The Intake

The Intake — Journal of the Super Sabre Society is published three times per year: mid-March, mid-July and mid-November. This publication is normally a full color, 36–44 page document produced entirely by a volunteer staff. It features F-100/Hun history, heroics and humor. Two popular recurring items are the Stake Your Claim (SYC) Dept. and its “Scoreboard,” which tracks which member holds what title to valid claims of achievement or derring-do done in or in association with an F-100, AND the Dumb Things Done in a Hun (DTDH) Dept. and its “Roundup,” which tracks “who done it” and what they did!

I-39 Stake Your Claim “Scoreboard” (and the DTDH “Roundup”).  Click here for both documents.

What’s in the Spring 2019, Issue 39 of The Intake? Click either image below to view a full size preview of each page.

This Front Cover image is another oil on canvas painting from our Hun Fine Art Collection: The artist is Lou Drendel, a popular American aviation art stalwart, who found his 1966 original when SSSer Bill Barry was just hoping for a lithograph when he returned from a Nam tour in 1971. A bit of old fashioned bartering later, and Bill was the proud owner of the original and it’s been hanging proudly in his den ever since. Such a deal, and how about that blue fabric front cover for showing off this 32 x 18 piece of Hun artistry!

Our first of two featured articles in this issue is on page 23 … and it comes from our Hun Caterpillar Club Collection. The author is Forrest Fenn, an inactive SSSer, but a helluva good yarn-spinner when he sets his mind to do something special. This two page “true action adventure” is but a small taste of his talents. A much more complicated, yet equally readable tome is a longer Fenn story titled “My War for Me.” We hope to bring that piece of real wartime literature to our readers soon.

The second featured article, on page 25, is Part 1 of a three-part series that was inspired by an article written by SSSer Allen Strasser, Jr., back in 2012 about the 1968 call-up of the ANG. The intro to this article explains it all. Bottom line? A little known-to-the-public military shift, but a significant event in the U.S. reserve units.

Allen Strasser, Jr.: OMG CU AFROTC Cadet Commander, USAF Regular – Turned ANG

It’s a fact that in the beginning of the SSS, the ranks of members were skewed noticeably toward USAF active duty Hun jocks. Consequently, ANG Hun jocks—and Intake articles about them, were few and far between. Fortunately, over time, the word about this upstart organization spread and ANG membership grew and grew—as did their proportion of Hun stories—but very few of their stories were about ANG units, particularly those that went to war or were otherwise called to active duty as a partial response to the to the 23 January 1968 USS Pueblo seizure by North Korea and aggravated by the 31 January 1968 Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. Recognizing that vacant niche in the literature, SSSer Allen Strasser (Outstanding Military Graduate [OMG] from Colorado U. AFROTC, Regular USAF Officer turned Air Guardsman, after resigning his commission on 21 October 1966) took the bull by the horns and wrote an original 2.5 page Intake article about that historic call-up in Issue 18.

That article was a masterpiece concerning an up-and-coming mission which propelled the ANG into a new era of partnership with the active forces: That concept was eventually known as “Total Force”! Allen’s only regret about his article was that we couldn’t give him more pages for this worthy subject and his masterful story telling.

Recently, we came across another version of Allen’s 2.5 pager, but this 2006-penned story was over nine pages, by Joseph Speed, that cover much the same ground as did Allen, but that can afford us a chance to delve into the depths and details of the subject. So, to partly make up for restricting Allen Strasser—and partly because this is a damn fine piece of work, too— we’ve allocated 10 pages for a three-part series to bring this ACSC labor of love out of the academic darkness and into the bright light of our journal for the enjoyment of all our Hun-Loving readers. What’s not to like? Ed.

For a closer glance at the full menu of items in this issue, please click on the Table of Contents page above.

Medley Gatewood 10

Invitation to Join US: As members of the Super Sabre Society know, ALL of our journal’s articles are riveting, “must reads.” For those Hun drivers viewing this announcement, but who are not yet Society members, we hope the Front Cover and our featured article (s), along with the promised reads in the Table of Contents will stimulate you to go to our Join-up Page (click link here) and become one of us!

Just imagine 36-44 or more real pages in your own hands full of astounding stories of Hun-related history, heroics and humor. What’s not to like for three issues per year (delivered to your mail “container” through “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night),” plus lots of other member benefits, for only $35 per calendar year! Bye for now.

 Medley Gatewood  – Founding Member and Publisher of The Intake.

We’ll leave you with a copy of the proverbial “Big Picture” of Issue 39. All 40 pages!

If you were ever an F-100 Pilot, Wild Weasel “Bear,” or Flight Surgeon aircrew, and you’re NOT an SSS member, you’re going to want to join up after looking at this colorful collection of Hun-driver eye candy. So, click on the Regular Membership Application link on our Home Page and just DO IT!

***** SSS Members can view full PDF copies of all published issues in The Intake archives when logged into our secure Member Area with their personal passwords. If you are a late joiner, you’ll have many an hour … perhaps weeks or months … of catch-up reading to do, starting from Issue One to present day — Issue 39!