The Hun in Southeast Asia: 65 Years in the Rearview
A U.S. Air Force North American F-100D-85-NH Super Sabre aircraft (s/n 56-3415) fires a salvo of 2.75-inch rockets against an enemy position in South Vietnam in 1967. This aircraft was lost with its pilot, 1Lt Clive Jeffs, after an engine failure near Nha Trang on 12 March 1971. VIRIN: DF-SN-82-00883
The North American F-100 Super Sabre, remembered simply as “The Hun,” had the distinction of being the longest-serving American jet fighter-bomber to fight in the Vietnam War. The first six F-100s were deployed from Clark Air Base in the Philippines to Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base on 16 April 1961, some 75 years ago this week.
F-100 flying low over Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam, in 1969, providing close air support
F-100F Super Sabre 56-3923 90th TFS 3rd TFW Bien Hoa Vietnam 1968ish
The type was only withdrawn from the country in 1971, after serving as the first Wild Weasel SEAD aircraft and serving on “Misty” FAC missions.
A staggering 242 F-100s of various models were lost in Vietnam over its decade “in country.” While none of those were to PVAF fighters, 186 were downed by assorted anti-aircraft fire, seven destroyed in Vietcong sapper attacks on airbases, and 45 lost in operational incidents.
Notably, F-100s fought the USAF’s first air-to-air jet combat duel in the Vietnam War, with the 416th TFS’s “Green 2” Capt. Donald W. Kilgus, downing an enemy MiG-17 via cannon fire in a pursuing dive on 4 April 1965 while some 76 miles from Hanoi.
The thing is, though Kilgus painted a MiG kill marking beneath the windscreen of his Hun and another on the F-105G Wild Weasel that he flew later in the war, he was never given official credit for the kill, although even the Vietnamese say it happened.
Captain Donald Kilgus in his F-100D Super Sabre, 55-2894, named Kay Lynne.
An interesting factor about the F-100’s service in Vietnam was that four Air National Guard squadrons were activated in 1968 and deployed overseas to see combat, a rare use of the Guard during the war.
- 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Colorado ANG (Deployed April 1968)
- 174th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Iowa (May 1968)
- 188th Tactical Fighter Squadron, New Mexico (May 1968)
- 136th Tactical Fighter Squadron, New York (June 1968)
Two other outfits, the 119th TFS of New Jersey and the 121st TFS of the District of Columbia, provided so many volunteers to the active-component’s 355th Tactical Fighter Wing that it was referred to as the “fifth Air Guard squadron” in Vietnam.
“Scramble at Phan Rang” By William S. Phillips shows pilots of Colorado’s 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron running to get their F-100 Super Sabre aircraft airborne during an enemy rocket attack. The 120th became the first Air Guard unit to arrive in Vietnam, less than four months after mobilization. Flying F-100C Super Sabre aircraft it, like the other three mobilized Air Guard units to serve in Vietnam, will primarily conduct low-level ground support missions in coordination with American and South Vietnamese units operating in South Vietnam. These include precision bombing plus machine gun and rocket attacks on enemy emplacements and troop concentrations. The 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron entered combat on 5 May 1968, two days after its arrival, and completed its 1,000th mission 51 days later.
Tuy Hoa F-100C from 188th TFS, NMANG, Albuquerque, NM
During the Air Guard’s 11 months of service in Vietnam, the four deployed F-100 squadrons flew 24,124 combat sorties and accumulated 38,614 combat flying hours.
The last F-100s, operated by the ANG’s 114th TFG (South Dakota) and the 185th TFG (Iowa) were retired in 1977.
One of the two Huns in the collection of the National Museum of the Air Force wears Vietnam camo and for good reason. F-100F (s/n 56-3837) was a Misty FAC aircraft assigned to the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Phu Cat Air Base, Vietnam.
