Good thread. I had a VP-Flt Ops at my last company who was an F-8 driver in SE Asia. He cruised on the USS Hancock at the beginning in '65 with VF-24, told some great stories. To hear him tell it, the F-8s were feared by the Commies, unlike the F-4s, and the MiGs would avoid combat and run from Crusaders.
I highly recommend 2 books to you if you're interested in Crusaders:
"F-8 Crusader Units of the Vietnam War", published by Osprey Publishing, and "RF-8 Crusader Units over Cuba and Vietnam", both by same author. Their website is
www.ospreypublishing.com , and look under "Combat Aircraft" series.