Laos, trying to stop North Vietnamese supply of war material to the insurgency in the South. This mission would prove to be much more eventful than most others he has flown.
Sources:
- Peter Mersky - Osprey Combat Aircraft 69 - US Navy and Marine Corps A-4 Skyhawk Units of the Vietnam War 1963-1973
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- Peter Fey - Bloody Sixteen: The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 during the Vietnam War
amzn.to/3AK1VS7
- Peter E. Davies - Osprey Duel 104 - A-4 Skyhawk vs North Vietnamese AAA
North Vietnam 1964-72
amzn.to/3R7CoYk
- Peter Mersky, Norman W Birzer - Osprey Combat Aircraft 48 - US Navy A-7 Corsair II Units of the Vietnam War
amzn.to/3KeC73D
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Music: Miss Dorothy - Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
• Miss Dorothy - Fortuna...
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#DCSWorldHistoricalReenactment #MilitaryAviationHistory #VietnamWar - Hry
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@@Randomguy-sq5sj They found me 😁
Hey glad you got a sponsor!
Super stoked to the the A-4 here hope there is more to come!
They gave me an offer I couldn't refuse 😁 There will be more A-4 missions in the future!
My grandfather was bombing Vietnam, Laos, and North Vietnam during this time. He died in Laos 03/21/1968
He is a true aviation warrior and legend with a distinguished service record. ♠️🎩☯️🏁
Yes, he certainly took his calling very seriously.
Another great job! This one is especially good for me since I'm new to DCS and I'm learning the A-4E as we speak. Thanks for a great history lesson!
Thank you for your comment! It's great that we have such a quality free mod, those guys who develop it are the best.
Your music selection is always appropriate for the era.
I'm just waiting for someone to say that they don't like it. That gets you an immediate ban from the channel 😁😁😁
Oh man, great stuff there! Finally you play CCR song! Fortunate Son is a great tune to play in a video about Vietnam War. Many thanks!
Thanks! This one was waiting for a while but the time has finally come.
Thank your for telling history in such a professional way.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Another high quality video
Glad you liked it, thanks!
Great video. Capt. Weichman was my CO late in his career. At the time I had no idea how distinguished his career was.
Thank you for sharing it! It's an extraordinary career indeed.
625 combat sorties? Incredible!
I agree!
Not a gamer but I have watched a couple of these videos. Interesting. Served with VA-35 Black Panthers as an engine mechanic on the A-6 on board the Coral Sea, CVA-43 a Midway class carrier. Air Wing 15, 69-70 deployment (called a West Pac cruise back then): Out air wing lost 19, both aviators & enlisted. One E-2 Hawkeye, One A-6, several A-7 Corsair IIs, and some F-4 Phantoms. I haven't been able to determine an exact count of the A-7s but I think we lost 2 over Laos. On the fall of Saigon: The carrier taking refugees (helicopters) was the USS Midway, Coral Sea was flying CAP. On Laos: Laos was a neutral country in the conflict and suffered a tremendous amount of bombing, Including many tons of cluster bombs which are killing people to this day. Best estimate is that it will take 150 years for cleanup at the current rate. There is a 4 part video made by the Australian Broadcasting Co. called ABC bomb disposal, Laos. Interesting to watch & see the terrible after effects of the bombing. The bombing was top secret so we had no idea what we were doing, information wasn't released until 1975. Another interesting thing I noticed while watching the Australian documentary was that the local villagers in Laos are using the half shells of the CBUs to construct their little houses (& other things).
Thanks for sharing this. The whole conflict was so incredibly complex, no wonder why so many books were written and documentaries made. The detail about Laotians building houses out of CBU shells shows how you should always make the best of what you have (even in such an extreme case).
Loved the intro.
Thanks! I think it came out pretty good too.
The A-4 is one of my favorite aircraft ever! Such a masterpiece!
Same here :)
Exactly! And it was designed in a few weeks. Today, they wouldn't be able to design the control stick alone in that time.
However, United States made haste to phase it out of service once they heard Israel had lost about fifty A-4s to SA-6 during Yom Kippur War. Oh well, nothing is perfect and it was, and is, a continuous competition between US and Russia.
@@Cybernaut76 Well, it was designed before the age of SAMs. Israelis had no solution for them in 1973.
