Word: mig
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...bombs out a bridge, the cost of Hanoi's involvement in South Viet Nam goes up another notch. Still, the U.S. has shown remarkable restraint by sparing a long list of choice and vital targets. The roster of restricted areas includes the docks of Haiphong harbor, the MIG jet fighter bases that ring Hanoi and the 25-mile zone bordering Red China, which is increasingly used as a sanctuary for truck convoys bringing supplies from China. Last week the U.S. decided to raise the North's costs considerably by striking hard at a target that had hitherto been...
...view from Hanoi even bleaker, U.S. Marines began their long-anticipated offensive against the Mekong Delta, the Reds' last safe haven in South Viet Nam. Perhaps most disturbing of all to the enemy was the U.S. air war. During the week, the North Vietnamese lost nine supersonic MIG-21s, their most advanced fighter aircraft, as U.S. bombers continued to pound military targets. Seemingly desperate for relief from the devastating air offensive, Hanoi began emitting some subtle static aimed at convincing Washington that if only the U.S. would call off its planes, peace talks might-eventually-get under...
Swirling Battle. The ambush was classic in its simplicity. Out of Thailand swept 14 flights of Air Force Phantoms, heading toward "MIG Valley," the industrial envelope 30 miles northwest of Hanoi. American intelligence officers had already noted that the North Vietnamese usually scrambled their fighters when U.S. planes approached this sensitive sector, but this time the 50 incoming planes were not cumbersome fighter-bombers. Instead, the Phantoms were flying "clean," without the bombs and extra fuel tanks that reduce maneuverability. To North Vietnamese radar, however, they looked just like fighter-bombers, and up came the MIGs to harass them. What...
...swirling battle that covered a huge part of the sky," said Air Force Colonel Robin Olds, 44, who led the fighter sweep. The MIG-21s pressed in aggressively on the first three flights of Phantoms, hoping to use their 30-mm. cannon inside the deadly jab range of the American Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles. Olds, an All-American football player in his West Point days and 24½-kill ace during World War II, picked off one MIG by flipping his Phantom on its back and then diving in behind the enemy plane to send a Sidewinder...
Other Americans used their missiles to equal effect. Standing off from the Communist cannon fire, they locked on target with radar and sent six more MIGs down in flaming fragments. The entire fight took scarcely 12 minutes-a commentary on the speed of modern warfare-and only one Phantom was damaged (hit by chunks of a disintegrating MIG). When they returned to base, the flyers received well-earned recognition: a third Silver Star for Olds, Distinguished Flying Crosses for the 13 other aviators who had scored...