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This Day in History – June 10, 1969 – The X-15 gets a place in history

10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum. The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and

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Cassaro, Robert F., Jr.

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  • Cassaro, Robert F., Jr.

Robert F. Cassaro, Jr.

Preferred Name: Cass
Nickname/Call Sign: Misty 83
Highest Military Grade: Select
Hometown: IL
Headed West Date: October 18, 2020
Biography
Pilot Information
Headed West

Cass flew full-time for the AZANG and after his Misty tour taught F-16 academics until his retirement. At the 162nd Fighter Weapons School, Cass, as Director of Training, “was responsible for the development of the most innovative training program we had ever seen.” His ideas became the data for the Tactical Training Manual for Low Altitude Flight (Miller, 1983, and revisions).”(1)

A story from Phan Rang News on September 25, 1968 tells a story about “Cass”:

TUY HOA – The distance between the antagonists dwindled. Suddenly, their guns blazed. As the distance separating them continued to shrink, the staccato flashes from their gun muzzles punctuated the near-darkness.

As abruptly as they began, the guns stopped firing. Capt. Robert F. Cassaro Jr. pulled back on the stick of his F-100 Supersabre and radioed to his wingman, Capt. Jerry N. Williams, “I’m off the target. Your turn.” As Captain Williams rolled in, the communist antiaircraft gunner on the ground below swiveled his weapon around to meet the new threat.

Captains Cassaro and Williams, both from Albuquerque, N.M., members of the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing, found themselves in the showdown with the enemy gunner during an air strike 16 miles southeast of Chu Lai.
Receiving clearance from the FAC to go for the gun position, the two pilots began making strafing passes with their 20 millimeter cannon.

“Just one thing disturbed me,” smiled Captain Williams. “The only way we could see him was to get him to fire at us. We were diving against his position, opening up early so he could spot us and then concentrating our firepower on his muzzle flashes.”
After seven passes, the gunfight ended. “There was no more ground fire coming at us after the last pass,” Captain Cassaro said, “so we assumed we had gotten him.”

Source: (1) https://www.178wing.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Article/452633/162nd-fighter-squadron-history/

Units Assigned

  • 1968 31st Tactical Fighter Wing, Tuy Hoa AB, Vietnam (F-100)
  • 1969 Misty #83 (F-100)
  • 1/12/1969 Shot down and rescued
  • 162nd Fighter Weapons School, Director of Training
  • AZANG

Awards & Decorations

Flight Info

F-100

Silver Star
Distinguished Flying Cross

Military & Civilian Education

Robert F. Cassaro, USAF, Ret., “Headed West” on October 18, 2020.

Bob “Cass” Cassaro was born in Illinois in 1933. He served in the USAF as a pilot. While flying the F-100 as Misty 83 he was shot down on 12 January 1969 and rescued. Cass received the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery as a Misty FAC.

He flew full-time for the AZANG and after his Misty tour taught F-16 academics until his retirement. At the 162nd Fighter Weapons School, Cass, as Director of Training, “was responsible for the development of the most innovative training program we had ever seen.” His ideas became the data for the Tactical Training Manual for Low Altitude Flight (Miller, 1983, and revisions).”(1)

Cass has been in ill health for the past few years. He will be missed.

More information will be posted as it becomes available

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