When Winning is Everything

This was a world apart from Korea, just as that conflict was similarly removed from the aerial dogfights of the Second World War.

In the humid skies above Vietnam were tested and refined the modern electronic aids to modern aerial warfare. Missiles, both defensive and offensive were refined, radar AAA became truly effective and the Wild Weasel became an indispensable part of any mission.

Out of Vietnam there came only a handful of aces while the most famous of these modern gladiators was a young Navy Lieutenant by the name of Randy Cunningham . . .

Randy Cunningham was born December 8, 1941, in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where he also earned his master of education. He taught Physical Education at Hinsdale High School, in Hinsdale, Illinois, for two years prior to entering the Navy. While at Hinsdale, he was an assistant coach of their number-one-in-the-nation swimming team. Their achievement of that status may well have been a precursor of the status Randy was to attain in the Navy. He was commissioned in the Navy in March of 1967 and received his wings at Chase Field, Beeville, Texas, on September 23, 1968. He reported to VF-96 in July 1969, and flew two combat tours with them. He is one of the most highly motivated individuals, both personally and ideologically, that I have ever met. As you read his philosophy and the accounts of his victories, in his own words, you will understand why.

‘My training is the reason I’m alive today. Thanks to Navy foresight, after some hindsight, a rigorous tactical air combat manoeuvring program was established in the Fighter Community. VF-121, our training squadron where we first learn to fly the Phantom, provides 16 ACM’ flights against various types of aircraft, the idea being that training against dissimilar aircraft best _trains us to meet the threat of low-wing loaded Communist fighters. Upon entering VF-96, “The World Famous Fighting Falcons”, we underwent a strenuous ACM program, including tactical flights against the F-106 Delta Darts of McCord AFB, Washington. The Six performs much like the MiG-21, and proved a valuable training adversary. I took a personal interest in MiG tactics and capabilities and kept the squadron informed through lectures. Our Squadron placed an emphasis on air-toair tactics and took every opportunity possible to train in the ACM arena. Prior to entering VF-96, I was sitting around waiting for the squadron to return to Miramar, so I begged rides in the rear seats of TA-4s fighting against F-4s to gain as much tactical knowledge as possible.

‘Some pilots get satisfaction from moving mud with bombs. I enjoy knowing as much as I can about fighter-related tactics and capabilities and applying it. When I met my first MiG I had over 150 ACM training flights. During my MiG engagements I used tactics I had practised against adversary aircraft. Pappy Boyington once said: “The air battle is not necessarily won at the time of the battle. ” The winner may have been decided by the amount of time, energy, thought and training an individual has previously accomplished in an effort to increase his ability as a fighter pilot. The Navy’s tremendously increased kill ratio after the “Top Gun” program was initiated is a testament to that.

‘Killing a MiG is the dream of every fighter pilot worth his salt. I was elated at downing my first MiG, but I also had emotional problems concerning the taking of a human life. The effect had quite an impact on me personally, and I sought the help of our chaplain. I always knew I could repeat the action, but it bothered me more than I had expected. I am very proud of becoming an Ace, and I look forward to my next kill, whether it be in the Middle East, Russia, China or Africa. After each engagement, it’s almost like being reborn. Your senses, thoughts and emotional derivatives are at an all-time high. It’s man against man for me. . . not aircraft versus aircraft. To survive a contest where the stakes are not six gold medals, but your life, leaves me personally with a feeling of: “It ‘s sure great just to be alive!”

‘I never went into the air thinking I would lose. I always figured it would be the other guy who was hit by AAA or SAMs. My own motto is borrowed from the Russians. It is: “Seek out your enemy. Don’t ask how many, but only where he can be found. ” This attitude must prevail if you are to win a war. Vince Lombardi never went out to lose, and neither do I or the men I fly with in combat. ‘

THE FIRST KILL

January 19, 1972 MiG-21

F-4J, VF-96, CVW-9, CVA-64 A/C No. NG-112 BuNo 157267 Lt Randy Cunningham Lt J. G. Willie Driscoll.

