Rolling Thunder

The date: March 12, 1967. The target: The large thermal power plant at Viet Tri, on the Red River, a short distance to the northwest of Hanoi. Heavily defended by 100-mm and 85-mm gun positions, missile sites and the usual barrage of ground-fire encountered on any mission "downtown", the task of the leading flight was to hammer the guns and clear the way for the closely following strike force to lay their bombs squarely on the power plant. They would all have to contend with the ever-present likelihood of MiG interception on the way out.

Leading the 335th TFW F-105 Thunderchiefs out of Takhli Royal Thai Air Base, Colonel Jack Broughton took the familiar route, approaching the target area flying down Thud Ridge. As the high ground fell away he pushed flight of four ships down to the deck and, "going like hell", Broughton swung the leading Thuds southwest, just enough to give those on the ground the impression they were headed somewhere south of Viet Tri.

Not quite abreast of the target, Broughton called the 'pop', and as the Thuds passed vertical they rolled to inverted going over the top, completing a giant wifferdill, attacking the guns from the opposite direction. Beneath them the big gun pits were lined up, their gunners confused by the maneuver, and before they could work out what was happening the F-105 pilots emptied their loads of CBUs into the middle of them.

Behind the Thuds came the strike force and, with the air cleared of the usual flak barrage, unloaded their bombs right onto the thermal power plant. The facility was destroyed in one of the best-planned and executed raids of the war.

Robert Taylor's carefully researched painting shows Jack Broughton leading his four-ship flight down Thud Ridge, at very low-level. Scorching along in afterburner at just below the speed of sound, the heavily armed Thuds are just a few minutes short of the target. This superbly realistic image, by the world's leading aviation artist, dramatically brings to life a specific and highly successful mission, while conveying the electrifying danger each F-105 pilot faced when flying the perilous missions to the heavily defended targets in the region of Hanoi.

Lt. Colonel Harold W. Bingaman
'Bing' Bingaman joined the service in 1951, serving first with the 510th Fighter Bomber Squadron at Langley Field. Flying the F-105 out of Thailand with the 355th TFW, he first saw combat over North Vietnam in September 1966 taking his Thud Jinkin' Josie III through the Rolling Thunder operations - missions involving visiting flak sites on the legendary attack on the Viet Tri power plant, and targets in Hanoi.

Lt. Colonel Max C. Brestel
Max Brestel was commissioned and received his Wings in 1957. While a member of the 354th TFS he was the first American pilot to shoot down two MiGs in the Vietnam War whilst flying an F-105 on a raid against the Thai Nguyen steel mill on March 10, 1967. He flew a total of 247 combat missions, including 107 over North Vietnam.

Colonel Jacksel M. Broughton
Graduating from West Point in 1945, Jack Broughton was initially assigned to Europe, flying P-47s and P-51s. Converted to jets at Nellis AFB, he flew a combat tour in Korea in P-80s, and a second tour in F-84s. After various operational positions he led the USAF Thunderbirds for three years - the world's first supersonic acrobatic team. Jack commanded 2 tours in South East Asia flying the F-105 during Rolling Thunder missions. In his long career he accomplished being combat ready in every Air Force fighter from the P-47 to F-106. During 4 combat tours he flew over 216 combat missions. Jack has written two highly-respected books - THUD RIDGE and GOING DOWNTOWN, both first hand accounts of the air war over South East Asia. He retired from the Air Force in 1968.

Colonel Leo K. Thorsness
Leo Thorsness flew 92 ½ missions in the two-seater F-105F Wild Weasels. The job of these specially equipped models was to pinpoint the North Vietnamese SAM (surface-to-air) missile sites, by getting the sites to activate their radar and fire their missiles at them, so that F-105s could see, attack and destroy the SAM ground radar sites. On April 19, 1967 for one such mission with the 357th TFS, Leo Thorsness was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. On April 30 his luck ran out - he was shot down just 7 missions short of his combat tour. Taken prisoner, he spent six years as a POW in North Vietnam.