Oh yes do I remember the callsign fiasco. We were 'Gunfighters' at DaNang - 10
etc the wing, 20 etc the 4th (WindBags), 30 etc the 421 (Four Twenty Worst) and
40etc the 390 Wild Boars  'Gunsmoke' was our fast facs.
The desk commandos decided using Gunfighter rvealed too much info to Charlie so
they dictated the use of the VCSL. Mostly we ignored them - what were they going
to do, send us someplace else?

AFAIK (CRS) Gunfighter10-19 were the wing weinies' personal call signs,
G/F 10 being the WingCo and so on down. Gunfighter 01/02 were the Air
Defense birds - can't remember the Quick Reaction CAS birds c/s although
Lord knows I sat enough ground alert there. (2xF4D loaded snake(8) and
nape(4) plus C/L tank, 2xAIM7, 2xAIM9, ALE?pod.
AirDefense birds had guns (Emodels), 4 AIM7 4AIM9 C/L tank and ALE?pod.

I remember same thing happened way back when - our F104 squadron blanket id was
'Boron' and 'Baron' was a GCI site way to hell up in the NW US. So we used Baron
as a cross-country call sign anyway. Our SAGE assigend call sign were all Mike
November and a number - how stultifying. That was dictated by the SAGE computer.

In WW2 Churchil had the right idea - callsigns/code names were supposed to have
a significance of their own - something to spark the imagination. He said
(paraphrasing)
he didn't want any of his men dying in something like 'Operation Pansy'. He went
in for names with an attribute worthy of the endeavor - i.e. Operation Overlord
for D-Day.

Worst I ever heard in the VCSL  was 'dingleberry'; I think it was one of the c/s
for the USN New Jersey. (May have been some other boat but NJ sticks in my mind)

Walt BJ Gunfighter 41 (and proud of it!)