‘This was the first Navy kill in about 18 months. I think you can break the war up into three parts, insofar as air-to-air action is concerned. The first period, 1965 to 1969, when we first bombed the north, there were a lot of kills. Then, from 1969 to 1972, during the bombing halt, there was only one kill. That was when the MiGs started running up and down between Hanoi and Thanh Hoa and Bai Thuong . . . that was when Jerry Beaulier got his kill. Then there was another 18 months where they didn’t let us vector in against the MiGs. During this period the MiGs started operating out of Quang Lang, trying to shoot down the B-52s operating in Laos. We ran a photo reconnaissance of Quang Lang and spotted MiG-21s on the ground, several of them being pushed back into caves. The recon planes drew no AAA6 or SAM’ fire on this mission.

‘In early 1972 we decided to run what we called “Quang Lang II”, a second photo recon of the place, in order to keep track of their activities. One of the other carriers had the mission scheduled, then had to cancel because of weather. The following day the weather cleared and the mission was given to the Constellation.

‘Under rules of engagement at that time, if a reconnaissance airplane was fired upon, we were not allowed to call back to the carrier for bombers to hit the anti-aircraft sites. However, if the bombers were with the recon plane they were allowed to put in “protective reaction strikes”.

‘On January 19, 1972 we ran Quang Lang II. My section, consisting of myself and Willie Driscoll in my back seat, and Brian Grant with Jerry Sullivan in his back seat, was assigned MiGCAP2 for the reconnaissance force going into Quang Lang. We came into Quang Lang through the “back door”, that is, we flew over northern South Vietnam, turned north and flew up into Laos until we were opposite Quang Lang, then flew back east to the target.

‘As the recon plane flew over the field, he was fired upon. The attack aircraft rolled in on the anti-aircraft sites. Our idea was to place ourselves between the MiG field at Bal Thuong and Quang Lang, in order to intercept any MiGs trying to get at the strike group. In so doing, we made a mistake. We had positioned ourselves between two firing SAM sites! About five miles from Quang Lang we had two SAMs fired at us from about our 10 o’clock. I broke into them, but Brian didn’t see them and one of the SAMs passed within 100 feet of his airplane. It must have been defective, because the CEP3 of a SAM is 350 feet and this one didn’t go off. About the same time, we picked up a strobe on our warning gear at about two o’clock. We broke the other way to avoid two more SAMs coming up and, as we got right over the field, they launched from the first site, and from the second site simultaneously. I moved the airplane one way, and the SAM moved with me. . . I moved the other way, and so did the SAM. I figured it was after me, so I called up and said: “Brian, you’re on your own!” And we got separated trying to avoid the SAMs. They fired 18 SAMs, in pairs, at us! In an environment like that it is very hard to be a MiG CAP. . . it’s more a case of trying to survive the SAM firings. Outof thisSAMbreak I was going through 15,000 feet, nose down, just trying to get back some of the energy I had bled off in the break. I looked out and spotted two airplanes which I thought were A-7s exiting the target area. They were about 3½ to four miles away and low. I started to look back towards the SAM site, when a light went on in my head. The two aeroplanes I had seen had their afterburners lit, and A-7s don’t have afterburners! I thought:

“There are no other fighters in that area, so they must be MiGs!” I reversed and, still nose low and accelerating through 600 knots, closed on them.

