Aviation History had a great article on the 4 Soviet MiG-15s he shot down.
Just read it this morning. What a stud and kept the secret for most of his life. Good for him Grumman wasn't known as the Iron Works for nothing. How many single action Aces are there? I sure hope we don't give him the CMH posthumously. He deserves to wear it.
Brian- Already passed on the magazine, but I remember 4 and that those were confirmed after the Soviet Union fell with Soviet records. Not something either side wanted to advertise.
Well not like it wouldn't be the first time mainstream news got some facts wrong. I suspect the Skis know how many airplanes they lost. I have a brother named Douglas after a General from back then. My Father agreed with him we should just ignore the Yalu as a boundary. Many years ago I read Bradleys autobiography. Really interesting information on the global military perspective for the period. They genuinely believed Korea was a big diversion. For every reserve unit sent there 2 front line units went to Europe.
In the video, they mentioned after he splashed one, he shot down an additional 4. Thanks for posting the video. Neat to see he was off the Oriskany as well, my parents' neighbor was an airdale on that ship during the Vietnam war, great guy with lots of stories. I'll forward this article to him.
Dick Rutan passed away at age 85 last Friday. https://www.yahoo.com/news/dick-rutan-set-aviation-milestone-215150600.html
Rutan will be hard to replace. He definitely was an original thinker who could implement his ideas. Even getting bought out by N-G did not seem to affect him much.
They certainly had an enormous influence on aviation. I saw that thing hanging in the Smithsonian. Good thing Dick never knew how much he ground off the wing tips until it was over.
The old Double Ugly definitely needed both those engines and the relatively crude avionics needed two crewmembers to operate efficiently.
Seemed to work OK for Duke. Just looked it up. Every US Ace in Vietnam flew the F4 An ex F14 pilot friend thought the gun was just needless weight.
He made the comment after he watched an F-4 fly into a hill from his F-100. Inexperienced general who wanted seat time in Vietnam, had a malfunction and couldn't recover. Back seat major ejected. If I find the story, I'll post it, but all the searches right now are about his passing.
Google tells me it was probably this guy: Major General Robert Franklin Worley (U.S. Air Force) Vice Commander, Seventh Air Force, Pacific Air Forces. Killed July 23, 1968, when the RF-4C he was piloting was hit by ground fire and crashed approximately 65 miles northwest of Da Nang Air Base. The only other General killed in a fighter in Vietnam was this guy: Brigadier General Edward Burke Burdett (U.S. Air Force) Commanding General, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, Korat Royal Thai Air Base. MIA November 18, 1967 when shot down while flying a F-105D on a strike mission over Phuc Yen Airfield, North Vietnam. Later declared a prisoner of war, he died in captivity on November 18, 1967.
Probably planned on running for senate after the war. Had a coworker back in the day. He had been AF orderly at hospital at Clark AFB during VN. He said every officer at hospital every month took a ride on the medivac flight to Vietnam and every flight crossed over into the defined combat zone so they got combat flight pay. Not sure how it all works but sounded plausible to me.
Note that half the aces in Vietnam were back-seaters. Top ace was a back seater. We do not want to discuss Randy Cunningham too much, for obvious reasons.
Forgot about that. Thats why the list was longer than I thought it should have been. I remembered Duke and Ritchey. Duke was a real let down. Not half as bad as all the USC fans feel about OJ.
Don- In Vietnam, each crew member received a kill. Most of the USAF kills were with AIM-7s and most of the Navy F-4 kills were with AIM-9s. The Navy beat up the Sparrows so much during shipboard operations they were often not operational. The Sidewinders were simpler, lighter, and tougher.
