Notes

In citing works in the notes, short titles have generally been used. Sources frequently cited have been identified by the following abbreviations:

AFMC	Air Force Materiel Command (Dayton, Ohio)
BOE	Boeing Archives (Seattle, Washington)
DTIC	Defense Technical Information Center (Fort Belvoir, Virginia)
FRCSL	Federal Records Center (St. Louis, Missouri)
HRA	USAF Historical Research Agency (Montgomery, Alabama)
NARA	National Archives and Records Administration (College Park, Maryland)
NASM	National Air and Space Museum (Silver Hill, Maryland)
USAFA	USAF Academy (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

Introduction

1. Far East Air Forces, General Order No. 349, Official Credit for Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, 26 July 1951, HRA K720.193; Robert Futrell, The United States Air Force in Korea, 1950–1953 (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1961), 211. Perhaps fittingly, the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing later converted to F-86s and became the second of only two USAF air superiority units in the Korean War.

2. Futrell, The USAF in Korea, 216.

3. General Order No. 190, 29 April 1951; USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft Korean War, USAF Historical Study No. 81, 1975 (hereafter cited as USAF Korean War Victory Credits); and Futrell, USAF in Korea, 215.

4. Malcolm Cagle and Frank Manson, The Sea War in Korea (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute, 1957), 526; Richard Hallion, The Naval Air War in Korea (Baltimore: Nautical and Aviation, 1986), 74–75.

5. Hinton was a World War II veteran who served in the Panama Canal Zone and thus had no combat experience. Therefore, the 4th Fighter Group commander, Lt. Col. J. C. Meyers, detailed Hinton to fly with the 51st Fighter Group to gain some experience and prove himself. Hinton flew ten missions with the F-80 unit. Bruce Hinton to author, 3 July 2002.

6. Lt. Col. C. S. Demonbrun, Director of Intelligence Evaluation, Operational Intelligence, Memorandum for Deputy for Intelligence, sub: “Follow-up on Enemy Aerial Encounter, 17 December 1950,” in Jarred Crabb Journal, frame 0482 USAFA MS-2; “Enemy Air Activity, 17 December 1950,” HRA K730.310-5. The materials cited above provided all the quoted material in this paragraph and served as the basic sources for the information cited.

7. USAF Korean War Victory Credits, 46; Leonid Krylov and Yuriy Tepsurkayev, “Combat Episodes of the Korean War: Three Out of One Thousand,” Mir Aviatsiya, 1-97. Available at www.kimsoft.com/2000/nk-af2.htm. The Russians, who were flying the MiGs in these early battles, claimed to have downed an F-80 on 1 November 1950, although the Americans assert that no Shooting Star was lost in air-to-air combat that day. For their part, the Russians deny that a MiG was lost on 8 November but do admit a loss in combat against the Navy on 9 November.

8. Robert Futrell, William H. Greenhalgh, Carl Grubb, Gerard E. Hasselwander, Robert F. Jakob, and Charles A. Ravenstein, Aces and Aerial Victories: The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia 1965–1973 (Maxwell AFB, Ala.: The Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Center, Air University and Office of Air Force History, Headquarters USAF, 1976), 157; Rene Francillon, Vietnam: The War in the Air (New York: Arch Cape, 1987), 208; Roy A. Grossnick, United States Naval Aviation, 1910–1995 (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, 1997), 767–69. Available at http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/usna1910.htm; and United States Air Force Statistical Digest: Fiscal Year 1953, 20 HRA K134.11-6. During the Korean War the USAF lost 139 aircraft to enemy aircraft and claimed 962 aerial credits. In Vietnam, American air-to-air losses totaled 79 and victory claims, 199.

9. USAF Statistical Digest: Fiscal Year 1953, 20, 28. The F-86 pilots claimed to have destroyed 810 aircraft in air-to-air combat, including 792 of 823 MiG15s claimed destroyed. B-29s were awarded credit for sixteen MiGs; F-94s, one; F-84s, eight; and F-80s, six. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; and Far East Air Forces, Korean Air War Summary: 25 June 1950–27 July 1953, 12 HRA K720.04D-1. This source credits the UN airmen with a total of 841 MiG-15s and a total of 900 aircraft destroyed in air-to-air combat; Malcolm Cagle and Frank Manson, The Sea War in Korea (Anapolis, Md.: Naval Institute, 1957), 526–27. Marine and Navy pilots (aside from those flying exchange tours in F-86s) claimed another ten MiG-15s.

Chapter 1

1. Air Materiel Command, “F-86 Background,” June 1955, 1 AFMC R1-205.6; “The North American F-86 Sabre: Description and Brief History,” AFMC A1 F-86/his; Short History of the Sabrejet; “The F-86 Sabre” AFMC R1-205.6-1; Air Materiel Command, “XF-86 Abstract,” 1–2; and “History of Air Materiel Command,” 1946, vol. 1, 96–97.

2. Air Technical Service Command, Research and Development Projects of the Engineering Division, 7th edition, 1 July 1945, XP-86 Airplane, AFMC; Ray Rice, “The Sabre Story,” Skyline (Feb 1953). The AAF canceled the static article to save money.

3. AMC, “XF-86 Abstract,” 16; Norm Avery, North American Aircraft, 1934–1998, vol. 1 (Santa Ana, Cal.: Narkiewicz/Thompson, 1998), 162–65, 168; Morgan Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” in The Evolution of Aircraft Wing Design, (AIAA Dayton-Cincinnati Section, March 1980), 77. This was the last navy fighter to be armed with 0.50s. North American considered using either .50 or .60 machine guns under development. In late 1946, the Department of Ordnance terminated the .60-caliber program.

4. “XP-86,” revision 15 August 1945 AFMC A1 (X)F-86/char; “NAA F-86 Sabre: Description and Brief History,” 2, 5; Ray Wagner, Mustang Designer: Edgar Schmued and the P-51 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1990), 170.

5. John Anderson, A History of Aerodynamics (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University, 1998), 403, 423; Ray Wagner, The North American Sabre (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963), 13; T. F. Walkowicz, “Birth of Sweepback,” 30–32; Ray Wagner, Mustang Designer (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1990), 170.

6. Walter Boyne, Messerschmitt Me 262: Arrow to the Fume (London: Jane’s, 1980), 25, 107; William Green, Warplanes of the Third Reich (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1979), 592, 597. The Me 262 used the concept to move the center of gravity rearward while the Me 163 used it to deal with stability and yaw-roll problems.

7. Ray Wagner, American Combat Planes (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982), 288–89. In November 1939, the airmen issued a specification for radical pusher-type aircraft. Two of the three aircraft that resulted, the Curtiss XP-55 and Northrop XP-56, featured swept-back wings, although their pusher propellers and lack of a rear horizontal stabilizer were more noticeable. Both flew; both had problems and crashes. (The third was a twin boom, pusher-type with a straight wing, the Vultee XP-54.) None of these aircraft were practical or instrumental in advancing aviation; in brief, they were aeronautical curiosities.

8. Anderson, A History of Aerodynamics, 427–28; Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 77; Col. Carl Green, Materiel Command Liaison Officer NACA to Commanding General, AAF, sub: “Wing Sweep Back and Wing Sweep Forward Pressure Distribution Models,” 20 July 1944, FRCSL 324-57-B-1254 121/182.

9. “[Harrison] Storms Comments Cont’d,” NAA “F-86 History/General Description,” BOE, 11. Also see Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 77–79; Wagner, Mustang Designer, 171; Wagner, North American Sabre, 13. Concurrently, Boeing used German data to modify its XB-47 to a swept-back wing configuration by September 1945. The six-engine jet bomber first flew in December 1947, two and a half months after the first XP-86 flight. Curiously, a contemporary design of the XB-86 and XB-47, North American’s four engine jet bomber, the B-45, first flew in March 1947 with a straight wing.

  10. Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 79, 80–81. Blair’s March 1945 date for this final change is clearly a typographical error. To be precise, the F-86 wing had a 4.79:1 aspect ratio. Duncan Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre (Ramsbury, UK: Crowood, 2004), 9; Wagner, North American Sabre, 14. Later (see below) North American adopted the higher ratio wing. The horizontal tail retained its position (on the line of the top of the rear fuselage) and dihedral. The change increased the fuselage length by 2 feet, reduced the horizontal tail span by 2.5 feet, and increased the tail height 1.3 feet. Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 81, 83. The wing area increased from 255 to 274 square feet. AMC, “XF-86 Abstract,” 7.

  11. Avery, North American Aircraft, 1934–1998, vol. 1. (Santa Ana, Cal.: Narkiewicz/Thompson, 1998), 168–69; Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 78; and Wagner, Mustang Designer, 171.

  12. Rice, “Sabre Story”; Stewart Wilson, F-86 Sabre, MiG-15 ‘Fagot,’ and Hawker Hunter (Weston Creek, Australia: Aerospace, 1995), 10; and Wagner, North American Sabre, 12.

  13. The AAF designation system used “P” for pursuit (fighters). In June 1948, the newly founded USAF (September 1947) changed its aircraft designation system, redesignating pursuit aircraft (“P”) to fighters, and using the prefix “F.” I’ve attempted to use the correct designation for the appropriate time periods but have referred generically to the fighter as the F-86 for simplicity’s sake.

  14. Wagner, North American Sabre, 13. There is a connection between looks and performance. The more streamlined the airframe, usually the better looking and better performing. One notable exception to this rule was the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom.

  15. AMC, “XF-86 Abstract,” 7, 10–11. In October 1945, North American estimated that the top speed of the straight wing version was 582 mph at 10,000 feet while that of the swept-wing version would be 633 mph at 18,500 feet. However, rate of climb and range would be less in the latter. There was concern over the 26-inch wheels, and some consideration given to replacing them with 30-inch tires. But as this would have necessitated a wider fuselage, it was dropped. Instead, Bendix increased the load capacity of the tires and developed a new brake system; AMC, “F-86 Background,” 2.

  16. Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 78–79; Wagner, Mustang Designer, 170; Green, Warplanes of the Third Reich, 534–25, 628, 630–31. Slats were not a new idea; they dated back to the 1923 Hadley Page 21 and were employed on the World War II Me 109.

  17. Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 81; Rice, “Sabre Story.”

  18. Col. Ben Funk, Chief Aircraft and Missiles Section, Procurement Division to Lt. Col. Fleming, sub: “Request for pilots to fly latest configuration of the F-86,” 4 January 1949 item number 7 in F-86 Correspondence, vol. 1 HRA K202.1-57. The removal of the locks and the new slat configuration gave insufficient stall warning. Therefore North American installed a “stick shaker” to warn the pilot of oncoming stall; Flight Operating Instructions, USAF Model P-86A Airplane, 20 Apr 1948, 13 (hereafter cited as Pilot’s Manual [aircraft model], [date]). Pilot’s Manual F-86A-1, -5, 20 January 1949, revised 30 May 1949, 15; and Blair, “Evolution of the F-86,” 84.

  19. Kris Hughes and Walter Dranem, North American F-86 Sabre Jet Day Fighters (North Branch, Minn.: Speciality, 1996), 18.

  20. The nickname came from his appearance on the box of that cereal brand celebrating his Pearl Harbor experience.

  21. The U.S. government awarded fifteen Medals of Honor for action at Pearl Harbor, all to naval personnel.

  22. Al Blackburn, Aces Wild (Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1998), 103–4, 130, 261; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 13; USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, USAF Historical Study No. 85, 1978, 197. (Hereafter cited as USAF World War II Victory Credits.)

  23. Kris Hughes and Walter Dranem, North American F-86 Sabre Jet Day Fighters. (North Branch, Minn.: Speciality, 1996), 18, 20, citing the account of Ed Hockey; Al Blackburn, Aces Wild (Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1998), 144.

  24. North American Aviation, Flight Logs, XP-86: 45-59597 NAA F-86/FJ, BOE.

  25. Hughes and Dranem, North American F-86, 20; AMC, “XF-86 Abstract,” 21. This source states that a rod in the landing gear valve was broken, probably due to retracting the gear at too high an air speed; Wagner, American Combat Planes, 463. Welch was killed in October 1954 test flying an F-100A.

  26. Larry Davis, “North American F-86 Sabre,” Wings of Fame, vol.10, (1998), 42; Hughes and Dranem, North American F-86, 21–22, 25–26; Curtis, North American F-86, 13; and Blackburn, Aces Wild, 220. Two secondary sources, each citing Ed Horkey, have conflicting dates for this flight, which clocked Mach 1.02 and Mach 1.03 in dives. The earlier date is cited by Davis and the later date by Hughes and Dranem.

  27. Davis, “North American F-86 Sabre,” 42; Hughes and Dranem, North American F-86, 22.

  28. Blackburn, Aces Wild, 143–44, 152, 154, 162, 164, 249, and 253. Blackburn quotes Palmer and cites Bob Chilton, Welch’s wife, his brother-in-law, and another test pilot, Bud Poage.

  29. Jerry Scutts, “The Upper Reaches,” in Faster, Further and Higher, Philip Jarrett, ed., (London: Putnam, 2002), 80.

  30. USAF XP-86: 45-59597, 45-59599 BOE. The USAF record cards show it was tested to destruction in September 1952 at Kirtland and dropped from the inventory the following month. The second test plane (serial number 45-59598) first flew in February 1948 and was turned over to the Air Force in May 1950 with almost 96 flying hours on 180 flights. It served at Edwards and Norton Air Force Bases before being transferred to the 6570th Calibration and Ordinance Test Group (ARDC), Phillips Field, Aberdeen Proving Grounds in March 1953. It was dropped from the USAF inventory the next month and picked up by the Army Field Forces. The third test article, serial number 45-59599, first flew in May 1948 and accumulated just over nine hours flying time on fourteen flights before North American turned it over to the USAF, which accepted delivery on 17 December 1948. The third XF-86 had two major accidents, one in February 1949 when Chuck Yeager had a nose wheel problem and another when Maj. Robert Johnson had an engine fire as he taxied in after a flight on 26 June 1950.

  31. North American Aviation, “The North American F-86 Sabre Description and Brief History,” 7 BOE A1 F-86/his [55MCP-31074]; “North American Aviation,” Aircraft, Jet, F-86A, ‘Sabre,’ Fighter, mfr: North American. S/N USAF 47-605 BOE A1 F-86A/his [D52.1/966]; Wagner, Mustang Designer, 173–74.

  32. TWX Commanding General, Far East Air Forces to Headquarters Air Force, Attention Directorate, Maintenance, Supply Services, 19 January 1951, sub: “Operational Deficiencies of the F-84 and F-86 Type Aircraft” in FEAF in History Directorate Procurement and Industrial Planning, 1 July–31 December 1950,” AFMC RI-644.1c. The “V” shaped glass was better for sighting. Eventually the E model changed to a flat glass; AMC, “XF-86 Abstract,” 15, 19. North American considered and tested a light-green tinted cockpit glass to lower temperatures in the cockpit. The scheme was dropped because of reduced visibility at night.

  33. Air Proving Ground Report, “Operational Suitability Test of Open Gun Ports for F-86 Aircraft,” Project No. 24913-5, 31 August 1949, 5, 8 DTIC AD B971411. During earlier tests with the gun doors, pilots reported “excessive ‘cook offs.’” In later Eglin Tests of the open gun port panels, there were 82 “cook offs” on sixty thousand rounds fired, indicating a gun-cooling problem; AMC, “XF-86 Abstract,” 18; APG, Operational Suitability Test of Open Gun Ports, 5, 8; NAA, “North American F-86 Sabre Description and Brief History,” 7; Donald Lopez, Fighter Pilot’s Heaven: Flight Testing the Early Jets (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1995), 210.

  34. North American Aviation, “Improved F-86F,” report No. NA-53-96 DTIC AD 003153. These opened to 50 degrees in two seconds and closed in one second at medium and high engine speeds, and opened in six seconds and closed in three seconds at idle speeds. In 1953, North American proposed to double the area of the side speed brakes and add a third surface beneath the cockpit. It was not adopted. Maurice Allward, F-86 Sabre (London: Allan, 1978), 20; Larry Davis, “SabreJet: XP-86 Swept-wing Development,” Sabre Jet Classics (vol. 5, no. 3), 1997, available at http://sabre-pilots.org/classics/v53sabre.htm; “Sabre: A Study of a Renowned Fighter,” Flight (30 January 1953), 140; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 10; Davis, “North American F-86 Sabre,” 43.

  35. Allward, F-86 Sabre, 22, 24; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 15–18; John Taylor, Michael Taylor, and David Mondey, eds., Air Facts and Feats (New York: Two Continents, 1974), 258–59.

  36. Lindsay Peacock, North American F-86 Sabre (New York: Gallery, 1991), 13. There are some that refer to the fighter as “Sabrejet.”

Chapter 2

1. “The Sabre and the MiG—A Comparison of Ability,” ASTIA Technical Data Digest (April 1952), 6; Robert Futrell, “United States Air Force Operations in the Korean Conflict: 1 November 1950–30 June 1952” (USAF Historical Study No.72, 1 July 1955), 121; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 74; and Marcelle Knaack, Encyclopedia of U.S. Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems, vol. 1, Post–World War II Fighters, 1945–1973 (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1978), 55.

2. Futrell, Historical Study No. 72, 121; Gordon Swanborough and Peter Bowers, United States Military Aircraft since 1908 (London: Putnam, 1971), 426.

3. William Dailey, “War Emergency Thrust Augmentation for the J47 Engine in the F-86 Aircraft,” (August 1956, iii, viii, 1, 13–21, DTIC AD-095757). The Air Force considered two other possibilities: liquid nitrogen injection and overspeed. Liquid nitrogen injection was tested with fourteen static runs. While the scheme showed a 28 percent thrust augmentation, the testers concluded that problems with nitrogen storage and weight of equipment aboard the aircraft made the arrangement impractical; Robert Futrell, “United States Air Force Operations in the Korean Conflict: 1 July 1952–27 July 1953” (USAF Historical Study No. 127, 1 July 1956), 67.

4. Guy Shafer and V. L. Lemon, “Trip Report: Far Eastern Theater of Operations, 27 Apr–28 May [1953],” 14–15 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 12/12. The “rats” were pieces of metal (some sources say steel, others titanium) approximately six to eight inches long inserted into the tailpipe and protruding about one-quarter inch into the exhaust, while “mice” were about three and one-half inches long pieces that also protruded about one-quarter inch into the exhaust. About six to eight rats and one mouse were used. The engine was adjusted to get maximum tailpipe temperature on the ground at 96 to 97 percent power, permitting the F-86s to get 100 percent power up to forty-five thousand feet when the pilot moved the throttle pass the stop; USAF Oral History Interview, Maj. Gen. John Giraudo, 8–12 January 1985, 91-92 HRA K239.0512-1630.

5. WCSWF-1 to WCS, sub: “Weekly Report No. 17,” 3 September 1952, item no. 238 in F-86 Correspondence, vol 3, HRA K202.1-57. Rate of climb increased by 1,800 fpm at altitudes between thirty thousand to forty-five thousand feet, nearly twice that of a standard engine (at military power) at thirty-five thousand feet, nearly triple that at forty thousand feet, and four times as great at forty-five thousand feet. Air speed increased 10 kts at fifteen thousand feet and 15 kts at forty-five thousand feet. There was also an increase of 4 to 8 percent in range; Headquarters USAF to Commanding General, Far East Air Forces, sub: “Projects for Improvement of Performance, F-86E and F-86F Airplanes,” n.d.; appendix 160 in Fifth Air Force History: 1 July–31 December 1952, vol. 3, app. 2, 160 HRA K730.01; William Dailey, “War Emergency Thrust Augmentation for the J47 Engine in the F-86 Aircraft,” AD-095757. Fort Belvoir, Virginia: Defense Technical Information Center, August 1956, 3–12; History of Air Research and Development Command: 1 July 1951–31 December 1952, vol.2, 61 AFMC.

