Hilliard A. Wilbanks
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Hilliard A. Wilbanks
Hilliard Almond Wilbanks (July 26, 1933 – February 24, 1967) was a career officer and pilot in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. He Posthumous recognition, posthumously received the Medal of Honor for sacrificing his life on February 24, 1967, while supporting a unit of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) at Di Linh, near Da Lat, South Vietnam. Career Wilbanks joined the Air Force in August 1950, and was an United States Air Force Security Forces, air policeman with the Strategic Air Command during his first four years of service. He was then accepted into the Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF), aviation cadet program, and became a commissioned officer in June 1955. After serving as an instructor for a few years, he qualified as a fighter pilot in the early 1960s. He arrived in Vietnam in April 1966 as a forward air controller (FAC) with the 21st Tactical Air Support Squadron piloting a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, Cessna O-1E Bird Dog, with a top speed of ...
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Cornelia, Georgia
Cornelia is a city in Habersham County, Georgia, Habersham County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. The population was 4,160 at the 2010 census, up from 3,674 at the 2000 census. It is home to one of the Cornelia, Georgia#The Big Red Apple, world's largest apple sculptures, which is displayed on top of an obelisk-shaped monument. Cornelia was the retirement home of baseball legend Ty Cobb who was born nearby, and was a base of operation for production of the 1956 Disney film ''The Great Locomotive Chase'' that was filmed along the Tallulah Falls Railway that ran from Cornelia northward along the rim of Tallulah Gorge to Franklin, North Carolina. Geography Cornelia is located in southern Habersham County at (34.513716, -83.530942). It is bordered to the east by Mount Airy, Georgia, Mount Airy and to the southwest by Baldwin, Georgia, Baldwin. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 1.06%, are water. Climate History ...
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Da Lat
Da Lat (also written as Dalat, vi, Đà Lạt; ), is the capital of Lâm Đồng Province and the largest city of the Central Highlands region in Vietnam. The city is located above sea level on the Langbian Plateau. Da Lat is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam. Da Lat's specific sights are pine woods and twisting roads full of marigold (Vietnamese: ''hoa dã quỳ'') and mimosa blossom in the winter. The city's temperate weather stands in contrast to Vietnam's otherwise tropical climate. Mist covering the valleys almost year-round leads to its name " City of Eternal Spring". Residents and tourists have said that Da Lat has all four seasons in one day: spring in the morning, summer at noon, autumn in the afternoon and winter at night, from the sunset to the sunrise. Da Lat is also known as an area for scientific research in the fields of biotechnology and nuclear physics. With its year-round cool weather, Da Lat supplies huge amounts of temperate agri ...
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USAF Aeronautical Ratings
U.S. Air Force aeronautical ratings are military aviation skill standards established and awarded by the United States Air Force for commissioned officers participating in "regular and frequent flight",The standard by which flight status has been defined in law, executive orders, and regulations since 1913. either aerially or in space, in performance of their duties. USAF aeronautical badges, commonly referred to as "wings" from their shape and their historical legacy, are awarded by the Air Force in recognition of degrees of achievement and experience. Officers earning these badges and maintaining their requirements are classified as rated officers and receive additional pay and allowances. The first U.S. military aviator ratings were awarded in 1912, and the issuance of badges for recognition of the award began in 1913. The division of ratings into multiple skill levels and categories began in 1914 and expanded during World War I. With minor variations in numbers and titles of ...
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Senior Pilot USAF Wings
Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname or given name * Senior (education), a student in the final year of high school, college or university * Senior citizen, a common designation for a person 65 and older in UK and US English ** Senior (athletics), an age athletics category ** Senior status, form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges * Senior debt, a form of corporate finance * Senior producer, a title given usually to the second most senior person of a film of television production. Art * ''Senior'' (album), a 2010 album by Röyksopp * ''Seniors'' (film), a 2011 Indian Malayalam film * ''Senior'' (film), a 2015 Thai film * ''The Senior'', a 2003 album by Ginuwine * ''The Seniors'', a 1978 American comedy film See also * Pages that begin with "Senior" * Se ...
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McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers 1976, p. 301. Proving highly adaptable, it entered service with the Navy in 1961 before it was adopted by the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, and by the mid-1960s it had become a major part of their air arms. Phantom production ran from 1958 to 1981 with a total of 5,195 aircraft built, making it the most produced American supersonic military aircraft in history, and cementing its position as an iconic combat aircraft of the Cold War."F-4 Phantoms Phabulous 40th"
Boeing. Retrieved : 27 November 2012.

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M16 Rifle
The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-round magazine. In 1964, the M16 entered US military service and the following year was deployed for jungle warfare operations during the Vietnam War. In 1969, the M16A1 replaced the M14 rifle to become the US military's standard service rifle.Urdang, p. 801. The M16A1 incorporated numerous modifications including a bolt-assist, chrome-plated bore, protective reinforcement around the magazine release, and revised flash hider. In 1983, the US Marine Corps adopted the M16A2 rifle and the US Army adopted it in 1986. The M16A2 fires the improved 5.56×45mm (M855/SS109) cartridge and has a newer adjustable rear sight, case deflector, heavy barrel, improved handguard, pistol grip and buttstock, as well as a semi-auto and three-round burst fire sele ...
