Saint Grendel: A brief history of the Republic F-105 Thunderchief in Utah

A very rare desert fox camo scheme used on only one Thud based at Hill AFB.

The Republic F-105 Thunderchief was an amazing machine and marks a huge turning point in aircraft technology in the US Air Force. It was a part of the Century Series of aircraft programs that were meant to rapidly increase the aeronautical technology capabilities in the military. Created specifically as a supersonic nuclear strike aircraft to penetrate Soviet air defenses in a potential world war 3 that never happened, in reality, the "Thud" (as it was known by pilots), gained fame an infamy in the Vietnam War with conventional bombing and Wild Weasel missions. It was the primary aircraft used for strike mission in the conflict, it shot down over 27 MiGs in the war, flew over 20,000 sorties, was the first aircraft in the USAF to have a dedicated Wild Weasel variant, but also had the dubious distinction of having 382 examples shot down in Vietnam, almost half of all the 833 examples built.

Another Thunderchief sitting on the flight line at Hill.

However, I'm not here to give a detailed account of the plane, but rather a history of it at Hill AFB, Utah. Before I can do that, a little history on the group based there. Activated in 1956 as a unit of the regular Air Force, the group and its three squadrons trained in C-123 assault airlift operations and eventually operated other aircraft such as the T-33, F-80, F-84, C-119, C-124, and C-46 aircraft.

1972, the Air Force Reserve modernization program renamed the the unit at the base to the 508th Fighter Group, and it is at that time that they were given the F-105, after much of it's involvement in Vietnam was already over. Being that the unit was now a part of the reserves, it was really towards the twilight of the Thud's career and they operated the B, D and F variants of the F-105 until the aircraft was ultimately retired.

The Hill AFB taxiway right before the 24 ship formation event. taken from the 419th Fighter Wing's Twitter account.

In June of 1983, the unit at Hill was the last remaining U.S. Air Force unit flying the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and the unit flew a diamond of diamonds 24-ship formation as a celebratory farewell to the “Thud” being withdrawn from service after 25 years of being in USAF inventory. For the 419th, it was to be replaced by the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. Today, on the inside of Hill, AFB itself, they still have a standing gate guard of an F-105D, as well as having both an F-105D and a two seat F-105F Wild Weasel variant that are displayed in the Hill AFB museum.

The famous diamond of diamonds formation flown for the retirement ceremony.

However, that's not all of Utah's history with the F-105. As mentioned earlier, the Thunderchief was used as a cover for the crash of an A-12 spyplane crash in 1963, which I wrote about earlier. However there are a couple of different actual F-105 crashes that did occur in Utah in the 60s.

On the 23rd of May 1963 (nearly the same time as the A-12 crash), aircraft serial number 59-1773 crashed near Kanab, Utah resulting in the destruction of the plane beyond repair.

A second crash occurred the next year on May 14th, 1964 when serial number 60-0412 crashed near Wendover after flying out of Nellis, likely going to the UTTR bombing range that also resulted in the total loss of the aircraft.

In both instances, the cause was listed as in-flight fires that caused the loss of control of the aircraft. Thankfully, in both instances it is said the pilot ejected safely and there were no casualties.