Welcome to the A-6 Intruder memorial blog covering the history and the "what if" of the US Navy's all weather attack aircraft of the 1960's to the late 1990's. The Grumman A-6 Intruder went by many nick names like "The flying dump truck", "The baby B-52", and the Short Ugly Fat (beep) 'er. The A-6 carried a wide assortment of weapons from conventional iron bombs to nuclear weapons. It started with the A-6-A in 1964 which flew over Vietnam to the never served A-6F Intruder II. The blog author served with the A-6 community from 1985 to 1997.

   The Intruder was indeed the aircraft which separated military aviation from the "blind age" where weather affected military flying and effectiveness to the aircraft of 2016 like the F/A 18 F Super Hornet and the F/A 35 Lightening II. The A-6 was designed to fly in all weather, all conditions and deliver tons of ordinance on target through clouds, smoke and obscuring conditions. It was hailed in 1964 as the first space age aircraft when it came to computer assisted navigation...though the aircraft today would be considered "primitive" to today's "Millenials".

    The Intruder was also the last of her kind, a very well built aircraft who's purpose was to take the bombs to the enemies front door. The A-6 flew into the heavily defended steel curtain of Hanoi in North Vietnam and against Iraqi air defenses during the 1991 Gulf War. She was the B-17 bomber of her era, going "downtown" to carry out the true "manly art" of airborne strike warfare. Today in 2016 we stand at the dawn of the un-manned combat aircraft as attested by the US Navy's UCAV 47B. The days when men flew through flak guns and SAM missiles to hit important targets are long since gone with the last of the A-6 Intruders.

   So enjoy this blog and give thanks and gratitude to the many men who flew this rugged little aircraft through dark lonely nights, flak and Surface to Air Missiles in all weather and at all times of the day.