Jack, Thanks for the website and I might add job well done.
I was one of the guys that came down to help start the 34th from the 36th TFS out of Yokota.
I well remember how we arrived ready to continue with what we had done TDY from Japan for the previous 2 years at Takhli, and the Thai Government’s refusal to allow our F-105s in country for a short time period. We maintenance folks had to sit and wait.
Also I well remember the pay line snaking through a darkened 34th TFS Orderly Room and Major Blank standing by the projector as the gun camera film of his MiG shoot down was run over and over. We were told that the Major would answer any questions we might have. The guy in front of me asked Major Blank if he thought he had killed the MiG pilot. With no hesitation at all he replied "There is no doubt in my mind that he was killed, watch those shells walk in on the left wing and through the canopy".
Like others, I find that looking back on a 20 yr AF stint, those few years in the 36th TFS and the 34th TFS were truly the most outstanding.
Thanks to all the "thud drivers" and never forget the ones we didn't get back, thus my E mail address. Tom Elder