As this book is released and begins to appear on the bookshelves of aviation enthusiasts, the "Thud" will be disappearing from the skies over America. As this is written, only a handful of F-105s remain, and they are all scheduled for a final flight to the "bone-yard" in the very near future. Hopefully, museums will preserve a number of these machines for future generations of airplane lovers to see, and others will become gate guards and display aircraft at air bases. Certainly the Thunderchief deserves appropriate preservation. Of all the "Century Series" of fighters, it saw more combat, and served this nation more admirably in war than any of the others. It was entirely an American aircraft, serving only in the colors of the United States. Of all the other "Century Series" fighters, only the F-106 Delta Dart has served only in the United States Air Force. All others have been exported to at least one foreign country. Of the many F-105 pilots this author has known, most with combat experience, all loved this aircraft. They had admiration for its ruggedness and durability, its bomb-carrying capability, and most of all, its capability to leave the target area and "go home at the speed of light!" The Thunderchief was designed to deliver a nuclear weapon at supersonic speed - a mission it never was called upon to perform. Instead, it delivered more conventional bombs to Route Pac 6, and "Downtown Hanoi" than any other fighter. In doing so it suffered the greatest number of losses over any other aircraft, but considering the number of missions flown, the loss rate was not so high. It also was used as a "Wild Weasel" aircraft, to attack enemy air defense missile sites, a role in which it proved very adapt, and for which it received a great deal of publicity.
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