Mighty Thunder 
Mighty Thunder is honored to post another episode from the prose of one of a limited number of fighter pilots who can write. Rear Admiral Denny Wisely has put his tales from “the Central Blue” into a book titled “Green Ink.”
Please recognize Admiral Wisely’s copyrights. Mighty Thunder posts with his permission and he alone retains all rights to his copy.
Contact Denny at Denny Wisely. Here then is a sky full of MiGS and a fighter pilot who can write, and fight too…
APRIL 24th – AND THEN THERE WERE MiGs EVERYWHERE…
Gary Anderson, my Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) and I were flying on a routine Barrier Combat Air Patrol (BARCAP) in the North Tonkin Gulf when suddenly a call came from Jehovah. “This is Jehovah, Apple Pie, I repeat, Apple Pie”.
Gary, “What is that?” We both looked at our daily card of code words and saw that it was an immediate recall to the ship. We turned south and hustled back. Getting back to the Ready Room, I asked what was going on. The duty officer said, “We’re going after the MiG base at Kep. You’re late for the brief, get up to IOIC (Integrated Operational Intelligence Center)”!
Hot dog! Today is going to be a great day. Our Air Wing Commander was briefing when we arrived. He was talking about the actual target points on Kep Airfield which was 37 miles north east of Hanoi. Our squadron, led by our CO, was assigned what he called MiGCAP which meant that we were not only going to be fighters rather than dropping bombs, we were going to be right in there where the action would take place.
I couldn’t help feel that today was going to be a day we would bag some MiGs. We returned to the Ready Room for a more detailed brief by the CO to our six aircrews. I could see he felt the same way and had picked who he thought were the best to take on MiGs.
When I found my assigned airplane on the flight deck it only had one sidewinder. I asked the ordnance chief why and he told me that in the scramble to get planes turned around that was all they could load and also there were some issues with some of my sidewinder stations. UGH!
The strike group consisted of A-6s, A-4s and F-4s from our sister squadron. We flew low up through Ha Long Bay area east of Haiphong. We passed by the beautiful karst limestone rocks protruding from the sea. As we crossed the beach, near Cam Pha at around 10,000 feet, they opened up on us with 85 MM guns. They’re easy to tell because they have a slow rate of fire and leave large black puffs of smoke.
Soon after we crossed the coastline the AAA stopped firing. Up ahead we could hear some of our group talking about SAMs being fired at them. We were now heading west/northwest, and as we came out of the hills north of Haiphong, they started shooting at us with everything from BB guns to SAMs. This was probably the most intense ground fire I had seen. Finally up ahead we could see our target, Kep Airfield.
Our TARCAP started to orbit east of the target over a small mountain because it would be easy to see. In doing so, we managed to get too close to the main railroad that links Hanoi to China. There must have been a steady line of guns. Two SAM’s came whistling by. Down below there was a steady line of triple-A guns. Red AAA tracer rounds we dubbed goofballs were so intense that I couldn’t believe we were not getting hit.
Then suddenly this huge ball of fire came toward us from Kep. “What’s that?” “Oh, it’s an A-6”, came a reply. Then as it got closer and clearer, we could see what it was and watched the crew eject. In the A-6 were Irv Williams and Mike Christian. Immediately after that, Charlie Plumb, our skipper’s wingman got hit in the starboard engine and one of his missiles caught fire. I remember thinking that I was watching a movie. This couldn’t be real.
Since there should have been no real threat from the way we came in, our skipper sent Charlie home without an escort.
It wasn’t long before Charlie started yelling he had MiG’s on his tail. With only one engine, he was in no position to take them on by himself. John Holm, my flight lead and I headed east to help Charlie out. We had gone about 10 miles when Charlie called that he had eluded the MiGs by flying down near the trees and he was OK. Out of the fire, we turned around and headed back into it again to protect the departing strike force.
We had just reached the valley where we were before and someone yelled, “MiGs coming up the valley!” I said, “Who said that?” There was no reply. I thought it was from one of the guys who just ejected talking on their survival radio on guard channel. Guard channel broadcast over all frequencies and is used for those in distress. (I recently confirmed this when I talked to Irv Williams at a Tailhook Reunion.)
John and I made a 360 degree turn and suddenly there were MiG 17s everywhere. I saw an A-6 and an A-4 come through with MiGs chasing them. A MiG cut across at an angle left to right in front of me and headed for the deck. I rolled about 270 degrees left and pulled hard at the same time completing a barrel roll underneath and came out right behind him at tree top level, which was good. However, I was too close to do anything without guns. I looked back and saw another MiG at about a mile and a half in a left turn. I pulled around hard left and another MiG and I passed canopy to canopy. Since this was such a close in fight, Gary, my radar officer in the backseat, had been almost continually looking behind us. I had told him our chances of a radar lock were minimal and he should loosen his shoulder straps and spend his time being a tight wingman in the back seat with his head on a swivel.
The MiG’s were flying in a wagon wheel staying very horizontal. The F-4 could not turn in a slow fight with the MiG 17 and they were hoping we would play their game by trying. The F-4 at that time had a basic weight of 29,000 pounds. When in use the afterburners created 34,000 pounds of thrust. Going vertical was the way to fight the MiG. Each time I would take the aircraft vertical I told Gary that I was unloading and rolling to each side for him the get a good look behind us.
