The Front Cover image is from our “Famous and Infamous Huns” Collection. It happens to be an infamous early F-100A (Serial No. 52-5757)  in that it crashed and burned east of Palmdale, CA, on 7 July 1955, during the first flight in the flat spin recovery test series. The test pilot, who ejected successfully, was Bob Hoover and his chase pilot was Chuck Yeager. Details of this historic event are covered in an abridged extract from Hoover’s autobiography (Flying Forever) and Yeager’s recollections of that flight from his unique viewpoint (as reported years later) that you’ll find on page 7.

Our first full original article in this issue is our 12-page After Action Report on the sixth biennial SSS Reunion held at the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV, 25-28 April 2017. With 418 attendees (members, spouses and other guests), the action was non-stop for three and a half days, beginning Tuesday PM with a Flight Suit/Jacket, Friday Night at the Club-style party and ending on Friday morning with our traditional Afterburner Breakfast with Bill “Hoz” Hosmer’s famous Marine Corps SOS! With over 70 images supporting this report, you’ll get a bird’s eye view of the goings-on from start to finish … and wish you could have been there—if you weren’t one of those 418 reunioneers!

Our featured article in this issue is the first of a four-part series titled Hun Bases and the Tet Offensive of 1968. The purpose of this series is to capture various aspects of an important event in the history of the F-100s and pilots who were flying to intense battles from all four of the in-country Hun bases throughout the critical first month of this historic offensive. We begin at pilotgs based at Bien Hoa AB with an overview of the ’68 Tet Offensive, and then move on to individual stories/recollections from eight pilots who were there … and “in the thick of things,” so to speak.

Our “center spread” (usually reserved for our The Way We Were Dept. featuring  “Hero Pictures” of 12 members) for this issue is devoted to two pages of Hun History captured in the Cannon AFB, NM, 16 June ’72 newspaper (the MACH METER). That history being an open house to say good-by to the last squadron of F-100s on USAF active duty with the 524th TFS commanded by Ron Clements. It was quite a party, culminating in the 16 jets making a flyby in flights of four and then departing to be turned over to receiving ANG units. You’ll find some fascinating pictures on those two pages, one of which we deemed worthy of gracing the back cover, enlarged and suitably framed!

Publisher Gatewood

Invitation to Join US: As members of the Super Sabre Society know, these three articles alone will be riveting, “must reads.” For those Hun drivers viewing this announcement, but who are not yet Society members, we hope the Front Cover and Contents, along with the promised reads of these three article synopses 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, 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 34. All 44 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 34!