6. Dailey, “War Emergency Thrust Augmentation,” 27, 29, 32; Otha Clark, “Altitude Thrust Augmentation Using Water-Alcohol Injection,” AF Technical Report No. AFFTC 53-8, Mar 1953 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 12/12. The water-alcohol mixture more than doubled rate of climb at forty thousand feet, increased top speed 10 kts at twenty thousand feet and almost 15 kts at forty-five thousand feet; “Projects for Improvement of Performance, 158–59.”

7. Swanborough and Bowers, U.S. Military Aircraft since 1908, 426. GE did some testing on an afterburner for the J47 in February 1948. The F-86D was powered by an afterburning J47-GE-17 engine that boosted its thrust from 5,700 pounds to 7,630 pounds. See Epilogue.

8. Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 70. Speed increased 15 kts at 20,000 and 35,000 feet, and 60 kts at 50,000 feet. Rate of climb increased by a factor of 2 to 3. Ceiling increased to 52,500 feet an increase of 5,000 feet. The cost was 140 pounds for the system (versus 655 pounds for the J47-17 afterburner in the F-86D) and a decrease of 38 nm in range.

9. North American Aviation, Summary Report, F-86F Airplane with Pre-turbine Injection (PTI) Thrust Augmentation, NA-54-664, 7 September 1954, 2 FRCSL 342-66-J-2680 1/3; Dailey, “War Emergency Thrust Augmentation,” 33–34, 43, 45, 47; Donald Wooley and Stuart Childs, “Phase II Performance and Serviceability Tests of the F-86F Airplane USAF No. 51-13506 with Pre-Turbine Modifications,” AF Technical Report No. AFFTC 54-16, June 1954, (DTIC AD 037710), 4, ii, 1, Appendix IV, 4, 6; Maj. Gen. Mark Bradley, Director of Procurement and Production to MCP, sub: “Increased Thrust for F-86F Airplane,” 15 April 1952, no. 203 F-86 Correspondence; and D. C. Runge, Contracts Operation, Aircraft Gas Turbine Division, GE to Commanding General, Air Materiel Command, 3 September 1952, item no. 239 F-86 Correspondence.

  10. Robert Jackson, “Flight Tests of an F-86F with Solid Fuel Rockets for In-Flight Thrust Augmentation,” AF Technical Report No. AFFTC 52-36, 1, 6 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 12/12; “Projects for Improvement of Performance,” 159.

  11. CG FEAF to CG 5AF, teletype message 24 November 1952, appendix 168 in 5AF History: July-December 1952, vol. 3, app. 2, 177; 5AF History: July-December 1952, vol. 1, 196n17; Headquarters Fifth Air Force to Commanding General Far East Air Forces, sub: “In-flight Thrust Augmentation,” 28 December 1952, appendix 169 in 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 3, app. 2, 178–79; Headquarters USAF to Commanding General ARDC, 6 November 1952 in Far East Air Forces History: July-December 1952, vol. 2, item no. 18 HRA K720.01; Headquarters Far East Air Forces to Commanding General Fifth Air Force, sub: “Projects for Improvement of Performance, F-86E and F-86F Airplanes,” 5 August 1952, Appendix 161 in 5AF History: July-December 1952, vol. 3, app. 2, 163–64; Barbara Stahura, ed., The F-86 Sabre Jet and Pilots (Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1997), 25; and Larry Davis, The 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War (Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer, 2001), 122.

  12. Col. D. L. Anderson, Chief Analysis Branch, Weapons Systems Division [WADC] to WCSWF, sub: “F-86F Performance with Rocket,” 21 Apr 1952 item no. 183 in F-86 Correspondence. With one thousand pounds boost the F-86 gained an additional 13 kts; with three thousand pounds, 32 kts; and with five thousand pounds, 46 kts.

  13. Capt. Norris Hanks and 1st Lt. Duane Baker, “Air Force Evaluation of the F-86F with AR 2 Rocket Augmentation,” AFFTC-TR-60-39, October 1960 in History of the Air Force Flight Test Center: 1 July–31 December 1960, vol. 3 HRA K286.69; Capts. Norris Hanks and L. W. Davis, “F-86E Thrust Augmentation Evaluation,” Mar 1957, 1-2 DTIC AD 118703; correspondence from Maj. Gen. Mark Bradley, Director of Procurement and Production [WADC] to MCF, sub: “Increased Thrust for F-86F Airplane,” 15 April 1952 item no. 203 in F-86 Correspondence.

  14. Robert Shaw, Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute, 1985), 6. These were improved guns. The M2 .50-caliber, which became operational in 1933, had a rate of fire of eight hundred shots per minute and a muzzle velocity of 2,810 feet per second. The M3 .50-caliber machine gun became operational in 1947 and had a rate of fire of 1,200 spm and a muzzle velocity of 2,840 fps. According to one authority, this gave it a lethality (weight of projectile × rate of fire × muzzle velocity squared) that was 50 percent greater.

  15. George Davis downed four on 13 December, one MiG and three prop-driven Tu-2s. Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, USAF Historical Study, No. 85, 1978 (hereafter cited as USAF World War II Victory Credits); Far East Air Forces, General Orders. I compared the multiple credits of the eight hundred Korean War victory claims with the first eight hundred AAF World War II victory credits (7 December 1941–28 January 1943) and last eight hundred (7 April 1945–14 August 1945). There were forty-six instances of two credits on one sortie in Korea, while the first World War II sample revealed ninety double credits (plus fifteen more with three and four credits), and the last World War II sample with sixty-eight doubles and an additional eighteen with three, four, and five credits. This 16,000-credit sample represented 10 percent of the 15,800 AAF World War II air-to-air fighter credits. Statistical Summary of Eighth Air Force Operations, European Theater: 17 Aug 1942–8 May 1945, 23 HRA 520.308A; The Statistical Story of the Fifteenth Air Force, 8 HRA 670.308D; “Korean Air War Summary: June 1950–27 July 1953,” 13 HRA K720.04D-1; USAF World War II Victory Credits.

  16. Yefim Gordon and Vladimir Rigmant, MiG-15: Design, Development, and Korean War Combat History (Osceola, Wisc.: Motorbooks, 1993), 136.

  17. Ralph Wetterhahn, “The Russians of MiG Alley,” Retired Officer (August 2000), 71; Squadron Leader W. Harbison, “A Critique on the F-86E versus the MiG-15 Aircraft in the Korean Theater,” February–May 1952, 21; Harrison Thyng, End of Tour Report, 1952, 7 HRA K720.131.

  18. “The Relationship Between Sortie Ratios and Loss Rates for Air-to-Air Battle Engagements During World War II and Korea,” Saber Measures (Charlie), September 1970, 9 HRA 143.044-42; Harbison, “Critique on the F-86E,” 22; Thyng, End of Tour Report, 7.

  19. Bruce Hinton and Elmer Wingo, “An Analysis of Operations at Kimpo Air Base: Performed by Detachment ‘A’ 336th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group” [15 December 1950–2 January 1951], 27 HRA K-Sq-Fi-336-Hi (Kimpo) Det A (December 1950–January 1951); Central Fighter Establishment, Tactical Trials: F-86A-5, Report No. 173, Trial No. 103, May 1951, 20.

  20. Jack Lind, “Analysis of F-86 Fighter Encounters with MiG-15s in Korea: March through June 1951,” Operations Analysis Office Memo No. 47, 21 HRA K720.301-47.

  21. Brig. Gen. Jarred Crabb Journal, 8 January 1951 and 13 March 1951, frames 0594,0700 USAFA MS-2; Col. Gordon Gould, Chief, Armament Laboratory, Directorate of Laboratories to WCOWF-1, sub: “T-130/T-160 Guns,” 21 January 1953 item no. 303 in F-86 Correspondence.

  22. W. T. G., “Guns for Fighters,” Flight (28 January 1955), 108–10.

  23. Shaw, Fighter Combat, 6. Shaw states that the M39 (the gun’s later designation) had a lethality (rate of fire × projectile weight × muzzle velocity square) about 3.8 times that of the M3. Adjusting for the number of guns (six .50s versus four 20-mm) yields a factor of 2.5; USAF, “Interim Gun-Val Study: An Analysis of Available Data on Selected Aircraft Weapons,” 15 April 1952, 2a DTIC 007221. Shaw’s figures differ from those of the USAF documents. Using Shaw’s formula and the USAF figures, the difference between the two configurations is about 3.3.

  24. Walter Boyne, Aces in Command: Pilots As Combat Leader (Dulles, Va.: Brassey’s, 2001), 126. Firing the 0.50s slowed the F-86 by 3 or more kts.

  25. Commanding General Far East Air Forces to Headquarters USAF, 20 Nov 1952 in FEAF History, July-December 1952, vol. 2; Commanding General Far East Air Forces to Headquarters USAF, 13 November 1952 in FEAF History: July-December 1952, vol. 2. This study states the weight penalty at five hundred pounds translating to a decrease of one thousand feet in ceiling, 140 fpm in rate of climb at thirty-five thousand feet and increasing radius of turn by three hundred feet; Army Biological Labs, “Combat Suitability Test of F-86F-2 Aircraft with T-160 Guns,” August 1953, 7, 11, 12, DTIC AD 019725; USAF, Interim Gun-Val Study, 2a; and Headquarters Air Proving Ground Command, “Final Report on Combat Suitability Test of F-86F-2 Aircraft with T-160 Guns,” Project No. APG/ADA/43-F-1, 11 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 10/12.

  26. Maj. Gen. Patrick Timberlake, letter 29 April 1954 in Air Proving Ground Command, Final Report, Project No. APG/ADA/43-A-1, sub: “Operational Suitability Test of T-160 20mm Gun Installation in F-86F-1 Aircraft,” 29 April 1954 DTIC AD 031528.

  27. “Cannon-Armed F-86Fs,” available at http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/p86_25.html; Commanding General Far East Air Forces to Commanding General Fifth Air Force, appendix 180 in 5AF History: July-December 1952, vol. 3, app 2, 199; Hughes and Dranem, North American F-86 Sabre Jet, 82; and Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 85.

  28. Army Biological Labs, “Combat Suitability Test,” 9, 49–50, 111–12, 179–258; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; USAF World War II Victory Credits. All had earned their wings during World War II, the most junior in November 1944.

  29. Army Biological Labs, “Combat Suitability Test,” 12, 111–12; 4FG History, May 1951–January 1952, July–December 1952. During the period May 1951 through January 1952, and July 1952 through June 1953, the Fourth Fighter Group expended almost 2.5 million rounds and suffered 422 malfunctions; 4FW History, January–June 1953.

  30. Army Biological Labs, “Combat Suitability Test,” 13; Lori Tagg, On the Front Line of R & D: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the Korean War, 1950–1953 (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio: History Office, Aeronautical Systems Center, 2001), 54.

  31. Tagg, On the Front Line of R & D, 54; “Cannon Armed F-86Fs.”

  32. Air Proving Ground Command, “Final Report: Operational Suitability Test of the T-160 20-mm Gun Installation in F-86F-2 Aircraft,” 29 April 1954 DTIC AD 031528; Maj. Gen. Patrick Timberlake, Commander Air Proving Ground Command, “Combat Suitability Test of F-86F-2 Aircraft with T-160 Guns,” Project No. APG/ADA/43-F-1 in Army Biological Labs, “Combat Suitability Test.”

  33. Headquarters Air Proving Ground Command, Termination Report on the Operational Suitability Test of the T-130 Caliber .60 Gun Installation in the F-86F-2 Aircraft, Project No. APG/ADA/43-A-4, 2 September 1954, 4–7 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 12/12. Two other guns tested in the F-86 should be mentioned. Two F-86F-2s were armed with four 0.60-caliber T-130 guns. The .60-caliber had the same rate of fire and carried the same number of rounds of ammunition as did the T-160 but did have an 8 percent higher muzzle velocity. While its accuracy was comparable to the T-160, it had unacceptable reliability, short barrel life (136 rounds per barrel), and defective gun gas seals; Air Force Armament Center, Air Research and Development Command, “Evaluation of Aircraft Armament Installation (F-86F with 206RK Guns) Operation Gun-Val,” February 1955, iv, 1, 21 HRA K243.805-103. The Air Force also tested 20-mm Oerlikon 206 RK guns that claimed to have a higher rate of fire and muzzle velocity than the T-160. In Air Force tests they demonstrated poor reliability (considered marginally satisfactory), accuracy, and barrel life (250 rounds per barrel).

  34. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 37–38; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 56, 69, 74, 79. The F-86B design used the wing and tail of the “A” model with a deeper fuselage, different engine, and larger tires. It was never built. The F-86C was intended to be a long-range escort fighter. It later was known as the YC-93A, a design with side air intakes and a different engine. North American built and flew two of these, but the Air Force canceled the June 1948 production order for 118. The F-86D is discussed in the Epilogue.

  35. The slats now closed at 180 kts and opened at 115 kts and only operated below Mach .65. Pilot’s Manual F-86A-1, -5, 30 January 1949, revised 30 May 1949, 15–16. Pilot’s Manual F-86A, 30 June 1950, 1, 11, 39, 42, 77; Standard Aircraft Characteristics: F-86A Sabre North American, 27 April 54, 3 HRA K243.861-1 1949–56 vol. 5; North American Aviation, Air Force Fighter Airplane Projects Chart, May 1953 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 11/12; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 54–55.

  36. NAA Air Force Fighter Airplane Projects Chart; Pilot’s Manual P-86A, April 1948, 6; Pilot’s Manual F-86E, October 1950–March 1951, 2, 13, 17; Air Materiel Command, “Summary of F-86E Flying Tail Investigation,” 22 March 1951, 7 AFMC; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 61–62; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 56–57, 59. The A model had a normal and emergency hydraulic system; the E had four separate hydraulic systems, one for the flight controls, another for the rest of the hydraulic systems, and a separate backup for each system.

  37. Directorate, Procurement and Industrial Planning: January–June 1951, Aircraft Section R1-645.1a AFMC; Lt. Gen. K. B. Wolfe to Commanding General Air Materiel Command, sub: “Configuration of the F-86F,” 28 May 1951, enclosure no. 6, ibid; NAA, Air Force Fighter Airplane Projects Chart; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 72; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 61.

  38. Col. Victor Hauger, Chief, Weapons Systems Division, Deputy for Operations to Commanding General, Air Research and Development Command, sub: “Extended Wing Leading-Edge for F-86E and F Aircraft,” 18 September 1952, item no. 250 in F-86 Correspondence; Tagg, On the Front Line of R & D, 37; Robert Jackson, F-86 Sabre (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1994), 36; Wagner, North American Sabre, 57–58; R. H. Rice, Vice President and Chief Engineer, North American Aviation to Commanding General, Air Materiel Command, sub: “Contract AF-6517, F-86F Airplanes Wing Leading Edge—Installation 6-3 Extension MCR 191-52-1, ECP NA-F86F-69,” 9 July 1952, item no. 214 in F-86 Correspondence; Harry Guett, Chief Full-Scale and Flight Research Division, Memo for Director, sub: “Visit of Lt. Col. J. W. Lillard of WADC on April 21, 1954,” 22 April 1954, item no. 496 in F-86 Correspondence; Futrell, Historical Study No. 127, 68; William Coughlin, “F-86 ‘Gimmick’: Improved Wing,” Aviation Week (7 September 1953), 15–16.

  39. Col. D. D. McKee, Acting Chief, Aircraft Laboratory, Directorate of Laboratories to WCSWF, sub: “Extended Wing Leading Edge Installation on F-86 Aircraft,” 15 September 1952, item no. 247 in F-86 Correspondence. Although the 51st Group pilots didn’t report adverse handling problems, early on the USAF noted yaw when the aircraft approached the stall (not present with the slatted wing), poor stall warning, and more severe roll-off at the stall; North American Aviation, Development of the F-86F Extended Leading Edge Wing Slats, Report no. NA-54-658, 21 June 1954, fig. 2 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 10/12. Later, both North American and USAF tests concluded that in stalls, the solid 6 × 3 wing had unsatisfactory yaw and roll-off. This encouraged the Air Force to investigate putting slats on the 6 × 3 wing; Air Force Flight Test Center, AF Technical Report No. AFFTC 54-10, “Phase IV Performance Tests of the F-86F Airplane, USAF No. 52-4349,” May 1954, 2 FRCSL 342-66-H-2680 5/8; Maj. R. E. Grote to Commanding General Fifth Air Force (Forward), sub: “Report on Modified Aircraft,” 28 August 1952 Appendix 164, 171 5AF History: July-December 1952, vol. 3, app 2.

  40. Futrell, Historical Study No. 127, 68; Lt. Col. Benjamin Long, Commander 51st Fighter Interceptor Group to Commanding Officer 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, sub: “Extended Leading Edge Modification on F-86 Aircraft,” 24 August 1952 Appendix 163, 5AF History: July-December 1952, vol. 3, appendix 2; Wagner, North American Sabre, 58.

  41. Attachment to correspondence of Col. Victor Haugen to Commanding General Air Research and Development Command, sub: “Extended Wing Leading-Edge for F-86E and F Aircraft,” 18 September 1952 item no. 250 in F-86 Correspondence. The first 50 cost $4,000 each; at the 250-piece mark, the price had fallen to $3,000.

  42. Futrell, Historical Study No. 127, 68. North American looked into using the extended leading edge to carry 120 gallons of fuel, fitting the extended leading edge with slats, extending the wingspan by a foot, and using an inflatable rubber boot on the leading edge. None of these saw action in Korea although all four were being investigated as late as February 1955. Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 62; Projects for the Improvement of Performance, 158; Col. H. A. Boushey, Assistant Director of Weapon Systems Operations to Commander, Headquarters Air Materiel Command, 27 September 1954, item no. 554 in F-86 Correspondence; Col. Charles Allen, Chief, Fighter Aircraft Division to Commander Air Research and Development Command, sub: “Wing Configurations, F-86F Aircraft,” February 1955 item no. 597 in F-86 Correspondence.

  43. Hauger to CG ARDC, 18 September 1952 item no. 250 in F-86 Correspondence; AFFTC Technical Report No. AFFTC 54-10, May 1954. After the war the USAF tested a wing with a two foot longer wingspan (that increased wing area from 302 square feet to 313 square feet) with slats that further improved performance for both high performance and takeoff and landing phases. The latter scheme was incorporated in the F-86F-40; Avery, North American Aircraft 1934-1998, 182; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 83.

  44. Joint Commission Support Branch, Research and Analysis Division, DPMO, “The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union,” 26 August 1993, 10, available at www.aiipowmia.com/reports/trnsfr.html. Gen. Georgii Lobov, the initial commander of Soviet MiG units committed in the Korean War, writes, “We wanted the F-86 gun sight at all costs.”

  45. R. Wallace Clarke, “Armament Diversifies,” in Aircraft of the Second World War: The Development of the Warplane 1939–45, Philip Jarrett, ed. (London: Putnam, 1997), 201–5; Alfred Price, World War II Fighter Conflict (London: Macdonald’s and Jane’s, 1975), 89–93.

  46. “New Computing Sights Vastly Improve Aerial Gunnery,” Impact (June 1945), 44–45; Price, World War II Fighter Conflict, 92–94.

  47. Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany 1939–1945, vol. 3, Victory (London: HMSO, 1961), 147n2; Kenneth Werrell, Blankets of Fire: U.S. Bombers over Japan during World War II (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1996), 199–200.

