the phantom weren t the only jet fighter with a piece of the action in that fracas though you d never know it by listening to a bunch of phantom pilots there was the f 105 thunderchief most of us called it a thud but never with an ounce of disrespect why there s enough pure raw courage in one thud pilot to make heroes out of an entire bomber squadron i ve watched those f 105 drivers baby that monstrous bucket of bolts into place the devil himself wouldn t go they d come roaring in peel off in a screaming dive point that thing at the ground and pray i d reckon you see the thunderchief don t carry but one pilot and i used to wonder just how lonesome it got for those guys nobody to talk to like in the phantom except the lord maybe one engine one seat one set of eyeballs and one pilot yep among fighter planes the thud was sort of the last of the red hot mamas now it s true that to a wolfpack fighter pilot there ain t a plane anywhere that can hold a candle to a phantom but i ll give you a little tip don t ever badmouth a thud or a thud pilot where a phantom driver can hear you it might cost you a few teeth i m a thud pilot and i love my plane it is my body i am its brain my thunderchief loves me and i love her too but i get the creeps with only one seat and one engine too she s faster than lightning it says on her dials to get a thud airborne takes only two miles she s packed with transistors black boxes diodes but stay alert cause you might get hurt when she explodes she totes more bombs than a b 17 my f 105 has a gun and she s mean but there is one thing that curdles my blood it s lonesome up there alone in the air in my single seat thud i love my thud and she loves me too she soaks up flak like a magnet can do if i get my hundred and i m still alive i ll have no grief goodbye thunderchief my f 105 