“When we got close enough to identify them, I saw two of the prettiest little delta-winged MiG-21s. The leader was about 500 feet off the ground in a canyon, with his wingman in fighting wing, stepped up to his right at about 700 to 1000 feet. I went down below and behind them, went to boresight on the radar, and called for Willie to go boresight. He called: “They’re locked up! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” He wanted me to shoot a Sparrow, but my prior experience with the Sparrow had not been good. In a lot of our practice engagements with drones, I had fired Sparrows and missed, while scoring hits with the Sidewinder pretty consistently, I reached over, selected HEAT, and at dead six with a good tone, squeezed off a Sidewinder. I know he couldn’t have seen me, but either his wingman called a break or his tail warning radar must have told him someone was locked up on him, because he broke hard starboard. I had an instantaneous plan view of him, and he was really hauling, still in the afterburner. I rolled up into a port turn to get on his belly side. In the middle of the turn, I looked back over my starboard wing to see where his wingman was. He pushed over, unloaded, and just ran away and left his leader to fight me alone. I looked back over my port wing and. . . flying at 600 knots, 50 feet off the deck hadn’t bothered me until I saw my wingtip down there in the rocks! I’m no Blue Angel, and I really felt uncomfortable right about then. So I wrapped it up and completed my turn. I don’t think the MiG had seen me yet, because he reversed again, right in front of us. It was almost as if someone up above was flying my airplane, because as I completed my turn, and the MG reversed, my nose was right on him. I knew that I was now danger of over shooting him if he reversed again so, just as he started to drop his wing again, I squeezed the trigger. He was no more than 3000 feet out in front of me and I was zero degrees angle off. Just as he started to level his wings, the missile hit him. The effect was spectacular. His whole tail came off, and the remainder of the airplane went into a violent pitching, tumbling crash into the ground. We passed over him almost instantaneously. I rocked up on a wing and called: “Willie, look at that!” He had crashed right next to a village, and his path had been more horizontal than vertical when he went in, which caused a lot of the wreckage to be flung up and out as it dissipated its energy. Some of it was at our altitude as we flew through the smoke of the crash.

‘We looked up and picked up the second MiG-21, running away. He was out at a range where I couldn’t see him tail on, but they have a tactic where they weave back and forth when running, so every time he made a turn I would spot him. Of course, we were still down below the canyon rim, so once in a while we would lose him in the trees too.

‘I was doing about 650 knots, and he was opening on me at about 75 knots! This led us to believe that it was the latest model of the MiG-21. . . The MiG-21J, because all earlier models were limited to lower speeds at that altitude by “Q” factor. Well, he started to climb, and as I got my speed up, we started to catch up to him. Just then, we started to take some tracers from a village and Willie called: “Duke, what’s our fuel state?” I said: “Willie, don’t bother me now, I’m chasing MiG!” He asked again though, so I glanced at it and was astounded to see that we were down to 6500 pounds! Using the afterburner it goes just like that! I knew we weren’t going to have the fuel to chase that guy until I got within Sidewinder range, so I decided to fire a Sparrow . . . I might get lucky, or it might make him turn into me. I went to radar boresight and squeezed the trigger. The EP fired but there was a short in the ejector cartridge and the missile didn’t come off the rail. So we gave it up and came back to the ship. When we got back there was real elation among the 5000 people on the Connie. It was the first kill in 18 months and we had quite a welcoming committee. In fact, one of the enlisted men knocked the Admiral over to jump up on the airplane and grab my arm to say: “Mister Cunningham, we got our MiG today, didn’t we?”

THE SECOND KILL

May 8, 1972 MiG-17

F-4J, VF-96, CVW-9, CVA-64 A/C No. NG 112 BuNo 157267 Lt Randy Cunningham Lt J. G. Willie Driscoll.

‘The Constellation was supposed to come back to the States, and I had preceded it in coming home. When the North Vietnamese launched their big invasion of the South, the Connie was held in the area, and I went back to join the air group. We started off by working around An Loe, during the siege.

‘On May 8, Brian Grant and I were again assigned a MiGCAP mission, this time for a strike against a driver’s training area. It was a big staging area for trucks going down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and they had about 300 to 400 trucks in there. They also trained the drivers in map reading and surviving the trip down the trail. The job of the strike group was to destroy those trucks.

‘We entered North Vietnam just below the hourglass rivers. We got two SAMs fired at us just below Ninh Bihn, as we started up the karst ridges towards the target area, which was just below Dong Souong. Our mission was to precede the strike group by about 1 O minutes, clear out any MiGs in the area, then as we were on the egress, another set of Phantoms would come in to cover the strike group as it left the target area. Just as we got to the target area, Red Crown• came up with a vector of 340 for unknown bogeys. We knew that the Air Force was striking targets at Yen Bai, which was in that direction, and I figured that they had probably picked up some Air Force aircraft on their radars. But we took their vectors and headed in that direction. About 20 miles out from the target, I got to thinking that the strike group was probably just about hitting the target and if there were MiGs in the area, we wouldn’t do them any good this far north. Red Crown had kept losing contact and it didn’t sound too good to me, so I called Brian and said: “Let’s go back to the target area. ” We had just gotten turned around when Red Crown came up with: “You have a bandit at six o’clock and 15 miles!” So we turned around again and headed west. We were at about 10,000 feet and there was a haze layer below us that pretty well obscured the ground. You could see up through it, but you couldn’t see the ground from above it. So we pushed over and started down through it. Just then Brian came up with: “Duke, in place, port. . . GO!” I started to turn port then remembered that just a couple of days previously one of our fighters had gotten bagged because the controllers turned him in front of the MiGs. I thought: “That isn’t going to happen to me, baby!” I didn’t have any idea where the MiG was, so I went to full burner and pitched up in the vertical, to allow the MiG to overshoot and possibly get to his inside.