  48. Lopez, Fighter Pilot’s Heaven, 104–7.

  49. History 4th Fighter Interceptor Group: February, March, April 1951, 7 HRA K-Gp-4-Hi. For other problems of the Mk 18 sight, see Futrell, Historical Study no. 72, 119; Commanding General, Far East Air Forces to Headquarters USAF, Attention Directorate, Maintenance, Supply and Services, sub: “Operational Deficiencies of the F-84 and F-86 type Aircraft in FEAF,” 19 January 1951 in Directorate, Procurement and Industrial Planning: 1 July–31 December 1950 AFMC R1-644.1c; History 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, June 1951, 2 HRA K-Wg-Hi; Pilot’s Manual, F-86A-1, -5, January 1949, rev. May 1949, 48 NASM.

  50. Central Fighter Establishment, Report No. 173, Trial No. 103. Tactical Trials, F.86A-5, May 1951, 12. Meanwhile the RAF flatly stated that the Mk 18 fitted to the F-86A was unsatisfactory.

  51. Directorate, Procurement and Industrial Planning, Aircraft Section: January-June 1951 AFMC R1-645.1a; 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing to Commanding General Eastern Air Defense Force, sub: “Operations of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing in Korea,” 11 June 1951, 2, in 4th Fighter Wing History, June 1951; John Wester, “The Pattern of Operations in Korea” in Institute for Air Weapons Research, F-86 vs. MiG-15: A Digest of the Briefing on the Analysis of the Korean Air War,” 19 May 1954, AUL M34822-14a.

  52. Cover letter from Gen Patrick Timberlake, and “Relative Combat Effectiveness of J-2 and K-14,” 4, both in Air Proving Command, Final Report Project No. APG/ADB/59-A, sub: “Accelerated Comparison Test of K-14 Sight and J-2 Fire Control System in F-86E for Fighter to Fighter Combat,” 26 September 1952 DTIC AD004359; 4th Fighter Interceptor Group, “Operations in MiG Alley, F-86E versus MiG-15 in Korea,” 20 HRA K-Wg-4-Hi January 52.

  53. Futrell, Historical Study no. 72, 119; “Report on Evaluation of K-14 and J-2 Sighting Systems by the Project Test Team,” 1 in APGC, Accelerated Comparison K-14 and J-2; Far East Air Forces, FEAF Report on Korea, draft 15 February 1954, book 2/3, 18, 37, 40 HRA K720.04d; Far East Air Forces, “The Fight for Air Superiority,” FEAF Report on the Korean War, vol. 1, 7 HRA 168.7104-53; 4FW “Operations in MiG Alley,” 20.

  54. Air Materiel Command History, January–June 1952, vol. 1, 205-07 AFMC; FEAF draft Report on the Korean War, book 2/3, 37; Wester, “Pattern of Operations in Korea,” 2; Tagg, On the Front Line of R & D, 35.

  55. FEAF draft Report on the Korean War, book 2/3, 38; Historical Summary of the Directorate of Requirements, Deputy Chief of Staff, Development for the period 1 January 1952 to 30 June 1952, 59, 60 HRA K140.01, July 51–June 52, vol. 3, part 2.

  56. Fifth Air Force History: January–June 1952, 212–13 HRA K730.01.

  57. The 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, “Monthly Analysis for October” in Fifth Air Force Wings, Monthly Analyses, October 1952 HRA K730.310A; 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 1, 201–2; Pilot’s Manual F-86[F], March 1952, 58; Pilot’s Manual F-86[F], February 1953, 95; “Report on Evaluation of K-14 and J-2,” 3.

  58. Headquarters Fifth Air Force to Commanding General Far East Air Forces, sub: “Evaluation of the A1CM Gun Sight,” 23 July 1952, Appendix 170, 180–83 in 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 3, app. 2. The five pilots were Felix Asla (four credits by the end of the war), Clifford Jolley (seven credits) and James Low (nine credits) of the 4th, and Elmer Harris (six credits) and William Wescott (five credits) from the 51st; FEAF Report on Korea, draft, book 2/3, 39–41; CG FEAF to CG AF FIVE, Personal from Smart to Barcus, 10 September 1952, Appendix 171, 184 in 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 3, app. 2.

  59. Smart to Barcus, 10 September 1952.

  60. “Day Fighter Aircraft Development Program,” chap. 25 in History Air Research and Development Command, 1953, vol.1, 494 AFMC.

  61. Bruce Hinton to author, 18 May 2002; Sam Jackson interview with author, 9 February 2002; Smart to Barcus, 10 September 1952; FEAF draft Report on the Korean War, book 2/3, 39.

  62. The testers used the J-2 system, consisting of the A-4 gunsight with the APG-30 radar, as the J-1 system with the A-1CM was out of production, replaced by the J-2. “Report on the Evaluation of the K-14 and J-2,” 1.

  63. Accelerated Comparison K-14 and J-2, “Report on Evaluation of K-14 and J-2,” 1; “Relative Combat Effectiveness,” 2, 12. The two APGC pilots were Johnston and Green, who respectively flew twenty-two and thirty passes. Francis Gabreski (6.5 Korean and 28 World War II credits) flew forty passes; James Jabara (15 and 1.5), forty-eight; John Meyer (2 and 24), thirty-eight; and William Whisner (5.5 and 15.5), thirteen. James Kasler (6) and Iven Kincheloe (5) were not involved in the flying phase.

  64. “Report on the Evaluation of the K-14 and J-2,” 3.

  65. “Report on the Evaluation of the K-14 and J-2,” 1. The J-1 fire control system consisted of the A-1CM gunsight and the APG-30 radar and the J-2 the newer A-4 sight and the APG-30.

  66. “Report on the Evaluation of the K-14 and J-2,” 5–7.

  67. “Report on the Evaluation of the K-14 and J-2,” 6–8. The six Korean War veterans signed the report that was based primarily on their opinions; Timberlake cover letter. Neither of the two APGC pilots signed the report, although one (Johnston) wrote comments consistent with the others.

  68. Table 4, “Relative Combat Effectiveness of J-2 and K-14,” 12. The project used 198 of the 307 APGC passes (or bursts) and 449 of the 616 Korean War bursts.

  69. “Relative Combat Effectiveness of J-2 and K-14,” 4.

  70. Ibid., 1–2, 5–6, 8, 15–16.

  71. Timberlake cover letter.

  72. Headquarters Fifth Air Force to Commanding General Far East Air Forces, sub: “A1CM Gunsight,” 17 September 1952 Appendix 172, 185 in 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 3, app. 2. Neither the new commander of the 25th fighter Squadron, Maj. Lewis Andre, nor the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing Gunsight Maintenance Officer, 1st Lt. Warren Morgan, had flown any missions. The other seven included Royal Baker (13 credits by the end of the Korean War and 3.5 World War II victories), Frederick Blesse (10 credits), Elmer Harris (6 credits), Francis Humphreys (3 credits), Clifford Jolley (7 credits), Albert Kelly (2.5 credits), and Harrison Thyng (5 and 5 credits). Both Harris and Jolley had participated in the July Fifth Air Force response on the A-1CM.

  73. Cecil Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass: Memoirs of a Korean War Ace (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2001), 46. Four pilots who contributed to the July 1952 FEAF report had both training with the sight and more positive views of its value. First Lt. James Low (nine credits) had stateside training with the sight and expressed his “complete satisfaction” with the A-1CM gunsight. Capt. Clifford Jolley (seven credits), who had taken an instructor’s course at Nellis AFB and was also somewhat familiar with the gunsight, although the radar ranging device was relatively new to him, was also more positive about the sight than the other aces who assessed the gunsight. Two other aces Maj. Elmer Harris (six credits) and Capt. Cecil Foster (nine credits) also had stateside training with the sight; APGC, “Evaluation of the A1CM Gun Sight,” 181–83; Air Proving Ground Command, “Operational Suitability Test of the A-4 G.B.R. Sight with AN/APG-30 Radar Ranging in the F-86E Aircraft,” Project No. APG/ADB/18-A-1, 23 October 1952, 10 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 10/12. An October 1952 report asserted that pilots without stateside training with the A-1CM sight would require ten to fifteen missions “before consistent scoring can be accomplished”; and Smart to Barcus, 10 September 1952.

  74. “A1CM Gunsight,” 17 September 1952.

  75. Royal Baker, “Report on F-86 Operations in Korea,” 1 April 1953, 6 HRA K-Gp-Su-Op; Air Proving Ground Command, “Final Report on Combat Suitability Test of F-86F-2 Aircraft with T-160 Guns,” Project No. APG/ADA/43-F-1, 3 August 1953, 13 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 10/12; John Wester, “Effectiveness of the Gunsight,” 67 in Institute for Air Weapons Research, “F-86 vs. MiG-15.”

  76. USAF Oral History Interview, Gen. John Meyer, July 1975, 5 HRA K239.0512-894; Wester, “Effectiveness of the Gunsight,” 68; Allen Butterworth, “Operational Interpretation,” 19 in Institute for Air Weapons Research, “F-86 vs. MiG-15.”

Chapter 3

1. Statistical Summary of Eighth Air Force Operations, European Theater, 17 August 1942–8 May 1945 HRA 520.308A. During this same period (January 1951 through June 1953) the F-80 averaged a 59.5 percent in-commission rate, and the F-84, 58.4 percent. The F-51 had a 50.7 percent in-commission rate from July 1950 through the end of 1952, after which the average number of F-51s fell below one hundred. Fighters in the Eighth Air Force in World War II had an in-commission rate of 65 percent; Far East Air Forces, Korean Air War Summary HRA K720.04D-1, 38, 41–42.

2. Walker Mahurin, Honest John: The Autobiography of Walker M. Mahurin (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1962), 76–77.

3. Fifth Air Force Wings, Monthly Analyses [for these months] HRA K730.310A. The 4th averaged an 80.7 percent in-commission rate, the 51st, 76.8 percent.

4. Mahurin, Honest John, 78–79. The overall figures for ten months were AOCP rates of 5.8 percent for the Fourth and 5.1 percent for the Fifty-first. 5AF Wing, Monthly Analyses [1952–53]; History of 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing: January through June 1953, 18–19 HRA K-Wg-4-Hi.

5. History of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group, May 1951–January 1952 HRA; 4FWg History July–December 1952, HRA; 4FWg History, January–December 1953. This data is drawn from the 4th Wing and Group histories. Unfortunately, four full months and four half months of data are unavailable of the thirty-two months the F-86 was in combat. At the wing/group level we only have figures for combat versus test firings for May and June 1952, during which 44 percent of the ammunition was fired in combat.

6. Statement, Capt. Max S. Weill in CO, 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing to Directorate of Flight Safety Research, Office of the Deputy Inspector General for Technical Inspection and Flight Safety, et al., 15 June 1951, 2 HRA (hereafter cited as Weill Accident Report, 20 May 1951). Accident reports hereafter cited as [name] Accident Report, [date].

7. Weill Accident Report, 20 May 1951, 2; Unsatisfactory Report, 4th Fighter Interceptor Group, sub: “01M Tube assy Gun Barrel Blast,” 21 May 1951 in Weill Accident Report, 20 May 1951; CO, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing to Directorate of Flight Safety Research, Office of the Deputy Inspector General for Technical Inspection and Flight Safety, et al., 15 June 1951, 1–3, Nelson Accident Report, 20 May 1951 HRA.

8. UR, 21 May 1951 in Weill Accident Report, 20 May 1951; CO, 4th Ftr-Intep Wing to Directorate of Flight Safety Research, Office of the Deputy Inspector General for Technical Inspection and Flight Safety Research, et al., 15 June 1951, 1–3, Nelson Accident Report, 20 May 1951 and Capt. James O. Roberts statement therein.

9. Weill Accident Report, 20 May 1951, 2–4.

  10. 4FG History, January 1951; 4FG History: February–April 1951, 6–7; Management Analysis Study of Air and Ground Aborts of F-86 Aircraft Assigned to Units of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing during the Period 1 April 1952 through 30 June 1952 in 5AF Monthly Analyses, July 1952; 336th Fighter Squadron History: July–December 1952, 104–5 in 4FW History: July–December 1952; 334th Fighter Squadron History, March and April 1952 HRA K-Sq-Fi-334-Hi; 4FGp History: July–September 1951.

  11. Management Analysis Study of 4FW F-86 Aborts.

  12. The French apparently were the first to use a droppable tank. They fitted their Breguet bomber with both a fixed and a droppable tank. The former was well protected, and the latter could be dropped in case of fire.

  13. Oscar Westover, later chief of the Air Corps, quoted in Wesley Craven and James Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. 1, Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1948), 65. Hap Arnold, later chief of the Army Air Forces, shared this view in the early 1930s. Bernard Boylan, “The Development of the American Long Range Escort Fighter,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Missouri, 1955, 17, 54, 57–61.

  14. Swanborough and Bowers, U.S. Military Aircraft since 1908, 537. The 18,000-pound aircraft had a five-man crew and first flew in September 1937. Bell built a dozen of these exotic aircraft; see Bernard Boylan, The Development of the Long-Range Escort Fighter, reprint of USAF Historical Studies No. 136 (Manhattan, Kan.: Sunflower University Press, 1955), for other evidence of the airmen’s interest in multi-place aircraft for escort duties.

  15. Boylan, Development of the American Long Range Escort Fighter, 66–70.

  16. Eighth Air Force, “Tactical Development: August 1942–May 1945,” 97 HRA; See Boylan, Development of the American Long-Range Escort Fighter, chap 3; Roger Freeman, Mighty Eighth War Manual (London: Jane’s, 1984), 218–21; and Kenneth Werrell, “The Tactical Development of the Eighth Air Force in World War II,” Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1969, 116, for other figures; Elke Weal, John Weal, and Richard Barker, Combat Aircraft of World War Two (New York: Macmillan, 1977), 170. The Japanese “Zeke” (commonly known as “Zero”) A6M2 had even greater range (1,930 miles) than it demonstrated much earlier in the war.

  17. Swanborough and Bowers, U.S. Military Aircraft Since 1908, 93–94. During World War II the AAF converted a B-17 into an escort role (designated YB-40) by adding an additional dorsal turret, a chin turret, and one extra gun at each waist position. The Eighth Air Force combat tested the aircraft on nine missions; Werrell, Blankets of Fire, 182.

  18. History of Air Materiel Command, January–June 1952, vol. 1, 203 HRA; History of Far East Air Forces, July–December 1951, vol. 1, 166–67 HRA.

  19. W. Harbison, “Critique on the F-86E,” Central Fighter Establishment, February–May 1952, 10; 4FIW History: January 1952, 25.

  20. FEAF History: January–June 1952, vol. 1, 151–52; Robert Futrell, “United States Air Force Operations in the Korean Conflict, 1 November 1950–30 June 1952,” USAF Historical Study No. 72, 1 July 1955, 124; 4FG History: May 1952 in 4FW History, May 1952; 4FWg History, January 1953, 5; 4FW History, March 1953.

  21. Fifth Air Force, Directorate of Operations Monthly Historical Report, April 1953, Inclosure No. 20 in 5AF History, January–June 1953, vol. 2, app. 32; and FEAF Report on the Korean War, 13 HRA 168.7104-53.

  22. Air Research and Development Command, “External Stores, Armament Servicing Equipment and Facilities: 27 April 1953 to 20 July 1953,” 20 July 1953, 8 HRA K243.85-4; E.C. Phillips, Chief, Operations Office Power Plant Laboratory to WDSP, sub: “F86F 200 Gallon Drop Tanks,” 13 January 1954 item no. 447, F-86 Correspondence, HRA K202.1-57. This later Air Force report was more critical of the 200-gallon North American tank specifically noting release, leakage, storage, transportation, and cost issues.

  23. Victor Pastushin, President and General Manager, Pastushin Aviation Corp to Commanding General Air Materiel Command, sub: “Jettisonable Fuel Tanks. Resume of Inspection Tour of Air Bases in Korea and Japan,” 27 June 1953, 3–5 FRCSL 342-66-G-2680 10/12; “Jettisonable Fuel Tanks,” 4 tab 18 in FEAF Report on Korea, book 3 of 3 [draft] HRA K720.04D; “External Fuel Tanks,” 1 tab A in ARDC, “External Stores and Armament Servicing Equipment and Facilities.”

  24. Pastushin to AMC, 27 June 1953, 5. Also see pp. 4, 6–7. 5AF History, January–June 1953, vol. 2, 147–48; correspondence from Lt. Col. D. M. Ross, Chief, Installations Branch, Power Plant Laboratory to WCOWF-1, sub: “F-86 Drop Tank Difficulties,” 14 March 1953, item no. 322 in F-86 Correspondence; History Directorate Procurement and Industrial Planning: July–December 1950, AFMC R1-644.1c.

  25. Pastushin to AMC, 27 June 1953, 5–6; 5AF History, January–June 1953, vol. 2, 151.

  26. 5AF History, January–June 1951, vol. 2, 237; 4FG History: July 1951–February 1952; 51FW History: January–June 1953, 17.

  27. 5AF History: January–June 1951, vol. 2, 238; 4FW History: May 1951, 23; 4FW History: June 1951, 31; 4FW History: July 1951, 95; 51FW History: January–June 1953, 19.

  28. ARDC, “External Stores and Armament Servicing Equipment and Facilities,” tab A, 2. The shackles cost the 1948 series F-86 5 kts in level flight, 8 kts in a climb, and 20–25 kts in a steep dive. Therefore the airmen decided to jettison both the drop tanks and the shackles. The 1949 series Sabre suffered less degradation of performance, respectively 3–4 kts, 1–2 kts, and 8–10 kts. Louis Ford, Group Materiel Officer, 4th Fighter Interceptor Group to Col. Meyer, sub: “F-86 ‘Fletcher’ Tank Test Project,” 6 January 1951 in [4FIW] Test Data and Combat Reports Relative to Vulnerability and Limitations of F-86 Aircraft, January–July 1951 HRA K-Gp-4-SU-Op.

  29. History Directorate, Procurement and Industrial Planning: July–December 1951, 1 AFMC R1-644.1c; 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 2, 216.

  30. ARDC, “External Stores and Armament Servicing Equipment and Facilities,” tab A, 2.

  31. Freeman, Mighty Eighth War Manual, 219; 5AF History: January–June 1953, vol. 1, 110–11. The Eighth Air Force used such a device during World War II, although there are no documents that link the two; 5AF History: January–June 1953, vol. 2. 149; 51FWg History: January–June 1953, 20.

  32. 4FWg History: January–June 1953, 36; 4FG History: Feb 1953.

  33. See chart, “Percentage of Cost of Wing Tanks to Operating Cost,” in FEAF Draft Report on Korea, book 3; 5AF Wings Monthly Analyses, January–May 1952.

  34. See chart, “Average Cost per Wing Tank by Month,” in FEAF Draft Report on Korea, book 3; 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 2, 20–21; FEAF Draft Report on Korea, book 3, 7.

  35. ARDC, “External Stores and Armament Servicing Equipment and Facilities,” tab A, 7–8,11–12, 14; 4FIW History: January–June 1953, 35; 4FW History: February 1952, 28; 51FW History: July–December 1952, 42; Harbison, “Critique on the F-86E,” 10.

  36. 5AF History: January–June 1953, vol. 1, 111–12, 333; ARDC, “External Stores and Armament Servicing Equipment and Facilities,” tab A, 14. The airmen believed the large influx of new pilots was the other major factor.

  37. Handbook Flight Operating Instructions, USAF Series F-86A Aircraft, 30 June 1950, 5 NASM; Ibid., F-86F, 20 Mar 1952, 12; Ibid., F-86[F] 20 February 1953, 100; correspondence from R. H. Rice, Vice President and Chief Engineer [NAA] to Commanding General, Air Materiel Command, sub: “F-86F Structural Demonstration Results with 200 Gallon Tanks, and Recommended Airspeed and Load Factor Limits . . .” 5 August 1952, item no. 225 in F-86 Correspondence; [Lt. Col. Louis Andre] CG 5AF to CO 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing Korea, Appendix 186 in 5AF History: July–December 1952, vol. 2, app. 2, 206; FEAF draft Report on Korea, book 3, tab 18, 2; Chronology of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing from 1942, 24 HRA K-Wg-4-Hi (September 1942–December 1980); Larry Davis, Walk Around: F-86 Sabre (Carrollton, Tex.: Squadron/Signal, 2000), 24, 26.

