Red Flag 83-4: 23TASS OA-37Bs

[Old Viper Tester]

A pair of OA-37B Dragonflies of the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, 602nd Tactical Air Control Wing out of Davis-Monthan AFB participating in Red Flag 83-4, Nellis AFB, June 1983.

 

73-1101

 

73-1114

 

Thanks for looking,

Sven

Edited August 25, 2020 by Old Viper Tester

[Britman]

Thank you for sharing Sven. Was the Dragonfly an effective aircraft?

 

Keith

[Old Viper Tester]

4 hours ago, Britman said:

Was the Dragonfly an effective aircraft?

I thought it was. No real high-speed capability to get out of a jam, but then the OV-10 didn't have that either. It was quite nimble and it certainly had enough hard points to carry a lot of marking rockets for the FAC role. The only failing as an observation platform was the side-by-side seating - most FACs preferred to fly alone (there was provision to install a fuel tank in place of a seat on the righthand side, though I don't know that I would like sitting that close to a can of fuel), so vision to the right was limited. A pilot and co-pilot/observer crew had the same disadvantage in being unable to see the entire scene on the opposite side.

 

Sven

[Britman]

Thanks Sven, I always had this idea that it was underpowered although I don't know where that came from! Thanks again.

 

Keith

[Hook]

8 hours ago, Britman said:

Thank you for sharing Sven. Was the Dragonfly an effective aircraft?

AFAIK none were lost to enemy fire in SEA. I would call that effective.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Blimpyboy]

On 8/27/2020 at 3:00 AM, Hook said:

none were lost to enemy fire in SEA

 

Not quite! A number of USAF (22) and VNAF (38) jets were lost in SEA.

However, my understanding is that none of the A-37As in the initial combat trial (Combat Dragon) were shot down!

 

From: https://discover.hubpages.com/education/The-T-37A-37-Dragonfly-aka-Tweet

"A total of 22 USAF Dragonflies were lost from all causes during the war. None were lost to accidents. The first 2 were shot down in 1967. In 1972 enemy fire shot down 6 Dragonflies. That was the highest yearly loss.[vii] For a time, unknown to everyone, A-37B pilot 1st Lt. Joseph Blassie was the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier. He was shot down on May 11, 1972. His remains were exhumed on May 14, 1998 after they were positively identified."

 

Other sources:

https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/index.php/statistics/usaf-losses

and

https://secure.afa.org/Mitchell/Reports/1204vietnam.pdf

and

https://www.nhahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/aircraftlossesofthevietnamwarnhahs.pdf

 

 

[Tiger331]

I remember these well during my deployments to Nellis between 1983-86. I think it was in 1984 that one OA-37 Squadron Commander got himself into a bit of 'bother' by leading a four ship the opposite way around the circuit 'down range' sending a variety of USAF/USN and our Jaguars in all directions at extremely low level !.