- 11 hours ago
Colonel Robin Olds leads a flight of four F-4 Phantoms mimicking American bombers in the first ware of Operation Bolo, to lure North Vietnamese MiG-21s into a trap. An expert P-38 dog-fighter, Olds reintroduced dogfighting to the 8th fighter wing,
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Short filmTranscript
00:01American F-4 Phantoms streak into North Vietnam.
00:05It's time for revenge.
00:08Enemy MiG fighters have been tearing apart U.S. bombers.
00:14Now, legendary ace Robin Olds has set an intricate trap
00:18to lure the elusive MiGs into one-on-one air combat.
00:24It's the most elaborate sting in aviation history.
00:27Codename Operation Bolo.
00:30Using state-of-the-art computer graphics, you're in the cockpit
00:34as the hard-hitting F-4 Phantom takes on the fierce MiG-21
00:38in the biggest aerial battle the war has yet seen.
00:42A deadly air ambush.
00:45Experience the battle. Dissect the tactics.
00:48Relive the dog fights.
00:59The battle.
01:00The battle.
01:01The battle.
01:02The battle.
01:05The battle.
01:07January 2nd, 1967.
01:10Colonel Robin Olds, veteran fighter pilot and renowned double ace,
01:15leads a flight of four Air Force F-4 Phantoms on a mission over North Vietnam.
01:22For months, North Vietnamese pilots have wreaked havoc on American bombers
01:26with guerrilla hit-and-run tactics.
01:29Now, it's time for revenge.
01:32Olds devises an intricate trap to lure unsuspecting MiGs into a fight.
01:38He disguises his agile fighters to mimic slow and vulnerable bombers.
01:47As the pilots approach the enemy airfields, a thick cloud cover obscures the target area
01:52where they expect to find the MiGs.
01:55I went past the target for a couple of minutes, did a 180 and came back.
02:04Olds circles, hoping the MiGs will take the bait.
02:07I knew they were airborne, but they were underneath us and going the other way.
02:12So I went further past their airfield by time and distance and did another 180.
02:21Suddenly, MiGs emerge through the clouds.
02:24They've taken the bait.
02:26One streaks in on Olds 6 o'clock, directly behind him.
02:34Captain Everett Brasberg, piloting a nearby Phantom, spots the tailing MiG and radios a warning to Olds.
02:40I looked over and I saw a MiG pop up out of the clouds right behind him.
02:45And I called him by a call sign and told him there was a MiG back there.
02:52Olds orders his flight to do a defensive split, breaking into elements of two jets each.
02:57But the MiG sticks to Olds.
03:03Olds and his wingman are here.
03:05The MiG is here.
03:07Olds 3 and 4 man, here, must do something to protect their leader.
03:13Captain Walter Redeker, piloting the number 4 Phantom, acts quickly.
03:18He throttles up into a steep climbing turn called a high yo-yo.
03:25In the high yo-yo, Redeker levels his wings, pulls up and gains altitude.
03:30As he comes over the top, he's inverted, looking down at the MiG.
03:34He turns toward the enemy, staying above and behind.
03:38Then, he dives at the MiG.
03:41The goal?
03:42Come down behind the MiG-21, in position for a missile shot.
03:47He slides in behind the MiG on Olds' tail and fires.
03:56Mortally wounded, the North Vietnamese jet spins out of control and disappears in the low clouds.
04:05One MiG is down, but more burst through the clouds.
04:09The fight is on.
04:10The elaborate sting known as Operation Bolo is quickly growing into the biggest aerial engagement of the Vietnam War.
04:20For months, American aircraft had fallen prey to North Vietnamese SAMs, anti-aircraft artillery and MiG pilots.
04:27Bolo is a chance to even the score.
04:33Two years earlier, on March 2nd, 1965, the United States had kicked off Operation Rolling Thunder.
04:42The objective? Destroy North Vietnamese base and air defenses.
04:46Smash bridges, roads and railways.
04:49Choke the flow of men and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
04:53Get the North to abandon support of the Viet Cong rebels in the South.
04:57But Washington has placed restrictions on the American airmen.
05:02The simple answer to destroying the MiG force was to destroy the bases where the MiGs flew from.