  38. Correspondence from W. E. Stit to R. G. Ruegg, Chief Aircraft Laboratory to WCSWF, sub: “F-86F Airplanes, Fuel Tank and Bomb Rack Station Additions,” 18 August 1952, item no. 229 in F-86 Correspondence.

  39. Air Materiel Command, Memorandum Report, sub: “In-flight Refueling of the T-33, F-84, and F-86 Type Aircraft Using the Drogue-Probe Method,” 25 May 1951, 1, 6–7, 9 NASM.

  40. Melvin Shorr, Assistant Chief, Aerodynamics Branch to WCOWF-1, sub: “(Rest) Development of Probe Kits for F-86F External Tanks,” 10 July 1953, item no. 380 in F-86 Correspondence.

  41. Transland Company, Fuel-Wing, 15 November 1950 FRCSL 342-62-A-16 62/80. In 1950, the Transland Company proposed a fuel wing to extend the range of the F-86. It consisted of a straight wing with tip tanks attached above the Sabre. Although a January 1953 AMC document requested the device be built, there is no further USAF record of the project; Shorr, “(Rest) Development of Probe Kits”; Larry Davis, “North American F-86 Sabre,” 42, 49; Richard Smith, Seventy-Five Years of In-flight Refueling: Highlights, 1923–1998 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1998), 34–36; R. Cargill Hall and Clayton Laurie, eds., Early Cold War Overflights, 1950–1956: Symposium Proceedings, vol. 1, Memoirs (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian, National Reconnaissance Office, 2003), 61.

Chapter 4

1. History AAF Training Command, July–December 1946, 157–58, 258 HRA K220.01.

2. AAF/USAF Statistical Digest, 1946–53. I have used the F-51 and F-80 as surrogates for prop and jet fighters. Unlike other fighters of this period, 1949–53, both were in large-scale service throughout the period and flew a comparable number of flying hours: between January 1947 and August 1953 the F-51 logged 1.5 million flying hours and the F-80, 1.2 million flying hours. The other jets (F-84 and F-86) came into service later and flew fewer hours (F-84 just under 1 million flying hours and the F-86, .6 million flying hours). By August 1953 the F-80 had flown 70 percent of its total life (cumulative flying hours); the F-84, 25 percent; and the F-86, 10 percent. “F-80 History,” “F-84 History,” “F-86 History” www.AFSC.SAIA.af.mil/AF/RDBMS/Flight/Statis/F[80/84/86]MDS.html.

3. Office of the Inspector General [Flying Safety], “Human Factors in Jet Fighter Accidents: Period 1 January 1950–30 June 1952,” 8 HRA K259.2. Compared to the 70 to 85 kts touchdown speed of the F-51, jet fighters touchdown speeds were between 110 and 150 kts.

4. “Human Factors in Jet Fighter Accidents,” 37–38.

5. “Flight Operating Instructions USAF Model P-86A Airplane,” April 1948, 25 NASM. This series hereafter cited as [model] Pilot’s Manual, [date].

6. Pilot’s Manual F-86A, January 1949, rev. May 1949, 29.

7. Syring Accident Report, 1 September 1953 HRA. An inspection of 153 engine failures in 1953 found that one-third had foreign object damage; Reports of individual accidents can be found at HRA and NARACP. These will be cited as [name] Accident Report, [date]. Information on Individual F-86 Major Accidents up to 1 August 1953 along with all fatal F-80, F-84, and F-86 accidents through 31 December 1953 were entered into a data base cited as Accident Data Base. This does not include F-86D accidents.

8. History AAF Training Command, January–June 1946, 105; Larry Davis, The 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War (Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer, 2001), 21.

9. Christopher Carey, “A Brief History of the Development of Western Aircraft Ejection Seat Systems” available at http://webs.lanset.com/aeolusaero/Articles/seat_history.htm; “Milestones in Ejector Seat History,” available at www.ejectorseats.co.uk/milestones_in_ejection_seat_hist.htm; Robert Campbell and Perry Nelson, “Escape Systems Evolution,” Flying Safety (November 1955), 7; L. F. E. Coombs, “The Well-equipped Warplane,” in Aircraft of the Second World War: The Development of the Warplane, 1939–45, Philip Jarrett, ed. (London: Putnam, 1997), 245.

  10. “Ejection Seat Development” (USAF Museum), available at www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/postwwii/esd.htm; Eloise Engle, “Escape Systems,” in Above and Beyond: The Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space Sciences, vol. 4 (Chicago: New Horizons, 1968), 731, 733.

  11. Directorate of Flight Safety Research, “Analysis of Ejection Seat Operation in Jet Fighter Accidents, May 1951,” August 1951, 2, 6, 9 HRA K239.163-27; Seven of eleven bailouts below two thousand feet proved fatal. According to the report, the lack of an automatic release from the seat “must be considered as a probable cause of eight of nine deaths.” Of these eight deaths, four hit the ground still in the seat and the other four failed to pull the parachute ripcord.

  12. C. D. Smiley, “RCAF Ejection Experience, 1952–1961,” n.d., 39, 41 DTIC AO-465171. The RCAF was flying F-86s, CF-100s, and T-33s. Of thirty-eight Canadian bailouts below one thousand feet, 55 percent were fatal.

  13. Carey, “Brief History of Ejection Seat Systems”; Accident Data Base. At least one of these did not use the ejection seat. There were five cases in which the ejection seat failed to operate; two of these proved fatal. In three other fatal cases there was a question of whether or not the pilots bailed out.

  14. David Perry and Lidie Dyer, “Incidence, Nature, and Extent of Injury in Crash Landings and Bailouts,” November 1956, 46 HRA K237.163-27.

  15. Pilot’s Manual P-86A, April 1948, 27.

  16. Ambrose Nutt, Chief Special Projects Branch, Aircraft Laboratory to Mr. Carmichael [sub:] “F-86F Pilot Ejection System,” 8 November 1957 item no. 809 in F-86 Correspondence, vol. 9 HRA K202.1-57.

  17. Pilot’s Manual P-86A, April 1948, 3, 15, 28; Pilot’s Manual F-86A, January 1949 rev. May 1949, 19; Pilot’s Manual F-86A, June 1950; Pilot’s Manual F-86F, February 1953, 73; North American Aviation memo to Commanding General Air Materiel Command, sub: “Escape System—F-86A, F-86E, and F-86F Airplanes,” 23 April 1953, item no. 346 in F-86 Correspondence; Robert Dorr, F-86 Sabre: History of the Sabre and FJ Fury (Osceola, Wisc.: Motorbooks, 1993), 12.

  18. Lt. Col. Ralph Switzer, Chief Medical Safety Division to Director of Research and Development, Hq USAF, sub: “Materiel Requirements Directive No. 01-13, Manual Mechanical Canopy Jettison Release,” 18 January 1951 in Williams Accident Report, 31 January 1951 HRA; History Fifth Air Force, January–June 1953, vol. 1, 143 HRA K130.01, vol. 1.

  19. “Ejected to Safety,” Flying Safety (Nov 1949), 8–9.

  20. Rebecca Cameron, Training to Fly: Military Flight Training, 1907–1945 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1999), 388, 400.

  21. USAF Fighter Accident Review, 1 January–31 May 1950 HRA K259.2-13. This study covering the first half of 1950 noted that classes 49A through C had an accident rate three times that of the USAF; Directorate of Flight Safety Research, “Jet Fighter Accidents Related to Pilot Flying Experience” HRA K259.2-13 January–November 1950; Brief History of ATC, 1939–53, 21 HRA K220.01; “A Study of Jet Fighter Accidents and Their Relations to Flying Experience, 1 January 1951–30 June 1953,” November 1953, 6 AUL M38368 1953 no. 27.

  22. Accident Data Base. Apparently few members of this class were flying F-86s. During this period, four of thirty-seven major Sabre accidents involved members of this class.

  23. ATC History, July–December 1949. Training Command’s semi-annual history noted that the class of 49C was substandard with problems of morale, motivation, and discipline, a rare criticism for an official history.

  24. Fighter Accident Review, 1 January–31 May 1950, 3; [chart] “Major Accident Rates for Classes 49A-C, 1 July 1949–30,” April 1950 HRA K259.2-13; Fighter Accident Review, August 1950, 4.

  25. Fighter Accident Review, 1 January–31 May 1950, 11; Accident Data Base.

  26. Wagner, North American Sabre, 22–23.

  27. Fighter Accident Review, 1 January–31 May 1950, 132.

  28. Fighter Accident Review, August 1950, 5.

  29. Fighter Accident Review, 1 January–31 May 1950, 14, 15.

  30. Ibid., 16; ATC History, July 1950–June 1951, vol. 1, 185.

  31. AAF Training Command, January–June 1946, 95–96, 105; AAF Training Command, July–December 1946, 145, 150.

  32. Accident Data Base.

  33. Accident Data Base; Swanborough and Bowers, U.S. Military Aircraft since 1908, 338.

  34. ATC History, July 1950–June 1951, vol. 1, 268.

  35. ATC History, July–December 1951, 56; ATC History, January–June 1952, 61–62; ATC History, January–June 1953, 57.

  36. First Ind. Maj. John Walker, Maintenance Staff Officer to CG Air Materiel Command, 16 July 1952 in Comey Accident Report, 8 July 1952. The cylinder rod specifications called for a hardness of 140,000 to 160,000 psi, but the older ones were tested and found to be 46,000 psi. USAF inspectors checked seventy-five aircraft and found heat treatment stamps on only thirty-eight rods; of thirty-two rods in stock, only fifteen had been heat-treated.

  37. “Nose Gear—F-86,” Flying Safety (July 1949), 27. For the period December 1947 (the first major accident) through August 1953. This does not include fourteen accidents caused by pilots landing with their landing gear up and some others caused by a failure of the gear indicator system; “Who Towed That F-86?” Flying Safety (July 1950), 9; Fighter Accident Review, January–May 1950, 8; Nash Accident Report, 13 December 1949; 6th Ind. Col. E. L. Tucker, Acting Vice Commander Eastern Defense Force to CG, Continental Air Command, 14 November 1950 in Larsh Accident Report, 14 October 1950; 5th Ind. Brig. Gen. Herbert Thatcher Air Defense Command to Director of Flight Safety Research, 31 January 1951 in Hearin Accident Report, 29 October 1950; Accident Data Base.

  38. 3rd Ind. Lt. Col. Harrison Thyng, commander 33rd Fighter Interceptor Group to Commanding Officer 33rd Fighter Interceptor Wing, 4 January 1951 in Cutler Accident Report, 18 December 1950; 2nd Ind. Lt. Col. Norman Christensen, Chief Aircraft Section to Commander Otis AFB, 2 May 1951 in Newell Accident Report, 11 August 1951.

  39. Pilot’s Manual F-86A, June 1950, 77. However, the early F-86As had a “stick shaker” device to warn the pilot of an approaching stall when the landing gear and flaps were extended, required with the initial slat installation because the pilot got little indication of an oncoming stall. A later modification of the flaps alleviated the need for the stick shaker, which was then removed.

  40. George Welch, “Spinning the Sabre,” Flying Safety (February 1954), 15–16.

  41. Pilot’s Manual F-86A, January 1949, rev. May 1949, 37. It further noted that the modified (6-3) wing was not a contributor to spins and that the spins were about as frequent in each of the three F-86 versions. WCLSR-4 to WCSE-1, sub: “Major Aircraft Accidents,” 20 January 1954, item no. 15 in Reports, Histories, Surveys, Summaries, and Comments 1954-55 HRA K202.1-57.

  42. 1st Ind. Lt. Col. Harrison Thyng Cmdr 33rd Fighter Interceptor Group to Commanding Officer 33rd Fighter Interceptor Wing, 7 June 1950 in Scale Accident Report, 14 May 1950.

  43. 3rd Ind. Brig. Gen. Hugh Parker, Vice Commander Western Air Defense Force to CG, Air Defense Command, 16 April 1953 in Mitson Accident Report, 8 March 1953; Supplement to Section “O,” Description of Accident and Col. Avelin Tacon Commander Nellis AFB to CG Air Training Command, sub: “Report of Major Accident,” 18 April 1951 both in Baertsch Accident Report, 3 April 1951.

  44. B. H. R. Spicer, Commander Nellis AFB to Office of the Inspector General, Norton AFB, sub: “Report of Major Aircraft Accident Involving F-86A, Serial Number 49-1330, Pilot 2nd Lt. George M. Shields,” 23 September 1953 in Shields Accident Report, 24 August 1953.

  45. TWX Inspector General Norton to CG Air Materiel Command, 4 February 1953 in Jocylen Accident Report, 20 January 1953.

  46. Directorate of Flight Safety Research, OTIG, USAF, Norton AFB, CA, “USAF Ejection Escape Experience: 29 August 1949 through 30 June 1958,” table XVII, 10 November 1958 HRA K237.163–27. This 1958 study that listed the cause of ejection from USAF aircraft indicated that the F-86 pilots ejected less than the average for engine failure and loss of control but more than the average for fire, explosion, mid-air collisions, and fuel starvation; Accident Data Base.

  47. Pilot’s Manual F-86E, October 1950, rev. March 1951, 8.

  48. Accident Reports: Christenson, 18 November 1949; Pasqualicchio, 8 February 1950; Ramsby, 15 June 1950; 2nd Ind. 334th Fighter Squadron, Dunton Accident Report, 17 September 1950.

  49. George Goertz, UR [unsatisfactory report] no.52-733, 7 October 1952 in Richards Accident Report, 30 September 1952. Also Peterson Accident Report, 15 September 1952.

  50. 2nd Ind., Col. Clay Tice, HQ 3595th Flying Training Group, n.d., Campbell Accident Report, 6 February 1953; Gillory Accident Report, 1 February 1953.

  51. 2nd Ind., Col. Clay Tice, 3595th Training Group, 27 August 1953; Reed Accident Report, 3 August 1953.

  52. Col. Norman Appold, Chief Power Plant Laboratory (WCKPG-2) to WCOWF-1, sub: “Effect of Removing Emergency Fuel Controls from F86A, E, and F, Type Aircraft,” 27 April 1953, item no. 348 in F-86 Correspondence; History of Fifth Air Force, January–June 1953, vol. 1, 144 HRA K730.01; 5th Ind., Maj. Gen. Glenn Barcus, Hq Air Training Command, 1 October 1953, Reed Accident Report, 3 August 1953.

  53. H. H. Bowe, Chief Aircraft Branch to North American Aviation, sub: “Contract AF33(600)-6517, F-86F Airplanes Deletion of Emergency Fuel System, ECP NA-F86F-140,” 20 May 1953, item no. 364 in F-86 Correspondence. This was the recommendation of the Aircraft Branch at AMC. Col.; Pilot’s Manual F-86[F], February 1953, 12, 14.

  54. Engineering Standards Section, Air Materiel Command to Commander Tactical Air Command, sub: “Power Control Deficiencies on F-86F Aircraft,” 1 June 1954, item no. 512 in F-86 Correspondence.

  55. I have not considered the D model, which was considerably different from the A, E, and F in that it employed an afterburner, carried an airborne radar, and was fitted with unguided rockets in place of guns. It did not see service in the Korean War. For the F-86D, see Epilogue.

  56. Accident Data Base; F-86 Aircraft Cards HRA.

  57. Accident Data Base. There were two undetermined incidents connected with the E and one with the F. If these are counted, then the fatality rates would be 32 percent in the E and 33 percent in the F.

  58. Accident Data Base. In 367 major accidents with the F-86A, of which 5 were fatal, engines were cited fifty-two times. The figures for the E were 142 major accidents, 7 of which were fatal and 28 of which were attributed to engines. For the F, there were 89 major accidents, 1 involving a fatality and 9 connected with engines.

  59. Russell Accident Report, 18 October 1953; Kemp Accident Report, 31 January 1953; Boggs Accident Report, 31 January 1953; Beneke Accident Report, 31 May 1953; Smotherman Accident Report, 31 May 1953; Varble Accident Report, 31 May 1953.

  60. USAF Flying Accident Bulletin: 1953, 7 HRA K259.3-3 1953.

  61. USAF Statistical Digest, fiscal year 1953, 173 HRA K134.11-6; USAF Flying Accident Bulletin, 1953, 7; James Kitfield, “Flying Safety: The Real Story,” Air Force Magazine (June 1996), 57; USAF History, FY75-FY00, www.kirtland.af.mil. Army Air Force Statistical Digest World War II, 310; AAF Statistical Digest 1946; USAF Statistical Digest, 1947 through 1953. The latter two items hereafter cited as AAF/USAF Statistical Digest 1946–53.

  62. Eighth Air Force Statistical Summary, 56–58 HRA 520.308A. The Eighth Air Force in World War II included statistics of accidents based on landings.

  63. USAF Statistical Digest, 1951–53. In fairness, by this time the F-51 was growing rather long in the tooth.

  64. AAF/USAF Statistical Digest, 1946–53.

  65 Ibid. The differences in absolute numbers between the F-86 and F-80 and the F-84 at the half-million flying-hour mark were respectively ninety-two and ninety-one major accidents, twenty-one and twenty-five fatal accidents, and forty-nine and eight-six wrecked aircraft. Note one caveat: the F-80 figures include the T-33 for one fiscal year. A more precise breakdown is not possible because the USAF used quarterly, not monthly, statistics, resulting in the rounding that follows. The F-80 logged almost 509,000 flying hours by July 1950; the F-84, almost 516,000 flying hours by the end of 1951; and the F-86, just over 512,000 flying hours by April 1953.

  66. Accident Data Base. While 21 of the 256 F-80 fatalities were of students learning to fly (unrated), there were no student pilots killed in the F-86.

  67. Individual aircraft histories: www.afsc.saia.af.mil/AFSC/RDBMS/Flight/Statisticalisticals/f86mds.html.

  68. USAF Oral History Interview, Lt. Gen. William Campbell, 17, 18, 19 December 1985, 16, 22 HRA K239.0512-1689.

  69. James Salter, Burning the Day: Recollections (New York: Random House, 1997), 142; Colman Accident Report, 25 January 1952. The USAF accident report paints a different picture, suspecting a faulty gas gauge and noting that the pilot entered the landing pattern with less that the established minimum fuel.

Chapter 5

1. John Taylor, Combat Aircraft of the World: From 1909 to the Present (London: Paragon, 1979), 453, 598–99.

2. John Greenwood, “The Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945,” in Soviet Aviation and Air Power: A Historical View, Robin Higham and Jacob Kipp, eds. (London: Brassey’s, 1977), 108, 115, 128; Von Hardesty, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1982), 97–98; Ray Wagner, ed., The Soviet Air Force in World War II: The Official History (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973), 400.

3. Alexander Boyd, The Soviet Air Force since 1918 (New York: Stein and Day, 1977), 188, 206–8.

4. Boyd, Soviet Air Force, 209, 211; C. T. Eriksen, ed., The Red Air Force, 1913–1963 (Mitcham, UK: Smith, 1963), 35; Taylor, Combat Aircraft of the World, 584–85, 629–30.

5. Boyd, Soviet Air Force, 210–11; Taylor, Combat Aircraft of the World, 585, 629.

6. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 8.

7. Jerry Scutts, “The Jet Revolution,” in The Modern War Machine: Military Aviation Since 1945, Philip Jarrett, ed., (London: Putnam, 2000), 55, 66; Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, 1952–53 (London: Jane’s, 1953), 266.

8. Yefim Gordon, Miloyan-Gurevich MiG-15: The Soviet Union’s Long-lived Korean War Fighter (Hinckley, UK: Aerofax, 2001), 4.