‘I got to the inside, rocked the wings and looked over at Brian. A MiG-17 had come from down low, popped up through the clouds, and was right behind Brian and shooting! He must have been last in his class in gunnery because Brian wasn’t pulling that many Gs, and the MiG’s tracers were falling short. I called Brian and said; “Brian, you’ve got a MiG-17 on your tail . . . ” He said:

“WHAT?” I said: “You’ve got a 17 on your tail and he’s shooting! Get rid of your centreline, unload and outrun him!” Brian punched off the centreline and started to extend away from the MiG.

‘Up until that time we had been told that the 17 was a guns-only airplane, and that they didn’t carry any missiles. Well, as soon as Brian got out about 3500 feet in front of the MiG, the MiG fired a missile! I called “Atoll. . . break port!” Brian broke and the missile, though it tried, just couldn’t make the corner. But his break enabled the MiG to turn inside and start to close for another gun’s run. I called; “Brian, he’s closing again. . . unload and go again!” I was about 50 to 60 degrees off the MiG’s tail and trying to get in position for a shot at him. Just then, Willie called; “Duke, look up!” I looked up and saw two MiG-17s go over the top of us on a reciprocal heading. I told Willie to keep an eye on them. . . I figured we had lots of time to get a shot before they got turned around. I was about to get my first lesson in the turning ability of the MiG-17! I could. I put 12 Gs on the airplane, breaking the wing panels . . . flap panels. . . everything! That MiG turned inside me and I looked out the top of the canopy at the belly of a MiG-17. He couldn’t have been 10 feet away! Up until this time I hadn’t used the burner because I was afraid they would shoot Atolls, and the burner would have given them too good a heat source. The cloud deck was right below me, so I called Brian and told him I was going into the clouds. It’s funny how your mind works at a time like that. As soon as I got into the clouds it occurred to me that the IR source was masked, so I went to full burner and accelerated out to about 550 knots real quick. Brian called that he was losing sight of all of us. I thought: “That’s good. . . they can’t see me either!” I called him with: “OK, you see the sun? I’m coming out towards the sun. ” As I popped up, he called “Tally Ho!” He was high at my five o’clock. I figured that was great, because he would be in great position to jump the MiGs as they came out. Sure enough, they popped up right behind me and he rolled in on them. They must have seen him coming though, because they dove back into the clouds and we lost them. We went down after them, but they were gone.

‘On the way out, we spotted a line of trucks about five miles long. I thought: “Well, no one ever gets to see two MiGs in one mission. ” So I rolled in on the trucks. Of course all we had were air-to-air missiles, and Brian called up to ask what the hell I was doing. I figured that a truck might provide enough of a heat source for a Sidewinder, and I was trying to get a tone on one of them. I had tried it once before with no success, but the guy I picked on this time must have needed a valve job, because I got a good tone and fired the missile. It hit him dead centre.When I got back to the ship, they painted a truck on my airplane, next to my second MiG kill.’

THIRD, FOURTH AND FIFTH KILLS

May 10, 1972 3 MiG17s F-4J, CVW-9, VF-96, CVA-64 A/C No. NG 100 BuNo 155800 Lt Randy Cunningham Lt J. G. Willie Driscoll.