05:07At this time, the airfields were off-limits because killing the Russian advisors at these airfields risked the wider war.
05:14The only way to destroy them then was only after they were in the air.
05:20Even the approach to a target was dictated by Washington.
05:24They had to go down a corridor, so where do you suppose they put all their guns?
05:29I was told that the North Vietnamese possessed more anti-aircraft weapons in a 40-50 mile radius of Hanoi
05:37than Germany had possessed in all of Europe in War II.
05:42So, the opposition from guns, missiles and MiGs was quite impressive.
05:52Losses mounted.
05:54Among the hardest hit were fighter bombers, like the F-105 Thunder Chief, known affectionately as the Thud.
06:00Laden with bombs, the Thud lost its agility and suffered greatly in the face of communist surface-to-air missiles
06:07and fighter pilots.
06:09In July 1966, the North Vietnamese downed 43 American aircraft, the highest monthly loss in over a year.
06:17In that same summer of 1966, the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing lost 22 pilots and 11 aircraft.
06:26The men were frustrated, disheartened and walking away.
06:31Over 1,400 veteran pilots had left the Air Force for the fast-growing commercial aviation sector.
06:39But one commander saw what needed to be done and spoke up.
06:43He was a committed warrior, a double ace.
06:46For years, he had advocated a greater need for aggressive dogfight training.
06:51His name was Robin Olds.
06:55Basically, the people who were training pilots were more concerned about safety in their own rear ends than proper training.
07:05Besides, they didn't know proper training anyway.
07:07Youngsters were taught about all the switches in the cockpit and how to start it and take off and land,
07:12and dropping a few little practice bombs.
07:16None of the new fighter pilots were really trained in dogfighting.
07:22Robin was about results, and if he had to fold, spindle or mutilate some regulations in order to get the
07:30job done, he would do it.
07:32On September 30, 1966, Robin Olds assumed command of the Air Force's 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at Ubon Air Base
07:40in Thailand.
07:42What he brought was rock star charisma coupled in a powerful, dynamic package that in another era would have been
07:50a warrior king.
07:51So, Robin's personality really is what turned around the 8th Fighter Wing.
07:58Colonel Olds will teach the 8th Fighter Wing how to dogfight and get revenge on the MiG-21s.
08:05To teach dogfighting, you have to be a dogfighter, and Olds is a pro.
08:10In teaching the 8th Fighter Wing, he would draw on a vast reservoir of knowledge, learned the hard way decades
08:17earlier.
08:18Robin Olds cut his dogfighting teeth in World War II in the skies over Germany.
08:24August 24, 1944.
08:2722-year-old Captain Robin Olds pilots his P-38 named SCAT-3 over Germany.
08:35His mission? Protect American heavy bombers from Luftwaffe fighters.
08:41Olds' flight of four P-38s is on the far left of three squadrons.
08:46Between them, they cover nearly 20 miles of sky.
08:52On the lookout, Olds spots tiny specks at his 11 o'clock.
08:58I knew what they were. I knew they were enemy, because there was nobody else supposed to be there.
09:04It's a swarm of Messerschmitt NE-109 fighters.
09:10There must have been 55, at least 55 or 60 109s.
09:16Olds' three and four planes report in with engine problems from poor fuel quality and lag behind.
09:22But Olds and his wingman, B.E. Hollister, pull ahead to investigate.
09:27Then, Olds makes an aggressive move.
09:30He firewalls his throttle and races towards the Messerschmitts.
09:34Olds' wingman faithfully keeps up.
09:37Olds is about to do the unthinkable.
09:39His two fighters will take on 50 ME-109s.
09:45But in the right hands, the twin-engine Lightning is up to the task.
09:49The P-38 was a great fighter, fun to fly, with a decent pilot.
09:55You could whip anybody down low.
09:59From its first flight on January 27, 1939,
10:02the Lockheed P-38 Lightning is seen as a radical departure from traditional American fighters of the day.
10:08It boasts twice the power and almost twice the size of its predecessors.
10:13With four .50 caliber machine guns plus a 20mm cannon, the P-38 packs enough firepower to sink a ship.
10:23The Germans dub the new fighter the fork-tailed devil.
10:28The P-38's opponent is the small, nimble Messerschmitt ME-109.