9. Boyd, Soviet Air Force, 212; Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 14; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 86.

  10. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 15; Richard Hallion, “Technology for the Supersonic Era,” in Faster, Further, Higher: Leading-edge Aviation Technology Since 1945, Philip Jarrett, ed., (London: Putnam, 2002), 49.

  11. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 8; Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 10–11.

  12. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 23; Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 20.

  13. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 14–15, 18.

  14. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 12, 21, 25.

  15. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 16; Taylor, Combat Aircraft of the World, 586.

  16. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 12–13; Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 41, 49.

  17. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 16–17.

  18. Ibid., 17, 19; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 89.

  19. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 19; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 87.

  20. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 4.

  21. Asher Lee, The Soviet Air Force (London: Duckworth, 1961), 118; Alfred Monds, “The Soviet Strategic Air Force and Civil Defense,” in Higham and Kipp, Soviet Aviation, 223; Robert Kilmarx, A History of Soviet Air Power (New York: Praeger, 1962), 227; Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 54; Christopher Shores, Fighter Aces (London: Hamlyn, 1975), 133. F-86 figures are from aircraft cards, HRA. Soviet fighter numbers are more difficult.

  22. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 4, 19, 120–21. The engine service also markedly improved from 100 hours in the RD-45 to 150 to 200 hours in the VK-1A.

  23. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 40; Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 21. Curiously the same author gives slightly different numbers in this publication, albeit in the same ballpark; Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 40. To combat the increased landing roll, the designers tested and then discarded drag chutes for braking.

  24 Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 37–38.

  25. Ibid., 41.

  26. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 21–22.

  27. Ralph Wetterhahn, “To Snatch a Sabre,” Air and Space (June/July 2003), 44–45.

  28. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 23.

  29. Ibid., 9, 19, 21–22.

Chapter 6

1. RoK and North Korean aircraft numbers are taken from Futrell, USAF in Korea, 18–20.

2. Two short, readable, and fairly accurate overviews of the war are Stanley Sandler, The Korean War: No Victors, No Vanquished (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999) and James Stokesbury, A Short History of the Korean War (New York: William Morrow, 1988). Other works drawn upon for this summary of the war were Vincent Esposito, ed., The West Point Atlas of American Wars, vol. 2, 1900–1953 (New York: Praeger, 1960); R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 B.C. to the Present (New York: Harper & Row, 1977); Max Hastings, The Korean War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987); Callum MacDonald, Korea: The War Before Vietnam (New York: Free Press, 1986).

3. Casualty figures are from Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1251.

4. Far East Air Forces, Korean Air War Summary, June 1950–27 July 1953, 32 HRA K720.04D-1; William Y’Blood, MiG Alley: The Fight for Air Superiority (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museum Program, 2000), 1.

5. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 9–13. The official USAF History is still the best account of the Korean air war. Also useful is the more recent A. Timothy Warnock, ed., The USAF in Korea: A Chronology, 1950–1953 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program and Air University Press, 2000), 1–3. For USAF victory credits, see USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

6. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 266–31, 264, 292; D. Clayton James, The Years of MacArthur, vol. 2, Triumph and Disaster, 1945–64 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985), 425–26.

7. Later in the Korean War the Communists used small, slow biplanes to launch night attacks on American installations, the infamous “Bed Check Charlie.”

8. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 92–94, 105; Hallion, Naval Air War in Korea, 34, 38, 41; James Stewart, ed., Airpower: The Decisive Force in Korea (Princeton, N.J.: Nostrand, 1957), 78; William Y’Blood, ed., The Three Wars of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer: His Korean War Diary (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1999), 83, 107.

9. Y’Blood, The Three Wars of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, 85, 206, 207n28, 280n122.

  10. United States Air Force Statistical Digest, fiscal year 1953, 20 HRA K134.11-6.

  11. USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 20; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 96; Cagle and Manson, Sea War in Korea, 526; Otto Weyland, “The Air Campaign in Korea,” in Airpower: The Decisive Force in Korea, James Stewart, ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Nostrand, 1957), 7.

  12. USAF Strategic Digest, fy 1953, 38, 44–45, 60; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 131, 152; “Heavyweights Over Korea,” 78, 81 in Airpower: The Decisive Force in Korea, James Stewart, ed.; Hallion, Naval Air War in Korea, 61.

  13. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 122, 139, 160, 164–65; Weyland, “Air Campaign in Korea,” 10.

  14. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 142; Warnock, USAF Korea Chronology, 18–20.

  15. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Cagle and Manson, Sea War in Korea, 526; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 214–15; Warnock, USAF Korea Chronology, 22–23; Y’Blood, MiG Alley, 12.

Chapter 7

1. Y’Blood, Three Wars of Lt. Gen George E. Stratemeyer, 175.

2. Ibid., 255.

3. Ibid., 267.

4. USAF Korean War Victory Credits. As for the other USAF fighters, 194 of the 351 F-51s that were lost fell to enemy action, 143 of the 373 F-80s, and 110 of the 224 F-86s. In air-to-air combat the F-51 downed twelve Communist aircraft and lost ten, and the F-80 seven for fourteen lost.

5. Roger Freeman, The Mighty Eighth: Units, Men and Machines (London: Macdonald, 1970), 238, 242. The 4th claimed 583.5 aerial and 469 ground credits, whereas the 56th Fighter Group claimed 674.5 aerial and 311 ground credits; USAF World War II Victory Credits. The official credits, however, are 548.5 aerial victories for the 4th and 665.5 for the 56th; M. Mauer, ed., Air Force Combat Units of World War II (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1983), 35–36; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 1950–1953, 232.

6. Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 32, 34, 68; Bruce Hinton, “Sabres Used Tankers for Korea Deployment,” Sabre Jet Classics (Summer 2002), available at http://sabre-pilots.org/classics/v102tankers.htm; Warren Thompson and David McLaren, MiG Alley: Sabres vs. MiGs Over Korea (North Branch, Minn.: Specialty, 2002), 2–3.

7. Chronology of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing: from 1942, 19 HRA K-Wg-4 -Hi (September 1942–December 1980); History of the Fourth Fighter Group, October–December 1950, 5–6, 10–11, HRA K-Gp-4-Hi; Headquarters Air Proving Ground, “Report on Combat Operations of the F-86A during Period 15 December 1950 thru 2 January 1951,” 23 January 1951, 270, 275, in History of the Air Proving Ground, January–June 1951, vol. 2 HRA K240.01.

8. History of the Fifth Air Force: November 1950–December 1950, vol. 1, 148, HRA K730.01; APG, “Report on Combat Operations F-86A,” 270–71, 274; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 235–36.

9. Y’Blood, The Three Wars of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, 359; 4FGp History, October–December 1950, 6; Bruce Hinton and Elmer Wingo, “An Analysis of Operations at Kimpo Air Base Performed by Detachment ‘A,’ 336th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group,” 3–5, 29, HRA K-Sq-Fi-336-Hi (Kimpo, Det A); USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Askold Germon, Red Devils (Kiev: 1998), 43; Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 62; APG, “Report on Combat Operations F-86A,” 271, 276, 282.

  10. Pilot’s Manual, F-86A, June 1950, revised January 1951, 1; Pilot’s Manual F-86F, March 1952, 3, both NASM Suitland, Maryland. Hinton and Wingo, “Analysis of Operations at Kimpo,” 4–5; APG, “Report on Combat Operations F-86A,” 265, 282.

  11. Hinton and Wingo, “Analysis of Operations at Kimpo,” 26–27; George Smith, Commander 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, to Commanding General Far East Air Forces, sub: “Combat Evaluation of the MiG-15 vs. the F-86,” 26 December 1950 HRA K146.003-140; Maj. Gen. B. L. Boatner, Commander Air Proving Ground to Chief of Staff, Headquarters USAF, sub: “Evaluation of the Combat Operations of the F-86A Aircraft in Combat,” 8 February 1951, 265 in APG History: January–June 1951, vol. 2.

  12. H. A. Schmid, Commander 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing to Commanding General, Eastern Air Defense Force, sub: “Operations of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing in Korea,” 11 June 1951 in History 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, June 1951 HRA K-Wg-4-Hi (hereafter cited as 4FIW History [date]).

  13. USAF Korean War Victory Credits. The official credits are for forty-one MiGs downed. Prior to 29 July the USAF listed five F-86s lost to the MiGs.

  14. Bruce Hinton, “MiG-15 versus F-86A in Korea: Prepared by Lt. Col. Bruce H. Hinton 4th Fighter Interceptor Group Compiled from Combat Encounter Reports by Pilots of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group,” 25 July 1951, 24–25, HRA K-Sq-Fi-336-Hi (Kimpo, Det A).

  15. Hinton, “MiG-15 versus F-86A,” 24–25.

  16. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 38, 45–47; Warnock, ed., USAF in Korea; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 271.

  17. USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 57–59; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 270–74; Germon, Red Devils on the 38th Parallel, 52, 75; Warnock, USAF Korea Chronology.

  18. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 275.

  19. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 276–77, 279.

  20. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 277.

  21. Ibid., 279–84.

  22. USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 44, 67–68. While interdiction missions accounted for only one-third of air-to-air losses, they accounted for 60 percent of losses to ground fire.

  23. FEAF Report on the Korean War, 172–73 HRA 168.7104-53; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 291–95, 298–300, 303; Eduard Mark, Aerial Interdiction in Three Wars (Washington, D.C.: Center for Air Force History, 1994), 278.

  24. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 297, 296.

  25. Ibid., 413.

  26. Ibid., 289, 291–95, 298–300, 303, 310; Mark, Aerial Interdiction, 307, 313, 323, chart 10. Losses and sorties are noted above. On the issue of overclaiming see Futrell, USAF in Korea, 423.

  27. Low American production led the Air Force to buy 60 Canadian-built Sabres in mid-1952 that were designated F-86E-6, some of which saw combat in Korea; Wagner, North American Sabre, 113.

  28. 4FIW History, August 1951; History 4th Fighter Interceptor Group, August 1951 in 4FIW History, August 1951; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 296–97, 302, 308, 372, 374.

  29. USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 56. There were only seven months during the war in which the USAF lost more than five aircraft to enemy aircraft. Four of these were the last four months of 1951; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 372–73, 378–80.

  30. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 380–82.

  31. 4FIW History, November 1951; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 383–84.

  32. History of 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing: 15 January 1941–31 December 1955, 36–37 HRA K-Wg-51-Hi; USAF World War II Victory Credits; Mauer, Air Force Combat Units, 112.

  33. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; History 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, December 1951 (hereafter cited as 51FIW History, [date]); 51FIW History, January 1952; 51FIW History, May 1952; 51FIW History, June 1952; 51FIW History, July 1952; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 389; Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 31, 41, 51, 54.

  34. USAF Korean War Victory Credits. The two units had the exact same number (35) of aircraft destroyed in accidents or by AA; John Sullivan, “51st Tactical Fighter Wing . . . Combat Unit in Two Wars,” 31 HRA K-Wg-51-Hi; History Fifth Air Force: January–June 1953, vol. 3, app. 27 HRA K730.01.

  35. Y’Blood, MiG Alley: The Fight for Air Superiority, 46. Of the thirty-nine Korean War jet aces, ten earned their victories only with the 51st and twenty-four only with the 4th. Four got credits with both units, while one scored with both the 4th and 8th Fighter Bomber Group; USAF Korean War Victory Credits, 44; 51st Tactical Wing . . . in Two Wars, 35.

  36. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 388.

  37. 4th Fighter Interceptor Group, “F-86E versus MiG-15 in Korea,” 15 January 1952, 22 HRA K-Wg-4-Hi.

  38. W. Harbison, “Critique on the F-86E,” Central Fighter Establishment, February–May 1952, 13; George Jones, Deputy Commander [4FIG] to Commanding Officer, 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, sub: “F-86E Combat Evaluation,” 1 November 1951, 1–2, HRA 4FIW History, October–December 1951; Harrison Thyng, “The Operation of the 4th Fighter Wing in Korea,” 3 HRA K720.131 Thyng; 4FIG, “F-86E versus MiG-15 in Korea,” 15 January 1952, 28 in [4FIW], “Operations in MiG-Alley” K-Wg-4-Hi (January 52); Fifth Air Force Intelligence Summary, vol. 2, No. 8, 2 May 1952, 44; “Performance Comparison between F-86 and MiG-15 Aircraft,” NA 342-54-7025 5AF-40.

  39. William Quinlan, “A Critique on the F-86E versus the MiG-15 Aircraft in the Korean Theater,” Operations Analysis Office Memorandum No. 50, 1 Apr 1952, in Sullivan, “51st Tactical Fighter Wing,” 93, 86–90; Albert Schinz, [end of tour report], 10 July 1952, 5 HRA K720.131-1; 4FIG, “F-86E versus MiG-15 in Korea,” 20.

  40. Pilot Manual, F-86A, June 1950, 62–64.

  41. USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 32, 45–47.

  42. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 442–53; “The Attack on Electric Power in North Korea,” in Airpower: The Decisive Force in Korea, James Stewart, ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Van Norstrand, 1957), 120–21, 126–27; Hallion, Naval Air War in Korea, 132–34.

  43. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 453, 483; “Attack on Electric Power in North Korea,” 138–39; Warnock, USAF Korea Chronology, 73.

  44. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 53; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 481–82, 489.

  45. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; 5AF History, July–December 1952, vol. 1, 7,183; 4FIW History, Aug 1952; 4FIW History, July–December 1952; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 460, 609.

  46. Glenn Carus interview with author, 19 February 2002; P. C. Davis to author, 11 February 2002; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 609.

  47. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 53.

  48. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 624–28. It is noteworthy that in the Vietnam War dikes were the only major target system the U.S. airmen did not attack.

  49. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 636–39.

Chapter 8

1. “Operation MiG,” History of Fifth Air Force: January–June 1951, vol. 2, 61-62 HRA K730.01.

2. Donald Nichols, How Many Times Can I Die? (Brooksville, FL: Brooksville Printing, 1981), 4.

3. Michael Haas, Apollo’s Warriors: United States Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War (Maxwell AFB, Ala.: Air University, 1997), 54–55.

4. The unit sought documents, nameplates, and identification tags. In addition to focusing on the engine and its component parts, the unit was looking for skin samples, instruments, radios, armament, and tailpipe samples.

5. History of 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing: 15 January 1941–31 December 1955, 33 HRA K-Wg-51-Hi; “Operation MiG,” 65.

6. “Operation MiG,” 66.

7. C. B. Colby, “The Day We Stole a MiG,” Air Trails (January 1953), 20–21; Nichols, How Many Times Can I Die?, 154; “Operation MiG,” 66–67. The H-19 was the largest helicopter in the theater with a four-ton payload and over two-hundred-mile range. Nichols says the crash site was one hundred miles inside communist territory; Colby says it was thirty-five miles behind enemy lines.

8. Nichols, How Many Times Can I Die?, 131; “Operation MiG,” 67. The official account does not mention any shooting and instead states, “There were indications that the wreck had been under regular guard for a fresh well beaten path was observed surrounding the aircraft.”

9. Colby, “The Day We Stole a MiG,” 21, 85; “They Snatched a MiG,” American Legion Magazine (November 1959), 44–46; “Operation MiG,” 67–69.

  10. “Operation MiG,” 70–71.

  11. Warnock, ed., The USAF in Korea, 45.

  12. There was a general policy that the Royal Navy operated off the west coast of Korea while the U.S. Navy operated off the east coast. One reason for this geographic arrangement was that the British had diplomatic relations with the Chinese Communists, which might be an asset in any unforeseen future incident in Chinese air space or waters.

  13. Piotr Butowski and Jay Miller, OKB MiG: A History of the Design Bureau and Its Aircraft (Leicester, UK: Specialty, 1991), 69; USAF Oral History Interview, Gen. Earle Partridge, 23–25 April 1974, 637 HRA K239.0512-729; Allison March and Donald McElfresh, Submarine or Phantom Target? (Silver Spring, Md.: Edisto, 1999), 26–32. A body on the mud flats was not recovered.

  14. 5AF History, July–December 1951, vol. 1, 164.

  15. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 68. On 20 May 1953 Lt. Zdzislaw Jazwinski, from the same unit, also defected to Bornholm; USAF Europe, Air Intelligence Information Branch, Airframe, Report No. ATI-880-53, 23 April 1953, 7, 20–22, 46 AUL M37745 1953 no. 880, part.1; Ibid, Summary, 3, 4, 7.

  16. “Flight to Freedom” www.mig29.com/features98/mig15/story-defection.html; Kum-Sok No, A MiG-15 to Freedom: Memoir of a Wartime North Korean Defector Who First Delivered the Secret Fighter Jet to the Americans in 1953 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996), 142.

  17. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 1950–1953, 610; Rob Young, “ATIC Mig-15bis Exploitation,” www.wpafb.af.mil/naic/history/mig15/mig15.html.

  18. Tom Collins, “Testing the Russian MiG,” in Test Flying at Old Wright Field, Ken Chistrom, ed., (Omaha, Neb.: Westchester House, 1991), 42, 44; Columbia University Oral History Interview with Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd, June 1960, 14 HRA K146.34-12; USAF Oral History Interview, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Schulz, 27–31 October 1980, 66 HRA K239.0512-1728; Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos, Yeager (Toronto: Bantam, 1985), 207; Headquarters Far East Air Forces, Immediate No. 2829, 16 October 1953 AFM; Wagner, North American Sabre, 81.

  19. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-15, 68; FEAF, Immediate No. 2829; No, MiG-15 to Freedom, 159; Yeager and Janos, Yeager, 206.

  20. Air Technical Information Center, “MiG-15 Flight Test,” Technical Report No. TR-AC 27, 13 October 1953, v AMC; FEAF, Immediate No. 2829; Collins, “Testing the Russian MiG,” 46; Yeager and Janos, Yeager, 206.

  21. Yeager and Janos, Yeager, 205–6. Collins agreed with the first Yeager statement. Collins, “Testing the Russian MiG,” 46; Boyd Interview, 15; No, MiG-15 to Freedom, 159. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 68. One contrary voice, a Russian pilot writes that the MiG-15 was reluctant to spin and could be brought out of a spin if the proper procedures were followed.

  22. Boyd Interview, 15; Yeager and Janos, Yeager, 207; Collins, “Testing the Russian MiG,” 45.

  23. Report No. ATI-880-53, 20–21; Yeager and Janos, Yeager, 207. The pilot accounts do not explain how they could exceed Mach .94 as reportedly the MiG’s speed brakes automatically extended at this speed.

  24. Boyd Interview, 14–15; Collins, “Testing the Russian MiG,” 45–46; Yeager and Janos, Yeager, 208. Both Boyd and Collins claim to have flown Yeager’s wing on this maximum speed flight.

  25. No, Mig-15 to Freedom, 164; ATIC, “MiG-15 Flight Test,” iii–v; Boyd Interview, 14; FEAF, Immediate No. 2829; Partridge Interview, 639; Schulz Interview, 66–67; Yeager and Janos, Yeager, 206–7.

  26. Young, “ATIC Mig-15bis Exploitation,” 2–3.

  27. William Coughlin, “Reds Fly Captured Sabres in Combat,” Aviation Week (18 May 1953), 13; 5AF History: July–December 1951, vol. 1, 96; Far East Air Forces Weekly Intelligence Roundup, No. 69 (22–28 December 1951); Ibid, No. 75 (2–8 February 1952); Ibid, No. 78 (23–29 February 1952); Ibid, No. 82 (22–28 March 1952); Fifth Air Force Intelligence Summary, vol. 1, no. 8 (7 November 1951); Ibid, vol. 2, no. 6 (5 April 1952); Ibid, vol. 3, no. 6 (5 October 1952); Ibid, vol. 3, no. 7 (20 October 1952); Ibid, vol. 3, no. 9 (20 November 1952) all at NARACP.

