25 Hour Day

"A Story of Air Force F-105s"
This is a film made circa late 1966 or early 1967 by Fairchild Aviation, the manufacturer of the F-105 ("Thunderchief", sometimes nicknamed "Thud"), a fighter-bomber flown in Vietnam.

The film follows the preparation and execution of a mission to interdict the flow of supplies from North Vietnam. There is excellent footage of many of the aircraft in use at that time, including F-4s,KC-135s, A-1s, and HH-53s. Lots of gun camera film. There is also some footage of carrier operations and some of ground troops.

Very interesting is footage of Secretary of Defense McNamara explaining the reasons for the bombing by giving a bunch of statistics about the amount of supplies moving south. It's pretty much exactly the sort of dry, political, war-reduced-to-facts-and-figures briefing you expect from a Defense Secretary- then or today.

This film stands out from others like it due to its focus on the entire team that makes these missions possible, rather than just on the fighter pilots. Considerable time is spent on the ground crews, the tanker crews, the Pararescue and RESCAP crews (the people that rescue downed pilots and their air cover).