A-3 Skywarrior Units of the Vietnam War (Combat Aircraft), by Rick Morgan
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A-3 Skywarrior Units of the Vietnam War (Combat Aircraft), by Rick Morgan
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The Douglas A-3 Skywarrior, though something of a cult favourite, remains a largely unremarked classic of Naval Aviation. Built for nuclear weapon delivery, the A-3 made its name in Vietnam as a conventional bomber, tanker and Electronic Warfare platform. It was the largest aircraft ever regularly operated from the decks of aircraft carriers, earning it the fleet-wide nickname 'Whale'. It excelled in every mission area assigned to it and operated in the US Navy for more than four decades, from 1956 through to 1991. Fully illustrated to depict the incredible array of paint schemes and awesome size, this volume focuses on the type's Vietnam service, which saw the aircraft briefly used as a bomber over both North and South Vietnam from March 1965, before the Skywarrior proved far more valuable as a multi-role tanker (KA-3B) and tanker/tactical jammer (EKA-3B). The title includes details on all of these operations as well as more clandestine reconnaissance missions, and provides information about the men that flew them.
A-3 Skywarrior Units of the Vietnam War (Combat Aircraft), by Rick Morgan- Amazon Sales Rank: #786080 in Books
- Brand: Osprey
- Published on: 2015-03-24
- Released on: 2015-03-24
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.87" h x .30" w x 7.27" l, .81 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 96 pages
About the Author Rick Morgan is the author of three previous books on Naval Aviation history (including Osprey A-6 Intruder of the Vietnam War) and more than 20 historical articles on the subject of Naval Aviation. Twice named 'Contributor of the Year' by the editorial staff of The Hook - The Journal of Carrier Aviation, Rick is a retired lieutenant commander from the US Navy with more 2300 hours of flight time, principally in EA-6B, A-4 and A-3 type aircraft. He amassed 440.5 carrier arrested landings (the 0.5 involved him ejecting from an aircraft that crashed on a carrier deck), and also flew 41 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Rick currently works for Boeing in St Louis, Missouri.
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Fills a longstanding gap By Barrett Tillman Rick Morgan is more than qualified to write the Skywarrior installment in Osprey’s Combat Aircraft series. As a former Navy electronic warfare officer he brings an intimate knowledge of the subject, since the “Whale” spent much of its long career in the EW realm. The book is organized logically, as much topically as chronologically because of the A-3’s exceptionally varied missions. Aside from the original nuclear attack role, the Skywarrior performed notably in conventional roles including reconnaissance, photography, and especially in-flight refueling. The late Rear Adm. Jig Dog Ramage, who largely “saved the Whale” early in its career, said, “Tanker gas is the most expensive there is because you pay for it twice. But when you need it, you really need it!” As the title indicates, most of the book focuses on A-3 operations from Tonkin Gulf carriers between 1965 and 1973. However, Morgan covers the Whale’s many retirements through 1991 due to the exceptional variety of A-3 models and missions. Each section includes I-was-there narratives by Skywarrior aircrews, enhancing the book’s readability. A brief diversion: I was fortunate to know Ed Heinemann, the A-3’s designer. He always said that despite the attention given the SBD and A-4, he was proudest of the Whale because his Douglas team brought in a 100,000-pound concept aircraft at less than 70,000 pounds gross weight. That’s an achievement well worth celebrating. With an extensive appendix and illustrated in typical Osprey fashion with dozens of photos and 30 Jim Laurier full-color profiles, this offering will be a frequent reference for years to come.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Rick Morgan’s A-3 SKYWARRIOR UNITS UNITS OF THE VIETNAM WAR ... By Jack D. Woodul Rick Morgan’s A-3 SKYWARRIOR UNITS UNITS OF THE VIETNAM WAR will proudly join his other books on my shelf. The Osprey Combat Aircraft Series book is the usual class act from that outfit, well illustrated with Whales of all sorts to go with Rick’s well-researched text. As a Navy A-4 Attack pilot, whose first combat mission in South Viet Nam was on the wing of an A-3, and who was yet another saved from a “Briny Fate” by their providential tanking, I have more than a casual interest in the subject. Anyone interested in Naval Aviation will be fascinated by this huge aircraft operating off the small 27 Charlie class of aircraft carriers, as well as the effective use of operational anecdote of the Whale operating both as tanker and ECM bird. By all measure, Whale crews were gallant chaps, and Rick Morgan has served them well.