I have NO idea why Mahonney's imposter posted this. Apparently he has nothing else to do.

But....anyway, I have a response. We have a local gentleman that farmed and also retired as a Col from USAF in the mid-70s. I became good friends with him. He was a member of our pilots club & was a rental pilot of some of our planes. I flew with him often for BFRs & checkouts, etc. He started out flying F100s & ended up his career flying F4s. He bombed VN a lot. He told us of his transition training into the F4. Upon "graduation" of the training, their last training flight was out of one of the AFB (don't remember which exactly) and part of the test was a take-off & full AB climbout to something like 35,000' while holding the runway heading and reaching that altitude before crossing the departure end of the runway. That would be a nearly vertical climb.

F4s always used drag chutes when landing on pavement. If they didn't or couldn't use the chutes, they had mandatory main gear tire changes after 4 landings. 

Springfield IL was the base of the IL NG that also flew F4s. The did maintenance there also. They had an engine run-up area for F4s after maintenance. They would chain the planes down so they wouldn't move for full AB power tests. The chains looked like anchor chains off the Titanic to me.

I watched the Blue Angels when they flew the F4s. I've seen them also fly the F18s. I personally don't think there was any comparison. The F4s were a better show. But, that's just me. Stuck in the past, I know. But there are reasons to be stuck also. The F4 held speed & altitude records that I don't believe the F18 has matched. Prototype F4 went up to 98,000'.

Now look how much time Mahonneys made me waste.