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Wild Weasel 1 began with five F-100F aircraft and five aircrews. The Weasel crews began their mission in December 1965, with Major Willard leading the first strike into North Vietnam. The Weasel missions were code named Iron Hand missions, and their purpose was to lead a strike force into North Vietnam and pave the way for the strike force to drop its bombs. They did this by going out in hunter/killer teams. The Weasels would pair up with a flight of F-105D fighter/bombers and try to locate a SAM site. The Weasels would then attack the site to mark it and the F-105D's would finish it off. With Operation Rolling Thunder (the bombing campaign of North Vietnam that began in 1964) in full effect, the Wild Weasels were about to prove their worth in combat for the first time. On December 22, 1965, the Wild Weasels scored their first SAM kill in North Vietnam. Captain Al Lamb the pilot, and Captain Jack Donovan, his EWO led the mission into North Vietnam that day and when they encountered a hostile NVA SAM site, they engaged and destroyed it. With this success, the Weasels demonstrated their worth to the Air Force and from then on, the Wild Weasels were in Vietnam to stay. Despite the early success however, the original Weasels suffered a fifty-percent casualty rate in their ranks and it was clear that new tactics and equipment would have to be developed. Here we have the Trumpeter 1/72 F-100F Super Sabre shown in the markings of the aircraft that delivered the first SAM site kill. Also presented is the Trumpeter 1/72 F-105G with a standard load out for SAM Hunting. Both models have the Eduard photo etch cockpit sets, have been airbrushed free hand using Xtracrylix and Vallejo paints. Flory Grime and Dark washes applied and finally sealed with Xtrcrylix Flat. The reason that both aircraft were in the skies over Vietnam, the Gran 1/72 SA-2 Guideline SAM. I have shown the models as they are displayed on my shelf along with a die-cast F-105D and F-100D. Well done if you have got this far!! Here is my tribute to the Aircrews who were ‘First in – Last Out’ A little diorama play: Thanks for looking, Phil

S-75 Dvina - SA-2 Guideline SAM - Fan Song Acquisition Radar. Pics taken at The Polish Aviation Museum, Cracow, by Mike Costello.

The Soviet S-75 Dvina, NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline surface to air Missile, pics by bootneck Mike.

HongQi 2 Surface-to-Air Missile System is developed from the HongQi 1, which was a Chinese copy of the SA-2, pics from the Beijing Military Museum by Mike (bootneck)