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Brilliant Effort, Unique Resource By David C. Nilsen This book is far more than its title suggests; it is in fact a concentrated history of the Skywarrior's complete career to its last Navy use in 1991 and last contractor hop in 2011 as well as the interesting history of the rise of the Navy's electronic attack community with side trips to the Heavy Photo (VAP) and VQ communities. While a 96-page book can not cover all of that ground in great depth, the author writes with consummate efficiency and grace in this operational history, keeping the reader aware of the aircraft being flown, where they were flown from, and the squadrons and detachments (Dets) flying them and the constant evolution of those organizations.Whenever the author introduces a new variant of the A-3 he places it in the clear context of the squadrons using it and their basing (for example, allowing us to watch how the electronic warfare community wound up at Whidbey Island via its VAH forebears) and the establishment, disestablishment, splitting, and merging of squadrons that operated the new versions. He integrates this information effortlessly into the narration, showing how the EKA-3Bs replaced the EA-1 Spads in the VAW squadrons, how the VAQ squadrons were then split out of the VAW squadrons, and nimbly follows all of the family trees, the numbering series of the new VAQ community, their names and callsigns, without this ever feeling like it slows down the flow of the text. He also clearly follows in the text and in a very useful table, the deployments of all of the Skywarrior VAW and VAQ dets as well as the stand-alone squadrons created to replace the Dets on the bigger decks. He clearly traces how AIRPAC and AIRLANT used their A-3 assets differently, with the Pacific having far more Essex 27C carriers, how the AIRPAC and AIRLANT used different Det designation schemes before settling on a numbered model, and how the VAH community lived on for a while, supplying either direct tanker Dets or tankers to round out VAQ Dets.Just as impressive as the information above, this book clearly lays out the differences, often muddied in other books and on-line resources, between the A-3 versions with their multi-layered mission modifiers: EA-3, EKA-3, RA-3, ERA-3, making it very simple and straight-forward. A-3Bs became KA-3Bs, and some of these became EKA-3Bs and later reverted back to simple KA-3Bs. All of these were built as BOMBERS, with a fuselage bomb bay, whether filled with fuel tanks and electronics or not. The EA-3Bs, RA-3Bs, and TA-3Bs were a different aircraft, with no bomb bays and a pressurized, MANNED fuselage instead of a bomb bay. Further, their missions were quite different. The EKA-3Bs were tactical jammers in the VAQ squadrons, which gave rise to the EA-6B and then EA-18 communities, and some of these aircraft lived on as KA-3Bs in the Reserve VAK squadrons. The EA-3Bs were ELINT birds, the carrier-based elements of the multi-type VQ squadrons, the forerunners of the short-lived ES-3As. The RA-3Bs served in the Heavy Photo VAP squadrons until these were discontinued, and then some were modified into ERA-3Bs which were too heavy to operate from carriers. These served only in the electronic aggressor squadrons VAQ-33 and 34, providing realistic electronic warfare training in the aggressor role. The TA-3Bs served as trainers and shadow VIP aircraft, and the sole VA-3B was actually a converted EA-3B.While the book mentions the NRA-3Bs and other N-versions in passing, it does not go into them in detail. Since these were not fleet aircraft the book does not suffer from their omission, especially not at the expense of the material described above.The narrative spine, which the above themes weave through, are the deployments and operations of the A-3 entering service prior to the war, given briefly to set the stage, during the Vietnam war, and then 1975-1991. This starts with the VAH HATRONs and their deployments and operations, their very early repurposing into the tanking and jamming missions, and a nice story about GEN Westmoreland being honked that his Navy bombers didn't have bombsights. There are a number of good accounts of tanker heroics, tales of itinerant EA and RA missions shuttling among land bases and carrier decks, and some very good discussion of how tricky and accident-prone the Whale was around the boat: 42% of all A-3 production was lost in mishaps, and Morgan carefully details these. Strikingly, Morgan does not belabor the old A3D "All 3 Dead" joke, but instead turns it on its head, observing that the plane only lasted so long because it DIDN'T have ejection seats. And through all this he still keeps our eye on how the Heavy Attack community split into the A-3 (West coast) and A-5 (East coast) halves and both evolved into non-bombing missions, the RA-5Cs becoming the RVAH squadrons that replaced the RA-3B VAP squadrons.The color plates are outstanding with 27 in the standard gull grey over gloss white showing the distinctive and colorful VAH, VAW, and VAQ markings, the addition of jammer blisters on EKAs and then their departure, four different variations in tanker stripes, and a multitude of variations in carrier, squadron, and Det markings. The remaining three are the famous green Kitty Hawk experiment, a field-expedient all black RA-3, and the official three-tone grey RA-3 scheme.The A-3 story is a complex and convoluted one, sitting at the nexus of many brand-new Navy missions in the 1960s, but this book makes it look effortless, and communicates great clarity to the reader. I can not recommend it highly enough.
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