American History In Video: Hell Over Hanoi
Hell Over Hanoi from The History Channel (A&E Television Networks, 2006) 45:29.
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NARRATOR The skies above North Vietnam erupt into the fiercest air combat of the war, brutal Supersonic Dogfights. As skills mount, one U.S. pilot pursues a life or death quest for a coveted title, the first Air Force Fighter Ace of the Vietnam War. Using state of the art computer animation, you're in the cockpit with America's finest pilots. As F-4 Phantoms challenged communists MiG 21s. Experience the battle. Dissect the tactics. Relive the Dogfights.
DOGFIGHTS HELL OVER HANOI
NARRATOR April 16, 1972 , American combat forces had been committed to the fight in Vietnam for eight years. Today, four U.S. Air force F-4 Phantoms call signed Basco, orbit 18,000 feet above Laos . The Phantoms are waiting to escort B-52 bombers into the heart of North Vietnam in a dramatic escalation of the air war. But there's been a mix-up. The B52's are still on the ground and the Phantoms are burning fuel at a rate of 150 pounds per minute. To reduce drag, Flight Leader Fred Olmsted orders the phantom to jettison their empty centerline fuel tanks. Still, the reduced weight won't buy enough time.
Capt. Fred "Fredo" Olmsted F-4 Pilot
Capt. Fred Olmsted Phantom pilots know that there is, there is nothing that you can do in the Phantom to save that big, beautiful aircraft burnin' all the fuel you got. We had to make a decision.
NARRATOR Olmsted has two choices, wait for the B-52's and risk running out of fuel or use their fuel for the flight's secondary mission, hunting for North Vietnamese MiGs. Olmsted chooses the MiGs, the "Blue Bandits." He turns the Phantoms 180 degrees. Basco Flight is now on the prowl. Flying Number 3 is Olmsted's good friend, Dan Cherry .
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry F-4 Pilot
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry Fred makes a turn ah, and heads right for Hanoi . And we start pushing the power up and pickin' up the speed. And we cross that border in the North Vietnam .
Capt. Fred Olmsted It was exactly at that precise time that we ingressed in the North Vietnam from our orbit in Laos . My back-seater picked up two blue bandits.
NARRATOR Basco Flights audio transmissions were recorded, a remarkable, historical record of air-to-air combat in South East Asia.
Basco I Bravo Basco has two bandits on the nose at 20.
Basco I Alpha Copy that.
Man The bandits and another 20.
Basco I Let's get rid of them, Basco.
NARRATOR Two silver MiG 21's are 20 miles out and closing head on at the Phantoms. Olmsted isn't backing off. He orders Basco flight to stay on course.
Capt. Fred Olmsted They marched right down the radar scope from 18 miles, to 12 miles, to 10 miles, to 8 miles.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry I didn't see them at that time and Fred said, "There's two silver MiG 21's there, Dan ." And I said something really clever and smart like, "Where?"
Basco 1 There's a MiG 21 there, Dan .
Basco 3 Where?
Basco 1 Right up over your head, Dan .
Basco 3 Oh, joy.
Capt. Fred Olmsted Two Blue Bandits just went by us. And that's when the fight really started.
NARRATOR Olmsted and his wingman give chase. He rolls his F-4 Phantom into a climbing turn and swings around 180 degrees. Olmsted and his wingman are maneuvering to get above and behind the Bandit into a firing envelope. Cherry and his wingman stay in trail protecting Olmsted six o'clock. Then, Cherry spots a third Bandit, a camouflaged MiG 21 ambushing Fred Olmsted from behind.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry We've gone through about 90 degrees of turn when my wingman, Greg Crane spots the camouflaged MiG right off of our nose.
NARRATOR The North Vietnamese have set a trap and Flight Leader Fred Olmsted is the target. The stage is set for a legendary dogfight. A battle on the cutting edge of a dramatic turn around in the Vietnam air war. Americans are in the skies above North Vietnam for the first time in three and a half years. In October, 1968 , seeking to deescalate the conflict and bring the North Vietnamese to the conference table. Then President Lyndon Johnson declared bombing off limits above the DMZ separating North and South Vietnam . The North used the bombing halt to build up its military capability. By 1972 , they're ready for a major offensive. They stream hundreds of thousands of troops and armor down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Col. Phil Handley , USAF (Ret.) Author, Nickel On the Grass
Col. Phil Handley They had massed approximately 200,000 troops there, north of the DMZ, as 20 divisions, 600 tanks and to put that in perspective, that's the same size roughly as the German Army had during the Battle of the Bulge.