  28. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 69; Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 113; Paul Cole, POW/MIA Issues, RAND, vol. 1, The Korean War, 167 AUL MU 30352-84 no. 351; Laurence Jolidon, Last Seen Alive (Austin, Tex.: Ink-Slinger, 1995), 185; V. A. Zolotarev, ed., Russia (USSR) in Local Wars and Regional Conflicts in the Second Half of the 20th Century (Moscow: Kuchkovo Polye Publishing, 2000), part I, chapter 2; Wetterhahn, “To Snatch a Sabre,” 42.

  29. This was a dangerous rescue as the plane came down just outside a North Korean air base. The SA-16 landed about one-fourth of a mile offshore but could only get within two hundred yards of shore because of the mud. The amphibian came under small arms and mortar fire during the operation. John Freemont, “Third Air Rescue Squadron Saves 100th Downed Pilot,” History of Third Air Rescue Squadron, Nov 1951 HRA; Bob Mason to author 8 June 2000 and 13 June 2000.

  30. Leonid Krylov and Yuri Tepsurkayev, “The Hunt for the ‘Sabre,’” (Mir Aviatsii, 1998) part II. Available at www.aeronautics.ru/nws002/the_hunt_for_the_sabre_ii.htm. The Russians, finding it very difficult to sneak up behind the Sabre, speculated that the aircraft was equipped with a rear-viewing radar. They found instead that the American advantage was the excellent cockpit visibility.

  31. Jolidon, Last Seen Alive, 183–84. This account claims three F-86s were sent to Russia; Joint Commission Support Branch Research and Analysis Division, DPMO, “Sand in the Fuselage,” the section titled “The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union” indicates that two or three F-86s were brought to the Soviet Union. See www.aiipowmia.com/reports/trnsfr.html; Igor Gordelianow, “Soviet Air Aces of the Korean War,” available at http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/RAFAQ/SovietAces.html; Leonid Krylov and Yuriy Tepsurkayev, “Russia’s Plan to Seize the Sabre,” Combat Aircraft (August 2000), 836–43; Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 69; Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 137; Zolotarev, ed., “Russia (USSR) in Local Wars,” part I, chapter 2; “MiG-15 Fagots over Korea,” available at http://dzampi.boom.ru/Korea/MiGsoverKorea.htm; Krylov and Tepsurkayev, “The Hunt for the ‘Sabre,’” part II.

  32. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 69, 71.

  33. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 113; Krylov and Tepsurkayev, “The Hunt for the ‘Sabre.’” The Soviets also learned that their artificial horizon indicator was far inferior to the American one, a deficiency not corrected in the fighters until 1954.

  34. “Sand in the Fuselage.”

  35. Paul Cole, POW/MIA Issues, vol. 1, The Korean War, RAND, n.d., 17. DoD accounted for the remainder as dead or presumed dead, returned, and currently captured; All POW-MIA Casualties, 2, available at www.aiipowmia.com/koreacw/kwkia_menu.html. Another recent document states that there were 8,200 bodies not identified or not recovered.

  36. All POW-MIA Casualties, 2.

  37. Cole, POW/MIA Issues, vol. 1, 17, 37, 159; Peter Tosuras, et al., “The Transfer of U.S Korean War POWs to the Soviet Union,” 26 August 1993, 1, 2, 6, available at www.aiipowmia.com/reports/trnsfr.html.

  38. Hearing Before the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the Committee on National Security House of Representatives, 104th Congress, 2nd Session, 20 June 1996, 2, 8. The other congressman was Representative Robert Dornan.

  39. House Hearings of Military Personnel Subcommittee, June 1996, 82.

  40. “The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs,” 21.

  41. Ibid., 1.

  42. Ibid., 2.

  43. Laurence Jolidon, “Soviet Interrogation of U.S. POWs in the Korean War,” Cold War International History Bulletin (Winter 1995/1996), 6–7.

  44. Jolidon, Last Seen Alive, 130–31.

  45. Cole, POW/MIA Issues, vol. 1, 160. This is in error. My figures agree with those of Thompson and McLaren that twenty-eight F-86 pilots survived captivity; Jolidon, Last Seen Alive, 127; Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 171–74.

  46. “The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs,” 11–12, 18. One Russian officer and a number of personnel at the design bureaus are the source of this account. This same story is repeated in Jolidon, Last Seen Alive, 126, 187.

  47. House Hearings of Military Personnel Subcommittee, June 1996, 3.

  48. “The Transfer of U.S Korean War POWs,” 10; Jolidon, Last Seen Alive, 127.

  49. House Hearings of Military Personnel Subcommittee, June 1996, 5.

  50. “The Transfer of U.S. Korean War POWs,” 22–23.

  51. Robert Jones, Joint Commission Support Directorate, “The Gulag Study,” 7 February 2001.

Chapter 9

1. Fifth Air Force History: July–December 1951, vol. 1, 165 HRA K730.01; Headquarters Fifth Air Force to Commanding Officer FEC Liaison Detachment (Korea), sub: “Defense of Friendly Islands,” 10 December 1951, 5AF History, July–December 1951, vol. 3, app. 42, 86–89; “Friendly Islands,” Fifth Air Force Intelligence Summary (20 December 1952), vol. 3, no. 11, 53–56 NARACP; [Lawrence Schuetta], “Guerrilla Warfare and Airpower in Korea, 1950–53,” Aerospace Studies Institute, Air University, January 1964, 94–95.

2. United States Air Force Operations in the Korean Conflict: 1 July 1952–27 July 1953, USAF Historical Study no. 127, 1 July 1956, 54, 83.

3. David Hatch and Robert Benson, United States Cryptologic History, series V, The Early Postwar Period, 1945–1952, vol. 3, The Korean War: The SIGINT Background (Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2000), 5. Also see pages 3–4.

4. Hatch and Benson, Korean War SIGINT, 5–6.

5. Matthew Aid, “American Comint in the Korean War (Part II): From the Chinese Intervention to the Armistice,” Intelligence and National Security (Spring 2000), 15–19, 27, 34; Hatch and Benson, Korean War SIGNIT, 7–8, 11.

6. Aid, “American Comint in the Korean War,” 37, 38–39, 41; Hatch and Benson, Korean War SIGNIT, 14.

7. Aid, “American Comint in the Korean War,” 28–29; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 1950–1953, 281; Korean Conflict: Chronological Listing [of victory credits] HRA.

8. Xiaoming Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea (College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M, 2002), 156–58. One account states the prop-powered communist fighters were La-11s.; Far East Air Forces Weekly Intelligence Roundup (25 November–December 1951), no. 65, II-7 HRA K720.607A; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 383–84. Lawrence V. Schuetta, “Guerrilla Warfare and Airpower in Korea, 1950–53.” Typescript, Aerospace Studies Institute, Maxwell AFB, 1964, 184. This source states the Chinese landed under close air support on the afternoon of 31 November.

9. Joe Foss and Matthew Brennan, eds., Top Guns: America’s Fighter Aces Tell Their Stories (New York: Pocket Books, 1991), 270.

  10. Douglas Evans, Sabre Jets over Korea: A Firsthand Account (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1984), 155. USAF sources, as do two of the American pilots involved in the fight, state that there were twelve Tu-2s; Foss and Brennan, Top Guns, 270; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 384. John Bruning, Crimson Sky: The Air Battle for Korea (Dulles, Va.: Brassey’s, 1999), 169; Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 158. Communist sources, however, state that there were only nine Tu-2s.

  11. Gene Gurney, Five Down and Glory (New York: Ballantine, 1958), 198. Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 158, 162. This account states the Chinese prop fighters were La-11s; Foss and Brennan, Top Guns, 272.

  12. Evans, Sabre Jets over Korea, 157.

  13. Foss and Brennan, Top Guns, 272.

  14. During the war, thirty-six U.S. pilots scored two or more victories on one mission. Davis did it four times, as did James Jabara.

  15. USAF Korean War Victory Credits. Ralph Parr and William Wescott had two missions on which they claimed two victories.

  16. Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 162; Fifth Air Force Intelligence Summary (5 December 1951), vol. 1, no. 12, 11 HRA K720.059-73; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 99–100; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 384.

  17. Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 161, 185.

  18. Far East Air Forces, General Order no. 204, 26 April 1952, “Official Credit for Destruction of Enemy Aircraft,” HRA K720.193; General Order no. 208, 29 April 1952. His wingman meanwhile had destroyed a Tu-2.

  19. Raymond Barton interview with author, 22 March 2002; General Order no. 3, 4 January 1952; General Order no. 202, 26 April 1952; Bruning, Crimson Sky, 174–76.

  20. General Order no. 206, 29 April 1952; Foss and Brennan, Top Guns, 272–74.

  21. Schuetta, “Guerrilla Warfare and Airpower in Korea,” 184; Korean War: Chronology of U.S. Pacific Fleet Operations, September–December 1952, available at www.history.navy.mil/wars/kora/chron52c.htm.

  22. Air Intelligence Information Report, sub: “Investigation of Bombing Incident on Cho-do Island,” 22 October 1952 Fifth Air Force Intelligence Summary, vol. 3, no. 8, 5 November 1952, NARACP.

  23. Air Intelligence Information Report, sub: “Investigation of Bombing Incident on Cho-do Island,” 9 December 1952; 5AF Intelligence Summary, vol. 3, no. 11, 20 December 1952, NARACP; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 620.

  24. Richard Muller, The German Air War in Russia (Baltimore: Nautical and Aviation, 1992), 130.

  25. Jarred Crabb Journal, 17 June 1951, fr 0881 USAFA MS-2; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 620–23; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Cagle and Manson, Sea War in Korea, appendix VII.

  26. Statistical Summary of Eighth Air Force Operations, European Theater: 17 Aug 1942–8 May 1945, 54–55, 71 HRA 520.308A; Earl Tilford, Search and Rescue in Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1980), 3–8; Werrell, Blankets of Fire, 143–45, 305n68.

  27. “Guardian Angels,” 5AF Intelligence Summary (5 October 1952), vol. 3, no. 6, 49–50; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 536–40; Forrest Marion, “‘The Dumbo’s Will Get Us in No Time’: Air Force SA-16 Combat Operations in the Korean War Theater, 1950–1953,” Air Power History (Summer 1999), 19; Swanborough and Bowers, U.S. Military Aircraft since 1908, 299–300, 480–83; Tilford, Search and Rescue, 8–9, 12, 14.

  28. Schuetta, “Guerrilla Warfare and Airpower in Korea,” 151–52. Lt. Gen. Thomas McMullen, videotape interview, April, May, October 1998 HRA K239.0512-2172; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 543; Tilford, Search and Rescue, 13. Of seventy-seven airmen who made it back from behind Communist lines from July 1950 through January 1952, helicopters rescued thirty-two and SA-16s thirteen.

  29. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 539–40.

  30. Robert McIntosh interview with author, 17 June 2003. The first of these was a deadstick landing, which the pilot attributes its success to “extreme good luck”; Dorr, F-86 Sabre, title page.

  31. Pilot’s Manual F-86A Airplane, 30 June 1950, revised 15 September 1950, 48; Pilot’s Manual F-86E Aircraft, 30 March 1950, revised 30 March 1951, 37; Pilot’s Manual F-86F Aircraft, 20 March 1952, 40, all three NASM; Harrison Thyng, “End of Tour Report,” 4 HRA K720.131. The 70 nm figure was true for all three models of the F-86.

  32. Forrest Marion, “Sabre Pilot Pickup: Unconventional Contributions to Air Superiority in Korea,” Air Power History (Spring 2002), 23. Two pilots landed on Cho-do after bailing out were picked up by choppers, two were rescued by both SA-16s and choppers, four to unknown agents, leaving twelve to SA-16s and twenty-one to helicopters. Col. Albert Schniz, see below, was the forty-second.

  33. Far East Air Forces, Korean Air War Summary, 15 HRA K720.04D-1; United States Air Force Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 28 HRA K134.11-6. The former lists 223, the latter 218.

  34. Marion, “Sabre Pilot Pickups,” 24–25; Tilford, Search and Rescue in Southeast Asia, 19.

  35. Robert Dorr, “The Day the Reds Shot Down Our Top Jet Ace,” in Fighting Aces, Phil Hirsch, ed. (New York: Pyramid, 1965). This most detailed account; unfortunately is not the most accurate.

  36. Tomas Polak with Christopher Shores, Stalin’s Falcons: The Aces of the Red Star (London: Grubb Street, 1999), 116; Igor Gordelianow, “Soviet Air Aces of the Korean War,” available at http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/RAFAQ/SovietAces. html; Al Bowers and David Lednicer, “Fighter Pilot Aces List,” available at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/aces.html. Fedorets had earned his wings during World War II and flew P-39s in that conflict. He flew ninety-eight missions in Korea, engaged in forty combats, and claimed six F-86s and a total of seven or eight UN aircraft.

  37. “Captain Joseph McConnell,” available at www.acepilots.com/korea_mcconnell.html; Harold Chitwood to Jack Hilliard, 13 January 1984 AFM MI McConnell.

  38. Futrell, USAF in Korea, facing 135. For example, in the Newport [Mass.] Daily News (16 April 1953) and Larry Davis, MiG Alley: Air to Air Combat over Korea (Carrollton, Tex.: Squadron/Signal, 1978), 57.

  39. Robert Sullivan to author, 25 August 2002. The rescue commander had the special operations people take the rescue markings off of their choppers; Robert Futrell, The United States Air Force in Korea (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, rev. ed. 1983), 298. The USAF revised Futrell’s work in 1983 and published the same photo with the caption: “An H-19 of the 3d Air Rescue Group hoists an airman to safety”; Robert Sullivan to author, 27 August 2002; Marion, “Sabre Pilot Pickup,” 26.

  40. Robert Sullivan to Maj. Forrest Marion, 24 April 1998.

  41. Sullivan to Marion, 25 April 1998.

  42. Sullivan to Marion, 25 April 1998; Robert Sullivan to author, 22 August 2002.

  43. USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  44. This account is drawn mainly from Clay Blair, Beyond Courage (New York: Ballantine, 1955), 7–37. This is the most detailed account, but has some accuracy problems. Also see Haas, Apollo’s Warriors, 63–64; Schuetta, “Guerrilla Warfare and Airpower in Korea,” 135, 186; Rod Paschall, “Special Operations in Korea,” Conflict, vol. 8, no. 2 (1987), 167.

  45. Joe Clark, “Not Quite a Hero,” unpublished manuscript, 290.

  46. Blair, Beyond Courage, 36–37; Clark, “Not Quite a Hero,” 290–91. Schniz rose to the rank of major general in the Air Force and died in January 1985.

  47. Wesley Tillis to author, 18 March 2002. On 4 February 1952, a F-86 pilot ejected near Cho-do, but his chute did not open. On 4 July 1952 and 15 September 1952, F-86s pilots drown before rescue crews could reach them.

  48. The bulk of this account and the quote are from Marion, “Sabre Pilot Pickup,” 27–28; John Lowery to author, 20 June 2003. The USAF credited Spath with one-half MiG kill.

  49. Cookie Sewell email to unknown, 4 January 2002; “Enemy’s Method of Capturing Helicopters,” 5AF Intelligence Summary (5 September 1952), vol. 3, no. 4, 60–62.

Chapter 10

1. This area has not been explored. There are twenty to thirty files on specific air-to-ground incidents at NARACP.

2. Joe Clark, “Not Quite a Hero,” unpublished manuscript, 75.

3. As is noted elsewhere, ground sited radar on Cho-do Island gave the pilots some basic information about the MiGs. IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) is a transmitting device from World War II that sent coded signals to ground based radar that helped ground controllers detect and identify friendly aircraft when it was working and when it was turned on.

4. Interview, Bruno Giordano with author, 20 February 2002. Five or six years later, Giordano related this story over drinks at the Officer’s Club bar in Tripoli to another F-86 pilot. That pilot, Lonnie Moore, confirmed that he was the pilot of the story; Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 152–53; Muhurin, Honest John, 74.

5. Harold Fisher with Penny Wilson, Dream of Aces: The Hal Fischer Story, Korea and Vietnam (Dallas: Great Impressions, 2001), 107.

6. Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 107–8. Joe Clark to author, 11 February 2002; Clark, “Not Quite a Hero,” 205; Charles Cleveland interview with author, 3 April 2000; P. C. Davis to author, 15 February 2002; William Dunbar to author, 30 April 2002; Robert McIntosh to author, 6 March 2002; Robert Makinney to author, 11 February 2002; Richard Merian to author, 25 February 2002; Earl Payne to author, 17 April 2002; Wesley Tillis to author, February 2002. Of the sixty or so F-86 pilots I interviewed, nine relate incidents of F-86s firing on other F-86s. Even discounting some of these as rumor or duplication, clearly this indicates a serious problem.

7. In the Eighth Air Force in World War II, about 10 percent of damage on returning bombers was caused by “friendly fire,” either self inflicted or by other bombers in the formation.

8. Arthur O’Connor to author, 31 May 2002. Miller was captured but died at the end of the war in a truck accident as the prisoners were being exchanged.

9. Dale Smiley interview with author, 12 March 2002; Clark, “Not Quite a Hero,” 232.

  10. Frederick Blesse interview with author, 29 August 2002.

  11. John Melady, Korea: Canada’s Forgotten War (Toronto: Macmillan, 1983), 119–21, 130; Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 158. The shooter was taken off combat duty and was killed shortly afterwards in an aircraft accident.

  12. John Lowery, “MiG Fever,” in The F-86 Sabre Jet and Pilots, Barbara Stahura, ed. (Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1997), 49.

  13. Robert Windoffer to author, March 2002; Windoffer to author, 17 April 2003.

  14. Lowery, “MiG Fever,” 49.

  15. USAF Korean War Victory Credits. The USAF credits Frailey with one MiG destroyed on 26 May 1953; Dennis Flynn interview with author, 10 Mar 2002; Giordano interview with author; Lowery, “MiG Fever,” 49, 52–53; essentially the same account is John Lowery, “MiG Fever,” Air and Space (April/May 1999), 16.

  16. Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, 60; Mahurin, Honest John, 66; Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 141, 258n69.

  17. P. C. Davis to author, 14 February 2002. The downed pilots were Paul Turner and Ed Heller; P. C. Davis to author, 15 February 2002; John Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits: The Story of American Air Force Fighter Pilots in the Korean War (New York: New York University, 1996), 87–88; William Dunbar to author, 30 April 2002; Clark, “Not Quite a Hero,” 70–71, 86, 100, 110–11.

  18. Francis Gabreski, “[End of Tour] Report by Colonel Francis S. Gabreski,” 8 July 1952, 4 HRA K720.131-2.

  19. William Borders, MiG Fights in Korea.

  20. United States Air Force Statistical Digest: fy 1953, 32 HRA K134.11-6. These were the average number of aircraft possessed by committed units (in action), as contrasted to the much higher number of aircraft present throughout the theater including non-committed units.

  21. USAF Report on Korea: A Summary of Combat Operations, 1 July 1951–30 June 1952, 12; USAF Report on Korea: A Summary of Combat Operations: 1 July 1952–27 July 1953, 23 both HRA 134.78-101.

  22. USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 26.

  23. “Soviet Fliers in the Korean Sky.” These translated Soviet materials indicate 60,450 day sorties and 2,779 night sorties. Also see Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 138, 201–2 and Wetterhahn, “The Russians of MiG Alley,” 72.

