66-0269
While
doing research on the Phantoms that were assigned to the 417th,
I came across 66-0269 that had been acquired by the “New England Air
Museum", on loan from the Connecticut Air National Guard.
The guard unit had de-militarized the plane and prepared it for public
display. The aircraft is
noteworthy because in December of 1972, in a dogfight over Vietnam with a
MiG-21, it downed the enemy fighter. Aircraft 66-0269 was assigned to the 417th
TFS on January 30, 1967, straight from the McDonnell factory in St. Louis.
Sometime between 1970 and early 1972, the aircraft was re-assigned to
the 555th TFS at Udorn AB, Thailand.
The following is an account of that dog-fight that was given, in a
letter, to Bill Mellow, Activities Coordinator for the museum by Jim Brunson,
the pilot. Lt. Col. Brunson and Major Stan Pickett were at the controls
that day.
“I
was assigned to Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base during my second combat tour
in SEA from February 22, 1972 until February 22, 1973. 1 was the Operations
Officer of the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TRIPLE
NICKEL) the first half of that tour and the 555 TFS Commander (CINNICKEL)
during the last half of the tour. Our squadron flew all types of combat
missions over North Vietnam. Laos, and South Vietnam. Some of these were MIG
CAP missions, day visual bombing, night bombing, all weather LORAN bombing,
Path Finder missions, etc. There were two F-4D Fighter Squadrons and one RF4C
Reconnaissance Squadron assigned to the 432 Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at
Udorn at that time. The 13 TFS and the 555 TFS had F-4D's. However, because of
the intensive war activities, there were normally one squadron of F4D's from
the Philippines and two squadrons of F-4E's from the USA temporarily stationed
at Udorn. We had centralized maintenance and scheduling so all wing pilots
flew any aircraft on the base, D's or E's.
During
the year I was in the Triple Nickel, our squadron of 24 F-4D's and about 30
crews shot down 19 Mig’s. The other squadrons there also killed many Migs.
I’m sad to say that Triple
Nickel lost 7 aircraft and 3 crews during the same 12 months, Steve
Ritchie, the first Air Force Ace in Vietnam was in the squadron as our weapons
officer, and Chuck Debellevuc was a back seater in the squadron. On
September 6, 1972 Chuck was in John Madden's back seat and they shot down two
MiG19's on one mission to give him 6 MiG kills, the highest Vietnam
conflict.
I’m
not sure when aircraft 66-0269 came to Udorn, but I think it was in the
September/October 1972 timeframe. My listing of all F-4Ds in the 555 TFS and
the 13 TFS dated August 1972 lists several F-4D's with serial numbers close to
that but not that aircraft. That aircraft had some of the latest state of the
art electronic interrogation gear in it so I think it was being modified in
the USA, or at Clark AFB, or in Taiwan. and came to Udorn in the fall of 1971
1 flew 66-0269 two times. I flew it on the night of October 28, 1972 on a
mission escorting B-52's which were bombing just south of Hanoi. That was an
uneventful 3.5 hour night mission.
My
only other flight in 66-0269,
THE GREEN MACHINE." (this was 269's name) was on the 3 hour
Mig kill flight of December 22, 1972. The 555 TFS squadron color was
green so all our aircraft had a wide bright green stripe with a thin white
strip below it on the top of the vertical stabilizer and the Udorn unit
letters of "OV" (large) in white centered on the vertical stabilizer. The
aircraft numbers were below that with a small black "AP" over a
black "60," followed with double that size white numbers
"269." The lower part of the nose wheel door below the landing
lights was painted bright green with a thin white border and the white numbers
"269." Inside the nose wheel door that opens to the right were green
letters about 3 inches tall on the white door stating. "THE
GREEN MACHINE." Of course the aircraft was painted a. camouflaged
color. After our Mig kill in "269", Stan Picket and I painted a red
star with a small yellow border on the air divider in front of the left engine
intake.
On December 22, 1972, Stan Pickett and I were
"Buick 1" leading a four ship F-4D flight as the Ingress MiG CAP
for about 200 fighter bombers and support aircraft striking a target
complex in the northern part of the city of Hanoi. We were to be the first
aircraft in the target area and to provide protection from enemy MiG's for the
attacking aircraft for the first half of this complex mission, our fuel would
be depleted by then, and we would be replaced on station by another Egress MiG
CAP flight. We were to be the first aircraft to depart Udorn at 0800 hours.
The entire mission was put on a weather hold. As a side light. the Bob Hope
Christmas Show was at Udorn and was to have their show in the picnic area near
the runway starting at 1100 hours that day. We got a "go" on the
mission and Buick Flight was to take off at 1100 hours. Our four F-4D's
led by 269 rolled down the runway, at five second intervals, at exactly 11
hours. We were loaded with a full fuel load including two wing mounted 370
galloon tanks, one 600 gallon centerline tank, four ALM-7E
Sparrow Radar missiles, four AIM-4 heat seeking missiles (one on
each side of the two inboard pylons), and one ECM pod on the bottom of the
left inboard pylon. We were followed each minute by four more F-4D’s
for the next 12 to I5 minutes. Later I saw a tape of the Bob Hope Show and he
made a joke of '269's" noise and the noise of the following flights.