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Viet Cong
, , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active = 1954–1959 ''(as southern Viet Minh cadres)'' , ideology = , position = Far-left , leaders = Liberation Army: Central Office: Liberation Front:Burchett, Wilfred (1963):Liberation Front: Formation of the NLF, ''The Furtive War'', International Publishers, New York. Governance: , merged_into = Vietnamese Fatherland Front , clans = , headquarters = , area = Indochina, with a focus on South Vietnam , predecessor = Viet Minh , successor = Vietnam Fatherland Front , allies = , opponents = , battles = See full list The Viet Cong, ; contraction of (Vietnamese communist) was an armed communist organization in South Vietnam, ...
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Vietnamese Rangers
The Vietnamese Rangers ( vi, Biệt Động Quân), commonly known as the ARVN Rangers, were the light infantry of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Trained and assisted by American Special Forces and Ranger advisers, the Vietnamese Rangers infiltrated beyond enemy lines in search and destroy missions. Initially trained as a counter-insurgency light infantry force by removing the fourth company each of the existing infantry battalions, they later expanded into a swing force capable of conventional as well as counter-insurgency operations, and were relied on to retake captured regions. Later during Vietnamization the Civilian Irregular Defense Group program was transferred from MACV and integrated as Border Battalions responsible for manning remote outposts in the Central Highlands. Rangers were often regarded as among the most effective units in the war. Part of this was due to the specialized role of these units, given that they had their origins in French-raised Commando U ...
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Central Highlands (Vietnam)
Central Highlands ( vi, Cao nguyên Trung phần), Western Highlands ( vi, Tây Nguyên) or Midland Highlands ( vi, Cao nguyên Trung bộ) is one of the regions of Vietnam. It contains the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Lâm Đồng. Provinces History The native inhabitants of the Central Highlands (Montagnards, Mountain peoples) are various peoples that mainly belonged to the two major Austronesian (Highland Chamic) and Austroasiatic ( Bahnaric) ethnolinguistic families. According to Peng et al. (2010) & Liu et al. (2020), Austronesian Chamic groups were well known of being seafarers with the original homeland of Taiwan, might have migrated to present-day Central Vietnam by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia around ~ 2,500 kya, while were making contact/or possibly absorbed the previously earlier Austroasiatic inhabitants (research shows shared high frequencies of AA-associated ancestry among Vietnam's Austronesian Chamic highlanders than ...
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Air Medals
The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was established by , signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 11, 1942. It was awarded retroactive to September 8, 1939, to anyone who distinguishes himself by meritorious achievement while serving with the Armed Forces in aerial flight. The original award criteria set by an Army Policy Letter dated September 25, 1942, were for one award of the Air Medal:AFD-130506-008 Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal Criteria in the Army Air Forces in World War II – In Rough Chronological Sequence'. Spink, Barry L. ''Air Force Historical Research Agency'', 4 March 2010) * per each naval vessel or three enemy aircraft in flight confirmed destroyed. An entire aircrew would be credited for the destruction of a ship, but only the pilot or gunner responsible would ...
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Cessna O-1 Bird Dog
The Cessna L-19/O-1 Bird Dog is a liaison and observation aircraft. It was the first all-metal fixed-wing aircraft ordered for and by the United States Army following the Army Air Forces' separation from it in 1947. The Bird Dog had a lengthy career in the U.S. military, as well as in other countries. Design and development The U.S. Army was searching for an aircraft that could adjust artillery fire, as well as perform liaison duties, and preferably be constructed of all metal, as the fabric-covered liaison aircraft used during World War II (primarily Stinson and Piper products) had short service lives. After the specification for a two-seat liaison and observation monoplane was issued the Cessna Aircraft Company submitted the Cessna Model 305A, a development of the Cessna 170. The Cessna 305A was a single-engine, lightweight, strut-braced, high-wing monoplane with a tailwheel landing gear. The greatest difference from the Cessna 170 was that the 305A had only two seats, in ...
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Forward Air Controller
Forward air control is the provision of guidance to close air support (CAS) aircraft intended to ensure that their attack hits the intended target and does not injure friendly troops. This task is carried out by a forward air controller (FAC). A primary forward air control function is ensuring the safety of friendly troops during close air support. Enemy targets in the front line ("Forward Edge of the Battle Area" in US terminology) are often close to friendly forces and therefore friendly forces are at risk of friendly fire through proximity during air attack. The danger is twofold: the bombing pilot cannot identify the target clearly, and is not aware of the locations of friendly forces. Camouflage, a constantly changing situation and the fog of war all increase the risk. Present day doctrine holds that Forward Air Controllers (FACs) are not needed for air interdiction, although there has been such use of FACs in the past. An additional concern of forward air controllers is t ...
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