"Basco 3, Splash MIG-21"

I received the following account from Brigadier General Dan Cherry about his Aim-7 Sparrow kill on a Fishbed in April 72'.  Dan recently met with the Mig-21 pilot he shot down over Vietnam, and that story will follow in another article.  The FU Alumni Department would like to thank Brig General Cherry and John Fleck for the help they provided for these articles.  Here are the details of the engagement in Dan's own words:

Mig-21 Victory

Major Dan Cherry and Lt. Jeff Feinstein 

13^th Tactical Fighter Squadron – Udorn Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand

April 16, 1972

F-4D Phantom - A/C Ser. No. 66-7550

Call Sign “Basco 3”

 
At Udorn we had the primary responsibility for providing protection from enemy aircraft (MIGCAP) for the strike flights going deep into North Vietnam.  On April 16, 1972, the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, to which I was assigned, briefed five flights of four Phantoms each for MIGCAP missions in North Vietnam.  Four of the flights were assigned patrol areas in the Hanoi area, covering the main strike of the day.  Our flight, led by Capt. Fred Olmsted, who at that time had one Mig kill to his credit, with Capt. Steve Cuthbert on his wing and Capt. Greg Crane on my wing, was assigned MIGCAP duties for a secondary strike of Phantoms from Korat Air Base.  We were to rendezvous with the Korat F-4’s over North Central Laos, then proceed to the target with them.  Since ours was a secondary strike, and the major effort included a lot of airplanes, we were not scheduled for tanker support.  We took off with 600-gallon centerline tanks, two 370-gallon wing tanks, two Sidewinder missiles, and three Sparrow Missiles each.

After take-off and join-up, we proceeded north into Laos.  We reached the rendezvous point, over the Laotian city of Ban Ban, and began to orbit while we waited for the strike flight from Korat to arrive.  As the minutes dragged on and the strike flight failed to show, we began to think about our secondary patrol area.  Finally with our fuel at a critical point, insofar as our briefed primary mission was concerned, we decided to proceed with the secondary mission, which was to patrol for Mig targets of opportunity in an area approximately 50 miles south west of Hanoi.

About the time we made the decision to go to our secondary mission, the centerline tanks ran dry.  Since there are some pretty stringent G and airspeed limitations on jettisoning the centerline tank, it was common practice to punch them off when they ran dry, if combat was anticipated.  We climbed, slowed down, and punched off all four tanks in unison.  Then we put the noses down and, heading straight for Hanoi, picked up speed for our dash into North Vietnam.

As soon as we crossed the border into North Vietnam we started picking up surface to air missile (SAM) and triple A strobes on our radar warning gear.  They were locking on to us and we were all keeping an eye out for SAM firings, as well as searching on the radar and visually for Migs.

Since the Navy had the primary responsibility for the coastal areas, we didn’t want to infringe upon their territory, so midway into North Vietnam we turned due south.  We flew south to an area we called the “fish’s mouth,” which is where Route 7 comes out into Laos, all the time searching  on the radar for bogies.  When we reached Route 7 we turned 180 degrees and headed back north, almost directly towards Yen Bai just west of Hanoi.  As we approached Hoa Binh, two things happened, almost simultaneously.  Captain Stu Moss, in the back seat of Olmsted’s airplane, picked up a bogie on his radar at twenty miles.  About the same time our airborne controller called and directed us to proceed to an orbit point down by the DMZ.  Since we had a contact, and an engagement seemed imminent, we disregarded their instructions and turned to put the bogies on our nose.  

Stu maintained his radar contact and called them out as we closed to fifteen....ten....and at five miles we picked them up visually.  We saw two silver Mig 21’s, about five thousand feet higher than we were, and on a reciprocal heading.  Olmsted called for a hard right turn after jettisoning the tanks. 
 

We cranked it around, trying to keep the two Migs in sight.  I was on the outside of the turn leading the second element, so I fell behind as we turned.  About halfway through the turn, my wingman called a third Mig.  It was a camouflaged Mig 21 and he was at twelve o’clock level to me and climbing into position behind Olmsted’s element.  The North Vietnamese had apparently been setting a trap, using the two silver Migs for bait.  The camouflaged Mig had been at low level and as we started our turn he had climbed, hoping to roll in behind us as we chased the silver Migs.

I rolled out of my turn and headed directly for him.  He evidently saw us and turned hard left away from me and into a cloud.  There were scattered to broken build-ups about three thousand feet high all around us.  Outside of the clouds the visibility was unlimited.  The tops of the clouds were about 15,000 feet and we were skimming them at 450 knots when the Mig disappeared.  I thought:  “Well, I’ll never see him again!”  Then I figured I might as well go in after him....I might get lucky and spot him as we came out the other side.  So we bored into the cloud.  After what seemed like hours in the clouds searching for him on radar, I got nervous and pulled up.  You’re always worried about SAMs anyway, and if you can’t see them coming you can’t do anything about avoiding them.  When we popped out of the top of the clouds we looked all around and didn’t see anything.

In the meantime, Olmsted and his wingman were still in hot pursuit of the other two Migs, so I thought I had better go after him and offer as much support as possible.  I made a hard right turn, in the direction I had last seen Olmsted heading.  As we rolled out of the turn, my hawk-eyed wingman Greg (Baby Beef) Craine spotted our Mig again!  He was about two o’clock and five thousand feet higher than we were in a climbing turn.  I went to max afterburner and pulled around to go after him.  While I was doing this we could hear radio transmissions from Olmsted.  He was locked on to the other Migs and was about to shoot one of them down.

