Pablo Carballo

Pablo Marcos Rafael Carballo
Pablo Marcos Rafael Carballo
	Argentine Nation to the Heroic Valour in Combat Cross, the Argentine Congressional Medal, and the Highest Distinction of the Argentine Air Force.
Other work	Professor, Escuela de Aviación Militar, Córdoba (currently)

Commodore Pablo Marcos Rafael Carballo (born 11 December 1947) is a retired member of the Argentine Air Force - the

Argentine Nation to the Heroic Valour in Combat Cross

, the Argentine Congressional Medal, and the Highest Distinction of the Argentine Air Force.

Career

Ensign Carballo graduated as a pilot in the 37th class of Escuela de Aviación Militar (Military Flying School) of the FAA at

Morane-Saulnier MS-760 Paris and North American F-86 Sabres

. He was then assigned as a cadet instructor of the Cordoba Flying School.

In 1979, he was assigned to the 5th Air Brigade (

Mirage III

becoming the squadron chief.

Falklands (Malvinas) War

In 1982 Captain Carballo was section leader at 5th Air Brigade flying

Santa Cruz Province

when hostilities broke out.

He took part in the following missions: ( showing: approximate local time | Aircraft | Call signal )

1 May 17:30 : C-215 Flight
Port Stanley in a friendly fire incident; fortunately without casualties. The ship returned to the mainland carrying a 500 lb unexploded bomb.^[1]

21 May 13:00 : C-204 Flight
bombs, both of which failed to explode.^[3]

23 May 13:30 : C-228 Flight Nene. Four A-4B attacked

Rio Gallegos

. Two unexploded bombs hit the ship after the attack, one of which detonated while being defused, sinking the ship.

25 May 15:20 : C-225 Flight Vulcano Two A-4B (flying with Lt Carlos Rinke) attacked HMS Broadsword which was providing anti-aircraft missile cover for HMS Coventry, which itself was acting as a decoy to draw attacks away. Broadsword's Sea Wolf missile system developed a technical fault and could not be fired at the Skyhawks. The bomb bounced off the sea passed through the ship damaging the frigate's communication systems, hydraulics and electrics systems ^[4] and shattering the nose of her Sea Lynx helicopter before exploding without causing further damage.^[5] In the same action, another flight (Zeus flown by 1st Lt Velazco and Ensign Barrionuevo) sank the destroyer HMS Coventry
27 May 16:58 : Flight Póker Two A-4B (again with Lt Rinke) struck ground targets at Ajax Bay. Each aircraft carrying four 500 lb retarding bombs, causing 5 deaths and 26 injuries.^[6]
08 Jun : Flights
Sea Harriers
.
12 June: C-221 Flight Paris. Two A-4B, Paris 2 (Lt Rinke's plane) had a fire on departure and the mission was aborted.

Aircraft

The

US Navy

inventory in 1966 and at the time of the war were painted green/brown topsides with light blue undersides heavily faded colours. Yellows identity markings were also added during the conflict.

These aircraft provided outstanding performance and availability even in the harsh operating conditions of the South Atlantic with most of them returning from missions with some form of battle damage and were patched up and pressed back into service within matter of hours. Because of this, pilots used to change airframes between sorties.

In spite of using two 295-gallon drop tanks they needed aerial refueling twice during missions. The ordnance used during the conflict were one British-made 1000 lb Mk 17 bomb or four Spanish-made 500 lb retarding tail Expal-Explosivos Alaveses (named BRP). American 500 lb retarding tail Mark 82 bombs ("Snake Eye") were also available but used infrequently. The aircraft were also armed with two 20 mm cannons but without any air-to-air missile, Radar warning receiver or chaff for self-defence.