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.64(US Navy via R.F.Dorr)Former Blue Angels pilotLt Steven Shoemaker andLt(jg) Keith Crenshaw posewith  Showtime 102 , whichdisplays all eight of VF-96 sMiG kills.They contributed thelast MiG to be downed on May10, 1972 while flying BuNo155749  Showtime 111.(US Navy via Peter Mersky)Resorting to desperate measures during the third climbing pursuit, Cunninghamcut the throttles and briefly extended his airbrakes, throwing the MiG out in front ofhim.The VPAF pilot, probably at  bingo fuel, sought to dive away towards Kep,but Cunningham managed to push the nose of his almost stalling F-4J over and firean AIM-9 that caused enough damage for the MiG to crash into the ground andconfer ace status on Cunningham and Driscoll.They were the first Americans toachieve this accolade in the Vietnam War, and the only Naval Aviators to do so, period.Heading back out to the shore, Cunningham was pursued by yet another MiG-17,sitting close behind him and possibly firing his cannons.Matt Connelly swung overtowards it, fired an unguided AIM-7 from his  radarless F-4J and scared the MiG away.Two more MiG-17s and a MiG-21 sought to engage the harassed fighter as it neared65the coast, but  Showtime 100 s fate was probably determined by a SAM explosionENGAGING THE ENEMY We believed in the Sidewinder.The radars weren t A small  pipper appeared at the centre of a circlereliable and we feared that their strobes might have on the screen (repeated on the pilot s gunsight).Thisgiven away our presence and cost us a shot in a MiG changed from white to red when the aircraft was insideengagement.The missile of choice was always the launch parameters.If the pilot had selected  interlocksSidewinder.Always! We would fly into a kill position in on his missile panel, an AIM-7 would then fire whenfor the Sidewinder, and once you did that a kill was the trigger was pressed.The aircraft then had to bepractically assured. pointed at the target for up to 25 seconds at typicalThus Jerry B.Houston, VF-51 MiG killer, expressed range or the missile would lose guidance from the F-4 sthe feelings of most US Navy Phantom II pilots during radar and  go ballistic.the final years of the war.While the AIM-7 could be useful in head-on attacksThe original F-4 concept saw the AIM-9 as a last- at long range, most pilots found themselves at closerresort back-up for the main AIM-7 Sparrow armament.range, where the Sidewinder excelled.The pilot had toA potentially hostile  bogie would be identified on approach his target from behind, use his  pipper asradar in  search mode by the RIO at up to 80+ miles.for the AIM-7, select  heat on his three-way missileIf intelligence sources confirmed it as a  bandit ( red selector switch and then listen for a  growl in hisbandits were MiG-17s,  white were MiG-19s and  blue headphones, which indicated that the missile s infraredwere MiG-21s), the RIO used his hand controller to lock seeker had acquired a heat source (preferably a MiGthe AN/APQ-72 radar antenna onto the blip and both he in afterburner).If no tone was received, he would cycleand the pilot would see the range decrease as it moved the switch to select another missile.Once released, thedown on a vertical line on their screens.AIM-9 found its own way to the target.66near-miss that damaged its hydraulics.Fighting to maintain control of the failing systemsby using afterburner and extreme rudder-induced rolls, the crew was finally forced toeject, and rely on HH-3A helicopters from HC-7 to return them to Constellation.The seventh, and last, MiG-17 to fall victim to a Sidewinder that day was hit bya VF-51 F-4B flown by Lts Ken Cannon and Roy Morris in a one-on-one clash witha pilot that Jerry Houston described as a  damn tough and experienced opponent.The MiG was about to ease in behind Chuck Schroeder s F-4B when  Ragin CajunCannon caught up with it and fired.On May 18 Lts Nick Criss and Ken Culverson of VF-213 probably downed yetanother MiG-17, and two crews from VF-161 were credited with destroying the onlyMiG-19s to fall to the US Navy.These victories came when two MiG-19S  Farmersof the 925th FR attempted to oppose a CVW-15 strike as it approached the regiment sbase at Kep.Topgun graduate Lt Henry  Bart Bartholomay and his RIO Lt Oran Brown, in Rock River 110 , with Lts Pat Arwood and James  Taco Bell in  Rock River 105(who were on their very first mission over North Vietnam), were the MiGCAP forMidway s strike aircraft.Bartholomay picked up a distant sun glint from a shiny wing,and closer investigation revealed a pair of silver MiG-19s approaching Kep to land.Positioning Arwood at 3,000ft, he dived to pursue the MiGs.The  Farmer pilotsAs VF-51 s  Screaming Eaglespotted the Phantom IIs and split up, with an F-4 following each VPAF interceptor111 , this battered ex-Marinethrough a series of 7g turns over Kep that caused the jets to rapidly bleed off energy.Corps F-4B provided Lts KenCannon and Roy Morris with Bart soon extended two miles away to rebuild his speed, while Oran Brown kepttheir MiG-17 kill on May 10,sight of the enemy.As he returned, the MiG pilot who was circling with Arwood decided1972.It was actually assignedto go for  Bart s Phantom II instead, and thereby presented Arwood with anto Lts Winston Copeland andopportunity to fire two AIM-9s successfully at the  Farmer , which stalled and crashed.Dale Arends at the time.Ironically, Copeland and hisRather than re-enter a turning fight with the remaining MiG,  Bart allowed it toRIO Lt Don Bouchoux usedget on his tail.As the MiG-19 approached firing range, he threw his Phantom II intoCannon s assigned aircraftan outside barrel roll, with flaps and speed-brakes extended and throttles cut to idle [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]