Skip to content

Today in History – June 28, 1965 – US Forces launch first major offensive in the Vietnam War.

28 June 1965 – U.S. forces launch the first major offensive in the Vietnam War. “In the first major offensive ordered for U.S. forces, 3,000...

Read More
Join The SSS Manage Your Dues or
Update Your Bio Create a New Bio or
  • Home
  • History
    • About The SSS
    • Headed West
    • Biographies
    • Today in F-100 History
    • SSS Caterpillar
    • Wall of Honor
    • Unit Patches & Other F-100-Associated Imagery
    • F-100 Information
    • Friends of the Super Sabre
    • N. American F-100 Super Sabre
  • Galleries
  • The Intake
    • About The Intake: Journal
    • The Intake: Journal of the Super Sabre Society – Archives
  • Member’s
  • What’s New
  • Contact
  • Log In
  • Help Me Login
Menu
  • Home
  • History
    • About The SSS
    • Headed West
    • Biographies
    • Today in F-100 History
    • SSS Caterpillar
    • Wall of Honor
    • Unit Patches & Other F-100-Associated Imagery
    • F-100 Information
    • Friends of the Super Sabre
    • N. American F-100 Super Sabre
  • Galleries
  • The Intake
    • About The Intake: Journal
    • The Intake: Journal of the Super Sabre Society – Archives
  • Member’s
  • What’s New
  • Contact
  • Log In
  • Help Me Login

Dempsey, Alfred J.

  • Home
  • Biography
  • Biographies
  • Dempsey, Alfred J.

Alfred J. Dempsey

Preferred Name: Al
Date of Birth: June 6, 1932
Highest Military Grade Held: 0-3 – Captain
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Biography
Pilot Information
Video
Biography

Al Dempsey flew F-86 and F-100 fighters while serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1954 to 1958 during the Cold War. The F-100 had far more thrust — the force which moves an aircraft through the air — than the F-86.

“Seventeen thousand pounds of thrust versus 7,000 pounds of thrust,” Dempsey said. “That made a heck of a difference.”

It was akin to strapping a rocket on your back.

“I always thought to myself, ‘I’m going to go out and I’m going to put this airplane on – I’m not going to climb in the cockpit and sit in the airplane – I’m going to put this airplane on,’” he said. “It becomes part of you. Today, all these jet fighters and bombers all have computers all over the place. … We had no computers in our planes. We were the pilot, we were the navigator, we were the bombardier, we were the gunner – we did everything. You had to train to do it all.”

He said training in the F-100 was a much different experience than learning to fly other aircraft — starting with the first “ride.”

“Normally when you check out in an airplane, you climb in … and the instructor climbs in next to you and shows you how things work, maybe demonstrates the way the airplane flies, takes off and lands. When you’re in a single-seat F-100, you’re all by yourself from the very first flight.”

When the air museum began adding some Korean and Vietnam-era aircraft to its collection, Dempsey pitched the idea of acquiring an F-100 in the fall of 2013.

After one deal fell through, Dempsey arranged for another to be purchased from a private owner in Reno, Nevada. The aircraft resided at nearby Stead Air Force Base.

“I said, ‘Hey Fred, let’s get this airplane.’  For my legacy, I want to provide the funds so that the museum could acquire that F-100. I asked Fred to ‘Call the owner and you make the best deal that you can make and I’ll cover it.’”

On June 2, 2014 – Dempsey’s birthday – he wired $200,000 to the air museum’s bank account to cover the cost of the aircraft.

(source: excerpted from an article by Denise Goolsby, The Desert Sun, published, p.m. PT Nov. 5, 2015 | Updated 8:25 p.m. PT Nov. 5, 2015)

Pilot Information

Units Assigned

  • 1955 506th SFW/Tactical Fighter Wing
  • 1956-1958 458th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Tinker AFB, OK (F-84F, F100D/F)

Awards & Decorations

Flight Info

T-34
T-28
T-33
F-84F
F-100 D/F

Military & Civilian Education

Military Education:

  • Class 56S Bainbridge AFB, GA (T-34, T-28)
  • Webb AFB, TX (T-33)

Civilian Education:

  • 1954 BA/History, Yale University
  • 1960 MBA/AFROTC – Harvard University

 

Video

Our Mission

The mission of the Super Sabre Society is to preserve the history of the F-100 Super Sabre and the men who flew the aircraft.

Follow Us

Copyright © 2022 Super Sabre Society
Website by: Heart and Soul Web Design
Scroll to Top