Marine OV-10 Bronco Aircrew

Two-seat forward air control: pilot up front, aerial observer/FAC in back, working at treetop altitude to mark targets with willy-pete rockets and call jets onto them. Marine VMO-1 and VMO-2 ran the fleet.

The Story

The Bronco proved so good at low-and-slow CAS that 30 years after retirement the Air Force borrowed civilian OV-10Gs to train forward air controllers — the airframe was better than what replaced it, but the threat environment had changed.