  24. USAF Report on Korea: June 1950–June 1951, 33. Unfortunately, there is no comparable data available for the period prior to 1 July 1951. However, the Sabres flew only five thousand effective sorties during this period, or about 6 percent of the total combat sorties; USAF Report on Korea: July 1951–June 1952, 12–13, 64; USAF Report on Korea: July 1952–July 1953, 2, 23–24; Korean War Victory Credits; Korean Air War Summary, 12 HRA K720.04D-1. United States Air Force, Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analysis, The Relationship between Sortie Ratios and Loss Rates for Air-to-Air Battle Engagements during World War II and Korea, Saber Measures (Charlie), September 1970, 11 AUL MU42210-75. A USAF study during the Vietnam War covering the period July 1951 through the end of the war used seventy-seven thousand U.S. sorties (apparently total F-86 sorties) and forty-one thousand MiG sorties (apparently those sighted, a factor which clearly skewed its results.)

  25. Quoted in R. Cargill Hall, “Early Cold War Overflight Programs: An Introduction,” in R. Cargill Hall and Clayton Laurie, eds., Early Cold War Overflights, 1950-1956: Symposium Proceedings, vol. 1, Memoirs (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian National Reconnaissance Office, 2003).

  26. Jared Crabb Journal, 2 November 1950, fr 0430 USAFA MS-2. Partridge repeated the request about a week later. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 1950–1953, 209; Y’Blood, The Three Wars of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, 253.

  27. Y’Blood, The Three Wars of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, 253.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Dean Acheson, testimony, Hearings on the Military Situation in the Far East, 82nd Congress, 1st Session, part 3, 1723–24 in Balchen papers, part 2 HRA 168.7053-332; D. Clayton James, The Years of MacArthur, vol. 2, Triumph and Disaster, 1945–1964 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985), 524–52; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 211.

  30. Acheson and Marshall testimony, Hearings of the Military Situation in the Far East, part 3, 1723–24; part 5, 3583; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 211; James, Triumph and Disaster, 525.

  31. Davis, The 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 133. Sixteen of the fifty-four F-86 pilots I interviewed volunteered this view; none expressed a contrary view. Three others took the same position in their published accounts. I have found only one individual that wrote that he would not allow hot pursuit, Col. Ben Preston, 4th Fighter Interceptor Group commander, July 1951 through mid-March 1952.

  32. Mele Vojvodich, “Overflights Conducted During the Korean War,” 67 and Samuel Dickens, “RF-86 Sabre Overflights in Asia,” 77, both in Hall and Laurie, Early Cold War Overflights.

  33. Vojvodich, “Overflights,” 68.

  34. Vojvodich, “Overflights,” 75. This is based on the fact that one pilot, Mele Vojvodich, flew ten to fifteen such missions during the last year of the war; F-86 pilots relate the escort missions in Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable, Fighter Aces of the U.S.A. (Fallbrook, Cal.: Aero, 1979), 52; Lt. Gen Thomas McMullen, videotaped USAF Oral Interview, Apr, May, October 1998 HRA 239.0512-2172; William Borders to author, February 2002; Earl Brown to author, 17 March 20002; William Thomas interview with author, 26 May 2002; Houston Tuel interview with author, March 2002.

  35. Bruce Hinton to author, 2 June 2002.

  36. Dolph Overton, “The Air Force.”

  37. Glenn Carus, interview with author, 19 February 2002; Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 135; McMullen Interview.

  38. Walker Mahurin interview with author, June 2000; Mahurin, Honest John, 84–85.

  39. Jon Halliday, “Air Operations in Korea: The Soviet Side of the Story,” in A Revolutionary War: Korea and the Transformation of the Postwar World, William Williams, ed. (Chicago: Imprint, 1993), 154–55.

  40. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 75; Oleg Sarin and Lev Dvoretsky, Alien Wars: The Soviet Union’s Aggressions Against the World, 1919 to 1989 (Novato, Cal.: Presidio, 1996), 76; Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 136.

  41. Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 53.

  42. Interview with Colonel James Hagerstrom, by John Sherwood, 3 February 1995, 13.

  43. Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 139–40.

  44. Frederick Blesse interview with author, 29 August 2002.

  45. Robinson Risner, The Passing of the Night: My Seven Years as a Prisoner of the North Vietnamese (New York: Random House, 1973), 52.

  46. U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Republican Staff, “An Examination of U.S. Policy Toward POW/MIAs,” 23 May 1991, 274, 282.

  47. Walker Mahurin interview with author, April 2000; Walker Mahurin interview with author, 23 May 2000; Mahurin, Honest John, 68–69.

  48. Mahurin, Honest John, 88–89; Walker Mahurin Interview, 23 May 2000; Bud Mahurin interview for “Secrets of War,” 1997, available at www.acepilots.com/korea_mahurin.html.

  49. Blesse interview.

  50. Charles Cleveland interview with author, 2 March 2000; Charles Cleveland, lecture to SOS instructors, 3 April 2000.

  51. Michael DeArmond interview with author, 2 January 2001. Thyng was correct. DeArmond survived a shoot down and a year and a half in a Communist prison camp to rise to flag grade.

  52. USAF Interview with Gen. John Roberts, 10 February 1977, 28 HRA K239.0512-1076.

  53. Walter Boyne, “The Forgotten War,” Air Force Magazine (June 2000), 33.

  54. Cleveland Interview, 2 March 2000; Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits, 1. Four of the top aces and five of the other aces admit to crossing the Yalu. There is, of course, some conflicting evidence. For example while Chick Cleveland states that Royal Baker, 4th Fighter Interceptor Group commander between June 1952 and March 1953, “was strictly against crossing the Yalu.” John Sherwood writes that at least on one occasion in October 1952 Baker gave implicit permission to cross the river by informing his men to turn off their IFFs; Clyde Gilbert, interview with author 10 February 2002; USAF Oral History Interview, Maj. Gen. John Giraudo, 8–12 January 1985, 84 HRA K239.0512-1630; Sam Jackson interview with author, 9 February 2002; John Kumpf to author, February 2002; USAF Oral Interview, Gen. John Roberts, 10 February 1977, 28 HRA K239.0512-1076; Vincent Stacy interview with author, 7 March 2002. A number of pilots state that many if not most of the aces got kills north of the Yalu.

  55. Clark, “Not Quite a Hero”; Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, 70; Hinton interview with author, 2 June 2002

  56. Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 53; McMullen Interview; Cecil Foster interview with author, 25 January 2003. The fracas concerning Dolph Overton also may have played a role in this action.

  57. USAF Oral History Interview, Maj. Gen. John Giraudo, 8–12 January 1985, 98; Carus Interview. On the other hand there is a rumor that Mitchell disallowed three kills that McConnell scored across the river.

  58. John Lowery interview with author, 4 February 2002.

  59. Dolph Overton interview with author, 8 November 2000; Overton, “The Air Force”; “Dolph D. Overton, III” (Maxwell Air Force Base Air University), available at www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eaglebios/99bios/overton99.htm.

  60. Overton Interview, 8 November 2000; Dolph Overton interview with author, 18 July 2000; Cleveland Interview, 2 March 2000.

  61. Mitchell had led the famous Yamamoto mission and had bagged eleven Japanese aircraft in World War II and four in Korea.

  62. Jim Mesko, Air War over Korea (Carrollton, Tex.: Squadron/Signal, 2000), 53. Some claim Overton was stripped of his victories; Tucker interview with author, 18 June 2002. This former F-86 pilot says that Mitchell took the victories away but was overturned by the claims board.

  63. Mesko, Air War, 53; Paul Cole, POW/MIA Archive Research Project: Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Berlin, vol. 1, Moscow Research, rev. February 1995, 243n49.

  64. Cleveland interview, 8 November 2000.

  65. Robert Orr, “Defense and Strategy,” Fortune (October 1953), 65; Michael McCarthy, “Uncertain Enemies: Soviet Pilots in the Korean War,” Air Power History (Spring 1997), 37–38. In one case MiGs strafed a Communist pilot about to be rescued by UN helicopters. In May 1951 a Soviet pilot downed in an UN–controlled area committed suicide when faced with capture.

  66. Clark, “The Korean Air War Revisited,” 72.

  67. A passionate and eloquent critique of the border crossing is in Joe Clark’s memoir, “Not Quite a Hero,” 163, and “The Korean Air War Revisited,” 62, 72

  68. Headquarters Fifth Air Force, 5th AF Regulation Number 14-4, May 1952 HRA; USAF Victory Credits Korean War.

  69. I entered all of the F-86 MiG claims (from the General Orders) into a database. Two General Orders covering 11 individuals and 10.5 claims are unavailable.

  70. I arranged the data by chronology into four essentially equal portions based on credits. In the first quarter, 82 percent of kills were claimed by leads; in the second quarter, 80 percent; and in each of the last two quarters, 84 percent.

  71. There were forty aces in the war, all but one flying F-86s. Most of their kills were MiG-15s. I listed the aces by their total kills, although my calculations are for their MiG kills.

  72. I did not count engagements that began as head-on passes, and listed engagements that began with Communist fighters attacking UN aircraft, not just the F-86s, as Communist initiative.

  73. Cecil Foster interview with author, 25 January 2003. Cecil Foster told me that a MiG he claimed as damaged was reassessed by his intelligence officer as destroyed after returning from Seoul. Foster believes that officer consulted with higher ranking intelligence officers who probably used radio intercept information to reevaluate that claim; W. W. Marshall, “MiG Alley,” in Top Guns: America’s Fighter Aces Tell Their Stories, Joe Foss and Matthew Brennan, eds., (New York: Pocket Books, 1991), 264. Another ace called the radio intelligence “another witness.”

  74. Glenn Carus stated that the cameras worked only 60 percent of the time, Chick Cleveland said 20 percent of the time, and ace Dolph Overton put the figure at 10 percent. Overton says that the film was left over from World War II. Glenn Carus interview with author, 19 February 2002; Charles Cleveland interview with author, 2 March 2000; Dolph Overton interview with author, 18 July 2000. Because of the characteristics of the gun camera photography, analysts concluded that if film captured thirteen hits on the MiG there was a 100 percent certainty of destruction while four hits on film gave a 50 percent certainty. This begs the question, for this seems to be working backward from aircraft assessed as destroyed to the number of hits on film. James Hall, “Statistical Analysis of the Firing Pass,” in Institute for Air Weapons Research, “F-86 vs. MiG-15: A Digest of the Briefing on the Analysis of the Korean Air War,” 19 May 1954 AUL M34822-14a, 41.

  75. FEAF Report on the Korean War, vol. 1, 12–13 HRA 168.7104-52; Operations Analysis Office, “An Analysis of F-86, MiG-15, Engagements September 1952 through April 1953,” Memorandum No. 63, 5 June 1953, 1, 8 HRA K720.3101-63.

  76. H. E. Collins, “Testing the Russian MiG,” in Test Flying at Old Wright Field, Ken Chilstrom, ed. (Omaha, Neb.: Westchester House, 1991), 46.

  77. OAO, “Analysis of F-86, MiG-15, Engagements,” Memo No. 63, 11–12, 13. HRA K720.3101-63.

  78. In addition, four MiG pilots bailed out without being hit, two MiGs collided and were destroyed, and one MiG was shot down by a comrade. All seven of these were credited to American pilots as kills.

  79. Only two pilots claimed more than one victory this way: USAF ace Pete Fernandez and Marine ace John Bolt.

  80. Martha Olson and Richard Sandborn, “Aircraft Attrition in Korea: An Analysis of MiG-15 Effectiveness,” Operations Analysis Technical Memorandum No. 31, 11 Feb 1952, 2n1, 6–7 AUL 31622no.31. This study looked at thirty-one Eighth Air Force missions during 1944; Stephen Rosen, Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell, 1991), 143. American submariners had a similar problem during World War II.

  81. USAF Korean War Victory Credits. The official USAF totals are 841 MiGs destroyed, 800 by F-86s.

  82. Joe Clark to author, 23 February 2003; Clark, “Not Quite a Hero”; Cecil Foster interview with author, 25 January 2003; Dale Smiley interview with author, 12 March 2002; Wesley Tillis interview with author, 18 March 2002; Houston Tuel interview with author, 4 March 2002; Alonzo Walter interview with author, 5 March 2002.

  83. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 66; Aleksandr Konlobovskii, “Twenty Years in Combat (Part II): A History of the MiG-15 in Combat,” Aerokhobbi (March 1994); Krylov and Tepsurkayev, “The Hunt for the ‘Sabre’”; Diego Zampun, “MiG-15 Fagots over Korea,” http://dzamoububiinry/Korea/MigsoverKorea.html; “Soviet Fliers in the Korean Sky,” translations on the Soviet Air Force Operations in Korea; Wetterhahn, “The Russians of MiG Alley,” 75. These two sources give Soviet claims at 1,309.

  84. Task Force Russia, “The 1059 Document,” in Steven L. Sewell, “Russian Claims from the Korean War 1950–53,” available at www.korean-war.com/sovietunion.html. The thirty non-USAF aircraft claimed were two Navy F6F-5s and twenty-eight Meteors.

  85. Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 201.

  86. Vladislav Morozov and Serguy Uskov, “On Guard for Peace and Labor,” Mir Aviatsii (February 1997); Kotloblovskii, “Twenty Years in Combat”; “Soviet Fliers in the Korean Sky”; Zampini, “Mig-15 Fagots over Korea.”

  87. Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-15, 66–67.

  88. Wetterhan, “Russians of MiG Alley,” 65. For the various numbers of credits for Pepelyaev see Gordon, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, 66–67 and Gordon and Rigmant, Mig-15, 134, 138.

  89. USAF Statistical Digest fy 1953, 28. In addition to the 139 air-to-air losses, the USAF listed 550 losses to antiaircraft fire, 472 to non-enemy action on operational missions and 305 in two categories of unknown and missing. I estimate that about 100 F-86s were lost in air-to-air combat.

Chapter 11

1. USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, USAF Historical Study no. 85, 1978. Hereafter cited as USAF World War II Victory Credits.

2. The thousand pilots are a rough estimate based on Mike Spick, The Ace Factor: Air Combat and the Role of Situational Awareness (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1988), 128 and a small, rough survey of F-86 veterans, the number of F-86 sorties, and the missions flown by F-86 pilots as of the end of July 1953. United States Air Force Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 36, 94 HRA K134.11-6; USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, Korean War, USAF Historical Study no. 81, 1975. Hereafter cited as USAF Korean War Victory Credits. Guy Bordelon was the only Navy ace of the war; he downed five Red aircraft at night flying a F4U Corsair. Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable, Fighter Aces of the USA (Fallbrook, Cal.: Aero, 1979), 307.

3. Toliver and Constable, Fighter Aces of the USA, 78, 103, 105, 107, 114, 121, 194, 197, 392.

4. Frederick Blesse, “Check Six”: A Fighter Pilot Looks Back (New York: Ivy, 1987), 74.

5. Futrell, USAF in Korea, 652.

6. W. Harbison, “Critique on the F-86E,” Central Fighter Establishment, February–March 1952, 5; Futrell, USAF in Korea, 652; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Flint DuPre, U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary (New York: Watts, 1965), 12, 52, 76, 113, 150.

7. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; USAF World War II Victory Credits.

8. “Yank Triple Ace Had Hard Time Convincing Brass He Was Pilot,” AFM; “McConnell, World’s Top Jet Ace, is Killed Testing Plane on Coast,” New York Times (26 Aug 1954), 20; William Head, “McConnell, Joseph C.” in Air Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, vol. 2, Walter Boyne, ed. (Santa Barbara, Cal.: ABC Clio, 2002), 402; Frank Olynyk, Stars and Bars: A Tribute to the American Fighter Ace 1920–1973 (London: Grubb Street, 1995), 435; “Captain Joseph McConnell” www.acepilots.com/korea_mcconnell.html; Robert Hucker, “Joe McConnell—Top Korea Ace,” Air Combat (May 1980), 13; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 150.

9. Hucker, “Joe McConnell,” 13; “Yank Triple Ace.”

  10. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; History of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, January–June 1953 HRA K-Wg-51-Hi.

  11. “Captain Joseph McConnell,” Internet. Barcus knew McConnell who had flown as his wingman on at least one occasion. (There was a Fifth Air Force policy that authorized general officers to fly twice a month.) 51st Tactical Fighter Wing . . . A Combat Unit in Two Wars, 35 HRA K-Wg-51-Hi.

  12. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; 51FWg History: January–June 1953.

  13. Abbott claims that they were authorized by a “hot pursuit” policy. Dean Abbott, “On Mac’s Wing,” SabreJet Classics (Summer 1999).

  14. Abbott, “On Mac’s Wing.”

  15. Capt. Joseph McConnell [report] 18 May 1953 in Davis, MiG Alley, 62.

  16. Davis, MiG Alley, 62. Another wingman, Gilbert Lowder, describes how McConnell saved him on 15 May 1953 by shooting a MiG off his tail in a very close-range battle. Gilbert Lowder in Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 115.

  17. Abbott, “On Mac’s Wing.”

  18. McConnell, “Ace Tells of Battles.”

  19. Abbott, “On Mac’s Wing.”

  20. McConnell, “Ace Tells of Battles.”

  21. There were eight days on which the Air Force claimed ten or more victories. USAF Korean War Victory Credits. Some insist McConnell had additional victories. Houston Tuel relates that McConnell downed two MiGs on a test flight, but lacking witnesses, could not get credit for them. Houston Tuel interview with author, 8 February 2002.

  22. “McConnell, World’s Top Jet Ace,” 20.

  23. McConnell, “Ace Tells of Battles.”

  24. Hucker, “Joe McConnell,” 14.

  25. McConnell, “Ace Tells of Battles.” One can only wonder if this was genuine or ghost written by a USAF public relations officer.

  26. Abbott was a brand new pilot, having earned his wings less than a year earlier (in September 1952), who joined the 51st that December. Abbott, “On Mac’s Wing”; Pilot’s Manual F-86[F], 20 February 1953, 76 NASM Suitland.

  27. Glenn Carus interview with author, 19 February 2002; Archie Tucker to author, 18 June 2002; USAF Oral History Interview, Lt. Gen. Thomas McMullen, April, May, October 1998 HRA K239.0512-2172.

  28. If this is true, then McConnell was lucky or very clear headed when he punched out of his fighter in April. Interview with Colonel James Hagerstrom by John Sherwood, 3 February 1995, 92.

  29. Houston Tuel interview with author, 4 March 2002; USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  30. McConnell was not only a superior combat flyer, he was also highly experienced. At the time of his death he had logged 1,800 total flying hours, just over 1,300 in jets, 677 hours in F-86s, including 34 in the “H” model. McConnell Accident Report, 25 August 1954; Adams, “On Mac’s Wing.” In 1955 McConnell’s life was the subject of perhaps the best non-fiction movie made about the Korean air war, The McConnell Story starring Alan Ladd and June Allyson. The film had just been completed when McConnell was killed, which required that the ending be reshot. Head, “McConnell.”

  31. Fernandez was a consultant for the 1955 McConnell movie. DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 76; Jo Thomas, “Korea Jet Ace Recalled as Modest Hero,” New York Times (27 October 1980), 16; “The USAF Museum Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month by Recognizing Manuel ‘Pete’ Fernandez.”

  32. The USAF awarded Fernandez the Silver Star for this engagement. Far East Air Forces, General Order no. 244, 21 May 1953 HRA K720.193; General Order no. 143, 20 March 1953, fr 205; USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  33. General Order no. 187, 16 April 1953, fr 0271; General Order no. 244, 21 May 1953, fr 0360; Toliver and Constable, Fighter Aces of the USA, 295.

  34. USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  35. DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 76; “USAF Museum Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month”; Fritz McAden, “Hero Dies with Honor,” Dayton Daily News (23 November 1980), 2-F.

  36. McAden, “Hero Dies with Honor.”

  37. McAden, “Hero Dies with Honor”; Thomas, “Korea Jet Ace Recalled as Modest Hero.”

  38. Boyne, Aces in Command, 141; Mesko, Air War over Korea, 54.

  39. Thomas DeJarnette, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group, “Operations in MiG Alley,” 17 July 1953, iii HRA 4FWg History, January–June 1953.