As I pulled the nose of the Phantom up, I had a beautiful set-up for a Sidewinder shot.  The sun was more or less behind us and there was nothing out in front except the Mig.  I pulled the nose out in front of him a little bit as I selected HEAT and pulled the trigger.  Nothing happened.  I squeezed again....still nothing.  Recheck the armament switches....all O.K.....squeeze again....nothing....squeeze again....still nothing.  Despair.  The perfect shot and my airplane is broken.  But in the meantime, I had maintained position behind the Mig as he went up and over the top and started down in a diving spiral trying his best to get away.  My wingman was out about a thousand feet, in perfect fighting wing formation, and I know he can’t understand why I haven’t shot....I can’t either!  We can’t get a radar lock on the Mig, so when Greg calls; “I’m taking the lead, passing on the right.”....I acknowledge; “Roger, you have the lead.”  I rolled around him into fighting wing formation as Greg lined up the Mig in his sights and fired his missiles.  His first missile malfunctioned and fell away like a bomb.  His next one went into a corkscrew spiral and missed the Mig.  Remember that they still didn’t have a lock-on, and consequently were not firing within optimum parameters for the missile.  His last missile was tracking perfectly and headed right for the Mig.  However, at the critical point just prior to impact, the Mig driver broke hard, and the Sparrow went right by his tail without detonating.  When the Mig made his hard break he dissipated all of his energy which made it easier for us to maintain the advantage.  I figured that there was way no way he was going to get away from us now.  The only thing that could prevent a kill was the fact that we had nothing left to shoot at him.  All we had left were my two Sparrows.  My Sidewinders had apparently been knocked off....or something....when the wing tanks were jettisoned.  We really never figured out what happened to them.

 I made up my mind that I would stay at that Mig’s six o’clock no matter what.  Even if my Sparrows wouldn’t fire, I would chase him until I hit “bingo” fuel....then turn for home.  I called Greg that I was taking the lead back.  No answer.  We were both in max afterburner (AB) so I couldn’t overtake him easily.  His radio had gone down at that exact moment, and he didn’t know that I wanted the lead back.  He was thinking the same as I was....chase the Mig until “bingo” fuel.  Greg was too far out in front of me for me to risk shooting a missile.  I could hit him by mistake.  So I continued trying to pass and take the lead, calling him all the time to break out of the way so I could shoot.  Luckily, my airplane was a little faster than his, and I began to gain on him, all the time tracking the Mig in my gunsight.  While this was going on, I called Jeff in the back seat and told him; “I’ve got the sight right on the Mig....lock him up!”  He did, and the analog indicator popped out on the edge of the gun sight indicating a good radar lock-on.  It seemed like it took forever for me to pull up line abreast on Greg.  When I finally did regain lead of the element, I clamped down on the trigger again....never expecting the Missile to come off.  But suddenly, whoosh!....that big AIM 7 smoked out in front of us.    We were in a right descending turn, accelerating through 500 knots and closing on the Mig as the missile came off.  The missile did a big barrel roll and at first I thought it would miss him.  It appeared to be going too far out in front of him....but it was just pulling lead.  The missile and the Mig came together about 4,000 feet out in front of me.  The explosion blew the right wing off the Mig and it immediately went into a hard spiral trailing fire and smoke.  The Mig pilot ejected and his chute opened right in front of me.  I turned hard left to make sure I didn’t fly through the chute and that Jeff could see the guy in his chute, and the Mig going down in flames.  We were really excited....there was a lot of hollering on the radio.  The whole thing had a dreamlike quality to it....there we were....smoking by this guy just as his parachute opened.  We must have been close to supersonic, with the afterburners cooking....and I know we weren’t more than thirty feet away from him when we passed.  Even at that I got a good look at him.  He had on a black flying suit, and his parachute was mostly white, with one red panel in it.  I thought; “This is just like in the movies!”

We could still hear Olmsted’s element and, though they were fairly close to us, we couldn’t see them because of the cloud cover.  Within a minute of my victory, he locked onto the wingman of the silver Mig element.  The leader had rolled inverted, headed for the ground and run away, but the wingman didn’t seem to know quite what to do.  Fred knocked his right stabilator off with his first missile.  The Mig went into a gentle right turn and Fred pulled up high, came back down on him, and fired a second AIM-7.  His second missile hit the Mig dead center, exploding it in a huge fireball, leaving nothing but fluttering debris.

By this time we were low on fuel and I had but one thought at that point....let’s get out of here before more Migs show up!  We dove for the deck and leveled off right on the treetops, heading for Udorn.  I wanted to find a tanker so I could get enough extra gas to show off a bit when we got back to Udorn, but there were too many guys egressing North Vietnam that really needed the gas, so we just pressed on for home.  We made it back with less than a thousand pounds of fuel. 

We had flown the entire mission with only the fuel we had taken off with, shot down two Migs and we had done it with no help from radar controllers.  That was fairly unusual, and the length of the engagement (four minutes) was pretty rare also.

F-4D Phantom II
Photo by John Fleck

 Brigadier General Dan Cherry's Bio: Dan Cherry was commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Air Force in July of 1960. He went through pilot training in 1964 and subsequently received an F-105 assignment with the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing at Spangdalem, Germany.  In December of 1966 he volunteered for a combat tour in Southeast Asia.  From January, 1967 to August 1967 he flew 100 missions over North Vietnam in the F-105, with the 44th Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand.  Upon return to the United States, he was assigned to McConnell AFB, Kansas, as an F-105 instructor pilot.  In 1971 he volunteered for a second tour of duty in Southeast Asia.  After checking out in the F-4, he reported to the 13^th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Udorn Thailand, in June 1971.  In the one-year that his second tour lasted, Dan Cherry flew 185 combat missions, 50 of them over North Vietnam during the “Linebacker” campaign.  The F-4D pictured above is the actual tail flown by Dan in the Mig-21 engagement.  He played a major role in having it restored and displayed at the National Heritage Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.