My dad brought a interesting point to me tonight while eating dinner.Why didnt the Air Force let the F-100s fly MiG cap over North Vietnam.They were more than well equiped to do the job since the had four 20-mm cannons and more than likely could have blown the Mig-17s out of the sky.He even said that some Crusader pilots from the navy asked the Air Force if they could fly MiG cap for the Thuds since they had guns and could out perform the Migs.So why didnt they let practically the only jet they had with guns fly MiGcap?

Good question! I guess it all comes down to the capability of the aircraft involved: using the F-100 Hun ( a dedicated fighter/bomber and early Wild Weasel a/c) as an air-to-air interceptor operating without a good radar system. The other two Century Series planes in use in Vietnam - the F-102 & F-104 - had superior radar but no "guns", i.e. cannon or gun pods fitted to the later F-4E Phantoms. From the literature I have read (being a non-pilot myself), most Korean War vets flying in Vietnam preferred both missiles - for an 'over the horizon' shoot down capability - and the cannon/vulcan gun pod combination. It obviously would have been risky for a flight of F-4s or F-105 Thuds to have been escorted by aircraft not really suited ( by the late stages of the air war) to MIGCAP or classic "dogfighting" roles. Would the Air Force have relented and allowed the 'last of the gunfighters'- the F-8 Crusader- to escort their own aircraft? I doubt it - the newer Phantom IIs and the establishment of the Fighter Weapons School - "Red Flag" - turned things around and increased the MIG kill ratio. Also , the NVPAF Mig-17 and -19 could generally outperform the much heavier F-100. Of course, it would be fascinating to hear from Air Force and Navy pilots who flew in 'Nam on this subject.

Yes but even if F-100s had flown escort missions it would have been between 64-66 time frame because the F-4s were rapidly taking over the F-100s in all forms.So if you consider that they would have been flying against -17s for the most part,then they would have been really neat to see who would have won.I did forget to mention earlier that if they Huns were to fly MiGCap they would have had to be retrofitted to carry missiles.