At 06:16 PM 1/17/2000 -0800, Vincent Seifert wrote:
Ngyuen chuckled, and motioned for his men to load the
disassembled rocket pipes into the jeep. "A better choice than
that guy made. He'll be lucky if he gets out of the Mekong
alive."
{This may be an anachronism; webpage says 1959, this seems to be
mid-60s, and shoulder-fired SAMs weren't available, let alone common,
until the late 70s, if memory serves. SAMs of the time were about the
size of telephone poles, and deployed and operated by many men and
trucks. Unguided rockets would be jeep-portable, but would have a very
low hit probability against an aircraft. Then again, this IS the
Ranmaverse, where unrealistic things happen every day... :) }
Uhh.. little incorrect here. Both the US and the USSR had
primitive shoulder-launched SAMs by then. They had idiotic little
infra-red seeker heads and were only useful if the target was headed
straight at you, but they DID have them.
A few relevant quotes, and that'll be all I have to say
about this.
12 Oct 61 The REDEYE weapon system made its first public appearance when an
Army lieutenant successfully fired the missile during a special weapons
demonstration at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Among those witnessing the
demonstration were President John F. Kennedy, Defense Secretary Robert S.
McNamara, and Army Secretary Elvis J. Stahr, Jr.
Sep 65 Delivery of the Block I REDEYE systems began. Completed in May 66,
most of the weapons delivered were expended in engineering and service tests.
The Soviets were actually a little ahead of us in this
field due to the numbers and skills of the German scientists
they'd grabbed.
So it can be argued either way, I suppose.
Hope that helps, and if you need more info, feel free
to get in touch.
Ed Becerra
"Deamers may die, but the Dream is eternal..."