@@showtime112 Yes, and SA-6 was astonishingly good for a SAM designed and produced by the Soviet Union. Dodging a SA-2 and dodging a SA-6 are two different worlds. Maybe we can even consider SA-6 a Soviet equivalent to MIM-23 Hawk.
“… lost ½ of all aircraft and ⅓ of all pilots.” In his book on flying the P-47 in WWII, Robert S. Johnson tells a story about a general flying in to talk to the pilots. Things were pretty bad at that time in terms of aircraft and pilot losses so they asked him about it. He said the Army Air Corps was prepared to rep,ace each aircraft twice and each pilot once. That kind of clear communication from leadership is rare and is a sobering assessment of what the Allies were willing to do to win the war.
It was certainly a very different war.
Glad you got a sponsorship.
Thanks! I was a bit worried how people would react. But I promise the money will be invested into the channel and future content. 😁
My father was an air rescue diver in Sea Kings, he also served on the Forrestal during this time.
Thanks for sharing! He must have been busy in that period.
My grandfather also flew sea kings for a breif period in vietnam, he also flew for HAL3, the "seawolves" squadron.
The music captures the moment
I'm glad you think so, thanks!
You can’t count on luck, but luck counts. What a legend.
Exactly! I'm not really into statistics and probability but it would be interesting to calculate the exact odds of surviving this many sorties in Vietnam.
Im glad that youre now sponsored,keep going man!
The money will be put to good use 😁 Thanks for positive feedback!
Thanks for awesome video!! 😍😍😎😎
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Love flying the Vietnam era stuff and missions.
Yup! I was a bit disappointed that the next map for DCS is going to be Afghanistan. But we might be getting a Phantom! 😁
@@showtime112 be nice to add phantoms into my Skyhawk missions either as cap or joint CAS.
Another fantastic video, using the A-4E v2.0.... awesome!!
Thanks! Gotta love that plane!
I love these history lessons. Keep up the good work!
I sure will, thank you for your support!
Awesome 👍
Thank you for your support!
Great, like a short film, but with historical background !!! Very well done !!!
That's exactly the point, thanks for appreciating it!
Fantastic video! Please do a re-enactment video of the Falkland/Malvinas conflict using DCS. The Argentine air force deployed the A-4 in addition to the IAI Nesher to disastrous consequences for the RAN and RAF.
Thank you for the comment! This conflict will be covered but I'm waiting for the map. It is being developed for DCS, it is supposedly in the final phase. It will also include lots of assets used in the 1982. war, especially ships which we currently don't have.
Awesome video featuring a tough and reliable workhorse.
Thank you for your support! I like that airplane too.
A great opener and a great video...
Thanks! It's good to hear that people like it.
Great job as usual...you mentioned Vietnam map...whilst that would be great, DCS currently lacks good quality AI aircraft and objects from that era that would round the aforementioned map off...(Forrestal excluded)
Thanks! You are right to a point but then again, many modules are being developed. There's F-8 Crusader, A-7 Corsair, MiG-17, A-6..... possibly even Phantom (2022 and Beyond video). We already have MiG-21, MiG-19, A-4, Huey.... I mean, Falklands map is nearly complete and we don't have too many modules that fit there. There's A-4, a different kind of Harrier and a couple of mods.
Pressed like button before video started. Great series Sir. Are you planning to get Mirage F1? Also maybe some missions with Russian Mi24 ?
Thanks for the trust! I am definitely getting the Mirage and I'm doing some research already for possible missions. Mi-24 is on the long term list, I really need to learn to fly helicopters first, it's totally different than the fixed wing.
@@showtime112 South Africa got a lot fo use out of our F1 AZ and CZ.
Iraq also used theirs a lot. So I'm sure that between those two you'd get a lot of possibilities for future episodes.
I really enjoy your historical recreations.
Thanks
And another one, thanks! You rock 😀
These movies are gold boss, thanks a lot. I enjoy them better than playing myself lol.
Thanks! It's so nice to hear such praise!
Great video! And very good C.C.R. cover song! 😃
Thanks for commenting!
A good friend of mine, a Naval Officer, was a weather guesser on the Oriskany (vietnam war maybe!?)
Could be, Oriskany was there for quite a while.
He is a legend 👍
It's quite unbelievable so many combat missions over Vietnam.
@@showtime112 every time he took off. He has the chance of getting shot down .
But he manage to pull it off so many times .
He is truly a legend .
This song brings back memories of watching Forrest Gump
I have to re-watch that one 😁
Aircraft # 420. Nice! :D
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate that!
