Sunday, May 14, 1972
Navy Aces: 'MIGs Were All Over Place'
by Hal Drake
SAIGON --"In one day, I got to be an ace and was shot down myself. It was quite a day."Why did Lt. Randy Cunningham, a 30-year Navy pilot from San Diego, Calif., tell his story in such a low-keyed off-handed manner? Hard to say. It could have been modesty or perhaps just matter-of-fact professionalism.But on Wednesday, Cunningham and Lt. (J.G.) William Driscoll, his radar intercept officer (RIO) in an F4 Phantom off the carrier Constellation, shot down their third, fourth and fifth MIGs to tally a grand total of five and become the first aerial aces of the Vietnam War.Cunningham and Driscoll, who is 24 and comes from Framingham, Mass., appeared at a press conference Friday with Lt. Matt Connolly and his RIO, Lt. Tom Blonsky. They shot down two MIGs the same day and Navy and Air Force pilots bagged five more. Ten -a disastrous day for the bad guys, the largest number of MIGs lost on any single day of the war.Cunningham related that he and the other three, from Navy Fighter Sq. 96, flew in massive strikes over the Hanoi-Haiphong area to protect A7 Corsairs and found themselves in a swirling tangle of aircraft that reminded him of the recent film, "Von Richthofen and Brown.""If you saw the movie... you know how it was. There were MIGs all over the place. We didn't engage them; they engaged us."Telling of the first kill, Cunningham said he heard the voice of his wingman: "Duke (his nickname). Break port! Two MIGs seven o"clock!" He veered away but kept one MIG in sharp focus, tripping off an air-to-air missile as the attacking plane, like two others to follow, made a fatal mistake."He overshot and I got him." After the first kill fluttered away, Cunningham related, "We wanted to haul our rear ends out of there.: But he glanced over and saw his squadron executive officer, Cmdr. D. D. Timm, menaced by a MIG that was "pouring BBs right over his canopy."Cunningham and Driscoll rolled after the MIG and the enemy craft made a "crude break." Another missile. One more kill.A third MIG flashed into the Phantom's sights. That one, too, tried an inexpert evasive maneuver -one more MIG toppled from the high-altitude battlefield in flames.Cunningham said he felt a mixture of emotions during the battle -first elation as a MIG went down, then stressful urgency as another rolled in. Surface to air missiles streaked around his Phantom, Cunningham related, and one blast violently shook his aircraft."It flew fine for 30 seconds and then started to shake again," Cunningham said, telling how he aimed the crippled Phantom toward the South China Sea and struggled to control the aircraft as it started to break apart and made at least two complete revolutions. About four miles out, said Cunningham, he and Driscoll ejected."You feel mighty small in that 'chute floating down," Cunningham said. "I landed in the water right next to a corpse, which I didn't need at the time. I couldn't tell which uniform or side -he was all bloated and ragged. But it was nice to know you have people above you."Other aircraft swished over Cunningham and Driscoll, flashing down to make low passes over small North Vietnamese boats and one large freighter that were heading toward the downed pair. They did not fire, Cunningham said. A helicopter fluttered in to pick he and Driscoll up and deliver them back to the Constellation."I never knew a chopper could be so beautiful," Cunningham said.Driscoll had little to say, but Cunningham said it was a "team accomplishment," and extolled him as the "first RIO ace in history." They have two previous kills, one on Jan. 18 and another just two days before their last three. Cunningham said he feared going down over enemy territory and becoming a prisoner, but insisted he was "no hero" for staying with the aircraft.Richthofen once said that everything that happens is with God's consent," He referred often to the German World War I ace who shot down 80 allied planes before he himself was killed.Connelly, who is 28, and lives in San Diego, said he and Blonsky were alerted by a call from one of the A7s: "MIGs on my tail! Get "em off!"Connelly's phantom rolled after the two MIGs and one hit by a missile, spun away. Their second kill? "Just picked one out," Connelly said. "They were all over the place."He said shooting down the first MIG was tricky because there was a friendly aircraft ahead as it broke -"kind of like helping a friend in a fist fight. Got to see where you're hitting."As the four came in for the press conference Col. Phillip H. Stevens, MACV chief of information, read Cunningham and Driscoll a message from Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. It read:"To our first aces of the Vietnam conflict, congratulations on your superb professionalism."We are all very proud of this magnificent achievement. The account of your engagement with all those MIGs was indeed a real life thriller. You have made a substantial dent in the enemy's capabilities...""Gee," Cunningham asked Driscoll, "you do all that?"The two exchanged a kind of fighter pilot's dap, arcing their hands in the motion of dogfighting aircraft."Navy Aces: 'MIGs Were All Over Place'" by Hal Drake , published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Sunday, May 14, 1972 and reprinted form European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.