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(Aircraft 136) By Lou Drendel, J. Sewell

F/A? — To those who arc familiar with the pecking order of Naval Aviation, this designation seems like a step toward ultimate confusion. The professional and social distinctions between Na\> fighter and attack pilots has fostered all sorts of interesting interservice by-play and rivalries. And this difference is not taken casually. It is a career long, even life long, vocational mind-set.

Unlike the Air Force, which considered its pilots qualified to fly everything from the O-l to the B-52. the Navy had always respected the career paths chosen by its fledgling aviators. II you opted lor the attack or fighter "communities" out of flight training, then you were more than likely an "attack puke" or "fighter puke" for Ihe rest of your life. Not that fighter pilots didn't drop bombs. Hellcat. Panther, and Phantom pilots might have actually spent more time moving mud than they did chasing bandits. Hven (hat epitome of the single-engine, single seat fighter, the F-8 was modified lo carry air-to-ground munitions.

The introduction of ihe F-14 Tomcat polari/ed the two communities. The F-14 could not carry bombs, it was strictly a fighter interceptor, possibly the best ever built. Now fighter pukes were real I) different from attack pukes. Slugging it out with ground targets was left to the A-ft and A-7. while the F-I4's lived in top gun territory.

Ihe complexities of modern jet aircraft dictated mission specialization until technology began to overtake the skills needed for air-to-air or air-to-ground combat. Now it became possible to build an aircraft lhal could do both missions. And so was born the FA-18. or as it has sometimes been called in the Navy, the "F and A eighteen." This is the airplane which may create the ultimate schizoid personality...the melding of the attack and fighter puke! The Marines, of course, would be exempt. They have always considered their aircraft as a means of supporting the grunts, whether such support required dropping bombs or shooting down enemy aircraft. They institutionalized the split personality fighter squadron a long lime ago: with the VM FA designation, which has been carried on Marine fighters since before Ihe Vietnam War.

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