It was an Alpha Strike, against the Haiphong railyards just

southwest of, Hanoi. This time we were a part of the strike group, but we were the M1GCAP. I was loaded with two Sparrows in the rear missile wells, four Sidewinders, two on each of the inboard stations, with TERs5 full of ROCKEYE bombs under the wings I also had a centreline tank. The F-4 doesn’t perform very well with all of that drag, and I couldn’t jettison the TERs because the Sidewinders would have gone with them. As we approached the target, the attack aircraft went past it. CAG8 called them and told them that they had_ gone too far. Well, when that happened, they were forced to roll in from west to east. It looked like a column of ants as they went down the chute, the A-6s first, followed by two groups ?f A-7s. We orbited overhead, awaiting our turn to roll in. And while we were circling, they were hammering us with AAA. Commander Blackburn, who was right across the circle from me, got hit by 85 m,:n. He never came back, but his RIO got out and spent the remainder of the war as a POW. His wingman was hit by the same barrage and went out single engine. On the way out, two M1G-21s made one pass at him, and then let him go.

‘As we rolled in, Brian was trying to fight wing on me, rather than combat spread. We had decided that he would release his bombs when I let mine go. We rolled over just as they shot two SAMs at us. The SAMs didn’t guide though. . . they just came whizzing up past us. I looked down at our target just in time to see it disappear in a cloud of smoke and debris. Some attack plane had hit it and really levelled it. So we rolled over and picked up another target. . . a long red brick storage building. . . and rolled on it. We dropped our bombs, and as we pulled off the target I made a mistake, I rolled up and pulled to look back and see what the bombs had done.

1 Air Combat Manoeuvre.
2 MiG Combat Air Patrol.
3 Circular Error Probability.
4 Red Crown is a radar pick operating out of the Gulf of Tonkin often backed up by Disco, a USAF EC-121 both of which combined to provide a wide monitoring of MiG operations in North Vietnamese airspace.
5 Multiple ejector racks designed to increase external ordnance on the F4.
6 Anti Aircraft Artillery.
7 Surface-to-air missile.
8 Commander, Air Group

The North Vietnamese had put up a maximum effort in an attempt to stop the strike. They had launched MiGs out of Kep, Phuc Yen, Yen Bai and Bai Thuong.

‘As we pulled off the target, two MiG-17s flew right by Brian’s airplane, about 500 feet away. I was about a thousand feet out in front of Brian when he called: “Duke, two MiG-17s at seven o’clock!” I popped my wing back down and looked back just in time to see this 17 pull in behind and start shooting tracers. My first instinct, just like any fighter pilot’s, was to break into him. Then I thought: “I did that two days ago and the guy rendezvoused on me!” But then I noticed that the guy was really closing on me fast. In the MiG-17 the stick is really hard to move at high airspeeds, and as I said, this guy was really hauling. All this went through my mind in a split second, and I did break into him. The MiG driver just didn’t have the muscle to move that stick, and he overshot. But his wingman, who was back about 1500 feet pitched up into the vertical, did a vertical displacement roll out to my belly side. Brian called up: “Duke, I’ll take care of the guy at your six!” meaning the wingman. I pulled in behind the guy who had overshot and launched a Sidewinder. When I squeezed the trigger he was well within minimum range, but by the time the missile got to him was about 2500 feet out in front of me. . . that’s how fast he was going! The missile hit him and blew him up. All this had happened within a few seconds of our pulling off the target.

‘On two previous occasions, Brian had “dragged” MiGs for me, so before we launched on this mission I had made him a solemn promise that if we saw MiGs today, I would drag one for him. I figured now was his chance. The MiG that had been behind me was still there. I called: “Brian, here’s your chance. I’m gonna drag that guy for you!” I started accelerating down in the turn. I could see the MiG coming. “Brian, get that SOB! Brian. . . ?” He came up with: “I can’t help you Duke, I’ve got two on my tail!” So I used our disengagement manoeuvre and got away from the 17. I extended out, picked up about 500 knots and looked out to the right. There was Brian! He had seen me take off and had gotten rid of two MiG-17s and stayed on my wing, right where he was supposed to be. He was really flying one hell of a flight that day! We had all kinds of fuel left (the centreline tanks were just finishing transferring) so we said: “Let’s go get some more!” We both pitched up in the vertical, came over the top at 15,000 and rolled out of the Immelmann heading back to the fight. We were going pretty fast, so we decided not to jettison the centrelines, since we had had some problems with it hitting the stabilator in high-speed jettison. I looked down, and there were eight MiG-17s in a defensive wheel! But what was worse. . . there were three F-4s in with them. They never should have been in there. . . they were down to 350 knots and, well, that’s a good place to die! I called for Brian to cover me and rolled in. The action that followed got us the nomination for the Medal of Honour.