NARRATOR In March, the North Vietnamese surged south across the DMZ. The fate of South Vietnam rests in the hands of American airmen. April 9th, 1972 . For the first time in the Vietnam conflict, American B-52 Bombers crossed the DMZ into the North. They pound supply lines and troop concentrations, speeding the communist advance. The gloves are coming off. In addition to dropping bombs, F-4 pilots have another mission. Protect lumbering B-52s from enemy MiGs.
Capt. Fred Olmsted I do remember the warning that was issued by the Chief of Staff. He said something to the effect, that if any of you hotshot F-4 drivers let a B-52 get shot down by a MiG, you won't even be able to drive a taxicab any place.
NARRATOR To American airmen, the most dangerous aerial threat is the MiG-21. First introduced in 1956 , the MiG-21, like its MiG-15 and MiG-17 predecessors, is renowned for its speed and agility. But unlike its swept-winged predecessors, the MiG-21 employed a triangular delta wing, an attractive design for a supersonic fighter, combining low drag and structural weight with excellent supersonic maneuverability.
Capt. Fred Olmsted It was a Formula One racer, and if you want to think of it that way. Ah, turned extremely sharp, it had a big afterburner, strong with a big thrusting afterburner engine. It could turn very, very quickly very well. It was hard to see, no real, uhm, no real smoke, no smoking engines.
NARRATOR The MiG-21 is armed with two heat-seeking air-to-air missiles, and two 23mm cannons. It's lethal in close encounters.
MiG-21 Speed: 1,385 mph Range: 930 miles Armament: 2 x 23mm cannons 2 x K-13A "Atoll" Missiles
NARRATOR In contrast to the sleek MiG, the massive two-seat F-4 Phantom was designed for the Navy in the late 1950's as a long-range fleet-defense fighter. In 1962 , it was adapted for the Air Force for both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The Phantom was armed with four long-range radar-guided aim 7 Sparrow missiles, and up to four short-range heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. It could also carry up to 16,000 pounds of bombs, rockets and napalm. Two afterburning J-79 turbo jet engines make the F-4 a fast and versatile heavy hitter.
F-4 Phantom Speed: 1, 485 mph Range: 1, 750 miles Armament/Load: 6 to 8 missiles up to 16,000 lbs.
Capt. Fred Olmsted You'll never ever, ever forget what it was like to start those big ol' J-79 engines up. And add just a little bit of power and feel that big old Phantom taxiing out and shakin' and rumblin'. You, you just knew you had strapped on a very, very masculine piece of equipment. It was massive, it looked like a combat plane.
F4 MiG-21 Speed Turning Radius Power
NARRATOR Capable of reaching speeds over 1400 miles per hour, the F-4 is 100 miles per hour faster than the MiG. But the lightweight MiG, with its tight turn radius at high altitude, has the advantage in horizontal maneuvering. While the F-4's power has the advantage in vertical maneuvers. With American Phantoms and B-52s on the attack, North Vietnamese pilots respond aggressively. They abandoned their traditional hit-and-run attacks. Now, they turn to challenge the Americans. There is going to be blood in the sky. Fred Olmsted and his wingman are in the middle of it. They've fallen for a trap, and chased after two silver MiG-21s. A third camouflaged MiG-21 has jumped on their tail. MiGs sometimes used camouflaged paint schemes for this kind of mission.
Capt. Fred Olmsted Staying low with camouflage made it virtually impossible to see when we're looking down in the jungle.
NARRATOR The silver MiG-21s are here. Olmsted and his wingman are here. The camouflage MiGs streaks in on their tail here, but he doesn't see Dan Cherry right behind him on his six o'clock. Cherry and his wingman streak forward and engage the MiG.
BRIG. GEN. DAN CHERRY I rolled out, saw him and just headed right for him. And he broke left, and went right into a cloudbank.
Basco 4 130 near the cloud, Dan .
Basco 4: On your nose, Dan . Reverse back to the left.
Basco 4: Okay, he went into the cloud.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry Going into a cloud in North Vietnam is a scary proposition. I'm thinking, man, I don't want to go in that cloud, but I was not gonna lose this opportunity either.
