Combat Debrief

Combat Debrief, 36 Years Later

I know many of you can relate to extended debriefs that are not completed until the next day because there’s just too much to cover and learn from a training sortie.  Many times it’s difficult to reach your adversaries by phone to get “their side of the story” and I’ve taken the liberty to regroup the next day after getting all the red shots in order to maximize learning for the FNGs.  JP-8 costs our taxpayers a lot of coin, and we want to get as much learning as possible from each pound of gas. 

Can you imagine it taking 36 years before you were able to talk with your adversary and “get their side of the story?”  That’s what Brigadier General Dan Cherry did for his engagement on April 16, 1972.  Only this was no training sortie, it was combat, and normally the pilot who wound up on the short end of the stick would not be available for a debrief at all.

The FU History Department published the details of Dan's engagement with a Mig-21 just a few days ago.  But what happened to the Mig-21 Driver who punched out of his wingless Fishbed and past within 50 feet of the F-4D flown by Major Dan Cherry and Lieutenant Jeff Feinstien?  Did he survive to fly and fight another day?  What was his life like after the war ended?  Does he have a family?  Is he still pissed at me for turning his Mig into flaming pieces of metal?  These are questions any fighter pilot would want to know in order to complete the “debrief.”

For 36 years, Dan had a vivid memory of an enemy fighter pilot in his parachute passing close beside his F-4.  His Mig-21 was no longer flyable thanks to an Aim-7 Sparrow delivered courtesy of Cherry, Feintstien, Hughes, Raytheon, and a McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II tail number 66-7550.  But life goes on, and so did Dan’s Air Force career.  Dan Cherry retired from the Air Force as a Brigadier General in 1988.  His Mig kill over North Vietnam was a thing of the past.  It did not define who he was, but it was certainly the most memorable of his 285 combat missions during two tours in Southeast Asia. 

Life’s a funny thing sometimes, and Dan’s life was in for a rather large surprise during a visit to a VFW club in Enon, Ohio.  He was told there was an old F-4D on display there, and he wanted to take a look with pride at the same type aircraft he had piloted in combat.  What he didn’t expect to see was the exact same aircraft, tail 66-7550, which he had scored his Mig kill back on April 16, 1972. 

There's a special bond between fighter pilot and machine, especially a jet you've flown in comat on the most significant sortie of your life.  Dan immediately began efforts to have 550 restored and moved to the new Aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  He also formed a nonprofit organization to raise funds for 550's restoration.  The resurrection of 550 brought back a lot of old memories, and Dan thought to himself "I wonder what happened to that Mig driver I went beak to beak with 36 years ago?"  Perhaps it was time to finish the debrief.

Dan started by discussing it with his friend Ed Faye, who knew people in Vietnam. One contact led to another, until they corresponded with a television program in Vietnam that often reunited people before their audience. 

In April of this year, Dan Cherry found himself on a flight across the Pacific to meet a former North Vietnamese Mig-21 pilot named Nguyen Hong My in Ho Chi Minh City.  Dan had no idea how the meeting might turn out, after all he shot Hong My’s Mig down and nearly took his life in the process.  “My hope was that we would find elements of common interest as fighter pilots,” he said.   

That proved to be the case. Both men understood that they had a mission to do. It wasn’t personal. But seconds after the fight ended, that had changed for Dan Cherry.  “It became personal to me because I saw him up close in his parachute,” he said.

Their meeting was cordial, but not apologetic. “Absolutely not,” said Cherry. “We were both airmen fighting for our countries.”  Dick Jonas said it best in his song about the Mig-21, “Then there’s the Mig-21.  Man, what an airplane, beautiful, graceful, and fast—and the guys who fly them are fighter pilots too, that ought to tell you something right away.”  This became a meeting between two fighter pilots who were doing their jobs.  There were no hard feelings or hatred toward each other, only mutual respect.

Hong My, who spoke some English, told Cherry how he had sustained a back injury and two broken arms during the ejection, requiring a year of treatment before he returned to flight duties. Hong My, who had been a lieutenant at the time of their encounter, went on to fight for two more years.

At Hong My’s home, Cherry was introduced to Hong My’s family members and joined them for dinner. The next day Hong My accompanied him on a tour of Hanoi, that included the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” A somber Hong My asked Cherry if he had known anyone there, and Cherry found a picture there of a friend, John Flynn.

Today, Dan is motivated by the hope his story will help provide a measure of closure for many other veterans who gave so much in Vietnam.  He is continuing the efforts in his hometown to open the Aviation Heritage Park. The growing display will soon include a Navy F-9F Panther and there are plans for several more aircraft.

The debrief has not ended for the two warriors. The ribbon cutting on the display in Bowling Green is tentatively set for later this year, and Nguyen Hong My is planning to be there.  Yes, a lot can be said about a thorough debrief.  Never pass up the opportunity to finish your own debrief, there’s always something else that can be learned.  Sometimes the points to ponder have nothing to do with flying jets at all.

The story is documented in photographs titled: “An Unlikely Reunion: Dan Cherry’s Journey to Vietnam,” by photographer John Fleck, www.johnfleck.com.