‘I no more than got my nose pointed down, and one Phantom came out of the circle, and I didn’t see him. I almost hit him! I bet we didn’t miss him a hair! I said: “Willie, who’s in 112!” It was Commander Dwight Timm, with Jim Fox in his back seat. I said: “Jeez, look at that!” He was in a port turn. He had a MiG-17 about 2000 feet behind him. He had a MiG-21 about a thousand feet behind the 17, and what he didn’t see. . . was a MiG-17 flying wing on him! We were back at his seven o’clock, behind the trailing MiGs. But the threat was the MiG on his wing, who was about to pull in and start shooting. I had a tone on the Sidewinder, but when I relaxed it, it didn’t change, so if I had fired it. . . he was in burner. . . it probably would have hit the F-4. I called for him to reverse starboard, to kick the MiG across his tail, so that my Sidewinder would home on the MiG’s tailpipe. He thought I was talking about the trailing MiGs. . . he still hadn’t spotted the real threat. . . and he kept on going. I called him again: “Showtime (VF-96’s call sign), reverse starboard. . . if you don’t, you’re going to die!” Just then, Willie said: “Duke, look at two o’clock high! I looked up and saw two flashes . . . not airplanes, they were too high. . . just flashes. I thought: “There can’t be any more 17’s in the world!” Because behind us were four 17s trying to catch up, plus the two out in front of us. And, by the way, Timm was in this arcing turn, and the 17s behind us were catching up! Well, the two above us weren’t 17s . . . they were MiG-19s! They rolled in on us. . . I reversed . . . and they went out to my six o’clock. By that time, the fight had moved over to our 10 o’clock, which put me in a deep lag position to the MiG on Timm, but out of range of the MiGs who had been trailing us. Except for one MiG-17, who was just about in range. One of the only things I did right that day was to have about 550 knots right then. The MiG who was in range couldn’t close as long as I didn’t turn too tight, and at 550 knots I was opening on him. The problem was, I had to turn to say behind Timm and his MiG. I told Willie to keep an eye on that M1G, and every time he started to pull lead, to let me know. When he would pull lead and start to shoot, I’d straighten it out and open a little bit on him. Now, bear in mind, this is all happening in the space of a few seconds, I’m still screaming for Timm to break starboard, when I look up . . . and there above us I see four MiG-21s!. . . just cruising along, keeping an eye on the fight below. Finally, Timm broke. I had a tone. . . no tone. . . then a tone again, and I squeezed the trigger. Jim Fox, in Timm’s back seat, looked out and for the first time he saw the MiG, just as my missile hit him. He said the missile travelled the entire length of the MiG, blowing him up. The pilot ejected right next to them!

‘As soon as my missile hit the MiG-17, the four 21s above us rolled in. They must have gotten pretty hacked off when I smoked their buddy! As they rolled in, I pulled hard into them, putting them 180 degrees off me. Timm had dove for the ground and headed for the coast as soon as I got the MiG behind him, and I said:

“That’s a good place to go!” Everywhere I looked there were MiGs, and I didn’t see any other F-4s around. So I headed east myself.

‘On the way out, I told Willie: “It sure is a shame to quit when we have all this gas, and there are all kinds of MiGs. ” (The whole fight until then had only taken about two minutes, and I had started it with a full bag of gas, so we had plenty of fuel left. ) Then I thought about how badly we were outnumbered, and with no one to even fly our wing I figured, “Yeah, it is a good time to get out!” I didn’t know the greatest test was yet to come.

