The pilot of a North American F-100D Super Sabre realized that he only had one escape route while he was making a Mekong Delta strafing run: dangerously drive the fighter jet through the trees. The pilot’s name is unknown but his plane, still painted in wartime camouflage, lives in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The aircraft was flown from 1965 to 1970 but its most memorable service came 50 years ago during the Tet Offensive, when a North Vietnamese and Viet Cong onslaught began against American-held bases in South Vietnam. Starting Jan. 31, 1968, coordinated raids pounded every major U.S. air base and 64 South Vietnamese district capitals. That F-1oo D Super Sabre jet “flew almost daily against Viet Cong throughout the Tet Offensive,” Smithsonian writes. F-100s never carried real nuclear weapons, but they became the first jets used in Southeast Asia that wore the colors of the U.S. military. They were known as the “Huns” and flew more sorties than any aircraft during the war.
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