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I thought that the Son Toy raid guys used a very early version of red dot sight that was made by a Swedish company and was not something even is US military inventory I have not read the same things you gather from your book are sure what was said was accurate or perhaps the author was opinionated? I find the rifle mounted night sight hard to believe no one in the early 70s would have had technology to make a sight that was less bulky than the "Star Scope" that was available at the time that is too bulky for CQC combat they did find use for the early red dot though.Hell just in the past ten yers have night scopes gotten small enough not be to bulky for close combat.
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The book I mentioned above was written by Benjamin F. Schemmer and he had access to primary sources involved in the operation. Some of his particulars can be found here:
Obituary:
http://www.blogofdeath.com/archives/000468.html
There is also a page showing a computerized depiction of the raid (an interest but somewhat poor quality video):
http://www.sontayraider.com/
What I wrote above was not a direct quote from the book; it was based on my recollection (hence the IIRC: "If I Recall Correctly"). The book gives a detailed account of the failure of munitions drawn from quartermaster stores and the choices made regarding weapons. The CIA was quite involved in the planning and execution of the Son Tay raid but denied any involvment after it failed to rescue any POWs and resulted in the deaths of Chinese Red Army personnel. In the book is a photo of the scale table-top model of the Son Tay camp with a plaque stating the model came from the CIA. It seems the CIA was proud of the plan but not of the results.
The "night sight" may indeed been a "red dot" type aiming device; it has been some time since I last read the book and I can not find my copy at the moment (I have sveral hundreds of books and, no, they are not fully organized, much like myself). I do recall specifically that the book clearly stated the "night sight" given to them by the military was large, unwieldly, and inaccuarate enough to be highly ineffective. That is why, in addition to making purchases of "civilian" ammo, they also turned to a non-military source for the "night sight", among many other items.
The readiness of aircraft is quite different than land units; aircraft, by nature, are highly technical and require much more maintenance than ground units. It is more likely an aircraft is "ready to roll" than a gound unit that is used much more often. I would also venture that a line aircraft gets much more prompt attention than, say an armored vehicle or transport. The basic psychology is you can always run away from a malfuctioning ground vehicle, but it is much more difficult at 20,000 feet up. Also losing a ground vehicle is much less expensive than losing a multi-mutil-million dollar aircraft. Please have a little pity for the plight of the ground soldier.
I would really suggest reading the book "The Raid"; I am sure many of the facts you noted are covered in the book and, besides, it is one heck of a good read...