1:18 mark it's says VA-146 it should be VA-164 and the USS Oriskany lost 39 aircraft from June 26, 1967 to Jan 23, 1968.
That's right. I will have to start hiring people to proofread everything 😁 Thank you for notifying me, I've put a correction in the subtitles.
CCR fortunate son ❤️😎
Perhaps only Run Through the Jungle would fit better into a Vietnam theme!
6'6" is BANANAS tall to try to get into that pit. good grief.
Exactly, it's hard to imagine how he was able to function so well in there.
Does this d downloadable combat simulator does it have a tutorial on how to fly and all the instruments and everything
There are plenty of tutorials on YT for all the modules and other aspects of the simulation.
Dobra muzika👌
Dašta nego dobra 😁
A4 Skyhawks didn’t have guns. When I was over there, a gun pod could be attached under the main body. In 1966.
Dunning-Krueger effect strikes again 😁 Yeah they did. Standard armament was two 20 mm Colt Mk 12. Israelis ordered them with more powerful 30 mm guns. Fact that an airplane can carry gun pods doesn't mean it doesn't have internal ones. It's just an additional weapon.
Thanks for the clarification. Yup was thinking internal guns. Yes, we started using an optional pod even in 1966. Was stationed with a T-28 squadron before that in Florida and even those could be equipped with external armaments. Thanks
no wingman on bombing attack?? good video and thanks!!
The wingman is not mentioned specifically in the sources. There was probably one but he didn't play a crucial role.
Does anyone know how Lt Cdr Dennis died? 60 is kinda young.
Some complications with a surgery are mentioned.
Good mornin' Vietnam
Nisi valjda gledao taj film?
I wonder why Navy would fly missions into Laos from Gulf of Tonkin where they could be tracked by enemy radars while over North Vietnam.
I suppose that depends which part of Laos they headed for and where the carrier was located. South part of North Vietnam wasn't that well covered by MiGs and SAMs so maybe they believed the danger wasn't too high.
@@showtime112 Hey Showtime 112, thanks for replying. Talking about Navy, could you do a video about the 4 Navy A-1 Skyraiders encounter with 2 Vietnamese Mig-17 while enroute for a RESCAP to cover a down USAF pilot. They were attacked by the MIGs but as the underdog, they shot down a MIG-17. That would be an awesome story and video to tell. Quite an amazing achievement by the naval aviators.
@@estellemelodimitchell8259 That would be a great story. We don't have either of these aircraft in DCS. MiG-17 is being developed but release date is not known yet. If we also get the A-1, it will be the first thing to do with it :)
0:30 - this A-4 went into the sea, didn't it? 9:40 - artificial horizon seems to be broken at this point but it recovered afterwards?
Good eye for detail! These videos are almost impossible to do in one piece. They consist of different scenes patched into one video for various reasons.
@@showtime112 No offense intended, your videos are top notch. But did the A-4 go down into the sea? ;)
@@BorisZech Yes, in the end it did.
That is alot of missions flown. Kudos to the man. Why did the Oriskany have such a high loss rate?
Many factors seem to have contributed. That tour of 1967-68 was the peak of the Rolling Thunder. North Vietnamese defenses were already very strong and American strategy wasn't much better than before. The war escalated and American pilots still weren't allowed to fly the best way they could. And it was a small deck carrier so every single airplane lost was a bigger relative loss than with a big deck.
Semper Fortis
Thanks for commenting!
Well done, another great video with awesome aircraft! 👍🏻 But seriously, that map doesn't look anything like Vietnam. 😋😁😉 JK, how should I know? Except being an armchair pilot, ofcourse... 😎
Cheers, buddy! 🍻
Thanks for another comment! Perhaps someone makes some kind of a Vietnam vegetation mod for the Caucasus. There was a pretty good one several years ago but it wasn't updated.
Lots of friends who flew A-4’s and A-6’s against the north. Fun fact Air America (CIA) had civilian Pilots who were not in the USMilitary but were promised this would be “good years “. As it turned out they were never given credit for those years flying for the CIA. Promises, promises.
Interesting. I'm sure many people were disappointed by promises, not only by CIA but every single intelligence service in history.
And I thought I had height problems with the Skyhawk..... I'm 6-1, and I found it tough to fit in.
You flew Skyhawks in real life? Cool!
I didn't get to fly the TA-4J, but I got to taxi one during a restoration project.