‘As we headed for the coast, I spotted another airplane on the nose, slightly low, and heading for us. As he got a little closer, I identified him as a MiG-17. Now, right here is where something that had worked in training almost got me killed. In training, while fighting the A-4s, we had a rule that you had to maintain a 200-foot separation. Well, I always pushed that one a little bit when starting the fight in a head-on pass. I would try to come as close to the other guy as I could, just to scare him, or get him hacked off at me. . . anything to make him think about something other than the fight for a split second. . . enough time for me to gain the advantage. I said: “Watch this, Willie. I’m going to scare the – – out of this gomer!” And I headed right for him. ‘

THE FIFTH KILL

(Author’s note: Randy Cunningham’s fifth kill was significant in that it made him and Willie Driscoll Aces. The first Aces of the Vietnam War. But it was significant for a far more dramatic reason also. What happened on the kill that made Cunningham an Ace is something a Hollywood scriptwriter (or more importantly, an aviation author) dreams of. Cunningham’s fifth kill was to be none other than Colonel Tomb, the leading ace of the North Vietnamese Air Force, himself credited with 13 victories over American aircraft. When I asked him how he knew it was Tomb, Randy replied that the information was classified, but that they were sure it was Tomb. )

‘I bored in on the 17 . . . head on. Suddenly, his whole nose lit up like a Christmas tree! I had forgotten that the A-4s didn’t shoot at you, but this guy was really spitting out the 23 mm and 37 mm! I pulled hard, up in the vertical, figuring that the MiG would keep right on going for home. I looked back and . . . there was the MiG . . . canopy to canopy with me! He couldn’t have been more than 30 feet away . . . I could see the Pilot clearly . . . leather helmet, goggles, scarf . . . we were both going straight up, but I was out-zooming him. He fell behind, and as I came over the top, he started shooting. I had given him a predictable flight path and he had taken advantage of it. The tracers were missing me, but not by much! I rolled out, and he pulled in right behind me.

‘Now, I don’t know if it’s ego. . . you know, you don’t like to admit that the other guy beat you . . . or what, but I said: “That SOB is really lucky!” Anyway, I told Willie,: “All right, we’ll get this guy now!” I pulled down, and I was holding top rudder, trying to knuckle at the nose. As soon as I committed my nose, he pulled right into me! I thought: “Oh, oh, maybe this guy isn’t just lucky after all!” !’waited for his nose to commit, then I pulled up into him . . . that’s a rolling scissors. Well, here’s where my training came into play again. In training, I had fought against Dave Frost in the same situation, and I had learned that if he had his nose too high, I could snap down, using the one G of gravity to advantage, and run out to his six o’clock. I would be a mile, mile-and-a-half out of range before he could get turned around. This is just what happened. We separated, turned around and engaged again. Same thing. Up into a rolling scissors. . advantage . . . disadvantage . . . advantage . . . disadvantage . . . disadvantage . . . disengaged, came back, engaged again, and went up in the vertical again. This is one of the very few MiGs that ever fought in the vertical. They like to fight in the horizontal. We kept engaging, and I could never get enough of an advantage on him to get a shot. . . everything airplane did, he reacted to instinctively. He was flying damn good! Well, we kept at it, with me out zooming him in the vertical, and him shooting every time I got out in front. I thought: “He’s going to get lucky one of these times!”

‘The next time we started up in the vertical, an idea came to me . . . I don’t know why. . . your mind just works overtime in a situation like that. . . anyway, as we were going up, I went to idle and speed brakes . . . and he shot out in front of me!I think it really surprised him . . . be out in front for the first time. Anyway, we’re both going straight up, and losing speed fast. I was down to 150 knots, and I knew I was going to have to go full burner to hold it. I did, and we both pitched over the top. As he came over, I used a rudder to get the airplane to turn to his belly side. He lost lift coming over the top and, I think, departed the aeroplane a little bit. I thought: ”This is no place to be with a MiG-17 . . . at 150 knots . . . that slow . . . he can take it right away from you. ” But he had stayed too long. He was low on fuel, and I think he decided to run. He pitched over the top and started straight down. I went down after him and, though I didn’t think the Sidewinder would guide straight down with all the heat of the ground to look at, I squeezed one off anyway. The missile came off the rail and went to his airplane. There was just a little flash, and I thought: “God, it missed him!” I started to fire my last Sidewinder and suddenly . . . a big flash of flame and black smoke erupted from his airplane. He didn’t seem to go out of control, but he flew straight down into the ground. He didn’t get out.

