New Mexico ANG A-7Ds visit Lossiemouth 07/06/91

[Mike]

Visiting Lossiemouth on Monday 07/06/91 were these three A-7Ds of the 150 TFW/188 TFS New Mexico ANG, Kirtland AFB, I think they may have arrived on the previous Friday but there wasn't anyone else around to ask - there were very few spotters at Lossiemouth in those days.
They were part of the "Sentry Corsair" deployment to Spangdahlem AB, this deployment consisted of 4 A-7Ds & 1 x A-7K from the 150 TFW/188 TFS and also 4 A-7Ds & 1 x A-7K from the 132 TFW/124 TFS of the Iowa ANG, Des Moines AFB.

Serials were :- 70-0935, 74-1744 & 75-0396

Apologies for the quality!











Then a final low pass after forming-up...........

[Nighthawke]

No apologies needed Mike - these are A-7s and pure nostalgia

[F3]

Lovely - esp that three ship!

[CUJO]

Hey Mike,

thank you very much for bringing back some great memories of that deployment.
Don't want to be a nitpicker, there were three A-7Ds from Iowa and their A-7K and four A-7Ds and their A-7K from New Mexico.
I hope the story is interesting for someone, we were expecting A-7s from Iowa and I wasn't able to go to their arrival so phoned a friend in the evening after their expected arrival.
He wasn't able to give me the serials, he said they were late and only saw the tanker arriving. So after a few days I spoke to another friend who also wasn't sure about the deployment but said he saw A-7s of the New Mexico ANG at Hahn AB - confusing, as we weren't aware of a mixed deployment.
So finally, after a few days I was able to go to Spangdahlem AB and in the morning, the then present F-4Gs and F-16s were very active but I didn't hear any A-7s. Just before lunch a four-ship of A-7s flew initial and came in to land. But it turned out to be four A-7s from the Oklahoma ANG - even more confusing, nothing fit with the rumours and sightings !
Anyway, I was very happy and left for Bitburg and spend there the afternoon. Then the night and in the night I heard A-7s nightflying.
The next morning the same procedure. I spent the morning at Spangdahlem and the same happened, lots of Phantoms and Falcons and out of the blue this time six OK A-7s, but five different ones (later we found out that they came from "Coronet East 97" at RAF Waddington ). In the afternoon I went again to Bitburg but this time I saw from there some A-7s taking off at 04:00 pm and so drove back to Spangdahlem and arrived there by 04:30pm to hear lots of engine noise on the EOR and among the local aircraft the sound of A-7s
So I rushed up the hill to see which aircraft are there and there were eight A-7s standing , a nice mix of Iowa ANG and New Mexico ANG aircraft, which all returned in nice light at 07:00 pm.
Finally we solved the riddle and it turned out that they flew a lot of missions in the evening/night due to their then new targeting pod.
I hope this story wasn't too boring, but those were the times then, thank you for bringing back the memories .
Cujo

[daggerfan]

These three A-7s did indeed arrive at Lossie the previous Friday. I got pictures of them landing on 05. Don't know if it was true, but I was told the pilots were in for a weekend of golf!

[Mike]

Hey Mike,

thank you very much for bringing back some great memories of that deployment.
Don't want to be a nitpicker, there were three A-7Ds from Iowa and their A-7K and four A-7Ds and their A-7K from New Mexico.
I hope the story is interesting for someone, we were expecting A-7s from Iowa and I wasn't able to go to their arrival so phoned a friend in the evening after their expected arrival.
He wasn't able to give me the serials, he said they were late and only saw the tanker arriving. So after a few days I spoke to another friend who also wasn't sure about the deployment but said he saw A-7s of the New Mexico ANG at Hahn AB - confusing, as we weren't aware of a mixed deployment.
So finally, after a few days I was able to go to Spangdahlem AB and in the morning, the then present F-4Gs and F-16s were very active but I didn't hear any A-7s. Just before lunch a four-ship of A-7s flew initial and came in to land. But it turned out to be four A-7s from the Oklahoma ANG - even more confusing, nothing fit with the rumours and sightings !
Anyway, I was very happy and left for Bitburg and spend there the afternoon. Then the night and in the night I heard A-7s nightflying.
The next morning the same procedure. I spent the morning at Spangdahlem and the same happened, lots of Phantoms and Falcons and out of the blue this time six OK A-7s, but five different ones (later we found out that they came from "Coronet East 97" at RAF Waddington ). In the afternoon I went again to Bitburg but this time I saw from there some A-7s taking off at 04:00 pm and so drove back to Spangdahlem and arrived there by 04:30pm to hear lots of engine noise on the EOR and among the local aircraft the sound of A-7s
So I rushed up the hill to see which aircraft are there and there were eight A-7s standing , a nice mix of Iowa ANG and New Mexico ANG aircraft, which all returned in nice light at 07:00 pm.
Finally we solved the riddle and it turned out that they flew a lot of missions in the evening/night due to their then new targeting pod.
I hope this story wasn't too boring, but those were the times then, thank you for bringing back the memories .
Cujo

Hi Cujo, thanks for the info .
Apparently 4 x Iowa A-7Ds arrived at Spangdahlem on 03/06/91 with the 4 x A-7Ds and 1 x A-7K from New Mexico, the Iowa A-7K (81-0077) didn't arrive until 17/06

Info taken from :- http://www.sharpshooter-maj.com/html/deploy91.htm
The Oklahoma ANG deployment to Waddington is further down the page in the link.

[StrawdogUK69]

Stunning .... love the 3 ship.... thank you for posting these.

[Seahawk 11]

These are just great, thanks for sharing them,

Rob

[Punkrunner62]

Great, just like Lossie used to be, you just never knew what was going to turn up.
Cheers.

[CUJO]

Apparently 4 x Iowa A-7Ds arrived at Spangdahlem on 03/06/91 with the 4 x A-7Ds and 1 x A-7K from New Mexico, the Iowa A-7K (81-0077) didn't arrive until 17/06
Info taken from :- http://www.sharpshooter-maj.com/html/deploy91.htm
The Oklahoma ANG deployment to Waddington is further down the page in the link.

I know Peters side quite well, it is a great read and full of happy memories.
However, it has some minor mistakes, I wrote him this already years ago. I have no prove, but I'm convinced that 72-0235 is/was a misread for 71-0295. With all those new grey markings this one was difficult to read.
I was at Spangdahlem when the A-7s departed (and another 12 F-16s from Spangdahlem which left for Alaska) and as written on Peters side, 235 didn't left this morning and there are/were no reports of this one later on (afaIk). I hope that clarifies the situation a bit, although this is just the single opinion of an old spotter from Germany.

Happy Spotting Cujo

[Mike]

Many thanks for the additional info Cujo, happy spotting to you too.

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments.

[paddyboy]

Hi Mike

Never have too many SLUFF shots

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[Mike]

No problem, Paddy.