Out of respect for my Son who is with F/A-18's and his Grandfather was was with F-8's & A-7's, here are my personal picks for best all around Fleet Air.
A-4 Skyhawk because the "Scooters" could snake canyons and drop close air support eyeball to eyeball to break up any ground contest.
A-6 Intruder because the beasts could take out a gopher hole at four clicks with more ordnance than any other two birds combined. Talk about loiter time! A Grunt's dream.
F-4 Phamtom II because they were a tough bird who put two sets of eyeballs on target which saved many a Marine's life.
There's nothing like looking up and seeing Fleet Air when you're up against it because then you know everything's going to be alright.
While we never made carrier arrested landings, the big gray boats looked awful good from the back of our CH-46's as we returned from the beach where life wasn't as sweet.
Certainly the greatest Navy dive bomber of WWII was the Douglas SBD which was designed by Ed Heinemann. During the war, the SBD Dauntless sunk more tons of enemy shipping than any other Allied aircraft.
Heinemann went on to design three other great aircraft for the fleet such as the A-1 Skyraider, the A-3 Skywarrior and the A-4 Skyhawk. I served in two squadrons flying the A-4. And the F4D Skyray was no sluoch either, especially in rate of climb.
The close air support provided by the Chance Vought F4U Corsair earned it the respect of the US Marines in both WWII and Korea.
Let a Navy Brat"Jarhead" chime in here.Grumman(Iron works)made the best no doubt,The "CAT"series birds.Wildcat,Hellcat,the awesome Bearcat.Without out em'Wake and Midway would be Japanese,The "Turkey shoot"would have went the other way.Not to be outdone,Chance Voughts,F4U "Corsair"signaled the end for hundreds of Jap Aircraft.Maybe it's just me.........
