Jim "Skinny" McLennan was a Sabre pilot with the USAF and he served in France in 1961-1962. He has provided the following detail for our web site.
Active Duty in France - 1961-1962
We were called to active duty for the Berlin Crisis. Deploying to Phalsbourg, France, we island-hopped with about 70 F-86Hs via Canada, Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, led by our Wing Commander - Charles W Sweeney who had dropped the second atomic bomb on Japan during World War Two.
Flying in Europe was something else. In simulated air-to-air combat, the Sabre could beat the Century Series Fighters if they would stay and fight. We cruised at 41,000 feet. Few of the others, if any, could do that. The F-86 was not a solid instrument aircraft. It always wanted to turn, at least in my hands. But in those days, we were "dayfighter pilots", leaving the night and bad weather flying to the '86 Dogs or '94s. Instrument approaches were emergency procedures, although in Europe we did a lot of them.
The only threat to an '86 was another '86. Most notably, those Canadian Sabre Mark 6 drivers from Grostenquin (GT). Even though the '86H had the most power of all the Sabre variants, the Mark 6 had a slightly better thrust-to-weight ratio and lower wing loading. I used to "trap" them at my 6 o'clock on a regular basis. It went something like this - takeoff, suck up the gear and flaps, into the soup to "on top", check the mirror, break into the Mark 6s for 30 minutes of bank, yank and near-collisions; then back into the soup for a minimum fuel GCA to home plate.
On occasion, when the Canadians were grounded with bad weather and "Eli" Culbertson was in the lead, we would cruise over to Grostenquin. Eli would request a practice GCA low approach for a flight of four Sabres. As we turned onto final, radar would ask, "What will be your airspeed on final?" Eli would respond, "400 knots". Without missing a beat, radar would answer, "Your rate of descent on final will be 1,754 feet per minute". We now knew we were in for another ride of our lives as Eli ordered a "diamond formation", and we hurled down the glide slope! The controller was calm as he gave commands to our leader, such as. "You're high, you're low, you're left, or you're right". We would break out, screaming along at less than 100 feet, with rain beating on our canopies and Eli would bank and yank to buzz the 430 Squadron's hangar as we three wingies hung on for dear life! Then it was back up into the clag for a quiet return to base. Man - it was fun! What did I know. I was a young Captain with these WWII types as my leaders. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.
"Sabre Night" occurred on May 18, 1962. It was a party, and we hosted for all F86 drivers in Europe. We packed our speed brakes with thousands of flyers and delivered them via air mail to Sabre bases all over France and Germany. General Adolph Gallard, the chief of German fighters in World War Two, was our guest speaker. He flew his own private aircraft to Phalsbourg, escorted by Sabres from the German Air Force. Canadian, German and American Sabre pilots had a night to remember. I wish I could tell you about it, but I can't recall any more!