How the US Air Force Beat the Mig-21

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Every good story involves Thunderchiefs and Phantoms. Speaking of Thunderchiefs, theres two F-105 pilots who received the Medal of Honor. Their stories are pretty badass

Correction: Olds did not come up with the BOLO idea. Cherry and Wetterhan came up with the idea and had Olds submit it to command for approval. General Olds was my hero as a kid. I got to meet him at an airshow once. He was a great fighter pilot, but a better human being. Heaven is safer with you flying cover. RIP General. -PhantomF4G

4 days later they set another trap. 2 F-4's flew like RF-4C's and 2 Mig-21's took the bait and both were shot down.

From what I heard in dogfights, this it messed with their ability to operate and now they weren’t sure wether it was F-105's or F-4's waiting in ambush again

a true legendary great warrior one of the best lines to describe him "in a different time and era Robin couldve been a warrior king"

Down in my back due to an injury obtained during a mission. Some good days , some bad , but a good cup of coffee , my meds, and especially TJ dropping a vid just made my day a little brighter. 😊

I have no doubt you'll make an episode of dogfights of May 10, 1972, the biggest day of air combat over Vietnam.

Operation BOLO! I've been so excited to see this one. Appreciate all you do TJ. Stay awesome!

As an aside-ish thing we still had F-105's with the reserve wing here at Hill when I first arrived in 85. I'd always heard the nickname "Thud" came from the sound of the F-105 hitting the ground but figured it was simply a shortened version of the actual name "Thunderchief". I was wrong and the night the last two 105's left for the boneyard I found it was called that. I was at the far end of the runway waiting on the road to access the taxiway to get to a hard pad when they rolled up for take off. First the throttles went to full power with a roar, then the roar deepened as they started to roll. Then there was a huge THUD as they hit the water injection and two spikes of flame climbed almost vertically off the runway. Hell of a memory and hell of a sight.

The F-105 was not some helpless prey. They had a 20mm cannon at a time when the F4 didn't and down low they were an absolute rocket ship. They were responsible for downing several MiGs during the war.

Well this seems more detailed than that episode from “Dogfights”.

every evening i jump into my F-4 on Enigma in DCS and for a few minutes i can barely grasp the immensity of what a stud Robin Olds was !!!

Rolling Thunder was a hedge trimming exercise. By the time a mission made i's way up the chain, got approval in D.C. and made its way back down, the targets were moved or the strike was modified to the point where they were pounding mud. Criminal that he was (I mean Johnson was too) Nixon pulled the stop pins with Linebacker I & II. We went "downtown" on those and brought Hanoi to the table. Olds also got called on the carpet for this operation. They planned it at the wing level and kept D.C. out of it. McNamara was livid. But what could he do? FTR, Robin Olds and Wyatt Earp have styled my mustache for decades.

I'm reading Fighter Pilot: The Memories of Legendary Ace Robin Olds right now. He describes these very tactics when he enters in the Vietnam War. This video is perfect for anyone who's reading the book.

Thanks for continuing to get these awesome historical stories put out - Nice!!!

Robin old is a legend for help turned the tide of the air war over Vietnam great video TJ3. Q:Are you excited to hear the new release of il-2 Korea.

One of the best dogfight videos I've ever seen, and I've watched scores. This had me "at the edge of my seat" the entire vid. Very well done!

Awesomely well made video, hard to believe you had so much material to work with...

Great video. The animation was awesome . I am fortunate to have gotten to meet VN War pilots from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. I always enjoyed their stories.