NARRATOR For American airmen in the hostile skies of Southeast Asia, an innocent-looking cloud can be a death trap. Vietnamese radar operators can track the F-4s through the clouds to launch surface-to-air missiles against them. The F-4s can electronically detect the SAM launch, but can't visually avoid the missile. There is also the danger of mid-air collision. Cherry and his wingman know the risks involved. The American airmen are enveloped in a gray foreboding mist, but the F-4s pressed the attack.
DOGFIGHTS
NARRATOR April 16th, 1972 , American airmen are in the skies of North Vietnam for the first time in four years. Dan Cherry and his wingman, Baby Beef Crane , had chased a MiG into the clouds.
[sil.]
NARRATOR Visibility is zero, a fighter pilot's worst enemy. The pressure is much too intense. Cherry aborts.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry F-4 Pilot
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry I couldn't stand it any longer, and I said I am not staying in this cloud any longer, MiG or no MiG. So, I'd looked all around and my wingman confirmed his position. So the feeling then was, we've lost this guy.
NARRATOR Suddenly Baby Beef calls out. MiG, 2 o'clock 4,000 feet above climbing right turn. It's a lucky break. The MiG bursts through the cloudbank right in front of him.
Basco 4 Right above you, Dan .
Basco 4 Oh, we're right behind him now. We're right behind him.
Basco 4 Go in behind him.
NARRATOR Cherry peers skyward. The MiG has lost speed in his climb. He's directly in Cherry's killing zone. Cherry pitches his nose up trying to gain a missile lock. His first MiG kill is right in front of him.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry Things seemed to slow down in their motion to where everything became really clear.
NARRATOR Cherry gets good tone. The infrared seeker head of the AIM-9 Sidewinder growls in the pilot's headset when it gets a lock-on. Cherry strains to see the missile track, nothing. He quickly launches a second Sidewinder. Again, no missile track. The missiles have launched but Cherry doesn't know it. The MiG's high G-turn has defeated the missile's seeker head.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry I'm really angry. I mean, I, I here in my whole life, I've never seen a MiG escort us before. And I had this opportunity to get this guy, and I've got an airplane and it's not going to work.
NARRATOR Desperate, the MiG noses over into a spiraling dive. He's hoping that his tight turns will prevent Cherry from getting another lock-on. Cherry and his wingman kick over into a diving chase. From 25,000 feet, the three planes hurtles toward the ground. The Americans have the weight and thrust advantage. Baby Beef has nosed ahead in the dive. Cherry clears him to take the lead, lolling to the outside making way for his wingman.
Basco 4 You've got it Beef .
NARRATOR Beef can't use a heat-seeking Sidewinder. The MiG's turning too tight. He knows it can't lock in a high-G turn. He fires a radar-guided Sparrow. Something's wrong, it drops like lead.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry Then he fires another one, and it does ignite. But it goes into a huge corkscrew out to the right. Then the third missile he fired, and it was tracking really well. And I thought, man, this is really looking good.
NARRATOR Beef's third missile streaks through the sky. Another radar-guided Sparrow. The Sparrow tracks steadily on the descending MiG. The MiG breaks hard right. The 500-pound missile should follow but it darts past without detonating. Cherry and Beef have fired five missiles all have failed. It's a problem that's plagued the Air Force since the beginning of the war. Developed in the mid-1950's , the heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder relies on infrared homing. First-generation Sidewinders are plagued with problems. They're prone to interference by clouds and rain and often lock-on to bogus heat sources like the sun.
AIM-9 Sidewinder Speed: Mach 2.5 Range: 2.6 miles Weight: 190 lbs.
NARRATOR With an effective range of two miles, the Sidewinder is best employed against short-range targets.
AIM-7e Sparrow Speed: Mach 4 Range: 28 miles Weight: 500 lbs.
NARRATOR Its long-range counterpart is the AIM-7 Sparrow whose maximum range of 28 miles is far greater than the Sidewinder. Introduced in the late 1950s , the Sparrow uses radar instead of infrared. It must be actively tracked to the target by the F-4's back-seater, the weapons systems officer or WSO. But the Sparrow is virtually useless against fast-maneuvering targets inside a 5,000-foot radius.
Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie , USAF (Ret.), F-4 Pilot:
Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie During the war, there were over 200 occasions where someone fired a Sparrow missile, it never came off the airplane. Of the ones that did come off the airplane, the kill rate was 0.11, in other words, 11 out of a hundred were victorious.
NARRATOR The Phantom air crews have another problem, Air Force fighter pilots, as opposed to their Navy counterparts, receive little or no training on how to maneuver against small, fast adversaries like the MiG.
Capt. Fred "Fredo" Olmsted, F-4 Pilot
Capt. Fred "Fredo" Olmsted What did I learn in my training about MiG pilots is a very simple answer, I learned virtually nothing. The experience we received in training was not with, against any dissimilar-type aircraft. We only saw other fellow Phantoms with the same flying characteristics that we had.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry The most effective aerial area training we had was done illegally. And we would go out and fly our bombing mission or our radar low-level navigation mission and save some fuel at the end, and then fight with each other. So, whatever skills we had when we went in there were developed by hook or crook.
NARRATOR Thrust into his first dogfight against an actual MiG-21, Dan Cherry is on a steep learning curve. He races through his options, two of his missiles have failed. But he's determined to kill the MiG.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry This is going to sound weird, but I, I'm thinking I'm going to ram this guy. That's the aggressive feeling that I had at the time was that I was not going to let this guy get away.
NARRATOR The MiG has lost air speed in the turn. Cherry and Beef pitched up and rolled vertical to keep from overshooting. As they descend once again on the MiG, Cherry calls for the lead.
Basco 3: Break out Beef , I've got him wired.
Basco 3: Yeah, he's breaking.
Basco 3: Break left, Beef . I've got him.
Basco 3: Basco 4, break left.
Basco 4: Okay.
Basco 4: Go get him, Dan .
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry I kept telling Greg to get out of the way, and I'm (inaudible ) and I'm trying to close on him because I'm ready to shoot. I'm ready to try to shoot.
NARRATOR Cherry slides past Crane and fires a missile.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry Lo and behold, that big AIM-7 Sparrow comes out of there and it does one of these kind of like a barrel-roll maneuver like this at first.
NARRATOR The Sparrow appears to be tracking off course. But then, to Cherry's relief, it rides the Phantom's invisible radar beam to the target. Its 65-pound warhead detonates, ripping the right wing from the airplane. Cherry watches the plane plummet in a fireball.
Basco 3 Got him. I got him."
Basco 3 Look at him go down..."
Basco 3 I see the chute. I see the chute.
NARRATOR From the flames, the MiG pilot miraculously appears underneath his parachute. Cherry roars past his vanquished opponent.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry By making a little jinx(ph) with the airplane to miss the MiG pilot and his parachute, we went up by him ah, well within 500 feet of him. And I remember clearly his legs sticking out straight like this and the black flying suit he was wearing, the black flying suit on.
NARRATOR Dan Cherry has killed his first MiG.
Base Uh, roger, understand you got a kill on a blue bandit."
Basco 3 Basco 3, that's affirmative.
Base Basco 3, roger.
NARRATOR: But the fight isn't over. Ten miles away, Cherry's good friend, Fred Olmsted , is chasing down two enemy MiG-21s. He's in for the fight of his life.
Capt. Fred Olmsted So right then, there's no doubt, we're gonna have an engagement. We're gonna have a, a very serious dogfight, and somebody's not coming home.
DOGFIGHTS
NARRATOR April 16th, 1972 , F-4 Phantoms are dueling communist MiGs in the most intense dogfights of the air war. Fred Olmsted is on the tail of two MiG-21s. The enemy streamlined their fighters for battle.
Capt. Fred "Fredo" Olmsted F-4 Pilot
Capt. Fred Olmsted I then remembered distinctly seeing silver objects coming down in front of me and they've pickled their center line tanks.
NARRATOR Then unexpectedly, the lead MiG rolls inverted, diving earthward.
Capt. Fred Olmsted And he was gone. He was out of the fight. That minute was my airplane and my wingman against their wingman.
NARRATOR Olmsted and his wingman are here. The MiG leader has just bugged out, leaving his wingman to fend for himself. Olmsted bores in for the kill. The lone MiG jinxs(ph) down and into a left turn. A classic MiG ploy, he wants to lure Olmsted into a horizontal fight where the more maneuverable MiG can outturn the Phantom.