10:32A favorite of the Luftwaffe, over 35,000 are built, more than any fighter in history.
10:39The ME-109 is heavily armed, with two machine guns and a devastating 30mm cannon.
10:46A single hit could shatter Olds' P-38.
10:53The P-38 is faster, can out-turn the ME-109, and is more heavily armed.
10:58But the German fighter has its own advantages.
11:01It's better in a dive.
11:04I could out-turn the 109 at the altitudes at which we flew.
11:09I couldn't dive with him.
11:12If the German aircraft are formidable, so are the men who fly them.
11:16The German Air Force is the most experienced in the world.
11:19Some pilots, in combat since 1937, have hundreds of kills.
11:25They had some superb pilots.
11:27So you never knew what you were going to be up against.
11:30I never got in two battles that were the same.
11:35Olds and his wingman steal even closer, approaching undetected behind the vast German formation.
11:45To reduce drag, the P-38s dropped their heavy, long-range fuel tanks that they needed to fly this far
11:51into Germany.
11:53And I told my wingman, B.E. Hollister,
11:55the tanks, off went the drops, and we kind of barged ahead.
12:01And I lined up on Taylor and Charlie, and they were just about to shoot, and both engines quit.
12:07Startled, Olds realizes that when he dropped his tanks, he forgot to switch over to his internal fuel supply.
12:14So what the hell, I shot anyway.
12:20And to this day, I claim to be the only fighter pilot in the history of aerial warfare
12:25to shoot down an enemy aircraft while in the glide mode.
12:34As that first enemy breaks up and tumbles away,
12:37Olds restarts his engines and presses his attack into the formation.
12:41I know it sounds ridiculous for two guys to attack that many airplanes.
12:46But I ask anyone who's listening, put yourself in one of those German airplanes.
12:54One of your people screams that he's been hit, he's bailing out.
12:59Every man in that huge gaggle would wonder if there was somebody right behind him.
13:05The German pilots scatter in panic.
13:07The P-38s speed into the formation of 50 enemy planes.
13:11Olds' wingman chases after two aircraft.
13:15Olds, in a climbing left turn, pursues another Messerschmitt.
13:20Then I went on into the fight, got another one.
13:23BE got two of them up here with one pass.
13:27And I looked down and there was a P-51.
13:29Where he came from, I have no idea.
13:30The American P-51 Mustang is being chased by two ME 109s.
13:36Olds breaks into a steep, screaming dive to help the outnumbered Mustang.
13:42But in his excitement, Olds dives too fast.
13:49Olds pulls and turns his control yoke.
13:52Scat 3 doesn't respond.
13:54His P-38 plummets out of control, plunging toward the German countryside.
14:04August 23rd, 1943.
14:07Army Air Force Captain Robin Olds dives to help an American P-51 under attack.
14:13But he dives too fast.
14:15The speed built up in his dive has rendered his flight controls useless.
14:20The P-38 is now gripped by an aerodynamic effect known as compressibility.
14:25It was a phenomena only beginning to be understood by aircraft engineers and pilots.
14:31In the dive, Olds P-38 actually approaches the speed of sound.
14:37The air on the leading edge of the wing begins to compress.
14:40As the speed increases, a shock wave develops.
14:44The air flow over the wings and critical control surfaces is disrupted.
14:47The pilot is no longer master of his machine.
14:54When the pilot in P-38 was in a dive with compressibility, the control surfaces were almost useless.
15:00And they could pull and yank at it as hard as they could and get almost no reaction.
15:04It must have been a terrifying experience.
15:07With the loss of control, Olds focuses his attention inside the cockpit.
15:12I saw that P-51 down there and dove without thinking.
15:16So to heck with the Germans.
15:18All I wanted to do was try to recover.
15:20Because many had not been able to do so.
15:23But as he reaches the denser air at lower altitude, the control surfaces start to respond.
15:29He pulls back hard on the P-38's control yoke.
15:33I pulled so many G's that my canopy window broke out.
15:39Which was horrifying noise.
15:40And I know it sounds like an exaggeration, but...
15:44I managed to pull out right above this wheat field near the town of Rostov.
15:51With a shattered canopy, it's time for Olds to call it a day.
15:57Now I want to go home. I've had enough.