We
did air refueling on Red Anchor from a KC-135
over Laos and went north into western North Vietnam as the first of many
flights on this mission. Our planned route was straight north at about
25,000 feet. then to turn east and let down to a couple thousand feet above
the ground, and to orbit just north of the target area.
We
were under the control of "Red Crown," a U.S. Navy AEW aircraft
flying over the South China Sea just off the coast of North Vietnam. As we
crossed into North Vietnam, Red Crown advised us that two MiG’s had taken
off from Hanoi and were climbing to the northwest toward the Red China border.
As we continued north, Red Crown advised that the two MiG’s had turned south
and it appeared that they were heading for a flight of F-4D's from Udorn
that was dropping chaff bombs and laying a chaff stream into the target area.
Red Crown committed our flight against the two MiG-21's and vectored
us directly toward them which put us on a head-on intercept course with
them and about 40 miles from them. Stan, in the back seat. picked up the MiG’s on our radar at 12 o'clock at 37
miles. We called a "Judy" and Red Crown confirmed that our radar
contact was the "Bandits." At 20 miles range, I asked Red Crown for
permission to fire my AIM-7 Sparrow missiles (at this high closing speed
I could successfully fire the Sparrow missiles at about 15 miles). Red Crown
said "No," there were too many friendly aircraft in that area and
that I had to get a visual on the MiG’s before I could fire.
We
were still at about 20,000 feet and the two MiG's were one mile intrail of
each other at 32,000 feet. We jettisoned our almost empty 600 gallon
centerline fuel tanks so that we could maneuver better. At 12 mile range, I
started a pull-up to center the radar dot to fire the missiles. The
wingmen were all in correct fighting wing formation on me to protect us from
other enemy aircraft that might be near us. As I pulled up into a vertical
climb, I saw the first MiG-21 directly above me. I had
always said to others that shooting
only one or two missiles was not a good technique, as often they failed
to guide properly and didn't get a kill. I'd said that if I ever got a MIG in
my gun sight I'd shoot all four radar missiles,
followed by all four heat seeking missiles, followed by 1200 rounds of 20 mm
shells from the Gatling gun. Well, in this case, I had radar missiles
selected and armed, so I put the gun sight piper on the center of the belly of
the MiG and puller the trigger to the count of "one, two, three and
four." The four radar missiles came off their rails with loud "
shush" sounds, about one second apart. As the last missile was off the
rail I saw the second, or the third, missile explode near the tail of the MIG-21
blowing most of its tail off. It went into a spin. I turned my attention to
flying "269." as We were going straight up, and the airspeed was
falling through 100 knots. I left the aircraft nose slice off to the side
and pick up airspeed until it was flying again. I gave my number three man the
lead as he had a visual on the second MiG
and I flew cover on him. He chased the second MiG down into a cloud deck near
Hanoi and we lost contact with it.
I
led the Buick Flight back to our CAP orbit point and we stayed on our station
until we were relieved by the Egress NUG CAP Flight. We did post flight
refueling on a KC‑135 on our way back to Thailand. We called the Udorn
Command Post as we were leaving North Vietnam and told them about our MiG
kill. I did not know at that this time this information was passed to Bob Hope
at his Christmas Show and that he announced it to his audience.
We
arrived as a four ship flight over the Udorn Runway as the Bob Hope Show was
concluding. We made a .'victory" diamond flyby down the runway with a
barrel roll at the end of the field. We re-entered for a "fighter
pitch up" to downwind and landed in close trail on the runway. As we were
rolling out I noticed that all of the crowd at the Bob Hope Show were leading
the picnic area in cars. jeeps and trucks and following our flight down the
runway to the de-arm area at the roll out end of the runway. What a
crowd of people, vehicles, and cameras that were around our flight as we got
de-armed. That crowd followed "THE
GREEN MACHINE" as I parked it on the taxiway directly in front of
the wing headquarters. After engine shutdown, up the ladder came dancer,
Anne Jeffries and Miss Texas with bottles of champagne to give Stan and I a
drink and then to pour it over our heads. We came down the ladder to be
congratulated by General Vogt, the SEA Air Commander, Bob Hope, Mrs. Hope, Les
Brown, Lola Falana, Miss Universe, many state beauty contest winners, and
hundreds of other people. Stan and I painted a red star on the intake of
"269," and Bob Hope, Stan and I nailed a large wooden red star on
the side of the wing headquarters building along with the dozens that were
already there. After Stan and I joined Bob and his troop at his aircraft to
say goodbye to them and get lots more photos taken, we went back to taxi 269
back to the correct parking spot on the fighter ramp. You can see it was a
great day for me, Stan Pickett and "old 269."
Unfortunately, we did not have a gun sight camera on that mission or
any radar film. I do have an audio tape of all the radio conservations. It was
made in the cockpit of the number three aircraft. I have many photograph's of our return to the base
during the Bob Hope show and the
events that happened there.”