@@FlightSimHistorian Even just taxing it would be a dream for many people!
FORTUNATE SON 🎼🎵🎶
Baš paše 😁
Kinda crazy to think this guy potentially killed hundreds of people. Maybe even thousands. Insane.
That's one way of seeing it, sure.
By enemy boats, those were ones coming from Laos?
No, they were North Vietnamese. Laos is land-locked and they needed to overfly Vietnam to get to it.
@@showtime112 Lol, thanks, just used Google Maps and saw that this was really stupid question. :D
@@Lemiesz That's OK, you learned something 😁😁😁
Rhaaaaa Credence Clearwater Revival Thaaaaaaaaanks !!!!!!
Nothing beats classic rock!
Who cares for a few misplaced hills, if it sings fortunate son, it must be somewhere on Yankee Station...😉👉👉👍👍
The power of suggestion at work! 😉
Being a US Pilot during Vietnam War must have been sucked.
It must have been frustrating. Some were really persistent, in spite of it all.
Pomaže bog komšija, možemo li videti još nešto iz jugoslovenskih ratova? Hvala.
Pozdrav! Bit će još toga samo sad ne mogu točno reći što i kada. Ovisi kakva bude trenutna inspiracija. Hvala na komentaru!
Very good job We are waiting also another a4skayhawks videos over malvinas during argentina british conflict
Thanks! I will certainly do some videos about A-4 action in 1982, but I'm waiting for the South Atlantic map to be released for DCS. Should be this year.
That is usual, he died a young man
Well, those missions must have been stressful.
Skip to 2:16 so you don’t contract rAID’s.
I noticed the launch platform was not Oriskany, but Forrestal. Otherwise, a good video. Thanks for the posting.
Thanks for the comment. True, that is Forrestal. We don't have an Essex class carrier in DCS. There's only a mod for Australian Melbourne class but those things are tiny. Oriskany is somewhere half way between the two so I approximated it with Forrestal.
15k subs and you're already folding to the Raid offers eh?... doesnt bode well for the long term my man
Well, I'm not going to spend it on hookers and booze, you know 😁 I might talk about how much DCS modules cost, or that my graphic card will need to be replaced in near future because it can barely run newer modules. But believe it or not, this takes a full time effort. If I need to go back to working in some company, I will be lucky to release one video every 4-5 weeks. If any at all. Would that make you happier? Or is skipping the add part so incredibly hard?
04:36 I feel like I need to comment that the map you are using (Caucasus) doesn't look like Vietnam. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodgia are tropical forests and the Caucasus isn't :)
I promise I will try to make it look more like Vietnam next time 😁
@@showtime112 Actually I thought the whole vid had Nam atmosphere and the rugged terrain felt like SEA. Great job.
Those patrol boats really took a beating. Did you make them invincible? Sorry if I missed this. Was Weichman shot down by 14.7mm? 23mm? 57mm? Looking forward to Skyhawks over the Golan.
@@dfpoor I had to use some filters and selective camera angles. Hopefully, someone will develop the Vietnam map someday.
@@dfpoor The patrol boats were not set to invincible but I guess there's no precise damage model since those are just mods. In reality, the might have been some junks or similar. I'm not sure of the exact caliber of the weapon that hit Weichman in real life. Sources don't mention it and the plane crashed so there was no evidence. Here, I used 23mm guns.
lol why is it always Fortunate Son....
Well, it's clearly recognizable and period specific. And it's an amazing song.
the dcs is a great gamer! however i might point out a small mistake. the a4 depicted in this version is an a4m, which was flown by the marinew air wings only. navy units, especially the one on the oriskany, va146, flew only a4e moedls easily identified by the lack of the avionics pod turtle back, which clearly identifies the a4m, just a minor difference but might be significant to some.
It's not exactly a mistake because mistake would imply a choice. There are no different types and variants of airplanes in DCS. In most cases, it is just one. The one used here is in fact A-4E but a later model with the hump.
Having a simulation with all the different variants and options would literally require a century to develop.
Don't think the A-4 had the hump model during the Big O's time in the gulf of Tonkin. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.
That's true. But these videos are made using a flight simulation which has a limited range of assets in it. One module such as this A-4 takes year to properly develop. Having every imaginable variant and modification in it would literally take a century to develop. And it would not give one percent of investments back to developers :) So, these videos will never be 100% accurate simply because they can't be.