Discipline in your various squadrons was also quite impressive. Again, it amazes me that pilots were able to maintain discipline under the prevailing conditions. You tell one story of a pilot who came across a partially operational SAM site after (delete aborting, he had completed his primary strike) a target run and elected to do some damage. But that was the exception. This restriction must have driven you nuts?

JB: All the restrictions that protected the targets we should have logically destroyed were bad news. Forbidding us to attack the weapons that would be used against us was the ultimate in political stupidity.

Of the many aggravations you faced, riding in to the same target in impossible weather day after day, giving the enemy plenty of warning about what your intentions would be when the weather first cleared, so they could load up the area with defenses, must have been the worst!

JB: That situation was forced on us by a combination of political and high level Air Force bad policy. Lyndon and Robert would often alternate between go and no go on a target, and sometimes you would go through all the pain and strain, and crummy weather, be almost ready to hit the target, only to be called off. Sometimes the rotten weather was enough to keep us from hitting the target.

Next thing we knew the high level Air Force types became upset because the Navy, being only a short distance off the coast, could sneak in at night with their weather capable A-6 aircraft and log completed combat sorties - they were making us look bad in the Washington level statistics! The word came down through Seventh Air Force that regardless of the weather the leader would drag his entire force over the defenses, just in case he could somehow enhance the statistics. That of course generated the situation you addressed in your question.

But you know what? I never needed to be sitting on top of clouds and storms directly over a target to know if I could get my troops in, destroy the target, and get my guys out. As soon as I determined it was a no-go, I simply would not drag my people into obvious trouble. I'd fake it, head someplace else like I wanted to hit something else up there, then I'd turn the flight leaders loose and we would all go hunting for whatever we could find.

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Let's talk about the aircraft. The early 84s seem to give new meaning to the phrase "pig with wings." How did these things ever make it to the flight line?

JB: There was some conflict between the military procurement functions and the Republic factory in the emergence of the 84 series, which grew to drastic proportions by the time the 105 came along. Conflicting requirements, contract squabbles, stop and go funding and some antagonistic attitudes did a lot to slow the progress of both birds. The early 84s that we received were grossly under powered in a clean configuration, and they guaranteed a thrill a minute when you tried to strap something resembling a combat load on them.

I think you flew every one of the 80 series aircraft. Which was your favorite and why?

JB: For a combat operation it had to be the C model, as it was the only one that could have survived combat in Korea. All systems in the Cs were giant steps ahead of the A or B models, not the least of which was an ejection seat capability. But for sheer delight I'd have to go with P-80A number 059, crewed by Corporal Wilson, which I flew on every mission I could while instructing gunnery when we reopened Las Vegas Air Base. I wasn't even Nellis Air Force Base yet. 059 always worked; Wilson kept it so shiny it made you blink, and it fit me like a glove.

You actually had an opportunity to brief President Kennedy during the early days of the war. What was that like?

JB: We had been threatened with forty lashes if any of us took more than thirty seconds to cover our subject with the President, and my subject was the status of the fighter forces in Air Defense Command. He was way behind schedule when he got to my area, and he had just waved and walked by several groups before he got to me. As he walked up to me I was struck by the fact that he was bigger and taller than I had anticipated, and he was wearing the most striking black silk suit I had ever seen. He stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, my name's Jack Kennedy." I responded, "Hi, my name's Jack Broughton," and started on the first few seconds of the canned pitch.

But he broke in with a question and I immediately dumped the old pitch and responded, while the four star behind him turned purple because I was not following the script. Almost immediately we were into a good session with him asking smart questions about the equipment and people, and me providing frank answers.

By the time a couple of the Senators with him joined in, and we were all relaxed and enjoying it, and the purple four star changed to all smiles. We shot the breeze for the better part of ten minutes, until someone reminded him that he had better get going because the Canadian Prime Minister was tired of waiting in the next room. We parted with lots of handshakes, and I had the distinct feeling that all concerned would rather have pulled up a chair, shared a cool one and talked some more.

Near to your graduation from War College you had an opportunity to take the fast track to a great career and a star that would make you a General. But you wanted to go back to fighting the war. Did you ever regret that decision?

JB: Never. There was a war to be fought and there was an immediate need for skilled fighter pilot leaders about my size. That is where I belonged, where I was needed, and where I wanted to go.

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