16:00But a string of tracer fire past his nose brings him back into the fight.
16:05And there was a 109 shooting at me.
16:08And I quickly turned hard thinking,
16:13This isn't fair. Leave me alone. I'm hurt. All I want to do is go home.
16:17Olds has to make a quick decision.
16:18He can increase power, pull ahead, and hope to outrun the German.
16:23Or he can climb to gain room to maneuver.
16:26But a climb could slow him down and give the enemy an easier shot at him.
16:32Olds is here in front of the German.
16:34Olds goes for the extreme.
16:37He flat planes, pulls on the yoke as hard as he can,
16:41turns hard left, 90 degrees, and shudders into a high speed stall.
16:47It's the air combat equivalent of locking the brakes.
16:55And with a T-force like that, I slowed down rapidly.
17:00He overshot.
17:03I rolled the wings level and he was right in front of me, so I pulled the trigger.
17:10Down he went.
17:19It's Olds' fifth kill. He's officially an ace.
17:24By the end of World War II, Captain Robin Olds tallies 12 kills.
17:30During his days fighting over Europe, Olds learns lessons and tactics taught by his squadron commander,
17:36the legendary Hub Zemke.
17:38Zemke focused the men on the basics, but strongly believed an aggressive spirit was the most valuable asset of a
17:45fighter pilot.
17:49Now, 23 years later in Vietnam, Olds' pilots a jet with speeds three times faster than his P-38,
17:57and with an arsenal that includes high-tech missiles.
18:01His dogfighting skills and leadership will inspire and revitalize the young pilots,
18:07and instill in them the confidence to wrest control of the skies over North Vietnam.
18:15All the guys loved Robin when he got there.
18:18And one reason was, he came in and said, this is the way it is.
18:23I'm the new guy, but I'm gonna give you guys about two weeks, and I'm gonna be better than any
18:29of you.
18:30He pointed to every person in that room.
18:36Olds is a maverick, and does things his way.
18:39He ignores rank and assigns flight leaders by ability.
18:44Things changed for the better. It became a fighter wing.
18:48His pilots are ready for combat, and Olds has picked the target, the Soviet-built MiG-21s.
18:56They're taking their toll on American aircraft, and Olds wants revenge.
19:02But to destroy the MiGs, Olds must fight them in the air, engage them, and kill them.
19:09He devises one of the most ingenious traps in aerial history.
19:14I went to my boss, General Momire, and suggested that the MiGs were getting very frisky, as he knew.
19:20And I had an idea that we could do something about it.
19:24Olds' plan is simple.
19:26Trick the enemy into thinking that his F-4 Phantom fighters are the more vulnerable F-105 Thunder Chiefs.
19:33When bomb-laden F-105s flew over enemy territory,
19:37the MiGs came up and engaged the slower, less agile fighter-bombers.
19:42The North Vietnamese Air Force developed a hit-and-run tactic that's akin to guerrilla tactics,
19:47where the MiG-21s would come in at low altitude, pop up and try and hit the F-105 strike
19:52forces,
19:52but then escape before the F-4s could come down and attack them.
19:57The reluctance of the MiG pilots to engage didn't mean they lacked courage or skill.
20:02The U.S. estimated that the North Vietnamese only had 16 MiG-21s.
20:07They were very careful how they used them.
20:10Robin Olds and his Phantoms, by flying like F-105s, using the same approaches, radio frequencies, call signs and flight
20:19patterns,
20:20hoped to deceive the North Vietnamese radar operators into ordering the MiG-21s to attack the presumably easy prey.
20:27Once in the air, the American fighters would cut down the MiGs.
20:33Olds names the plan Operation Bolo after a lethal Filipino fighting knife.
20:41But Olds needed one more trick to complete the ruse.
20:45The QRC-160 electronic countermeasures pod jammed enemy radars, decreasing the ability of anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air
20:55missiles to find their targets.
20:56The pod was always carried by the thuds, but had never been fitted to an F-4.
21:03So the North Vietnamese, upon catching their signals, would surely think, well, these are F-105s.
21:10It was one more key to the success of Operation Bolo.
21:14So, at a moment's notice, the F-4s were wired to carry a QRC-160 jamming pod and switches installed
21:23in the cockpit to activate them.