Capt. Fred Olmsted Once I saw that turn, I was confronted with a choice here, whether or not to try and turn with him and get the gun side on him, or try and accomplish what I had learned in the past. And I said, I'm gonna fight this guy in the vertical, I'm not gonna get out there and try and turn with this MiG.
NARRATOR Olmsted pitches vertically then rolls over into a dive. The move allows him to stay behind the MiG while keeping his airspeed up. He'll avoid a turning fight, where his heavy Phantom will dissipate crucial airspeed or energy at a far greater rate than the lightweight MiG. It's an effective maneuver called lagging.
Capt. Fred Olmsted I found that I could accelerate coming down because gravity was working for me, pull inside and use my increased energy to close the distance that way.
Phil Crowley Olmsted and his wingman repeat the maneuver several times. The horizon tumbles as the planes jockey for position.
[sil.]
Phil Crowley Losing sight of his attacker, the MiG reverses his turn to reacquire visual contact. But the reversal slows him down and allows Olmsted to close within missile range. Olmsted's radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow gains lock. Olmsted fires. The missile streaks toward the MiG at twice the speed of sound, and plows through the MiG's right wing. Incredibly, the MiG keeps flying.
[sil.]
Capt. Fred Olmsted I don't know whether the missile went partially detonated or perhaps it was just the impact that absolutely sawed that wing off. But that's what I had. I had a MiG with about a half of a right wing in a spiraling left-hand turn at that time.
Phil Crowley Olmsted presses the attack. He fires a second missile. It doesn't track.
[sil.]
Phil Crowley Sparrow III armed, missile away.
Capt. Fred Olmsted And it hit him right at the top of the canopy, right through the canopy and then I got a pure, absolute explosion because the airplane just exploded. It looked like two miniature nuclear fireballs actually and they just spiraled right down from us.
Basco 1 Red Crown Basco 0-1."
Red Crown "This is Crown, go."
Basco 1 "Scratch another MiG-21."
Phil Crowley Fred Olmsted has kill No. 2 for Basco Flight. What began as an aborted B-52 escort mission has resulted in two confirmed MiG kills. In 1972 , the North Vietnamese have less than 60 MiGs in their air force. Thanks to Fred Olmsted and Dan Cherry , they've lost three percent of their fighters.
Phil Crowley On the ground, the determined North Vietnamese, continue their offensive. In May, 1972 , the bombing campaign intensifies dramatically. B-52 sorties are doubled from 1,500 in March to over 3,000 in May. F-4s are employed for bombing strikes and strafing runs against North Vietnamese infrastructure and troop positions. The massive new aerial offensive is called Operation Linebacker.
Col. Phil Handley , USAF(Ret.) Author, Nickel on the Grass
Phil Handley There were much greater numbers of aircraft involved. It was a massive campaign that probably did more damage in two weeks than ah, the rest of the damage done in the entire war in North Vietnam .
Phil Crowley The strategic objective is to both blunt the North Vietnamese advance and to bring them back to the negotiating table in Paris . There's a renewed sense of purpose among the American airmen including Capt. Steve Ritchie . After graduating number one in his flight training class, Ritchie served his first tour in Southeast Asia in 1968 . He then returned to the States where he became one of the youngest flight instructors in Air Force history. In 1972 , he returns to Vietnam .
Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie , USAF(Ret.) F-4 Pilot
Steve Ritchie I don't think any of us felt like we could sit here and live this good life here in America when my friends and our colleagues were back in Vietnam .
Phil Crowley Steve Ritchie racks up his first two MiG kills in the opening weeks of Operation Linebacker. One, on May 10th, another on May 31st. Ritchie is proving himself a skilled dogfighter. As Linebacker rolls on through June, Ritchie flies in support of dozens of strike missions.
[sil.]
Phil Crowley July 8, 1972 , on routine combat air patrol, Ritchie will tangle with a flight of lethal MiG-21s and plunge into one of the most astounding dogfights of the Vietnam War.
DOGFIGHTS
Phil Crowley July 8, 1972 , Pilot Steve Ritchie leads a flight of four F-4 Phantoms, call sign Paula, on combat air patrol over North Vietnam . As part of Operation Linebacker, the war's biggest bombing campaign, their mission is to protect B-52s from MiGs. On this mission, the Americans are able to tap into the enemy's command and control network, an intelligence coup that's driving the success of Linebacker.
