Unlike WWII and Korea and Viet Nam where external tanks were dropped before entering combat...Navy doesn't buy enough to do that any more unlike the Air Force, which has literally acres of drop tanks. SOP in Desert Storm was for Eagles to punch them off upon receiving a vector. No questions asked. Navy policy is 180 out. Almost have to have Flag permission to punch off a tank...and in some instances, that is exactly what it took. [...]
It was really like that late Vietnam, too. Early on and briefly, guys were jettisoning drop tanks like the Air Force did. But that quickly changed.
Our aircraft carriers quickly ran out of drop tanks. (Only so many extra, so-called-"drop-tanks" are carried on the carrier, and supply ships didn't have them to unrep, either. Worse, an F-4 without any external tanks was not "combat ready," and therefore automatically down!) Thus we were told never to jettison external fuel tanks, except in the most "extreme" of cases. Hot vectors on MiG's were not considered 'extreme' enough. And I had a few of those - as many did - but of course, never did jettison.
Also, there was a real danger in jettisoning a partially full tank. They had a nasty habit of pitching back up into the aircraft or the horizontal stab. But jettisoning an empty one was OK...below a speed restriction I no longer remember. (But then, in combat many, if not all of our speed restrictions went quickly out the window, with cause. Flag never knew - nor would he likely care, and none of us harbored any guilt on exceeding most speed limits within reason.)
I once thought I might jettison if actually engaged and therefore would not have to answer for it. But there were problems with that too. The last thing in an engagement I wanted to do was to come back in, eyeballs into the cockpit, looking for switches to jettison the by now, light and empty centerline tank...all while a close-by enemy MiG outside my cockpit was fix'n to kill me. Worse, there was always the fear that I could also accidentally jettison my Sidewinders.
DOH! (it had happened to others.)
Therefore I decided my external centerline tank and me were best "buddies".
It went everywhere with me, and could plan on always coming back to the boat with me, regardless of our mission or action - and Flag would be happy….Ah, except and excluding any @#&%$ 130kt weak cat shot when I really needed 155kts. … That's instantaneous no questions asked, C-Ya-centerline-time, and goodbye your unwanted 4100lbs, and everything else!
!
Call me fickle.