21:24And they luckily had this pod to make the Operation Bolo work.
21:31January 2nd, 1967.
21:34Phantoms from Ubon Air Base in Thailand roar off the runway.
21:38Seven flights of four Phantoms each head toward the MiG airfield surrounding Hanoi.
21:44The flights, mimicking the call signs usually given to the F-105s, are named for cars.
21:51The first is Olds, the second is Ford, the third is Rambler, followed by Lincoln, Tempest, Plymouth, and Vespa.
22:00The fighters depart their home base in Thailand in five minute intervals,
22:04to maximize their time to engage MiGs over the target area.
22:10The first Phantoms to reach the target is Olds flight, led by Colonel Robin Olds.
22:17One MiG has already been shot down, knocked out by Olds number four man, Walter Rediker.
22:26But more MiG-21s burst through the cloud layer below.
22:31They realized we were not thuds.
22:33And the lead called out, these are not thuds, they're Phantoms.
22:37What shall we do?
22:39Mass confusion.
22:44The MiG pilots had been trained to follow orders, not react by instinct.
22:49They always had to obey what they were told to do by the ground people.
22:53And the ground people were in a tizzy, they didn't know what to do about it.
22:58The North Vietnamese have taken the bait.
23:02Olds orders his men to attack.
23:04Operation Bolo is about to change the air war in Vietnam.
23:14January 2nd, 1967, Colonel Robin Olds and the other three F-4 Phantoms of his strike group
23:21streak high over the Fukien airfield, emulating a favorite prey of enemy MiGs, the F-105 Thunder Chief.
23:30In an elaborate bait-and-switch sting, their F-4 fighters carry an arsenal of weapons, built for dogfighting.
23:38The radar-guided AIM-7E Sparrow missile can strike targets at over 25 miles away,
23:44while the heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder can accelerate in seconds to a speed of Mach 2.5,
23:50over three times faster than most jets.
23:56With more bandits scrambling from the airfield below, the dogfights are just eating up.
24:02It's time to find out if Olds and his pilots can knock the vaunted MiG-21s out of the sky.
24:08First supplied to North Vietnam from Russia in March 1966,
24:13the nimble MiG-21 was a vast improvement over the MiG-17 in 19.
24:20It had greater speed, higher ceiling, and more advanced weaponry.
24:24It could reach speeds of almost 1,400 miles per hour.
24:28It was armed with a hard-hitting 23-millimeter cannon and two K-13A Atoll heat-seeking missiles.
24:35A Soviet copy of the American AIM Sidewinder.
24:40The MiG-21 at altitude was better than an F-4.
24:44If you could get him down low, and in a churning battle, he loses energy in high-G turns.
24:51So you could battle them down low. Dogfight, if you will.
24:57But up high, forget it.
25:03The MiG's opponent is the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom, which entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy.
25:12The Phantom's two turbojet engines deliver a top speed of nearly 1,500 miles per hour.
25:21It could strike targets out to 1,200 miles without refueling.
25:28Though formidable, it was designed to intercept enemy bombers with missiles, not dogfight.
25:35The weaknesses of the F-4 were it didn't have a gun.
25:40The MiGs were real good at employing their gun.
25:43The MiG is more agile than the Phantom above 20,000 feet.
25:47It's smaller, harder to spot, and has the important advantage of a gun.
25:53But down low, the more powerful Phantom can out-turn the MiG-21.
25:58The F-4 is faster and has a better rate of climb.
26:01It carries a greater number of missiles.
26:05The MiG-21s that rise and strike at the masquerading Phantoms on January 2nd are no easy prey.
26:13The MiG pilots, to their credit, were very aggressive, most of them.
26:18And it was a great opportunity for us to test our skills.
26:23Boldz spots another MiG at 11 o'clock.
26:26He breaks left and zeroes in for an easy kill.
26:31Boldz fires two Sparrow missiles.
26:35But the missiles lose radar lock and tear past the MiG.
26:43Boldz sticks with him and fires a heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder missile.
26:48But the MiG breaks hard, shakes the missile lock, then dives for cover in the clouds.
26:55But as fast as one vanishes, another appears.
27:01Then there was another MiG going 180 degrees to me, fairly close.