Col. Phil Handley , USAF (Ret.) Author, Nickel On the Grass
Col. Phil Handley They could hear the controller that was talking to pilot. They could hear what the pilot was saying and so you knew where they where, what they're looking at and where they're coming from.
Phil Crowley Steve Ritchie in Paula flight are heading towards Hanoi . Suddenly, Combat Control crackles in his helmet. MiGs are in the air, somewhere below. Ritchie drops down to search for the enemy. He can't find them. They could be anywhere. Then another warning comes over the radio.
Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie , USAF (Ret.) F-4 Pilot
Steve Ritchie I got a call indicating that they had us in sight and they were cleared to fire and that information at best, was about 40 to 60 seconds old. And we had no visual. So that, that gets your attention.
Phil Crowley If he stays straight and level, he's a sitting duck. Ritchie takes evasive action by making a hard right turn. The radio calls out another warning. This one is ominous. Two MiGs, two miles to the north. The MiGs are on Ritchie's "six", the killing zone. But he still can't see them. Ritchie's best choice is to turn directly into his attacker and try to get a visual. He banks left, stays in the turn and swings 180 degrees head-on against the unseen enemy. His head swivels in the cockpit, scanning the sky. Visible for a fraction of a second, a MiG-21 flashes by at 600 miles per hour.
Steve Ritchie We passed canopy to canopy about a thousand feet from each other, doing about 600 miles an hour each, closing at about 1200 miles an hour. Just subsonic. I could actually see the pilot in the cockpit.
Phil Crowley The pilots of the North Vietnamese Air Force were trained by the Russians and Chinese. Their skill level varied widely. Throughout the war, it was strongly suspected that volunteers from North Korea , China and the Soviet Union were in the cockpits of some Communist planes. Ritchie knows there's another MiG in the air. They've split up, setting a trap for him. The first MiG has streaked past Ritchie . If he turns to follow, the second MiG will be on his "six". But Ritchie doesn't bite. He drops altitude and waits for the second MiG to show his hand. And he does. Now, Ritchie makes his move. He pulls into a hard left turn, 6.5 Gs plaster him into his seat. He strains to keep an eye on the second MiG. The MiG banks right, an unorthodox move.
Steve Ritchie I was very surprised about halfway through this turn, after losing sight during the turn, to see the No. 2 MiG in a right turn level and height. Most of us, who fly fighter airplanes, prefer to turn left than right. We prefer left traffic pattern to a right traffic pattern. It's more comfortable to do this than it is this.
Phil Crowley The two planes are now angling towards each other in what pilots refer to as the "high crossing position". In order for his missile to get a lock, Ritchie needs to get behind the MiG. He rolls to the inside, causing the MiG to shoot past him. Ritchie is now on the MiG's tail. It's a brilliant move. Ritchie pulls hard right out of the roll and gets a radar lock. It then takes four seconds for the radar to feed the information to the missile.
Steve Ritchie One thousand one, 1,002, 1,003, 1,004, which is a long time. Squeeze the trigger. Nothing happened. It's another second and a half until the missile comes off the radar.
Phil Crowley Ritchie commits a second missile. Pilots often ripple-fire the Sparrow because of its failure rate.
Steve Ritchie First missile went through the center of the fuselage of the MiG, second missile went through the fireball.
Phil Crowley The explosion sends a wall of debris hurtling through the air. Ritchie is headed right for it. He rolls up to steer clear. It's too late. Debris punches into his left wing, gouging the skin. Ritchie clutches the stick. The big Phantom shrugs off the insult. Ritchie firewalls the throttle. The fight's still on. His Number 4, Tommy Feasel , is in trouble. He's got a MiG on his six o'clock. Ritchie is here. Tommy Feasel is here. He's in a tight circling turn with a MiG-21 on his tail. The MiG's tight turning radius will eventually put him in a position to shoot down Paula 4. Ritchie sizes up the situation. He's going fast. If he engages too soon, he'll overshoot. The best time to get on the MiG's tail is when it's moving away from him and he can match its turn. Ritchie's No. 4 and the MiG-21 pass in front. It's time. Ritchie pounces. The MiG-21 is now predator and prey. The MiG pilot sees Ritchie . He aborts the chase, breaks hard and down.
