U.S. aircraft in Vietnam appear to have been extremely vulnerable to AAA

[NickM]

That and a little factoid I learned from reading Jack Broughton's 'Thud Ridge': 'more modern' jet aircraft had hydraulic & fuel systems placed for easy access by maintenance crews with very little thought to 'hardening' the systems--after all the attitude was 'anti aircraft fire(and dogfighting) was a thing of the past....so even minor damage could cause you to catch fire or to lose your control systems due to your 'vital fluids' draining out.

[steve51]

NickM,
I stand corrected. Obviously Mr Broughton's opinion on this subject is more valuable than mine. Given that, the loss rate was quite low. Might it be that more sorties were flown in the south were the AAA threat was less than in the north?