27:08So close that I couldn't just make a flat turn and get behind him.
27:12Boldz must accomplish two things.
27:14First, he must reverse his direction and get on the MiG's tail.
27:18Second, he must create enough distance between himself and the MiG to gain a missile lock.
27:25Boldz uses a classic dogfighting maneuver he learned in World War II, the Vector Roll.
27:32I went straight up.
27:36When I got up, up, up, turned over on my back and hung there for a moment or a few
27:42seconds and watched him.
27:44And when the time was right, I rolled to my right.
27:47Now he was down to my left.
27:50So that this roll would take me in a wide, swooping, downward curve.
27:57And I wound up right behind him.
28:02Oldz exploits the Phantom's powerful thrust and soars above the MiG.
28:07To counter the mind-numbing G's, Oldz's G-suit inflates, squeezing his calves, thighs and stomach to keep blood in
28:15his brain and prevent a greyout.
28:20I don't think that MiG saw me, no.
28:23The one that was going opposite my direction.
28:26If he did, he was stupid.
28:29Oldz, now in perfect position, his range only 4,500 feet, arms his Sidewinder.
28:39When I came down behind him, I got a wonderful growl.
28:43The Sidewinder looks at the IR signature of an airplane, the heat, heat waves.
28:48And it speaks to you.
28:51It kind of mumbles, mumbles, mumbles, mumbles, mumbles, mumbles, mumbles.
28:56Then if it sees a good heat source, it goes, mumbles, mumbles, mumbles, mumbles.
29:18The doomed pilot doesn't eject.
29:23Oldz has shot down one MiG, but can't stay for more.
29:27His number 4 Phantom, flown by Captain Redeker, is in trouble.
29:31One of his tanks didn't feed.
29:34I had plenty of fuel, I could have stayed there, but I wanted to get him home.
29:40Oldz streaks out of the combat zone and escorts Redeker to safety.
29:44In less than 5 minutes, Colonel Robin Oldz and his flight have downed 3 MiGs, with no losses.
30:01The second wave of 4 Phantoms, Ford Flight, screams in.
30:07Operation Bolo has suckered the MiGs into a fight.
30:10The deception has done its part.
30:14Now the outcome is in the hands of Oldz pilots.
30:24January 2nd, 1967, over Phukien Airfield near Hanoi.
30:30Ford Flight, the second wave of Operation Bolo, engages the enemy.
30:38Captain Everett Raspberry, an experienced combat instructor, flies Ford 3.
30:43He spots four SA-2 surface-to-air missiles hurtling through the clouds at their 4 o'clock.
30:51The SA-2 has a top speed of Mach 3.5, over 2,660 miles per hour.
30:59This missile can obliterate jets at 60,000 feet.
31:04But the Phantoms are carrying the QRC-160 electronic countermeasures pod.
31:11The pod, originally mounted on the Phantoms to create a more convincing F-105, now gives Raspberry a lucky break.
31:18It jams the enemy radar.
31:21The missiles pass to the rear, below the Phantoms, and don't detonate.
31:28Meanwhile, the MiGs, now realizing they've been suckered into facing swarms of well-armed F-4 Phantoms, are forced into
31:35a fight.
31:38Some of them were more aggressive than others. It was hit and miss. Others seemed to want to hang around
31:44and fight.
31:46And I think that was the kind we were really looking for, because it was hard to catch these guys.
31:52A MiG is closing on Colonel Chappie James, the Ford leader. Raspberry spots him.
31:59I thought he was coming after our lead. He kept closing too close.
32:04So I tried to get the Ford lead to break to the right three or four times and he wouldn't
32:08go, so I got between him and the MiG.
32:13The MiG is coming up from James 4 o'clock.
32:16When James doesn't break right, Raspberry accelerates to intercept the MiG.
32:22The MiG pilot overshoots F-1 and snaps into a high-G left turn to avoid a fight.
32:33Raspberry breaks left behind the MiG, but he's pulling too many Gs on his aircraft in order for his missiles
32:39to function properly.
32:43Raspberry executes a vector roll.
32:47Raspberry pulls out of the vector roll on the MiG-6.
32:51He's 3,500 feet behind the MiG in a left turn, the perfect position to fire a Sidewinder missile.
