Sunday, June 4, 1972
U.S. Fliers Score 8-1 Over Reds
WASHINGTON (AP) --U.S. fighter pilots have scored better than 8 to 1 over North Vietnamese fliers in air combat this year.Pentagon charts list 34 North Vietnamese MIG jet fighters downed in air duels since Jan. 1. Four U.S. planes have been shot down by MIGs.Most of these kills have come since the United States resumed heavy bombing of North Vietnam in April.This record is a turnabout from the late stages of the 1965-68 air war against the North when the fighter score was nearly even and, for a time, North Vietnamese MIGs out-killed American jets.Many of the U.S. planes that attacked North Vietnam in the late 1960s were Air Force F105 Thunderchiefs, so awkward to maneuver when bomb-loaded that they were derided with the nickname "Thud."Veterans of the air war said the F105s often flew northward without escort in those days, and MIGs caught some of them in a virtually helpless position before the F105s could pull out of their bomb runs.Now, however, the F105 is out of the air war except for a small number of Thunderchiefs specially equipped with electronic-warfare gear for use against North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile sites and radar.In the current air campaign against the North, much of the work is being done by agile F4 Phantom jets."U.S. Fliers Score 8-1 Over Reds", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Sunday, June 4, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.