‘I had just pitched off, when I looked up, and he1e came another MiG-17 at our two o’clock. I said to Willie: “Here comes number six!” I started to break into him, when Matt Connelly, who was one of our flight, and had himself gotten two that day, called: “Duke, look at your seven o’clock!” I saw Matt, with his nose on us, as he fired a missile. I thought: “Matt! Jeez, you’re shooting at us!” It was a Sparrow that he had fired, and it went right over our tail! I looked back at our seven and there were four MiG-17s. Matt had fired the Sparrow in a desperate attempt to get them off our tail. It worked too . . . they just broke in every direction. . . like a fleur-de-lis. I said: “That’s it, baby! We got five. . . that’s all I want! We’re getting out of here!” We rolled and headed for the coast, with Matt on our wing. But we still weren’t out of the woods. On the way out, we had a SAM fired at us. We got all the indications that it was tracking us, so we broke, got rid of it, and pitched up. There, right in front of us, was another MiG-21. I was going to shoot, but he was well within minimum range, so I couldn’t. I flew right by him . . . I really had a windscreen full of MiG-21. I think if I had had a gun that day, I would have had three more kills, because there was a 17, another 17, and this 21 that were right there for the shooting . . . if I had had a gun. I pitched off, broke, and headed out again. ‘We got out over about Nam Dinh, and I heard another SAM call.

I looked out the starboard side just in time to see this SAM coming for us. Before I could move the aeroplane, it went off. It was about 400 feet away when it exploded, and we had had closer misses than that, so I wasn’t too concerned. I went to the gauges and everything looked normal, so we continued on out. Less than a minute later, the aeroplane yawed violently to the left. I steadied up, looked at the gauges again, and saw that the PC-1 hydraulic system was indicating zero, and the PC-2 and utility systems were fluctuating. I remembered a story I had heard about “Duke ” Hernandez, another Navy F-4 pilot, who had rolled his aeroplane to safety under a similar circumstance. Sure enough, when PC-2 went to zero, the nose of the F-4 went straight up, just as the story had indicated. I pushed full right rudder, forcing the nose to yaw right and down. We rolled to the right, and as the nose passed through the horizon, I pushed in the speed brakes and went to full burner to start a climbing roll. Each time the nose reached the top of the up-swing, I brought it down to prevent a stall. I couldn’t let it get too low, or I would have been unable to get it back up with the rudder alone. We rolled the Phantom 15 miles in this manner, starting at 27,000 feet and ending up at 17,000.

‘We had just cleared the coast when the Utility system went to zero. If this had happened a few seconds earlier, we would have had to eject over North Vietnam, and probably would have spent the rest of the war in the Hanoi Hilton. We went into a spin and I told Willie to wait a couple or more turns, hoping that I could pull it out and get us a little further out into the Gulf of Tonkin. I deployed the drag chute, but nothing I could do would stop the spin. I had told Willie earlier that he could eject any time he wanted. It was obvious that we were going to have to punch out sooner or later, and there was the possibility that the airplane could blow up at any time. But he had decided to stay with it as long as I did. We both felt we would rather take the chance of the airplane blowing up, rather than get caught by the North Vietnamese, especially after shooting down three of their airplanes, including their leading Ace, that day.

‘Our call for ejection is: “WILLEJECT, EJECT, EJECT. ” I no more than got WILLE . . . out, when Willie punched out. Our ejection went smoothly, and we were picked up from the Gulf of Tonkin by Marine Helos from the USS Okinawa!

‘When we returned to the Connie, we had quite a reception. Everyone knew we had gotten three MiGs to become Aces, but the statement that moved us the most was made by one of the enlisted troops. He walked up to me and said:”Mr Cunningham, we are glad you shot down three MiGs today and became Aces, but we’re even happier that you’re back with us!” That statement really brought home to me the importance of the team effort that allowed us to shoot down those MiGs. Every one of the men on the Connie deserves credit for our victories. Their efforts made them possible. ”

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