33:01Raspberry has to make this shot count.
33:03He has just one working Sidewinder.
33:08He closes in on the MiG's tail.
33:11I followed the guy down. He was heading for the clouds.
33:15The MiG, focused on getting into the safety of the clouds, makes a frantic dash.
33:20But just before hitting the low cloud cover, he inexplicably reverses his turn.
33:27It's a fatal mistake. Raspberry now has a perfect shot.
33:32I had the tone in the headset for the missile, which told you it was tracking.
33:37Squeeze the trigger, and it went like a bullet right in the cockpit with him, and then he blew up.
33:50I almost spun in while I was watching him. It was so spectacular.
33:54First time I'd ever shot down a MiG. And so I was excited, to say the least.
34:00Ford Flight has scored a kill, the fourth Volo victory so far, and suffered no losses.
34:08Ford Flight exits the target area as the third wave, Rambler Group, streaks in with missiles ready.
34:15Old's trap is working spectacularly. MiGs fill the skies.
34:21But Rambler Group faces an added danger.
34:24More telephone pole-sized SA-2 sands streak through the clouds.
34:33Rambler is led by Captain John B. Stone, one of the main planners of Operation Volo.
34:39You got your brain, your heart, your gut, and your hand interconnected.
34:45And that's what it takes to pull off the mission.
34:48You're going to be scared. You're going to be nervous. You're going to be sweating.
34:52Your voice is going to go up a few octaves, probably the first time the sands come up.
34:57But that's what gets the ticker going, to make it work.
35:03Stone hears the fight ahead on his radio.
35:06Concerned about attacking friendly fighters beyond visual range, Stone radios Old's to get a fix on his position.
35:14I could hear it all going on, and that's when I'd ask, where are you?
35:20The response was, go find your own.
35:23I thought that was pretty selfish of him at the time, but there's plenty left.
35:30It didn't take Stone long to find his own.
35:34I looked out ahead and I saw two MiGs.
35:37Later I find out there were four. I just saw the two.
35:41They were about my two o'clock position. I was high on them, maybe two to three miles out.
35:50Stone drops his fuel tanks.
35:52Then he and his wingman break right and go into a hard dive, keeping their eyes on the nearest MiG.
36:00I'd holler, go boresight, which trains my radar to look where my pipper and my windscreen is.
36:07In going boresight, the Pipper, visible on the Phantom's windscreen, acts like a gun sight, allowing the pilot to aim
36:15his weapons by eye.
36:18Stone puts the Pipper at the wing root of the trailing MiG.
36:21The radar locks and he fires a Sparrow missile.
36:26But it's a dud.
36:28The Sparrow, designed to follow the Phantom's radar beam to the target, has major reliability problems in Vietnam's tropical weather.
36:38Since the reliability of the Sparrow was in the range of 10% or so, pilots would typically ripple fire
36:44them so that they would hope that one would find its way to the target.
36:50I fired two more times.
36:53The second one went right to the wing root of the MiG-21 and exploded.
37:04And the guy ejected.
37:08Then Stone and his wingman spot two more MiGs, high and above.
37:14They were shiny, bright, shiny silver ones.
37:19So, I turned to avoid those two.
37:23Suddenly, a blur of polished silver shoots between Stone and his wingman.
37:29You know, I just saw it peripherally.
37:31Found out later it was a MiG-21 that came through between my number two and I, and he was
37:37shooting.
37:38I didn't even see this. I was glad. I'm sure it would have scared me to death.
37:42Stone gets an urgent radio call.
37:45I hear this voice. This is Rambler 3.
37:48Say it. It's a MiG on your ass, brake right.
37:52Stone looks to his right and sees nothing.
37:54Then to his left and sees a MiG, 1,200 feet away.
37:59It's 30mm cannons blazing right at him.
38:07Air Force Captain J.B. Stone, one of the masterminds of Operation Bolo, spots an enemy MiG-21 coming up
38:15from behind with cannons blazing.
38:18The tracers were red basketballs about this being, all over my canopy.
38:24Stone breaks hard left to get out of the MiG's crosshairs.
38:31And I hollered, nice expletive and broke into him to defeat this turn.
38:38The MiG, going too fast to match Stone's turn, overshoots.