Steve Ritchie Put the MiG in the gunsight, all the while I thought with the trigger on the left throttle, immediate lock on, 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, 1,004, squeeze the trigger.
Phil Crowley The 12-foot long Sparrow blazes off the Phantom. At 1200 miles an hour, the Sparrow rocks to the right and then like a spear, it buries itself deep in the MiG's belly.
[sil.]
Phil Crowley In a stellar display of airmanship, Steve Ritchie downs two MiG-21s in just one minute and 29 seconds.
Steve Ritchie Everything that I'd studied, learned, experienced, worked for, for 30 years all came together and jelled in an instant on that. So, it was by far the most perfect mission that I was ever involved in.
Phil Crowley Paula flight rejoins and heads for home, Udorn, Thailand . When they arrive, the celebration begins.
Steve Ritchie I actually flew a couple of victory rolls over the field which is kind of tradition and went a party at the club that night you would've enjoyed.
Phil Crowley Steve Ritchie is on the cusp of greatness. He has tied renowned veteran pilot Robin Olds with four MiGs to his credit. Ritchie needs just one more kill to join the coveted ranks of American fighter aces. But the quest could cost him his life.
DOGFIGHTS
Phil Crowley Steve Ritchie's double MiG kill on July 8th, 1972 , is hailed as one of the war's great dogfights. Now, he needs just one more victory to become the Air Force's first and only ace pilot of the Vietnam War.
Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie , USAF(Ret.) F-4 Pilot
Steve Ritchie There was a whole lot of attention because the Navy had an ace. The Air Force didn't have an ace. There was a lot of pressure.
Phil Crowley August 28th, 1972 , Steve Ritchie leads a flight of four F-4 Phantoms, call sign Buick. Their combat air patrol mission is winding down when he gets word of MiGs in the air.
Steve Ritchie I was northwest of Hanoi , beginning to get low on fuel. It turns out MiGs were southwest of Hanoi and were being vectored back to Hanoi .
Phil Crowley As flight lead, Ritchie's Phantom is equipped with a little black box that makes a big difference in air-to-air combat against MiGs. The APX-81, officially known as the Combat Tree or just Tree to airman. Tree is an IFF, Identification Friend or Foe Transponder System. All military aircraft carry transponders that send and receive identification information to air traffic control and friendly planes. But Tree is unique. It can read the enemy's transponder. Tree-equipped Phantoms can tell if a blip on their radar is a MiG and shoot them out of the sky from miles away.
Steve Ritchie We got the Tree contact way out. Two MiG-21s coming back, non-maneuver. But they're about 5,000, maybe 8,000 feet above us, started this climbing turn into the direction on the radar.
Phil Crowley Ritchie has used technology to get in position. But he must to get a visual before he can fire.
Steve Ritchie Under those circumstances, the cardinal rule is to never fire. If there's any chance, it could be a friendly in the forward firing sector.
Phil Crowley The aircraft hurtle in. Their closing speed, a blistering 1500 miles per hour. Ritchie fires two missiles. But at these staggering closing speeds, the missile can't maintain radar lock. They streak away harmlessly. The MiGs take no evasive action. They're focused on reaching the sanctuary of Hanoi's anti-aircraft defenses. Ritchie must make his kill soon. The MiGs roar head-on past the climbing F-4s. Ritchie orders a left break. They swing around 180 degrees and zero in on the MiG's tail.
Steve Ritchie I'm now supersonic, doing about 1.2 mach. They're still sub-sonic and I got a radar lock on, fired two missiles. The first one appeared to go by on the right side of the MiG. And he broke left which solved the problem for the fourth missile.
Phil Crowley The MiG's abrupt maneuver slows him down. He drifts into the Sparrow missile's effective range. The missile's warhead detonates on impact. Steve Ritchie becomes the first and only Air Force ace of the Vietnam War.
Steve Ritchie The No. 2 MiG in that flight of two, did a wave down to the ground and I elected not to ah, try to go after that MiG due to fuel and, you know, I've debated that in my mind many, many times over the years whether or not we should've tried to.
Phil Crowley Ritchie and Buick's flight head south for friendly airspace as word reaches the airbase at Udorn, Thailand . The Air Force, now has an ace.
Steve Ritchie We came in and actually did a little air show over the field.
