In VMB-611, we festooned the old barracuda with every device known to ordnance and a few of our own design. We had eight 5-inch rockets, thirteen .50 caliber machine guns (nine firing forward), and a bomb load that ranged from fourteen 250-pound bombs to three 1,000 pounders. Someone once noted that we had the fire power of a Navy cruiser broadside. Perhaps. All I know is that the old PBJ-1 could haul it all out of a 4,000 dirt strip with 60-foot palm trees at the end with no sweat.