38:43Stone seizes the advantage, rolls right and reverses his turn.
38:47In the high-G turn, he fights to keep his head up and his eyes on the target.
38:53Stone expects to see the MiG right in front of him.
38:56The MiG's not there. I don't see number two.
39:00So I start another turn and I'm in this hard turn to light the burners.
39:08Stone's lost sight of his wingman and the enemy MiG, a potentially fatal mistake.
39:14He rolls out of the turn and searches the sky.
39:19Then he spots his wingman engaging one of the MiGs.
39:25When I broke this way, he couldn't recover, but he did a high-G barrel roll.
39:32And he saw the ones that I was looking at a few minutes before.
39:38Lawrence Glynn, his wingman, does a perfect barrel roll.
39:41He noses up, rolls right, goes inverted and rolls back down behind the MiG.
39:47The move has widened the distance between Glynn and the MiG, allowing him to gain a missile lock.
39:54Glynn fires a sparrow.
40:07Philip Combees flying Rambler 4 goes after two more MiGs.
40:13Phil Combees had picked up those other two MiGs that I had not seen the first time.
40:19And he had a little engagement with them and he shot down one out of that flight.
40:32Stone finds no targets in sight.
40:35Then SAM missiles rocket up through the low clouds.
40:40I called egress meaning, let's go, let's get the hell out of here.
40:45We got everybody together.
40:47It was time to go.
40:50Rambler flight turns back toward home base in Thailand.
40:54They've engaged six MiGs, obliterating three.
40:59The four remaining Bolo flights arrived too late for action.
41:03The MiGs have cut and run.
41:05The heavy undercast masks their escape.
41:09I found out later that for all the talking with the MiGs and their controllers on the ground,
41:14told them, get in the clouds.
41:16And that's what happened.
41:18All the MiGs went into the clouds and it was all over.
41:23Back at Ubon Air Base, the ground crews eagerly await the Phantom's return.
41:37And those guys on the ground now see the results.
41:41And when the canopies come open and people start holding up one and two fingers indicating MiG kills,
41:47the place erupts.
41:49It's a party.
41:51Olds and his men have won a huge victory.
41:54In just 13 minutes, they down seven MiGs.
42:00Operation Bolo shot down seven MiG-21s, which may not seem very high,
42:04but to put it in perspective, the North Vietnamese Air Force only had about 12 to 16 MiG-21s at
42:10the time.
42:11So they lost about half their MiG-21 force.
42:15It's the highest kill total of any mission in the Vietnam War so far, with no American losses.
42:23But the results reach much wider than the destruction of so many of the enemy's prized MiG-21s.
42:30From the wider perspective of the air war as a whole, it forced the North Vietnamese to pull back, regroup,
42:37kind of scratch their heads and figure what in the world happened today and how do we prevent that from
42:42happening again.
42:44It kind of put a damper on the MiG activities for quite a while.
42:48For quite a while.
42:50But the main thing I think that Bolo did was, it was exhilarating for all fighter pilots that we finally
42:58got to do something.
43:03In this rarely seen interview, shortly after the battle, Colonel Olds sums up Operation Bolo.
43:10Deliberately planned fighter sweep went just as we'd hoped.
43:14The MiGs came up. The MiGs were aggressive. We tangled. They lost.
43:23Olds receives his third silver star.
43:27During his tour in Vietnam, Olds downs three more MiGs.
43:31With a total of 17 kills, 13 in World War II and four in Vietnam, he becomes a triple ace.
43:39One of the greatest commanders and fighter pilots the Air Force has known.
43:45No two engagements, which I really prefer to call them, are the same. Ever.
43:52You think you got it down pat, but it's always something different.
43:56It's always something that will surprise you or demand of you flexibility, innovation.
44:08The training and the teamwork that Olds instilled in his fighter wing turned them into the premier MiG killing outfit
44:15in the Vietnam War.
44:17With a wartime total of 38 aerial kills.
44:22Olds was promoted to Brigadier General in May 1968 and retired from the Air Force in 1973.
44:33Thanks to outspoken combat veterans like Robin Olds, who relentlessly stressed the fundamentals,
44:40the Air Force relearned and mastered the art of the dogfight.
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