GEOGRAPHY

Prefecture of Department of the AISNE. 30 000 inhabitants. 100 miles far from PARIS, North-East, the chalky hillock of LAON, in the shape of a croissant, culminate at 240 feet and dominate the plain of Champagne that stretches itself out towards East. The "Saint Vincent Basin" was planted with vineyards up to the end of 19^th century. The Laon area is a land of cultivation (wheat and sugar beet).

• Laudanum in the gallo-roman age, LAON was an Episcopal see founded by Saint Rémi in the beginning of the 6^th century and stayed for a long time the property of bishops and monks. A lot of vestiges show this, like the ones of the famous Saint Vincent Abbey.

• LAON suffered from the conflicts between the suitors at the Charlemagne era. Betrayed by the bishop Adalbéron, the town was at last hold by Hugues Capet and lost its title of capital.

• The 12^th and 13^th centuries were both an era of social and politic disorders and of development of the trade and agricultural activity of the area.

• During the One Hundred Years War, LAON resisted to the Burgundians and to the English.

• Having stood up for the Calvinists during the religious wars, the town was hold by Henri IV in 1594 after a three months siege.

• During the French Révolution, LAON lost its see but became prefecture of Aisne.

• In the 16^th century, as a military fortified town, LAON was the seat of several battles and had to sustain several sieges.

• LAON surrendered to Bülow in 1814 and was hold by Blücher in 1815 when Napoléon, defeated under its ramparts, tried unsuccessfully to hold it back.

• In 1870, when surrendering to the Prussians and while they were entering the citadel, a guard blew up the powder magazine and the blast made 500 dead persons.

• During World War I, hold in September 1914, LAON stayed in Germans' hands up to October 1918.

• Again hold by the Germans during World War II, LAON was again the theatre of fights and a target for air raids before to be at last liberated by the Americans.

• A whole district of the actual town, the "Cité Marquette", was built by the Americans who were based on the Air Force Base of NATO in COUVRON up to 1966.

HISTORIC AND TOURISTIC SITES donated by Suzanne Britt and Denise Perigo (click to view photos)
La porte d'Ardon	La Cathedrale Notre-Dame		La porte de Soissons	Le Chateau- Pierrefonds

City of Laon, hillside view, from a distance of about 3 miles
"Story and Photos supplied by Bernard Croza".

The RF101 VooDoo

Unarmed & Unafraid

The RF 101 first gained prominence during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, but it was in North Vietnam that it got its true baptism of fire. Voodoo pilots were routinely tasked to fly their aircraft into "Pack Six", the area surrounding Hanoi, to search out enemy activity and obtain post strike photography as needed. Pack Six has been described, as the most heavily defended area in the history of aerial warfare and to fly an unarmed aircraft into it required an extra measure of dedication.

The RF 101 proved to be a rugged bird, which could sustain extensive damage, nonetheless, it suffered a loss rate similar to that of the strike aircraft and despite their small numbers, 39 were shot down during the course of the war.

The Voodoo was retired from service in 1971, after a 14 year career, but her pilots fondly remember her as an honest, reliable aircraft which was a pleasure to fly.

McDonnell RF-101A and -C "Voodoo"

The F-101 lineage included several versions: low-altitude fighter-bomber, photo reconnaissance, two-seat interceptor and transition trainer. To accelerate production, no prototypes were built, the first Voodoo, an F-101A, made its initial flight on September 29, 1954. When production ended in March 1961, nearly 800 Voodoos had been built. Development of the unarmed RF-101, the world's first supersonic photo-recon aircraft, began in 1956 while 35 RF-101As and 166 RF-101Cs were produced, many earlier single-seat Voodoos were converted to the reconnaissance configuration.

The RF-101C on display participated in "Operation Sun Run," a high-speed transcontinental flight on November 26, 1957. Using air-to-air refueling, a team of Voodoos set nonstop speed records from Los Angeles to New York City and return. Capt Ray W. Schrecengost, flying the plane on display, broke three existing speed records. This Voodoo flew vital low-altitude reconnaissance during the Cuban Missile Crisis and helped confirm that offensive missile sites in Cuba were being dismantled.

It also served in Southeast Asia (SEA) with the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, one of the first aircraft in SEA to revert to camouflage markings for combat use. It was transferred from the 186th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, Mississippi Air National Guard, Key Field, Mississippi, to the USAF Museum on October 27, 1978.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Span: 39 ft. 8 in.
Length: 69 ft. 3 in.
Height: 18 ft. 0 in.
Weight: 51,000 lbs. max.
Armament: One MK-28 or MK-43 thermonuclear bomb
Engines: Two Pratt & Whitney J57s of 15,000 lbs. thrust each with afterburner
Cost: $1,276,245

PERFORMANCE:

Maximum speed: 1,000 mph.
Cruising Speed: 550 mph.
Range: 2,060 miles
Service Ceiling: 45,800 ft.

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