Phil Crowley In this rarely seen interview, Steve Ritchie recounts the mission.
Steve Ritchie I picked them up high at 11 o'clock, I'm almost at head-on pass. And they maneuvered into 6 o'clock and ah, fired a few missiles and was lucky enough to get a kill.
Phil Crowley Operation Linebacker thunders on. The Paris Peace Talks resume in late August. The devastating air assault has taken a heavy toll on North Vietnamese transportation, oil supplies, and power generation.
Col. Phil Handley , USAF(Ret.) Author, Nickel On the Grass
Phil Handley The North Vietnamese simply did not think we had the will or our president had the will to bring the force of our attack there down upon them. Miscalculated.
Phil Crowley On October 22nd, North Vietnamese concessions in Paris lead to a cessation of bombing strikes over the 20th parallel. But the talks break down again two months later. On December 14th, President Nixon sends Hanoi an ultimatum, "Come back to the negotiating table within 72 hours or the bombing resumes." There's no response from Hanoi . On December 18th, Operation Linebacker II commences and B-52s head north. Two hundred B-52s, half the Strategic Air Command, are committed to the fight. By December 29th, the big bombers have flown 729 sorties and dropped over 15,000 tons of bombs. The North Vietnamese returned to the negotiations. And on January 23rd, 1973 , a peace agreement is signed. Thanks in part to Phantom pilots, the war in Vietnam had finally ended. American airmen downed 193 MiGs in air-to-air combat against the loss of 89 of their own.
Steve Ritchie Those of us out on the point of the sphere, so to speak, very much rely on each other to get this job done and to survive. So, we developed a very, very unusual ah, bond with each other.
Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry F-4 Pilot
Dan Cherry We had a mission, we worked the details of the plan ahead of time, and we executed it to perfection. And then they have the added bonus of a couple of MiG kills as well as is pretty, pretty neat experience.
Capt. Fred "Fredo" Olmsted F-4 Pilot
Capt. Fred Olmsted Being a MiG killer is a life-shaping event, I would say. You feel honored to be part of a very, very elite group of fighter pilots going back to World War I, World War II, Korea , you name it, and the men that can claim to have won aerial victories in dogfights is an illustrious group. So it is an honor and a privilege to be part of that group.
Written and Produced by Greg DeHart Executive Producers Robert Kirk Rob Lihani Co-Executive Producers Cynthia Harrison Jason McKinley Brooks Wachitel Supervising Producer Tony Alunni Series Producer Abe Scheuermann Created by Cynthia Harrison Jason McKinley Brooks Wachtel Visual Effects by Radical 3D Visual Effects Lead Mike Cliett Visual Effects Supervisor Jason McKinley Visual Effect Artists Mike Asin Tom Bremer Daniel Dod Jon Gourley Terry Henry Andy Lawler Modeling Jim Dziadulewicz Surfaces Tim West Editors Samantha Jetter Steve Pomerantz Matt Stevenson Assistant Editor Paul Kavadias Narrator Phil Crowley Series Director Robert Kirk Associate Director Steve Pomerantz Clearance Supervisor Valarie Sheldon Assistant Clearance Coordinator Donna Amato Production Accountant Howard Wilson Accounting Assistant Melissa Levoff Skies Provided by 1000skies.com Satellite Image by Space Imaging Camera Paul Johnson Sound Scott Johnson Post. Prod. Coordinator Joe Peicott Production Associates Chad Otto Music Alan Ett Music Group Sound Design by Jon Schell Post production Audio Media City Sound Rerecording Mixer Michael Keeley The Producers Wish to Thank Aviation Heritage Park The Beverly Hilton Stacey Casey Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry Lou Drendel F-4 Phantom II Society Jeff Feinstein John Fleck Photography Gen. Ron Fogelman Col. Phil Handley Debra McKinley Capt. Fred Olmsted Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie Archival Sources Corbis Edward D. Cherry Robin Olds Fred Olmsted Steve Ritchie Split S Media Archival Sources Production Services Documentary Broadcasting Company For the History Channel Programming Coordinator Emily MacDowell Executive producer Marc Etkind Produced by Digital Ranch For THE HISTORY CHANNEL © 2006 A Television Networks All Rights Reserved H THE HISTORY CHANNEL © 2006 A Television Networks. All Rights Reserved.
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