Another MiG appeared in front of me in a left turn. Either he didn’t see me or was a poor pilot because as I mentioned earlier, I should not have been able to out turn him. I got a good tone on my sidewinder, my only sidewinder, but was too close. Oh, for a gun! I rolled to the right, checked my six and also gave the MiG some separation. Then I plugged in the afterburners and pulled straight up to get more separation. I had not been using the afterburners much because the F-4 at low altitude performs very well in basic engine. I was able to stay above 400 knots in basic engine with considerably less fuel consumption.
We were pulling back from the vertical climb and as Andy and I looked down, we saw two missiles in horizontal flights. We found out later that John Holm and his back-seater Dave Cocker had fired them without success.
I really don’t know how many MiGs there were, they were everywhere. The scenario looked something like an inverted bowl from 0-5,000 feet and about 4 miles at the widest part.
When we pulled left again to go after that last MiG, another MiG came very close over my left shoulder. He must have been after us and had overshot badly putting himself at my 10 o’clock position. He was in afterburner, as were most of the other MiGs. The afterburner on a MiG 17 is not as sophisticated as ours. It reminded me of a Sterno can with flames lapping out in an irregular pattern behind the aircraft. Here I was again in great position for a gun, but too close for a missile.
I rolled the Phantom over and pulled down to go after the previous MiG again. I found him about two miles in front of me in a port turn about 120 degrees from my heading. With him approaching almost head on at that range did not give us time to lock up and get off a sparrow missile. As this MiG came by canopy to canopy I could see him very clearly in his cockpit and gave him the international signal for I love you very much.
As I looked past him, I saw in the distance a MiG rolling in behind another F-4 at close range. They were well below and to my right. I looked back at the MiG I had been working all along and he was back at my 4 o’clock with about 40 degrees to go before coming after me. I rolled in on the MiG behind the F-4 at about a mile and got a great tone from my liquid cooled AIM 9D sidewinder. I fired! The F-4 and the MiG were now in a left turn and I was about 20 degrees off to the left. As the missile got out in front of me, it appeared to be heading for the F-4, which put my heart in my throat. Not knowing who it was in the F-4 I yelled, “Linfield pull up”, which he did about the same time the missile turned.
What was happening was that the sidewinder was giving itself some lead. The MiG I turned in front of must have seen my missile because the MiG I was shooting at suddenly reversed his turn to the right, the wrong way. The MiG 17 doesn’t roll well at high speeds and it was like watching in slow motion. He put his tailpipe directly in front of the missile sweetening the shot. The winder went right up his tailpipe and a large piece of his horizontal tail came off. He trailed black smoke as he continued in a right turn down to the ground.
We continued east, disengaging because of low fuel. The MiGs were out of gas too. I looked back to watch the MiG crash and could see another MiG circling overhead. At this time the F-4 I was joining on said he only had 500 pounds of fuel because he couldn’t transfer his wing fuel. The urge to turn and get the other MiG left me. We throttled back and stayed with the damaged F-4. It was quite a distance to our coast out point and it would take max conserve for him to make it.
LCDR Ev Southwick, who was our squadron Operations Officer (OPS), and Ensign Jim Laing his RIO, were in the troubled F-4. Jim started calling for a tanker to meet them. There was one off the coast where we were headed if we could reach it. I kept my speed up weaving behind Ev and Jim to provide cover. We coasted out between Cam Pha and Hon Gay, two very hot areas. Fortunately we didn’t draw any fire.
In the meantime another F-4 who was running out of gas latched on to the tanker just as one engine started to quit. About four miles south of the off shore islands OPS ran out of fuel. Andy and I had already alerted the Search and Rescue (SAR) aircraft to head to the area. Andy got a photo of Jim Laing ejecting from the backseat. This photo was on the front page of newspapers around the world.
In this photograph, Ensign Laing has just punched out, soon to be followed by Southwick Photo by Gary Anderson
We circled until the SAR aircraft arrived and headed home. What an incredible hop! This was the wildest one I had flown on from a sheer excitement perspective.
We arrived back at the ship with 1,000 pounds of fuel, no room for a victory roll. Ev and Jim returned to KITTY HAWK later on and told us they had just shot down a MiG when we bagged the one behind them. OPS you can be my bait anytime!
Six hours after that, Andy and I, on our way to Saigon flew by COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery plane) to USS Ticonderoga. After a couple of hours aboard this WW II carrier we flew off by COD and finally arrived at Bien Hoa AB outside of Saigon. It was now mid-day and we had not been to bed. We, along with CDR Jim Wilson, Commanding Officer of VF-213 who was the strike leader on Kep, were there for a daily press conference at the Rex Hotel. The event was better known as the “Five O’Clock Follies”. We were driven through downtown Saigon. The streets were lined with sandbags piled six to eight feet high. When the time came we each had our five minutes of fame with the world-wide press corps.
Afterwards we went up to the rooftop bar/restaurant for a drink. We were exhausted and had not slept in a day and a half. It was now dark and in the distance we could see flares being dropped and shortly after hear the bombs going off. When we got back to the BOQ at Bien Hoa, our room was a bunk room in a tent like facility. I started putting up my mosquito net and the army guy in the next bunk says, “Why bother, if you get malaria they send you home.”