  40. DeJarnette, “4FIG Operations in MiG Alley,” iv.

  41. Bruno Giordano interview with author, 19 February 2002; John Hoye interview with author, 28 February 2002; James Magill interview with author, 20 April 2003.

  42. Toliver and Constable, Fighter Aces of the USA, 294; Earl Brown interview with author, 17 March 2002; Magill interview.

  43. Larry Milberry, The Canadair Sabre (Toronto: CANAV, 1986), 98; Bruno Giordano interview with author 6 March 2002.

  44. A number of secondary sources credit Jabara with more World War II aerial victories than does the official USAF victory list. “Lieutenant Colonel James Jabara, USAF,” available at www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/afp/jjbio.htm; USAF World War II Victory Credits; William Allmon, “Air Ace of the Korean War” [Jabara], available at www.military.com/Contents/MoreContent?file=Prkorace.

  45. “Lt. Col. James Jabara, USAF”; Allmon, “Air Ace of the Korean War.”

  46. USAF Oral History Interview, Gen. John Meyer, July 1975, 1–2 HRA K239.0512-894; Craig Miner, “James Jabara: Hero,” available at www.wingsoverkansas.com/archives/profiles6-2000.html.

  47. Meyer interview, 2; USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  48. Lon Walter, “The First Ace is Crowned,’” SabreJet Classics (Summer 1998); James Jabara, “First Jet Ace” The Catholic Digest (August 1951), 17.

  49. James Jabara interview, 21 May 1951 HRA K239.0512-648; Walter, “First Ace is Crowned”; John Dille, “The Jets’ First Ace,” Life (4 June 1951), 136,139.

  50. Dille, “Jets’ First Ace,” 139.

  51. Jabara interview, 21 May 1951; Jabara, “First Jet Ace,” 17; Allmon, “Air Ace of the Korean War”; Dille, “Jets’ First Ace,” 139; Walter, “First Ace is Crowned”; Miner, “James Jabara: Hero.”

  52. Diego Zampini, “Sabre Ace.” Available at dzampini.800m.ru/korea/sabreaceng.htm.

  53. Sam Jackson interview with author, 9 February 2002; John Lowery interview with author, 4 February 2002; “Maj. James Jabara,” available at www.acepilots.com/korea_jabara.html; Dennis Flynn interview with author, 10 March 2002.

  54. Giordano interview with author, 6 March 2002; Bruno Giordano interview, 20 February 2002 and 25 October 2004; Flynn interview, 10 March 2002; John Lowery interview with author, 31 January 2002.

  55. Bruno Giordano interview with author, Mar 2002; Bruno Giordano interview with author 25 October 2004. Only one of Jabara’s fifteen kills was officially listed as not been fired on, the first of two credits he got on 26 May 1953. General Order no. 292, 18 June 1953, fr 0435.

  56. Milberry, Canadair Sabre, 98.

  57. Lon Walter, “Recollections of James Jabara,” SabreJet Classics (Summer 1998).

  58. Meyer Interview, July 1975, 1.

  59. Columbia University Oral Interview with James Jabara, December 1960, 13 HRA K146.24-55; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Allmon, “Air Ace of the Korean War”; “First Jet versus Jet Aces,” available at www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/korea/ke17.htm.

  60. USAF World War II Victory Credits; 4FIW History: November 1951; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 52; Brunning, Crimson Sky, 180, 183; Bill Hess, “King of MiG Alley,” Air Classics (February 1965), 15–16; William Oliver, The Inner Seven: The History of Seven Unique American Combat “Aces” of World War II and Korea (Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1999), 25; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 224.

  61. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Bruning, Crimson Sky, 183; Foss and Brennan, Top Guns, 270.

  62. Bruning, Crimson Sky, 181,182.

  63. Alfred Dymock quoted in Bruning, Crimson Sky, 185.

  64. Claude Mitson quoted in Bruning, Crimson Sky, 185,186; USAF Oral Interview with Maj. Gen. F. C. “Boots” Blesse, 14 February 1977, 29 HRA K239.0512- 1077.

  65. Blesse, “Check Six,” 71; Bruning, Crimson Sky, 186; Hess, “King of MiG Alley,” 14–15.

  66. Littlefield’s eyewitness version contrasts with secondary sources and the Medal of Honor citation that claim Davis was shooting at a third MiG when he was hit. William Littlefield quoted in Blesse, “Check Six,” 71–72; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 52–53; Bruning, Crimson Sky; 186–88.

  67. Richard Creighton quoted in Bruning, Crimson Sky; 189.

  68. Blesse interview, 14 February 1977, 29; William Littlefield quoted in Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 113.

  69. Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 163–68.

  70. “Davis–Air Force”; “Air Force Defends Sabre Jet Record,” Lubbock Evening Journal (13 Feb 1952); “Davis Hoped War Would Be Last One”; “Mrs. Davis Claims Ace Never Given Chance,” all four in HRA reel no. 33776.

  71. TWX CG FEAF Tokyo Japan to HQ USAF Washington HRA reel no. 33776.

  72. “FEAF Leader Weyland Pays Tribute to Maj. Davis’s Deeds.” The USAF established the original policy of sending aces home on 1 June 1951, modified it in December 1951 to allow aces to volunteer to stay in the theater. On 4 February 1952 the Fifth Air Force changed the policy to require all pilots to fly one hundred missions. “Policy Providing for the Return of Jet Aces from FEAF to the ZI has been Rescinded”; TWX CG FEAF Tokyo Japan to HQ USAF Washington both in reel no. 33776; “Air Force Defends Sabre Jet Record.”

  73. Royal Baker, Report on F-86 Operations in Korea, 1 April 1953, 1 HRA K- Gp-4-Su-Op; USAF World War II Victory Credits; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 12–13; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 125.

  74. Chronology of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing from 1942, 24 HRA K-Wg-4-Hi; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 13; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 125.

  75. Frederick Blesse interview with author, 29 August 2002; Flynn interview, 10 March 2002; Jackson interview, 9 February 2002; John Ludwig interview with author, 13 September 2002; John Lowery to author, 5 February 2002; James Magill interview with author, 30 April 2003.

  76. Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 125.

Chapter 12

1. Blesse, “Check Six,” 67, chaps 2–8; USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, Korean War, USAF Historical Study No. 81, 1975. Hereafter cited as USAF Korean War Victory Credits; West Point Alumni Association, 1971 Register of Graduates and Former Cadets of the United States Military Academy (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley and Sons, 1971), 542, 557; Boyne, Aces in Command, 110–25.

2. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Blesse, “Check Six,” 71, 74–75; Frederick Blesse interview for “Secrets of War,” interview no. S3234, 1997, available at www.secretsofwar.com/experts/blesse1.html; Frederick Blesse interview with author, 29 August 2002; Charles Cleveland interview with author, 3 April 2000.

3. Blesse, “Check Six,” 77; Rosen, Winning the Next War, 141. The navy used a similar policy with submarine commanders during World War II, giving skippers no more than two patrols to prove themselves.

4. Frederick Blesse, “No Guts, No Glory,” USAF Fighter Weapons School, no. 1, 64 AUL Ref 358.4 A29833n.

5. Blesse, “Check Six,” 80; USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

6. Blesse, “Check Six,” 85, 82–84; Blesse interview, 29 August 2002; Earl Brown, “Memories of Great Fighter Pilots: Frederick C. ‘Boots’ Blesse,” SabreJet Classics (Spring 2000).

7. Blesse, “Check Six,” 85.

8. Ibid., 86.

9. Ibid., 94; Boyne, Aces in Command, 138. USAF records do not indicate a loss or a helicopter rescue on 17 September 1952.

  10. Blesse, “Check Six,” 96, 94–95; Blesse interview “Secrets of War,” 1997; Boyne, Aces in Command, 138.

  11. Blesse, “Check Six,” 96.

  12. Ibid., 99; Blesse interview “Secrets of War,” 1997.

  13. Blesse, “Check Six,” 97.

  14. Ibid., 99–105, 108, 113–14; Maj. Gen. Frederick Blesse, Biography United States Air Force, HRA reel no. 23234; Blesse interview, 29 August 2002; “Jet Ace from West Point, Frederick C. Blesse,” available at www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/korea/kc15.htm.

  15. Blesse interview 1997; Blesse, “Check Six,” 9–10, 78–79; Brown, “Memoirs of Great Fighter Pilots”; Boyne, Aces in Command, 138.

  16. The manual was “No Guts, No Glory” and the book, “Check Six.” Blesse interview, 14 February 1977, 17; Blesse interview, “Secrets of War,” 1997.

  17. Headquarters Far East Air Forces, General Order No. 387, fr 0539 HRA K720.193; James Goodson, Tumult in the Clouds (New York: St. Martin’s, 1983), 129; Oliver, Inner Seven, 53–54, 59–61; Art Brewster, “Jet Methuselah,” [unknown] (1 August 1953) AFM.

  18. The quoted portion is from Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 149. Vermont Garrison, [after action report], 5 June 1953 in Davis, MiG Alley, 67–68; Oliver, The Inner Seven, 62–63; USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  19. Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 191; Oliver, The Inner Seven, 64–65.

  20. Flint DuPre, U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary (New York: Watts, 1965), 116; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 364.

  21. Carter clearly was well thought of as a wingman as he flew that position on eight of Johnson’s ten kills, and on some of Baker’s thirteen. He is credited with two half kills. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 173–74; Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 87–88; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 364.

  22. General Order no. 391, 20 October 1953, fr 0484; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 174; John Lowery to author 4 March 2002; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 461.

  23. Harold Fischer, “My Ten MiGs,” SabreJet Classics (Winter 1998); Fischer, Dreams of Aces, chaps. 1–7; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 268.

  24. Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 89.

  25. Ibid., 92, 93.

  26. Lindsay claimed a MiG and stated that the pilot had ejected. The USAF awarded one victory credit that day, to Fischer. While there may in fact have been two MiGs downed, with the parachute Fischer observed from Lindsay’s claim, it is also possible that there was only one Communist fighter that both Sabre pilots engaged. Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 97–100; USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  27. Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 114, 115.

  28. Ibid.

  29. General Order no. 223, 7 May 1953; Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 115–17.

  30. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 125–28.

  31. Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 137–39.

  32. Various sources give different spellings: Decai, De-Cai, Decha. Fischer, “My Ten MiGs”; Fischer, Dreams of Aces, [preface], 202; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 268; Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 182; Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 192.

  33. These included F-86 pilots Ed Heller, Andy MacKenzie, and Ronald Parks. Oylynk, Stars and Bars, 268; Fischer, Dreams of Aces, chaps 17–19.

  34. Fischer, Dreams of Aces, [preface].

  35. Glenn Carus interview with author, 19 February 2002; P. C. Davis to author, 6 March 2001; Archie Tucker interview with author, 18 June 2002.

  36. The secondary sources give the mission total as low as 30 missions, Dan Allsup, “Parr for the Cross,” Legion Magazine vol. 149, no.3; John Lowery, “Captain Ralph S. Parr, Double Jet Ace,” in The F-86 Sabre Jet and Pilots, Barbara Stahura, ed. (Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1997), 54; Ross Buckland, “Shooter’s Odds,” SabreJet Classics (Spring 1997); one says 37, Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 491; and two others 47, Toliver and Constable, Fighter Aces of the USA, 308; John Frisbee, “The Pinnacle of Professionalism,” Air Force Magazine (February 1987). While the precise number may be in dispute, the basic fact is that Parr downed a lot of MiGs in a short time, at a rate unmatched by all but Dolph Overton.

  37. DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 185; Lowery, “Captain Ralph S. Parr Double Jet Ace,” 55; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 491.

  38. Capt. Ralph Parr [after action report] in Davis, MiG Alley, 65.

  39. Parr After Action Report, 64–67; Lowery, “Captain Ralph S. Parr Double Jet Ace,” 54–56; Buckland, “Shooter’s Odds.”

  40. Lowery, “Captain Ralph S. Parr Double Jet Ace,” 56–57.

  41. Allsup, “Parr for the Cross.”

  42. Lowery, “Captain Ralph S. Parr Double Jet Ace,” 57–58; Wagner, North American Sabre, 76; Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 186–87.

  43. Frisbee, “Pinnacle of Professionalism”; “Ralph Parr” Maxwell biography.

Chapter 13

1. Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, chaps1–4; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 278.

2. Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, 34–39; Cecil Foster, “Nine Was Enough: My Favorite Sabre Stories,” SabreJet Classics (Winter 1993); Cecil Foster quoted in Larry Davis, MiG Alley, 49–50.

3. Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, 41, 40.

4. Ibid., 40–42; Foster, “Nine Was Enough.”

5. Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, 56, 54–55.

6. Ibid., 56–58; Foster, “Nine Was Enough.”

7. Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, 59–61.

8. Ibid., 66–67.

9. Foster, MiG Alley to Mu Ghia Pass, 68–70; Foster, “Nine Was Enough.”

  10. Ibid., 70–72.

  11. Ibid., 2, 148.

  12. Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 113; Robert Dorr and Warren Thompson, The Korean Air War (Osceola, Wisc.: Motorbooks, 1994), 131; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 410.

  13. Frederick Blesse interview for “Secrets of War,” interview no. 3234, 1997; Glenn Carus interview with author, 19 February 2002; Dolphin Overton interview with author, 8 November 2000; USAF Oral History Interview with Gen. John Roberts, 10 February 1977, 60 HRA K239.0512-1076; John Ludwig to author, 13 September 2002; William Thomas interview with author, 26 May 2002; USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft Korean War, USAF Historical Study No. 81, 1975. Hereafter cited as USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  14. Duncan Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre (Wiltshire, UK: Crowood, 2000), 78; USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  15. This gives an interesting view of what it was like in the Fourth Group. James Salter, The Hunters (New York: Harper, 1956). Also see Salter’s postwar memoir, Burning the Days: Recollections (New York: Random House, 1997).

  16. The movie resembles the book little except in title and the characters’ names. Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 114, 116; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 78; Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 112; Dorr and Thompson, Korean Air War, 131.

  17. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 78–79; Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 116.

  18. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 79.

  19. Ibid., 79; Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 117; Toliver and Constable, Fighter Aces of the USA, 305.

  20. William Dunbar interview with author, 30 April 2002; Robert Ingalls interview with author, 12 April 2002; James Magill interview with author, 30 April 2003; Houston Tuel interview with author, 4 March 2002.

  21. It is unclear if a SAM or a MiG-21 downed Low. James Kasler and Robinson Risner were two other Korean War aces also shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 79; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 410.

  22. Interview with Col. James Hagerstrom by John Sherwood, 3 February 1995, 1, 9; Oliver, Inner Seven, 69–70, 73; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 313.

  23. Hagerstrom interview, February 1995, 13–15.

  24. Ibid., 15–17.

  25. Ibid., 1, 4.

  26. Oliver, Inner Seven, 75.

  27. Hagerstrom interview, February 1995, 85; Oliver, Inner Seven, 76–77.

  28. Oliver, Inner Seven, 77–79.

  29. Hagerstrom interview, February 1995, 93–94; Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 125.

  30. Hagerstrom interview, February 1995, 84–86, 88–92.

  31. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Francis Gabreski, Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life (New York: Orion, 1991), chaps. 1–12; “Biography: Colonel Francis S. Gabreski, USAF (Ret.)” AFM; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 285–86.

  32. There are a number of versions of this action that vary in specific details. General Order no. 388, 13 August 1951 HRA K720.193; Maurice Allward, F-86 Sabre (London: Ian Allan, 1978), 35; Gabreski, Gabby, 222–23; Oliver, Inner Seven, 48; Edward Sims, Fighter Tactics and Strategy, 1914–1970 (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 223–25. Gabreski’s wingman’s account also differs on several minor details. Robert Makinney, “B-29 Escort in Korea,” SabreJet Classics (Spring 2000).

  33. Gabreski, Gabby, 227, 229; Gabreski Biography; Oliver, Inner Seven, 48.

  34. General Order no. 198, 26 April 1952; Gabreski, Gabby, 238–39; Oliver, Inner Seven, 48; Maj. William Whisner quoted in Davis, MiG Alley, 27, states that the pilot ejected, while I have followed the details in the confirmation order.

  35. Gabreski, Gabby, 244–45; Report by Col. Francis S. Gabreski, 8 July 1952, 2 HRA K720.131-2.

  36. Gabreski biography.

  37. Clark, “Not Quite a Hero”; William Johnson interview with author, 14 February 2002; Richard Merian interview with author, 25 February 2002; Earl Payne interview with author, 17 April 2002; Dale Smiley interview with author, 12 March 2002; Wesley Tillis interview with author, 18 March 2002.

  38. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Oliver, Inner Seven, 97–105; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 631.

  39. Oliver, Inner Seven, 108.

  40. John Frisbee, “A Very Special Ace,” Air Force Magazine (June 1990); Oliver, Inner Seven, 107–9.

  41. Oliver, Inner Seven, 83–89, 95; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 593.

  42. Harrison Thyng, “The Operation of the 4th Fighter Wing in Korea” HRA K720.131; John Frisbee, “A Thyng of Valor,” Air Force Magazine (January 1989), 111; Oliver, Inner Seven, 90–91.

  43. Frisbee, “A Thyng of Valor,” 111; Oliver, Inner Seven, 91–93; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 593.

  44. William Thomas interview with author, 26 May 2002; Larry Davis, “The Bloody Great Wheel!: Harrison R. Thyng,” SabreJet Classics (Winter 2002), 16–17; Stahura, F-86 Sabre Jet and Pilots, 22.

  45. Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 43.

  46. The only American ace in the Korean War who did fly an F-86 was Navy Lieutenant Guy Bordelon who earned his five credits flying an F4U at night.

  47. Marine Corps Historical Center, Oral Interview, John Bolt, tape number 10668. This interview was published as Bruce Gamble, “Time Flies . . . The Oral History of Lt. Col. John F. Bolt, USMC (Ret.),” [Naval Aviation] Foundation (Spring 1993), (Fall 1993) which hereafter is cited as Bolt Interview. Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 152; Ed Wright, “An Ace Among Aces,” Naval Aviation News (May–June 2003), 45.

  48. Bolt Interview, 95, 98–99; Bolt quoted in Eric Hammel, Aces at War (Pacifica, Cal.: Pacifica, 1997), 222; Philip Kaplan, Fighter Pilot: A History and a Celebration (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1999), 245.

  49. Bolt Interview, 99; Bolt quoted in Davis, MiG Alley, 68; Hammel, Aces at War, 222–23; Kaplan, Fighter Pilot, 248; Wright, “Ace Among Aces,” 45.

  50. Bolt Interview, 103–4; Bolt quoted in Davis, MiG Alley, 68; Hammel, Aces at War, 228–29; Oliver, Inner Seven, 20–21; “Two Aces in Korean Air War,” Naval Aviation News (September 1953), 16.

  51. Bolt quoted in Davis, MiG Alley, 68.

  52. Bolt Interview, 104; Hammel, Aces at War, 229; Oliver, Inner Seven, 21; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 152.

Chapter 14

1. The reverse was not the case, for in the years since World War II the USAF has fielded a number of Navy aircraft including the A-7, B-66, and of course the F-4.

2. James Paul and Martin Spirit, “Korean War: The Air War,” available at www.britains-smallwars.com/korea/air-war.html.

3. USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft Korean War, USAF Historical Study No. 81, 1975. Hereafter cited as USAF Korean War Victory Credits; King Accident Report, 4 June 1953; Ryan Accident Report, 5 June 1953. Accident reports can be found at HRA. “Korean War: The Air War”; Grant Hammond, The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 2001), 37; W. Harbison, “Critique on the F-86E,” Central Fighter Establishment, February–May 1952; Evans, Sabre Jets Over Korea, 215; J. H. R. Merifield, “Sabre vs. MiG,” RAF Quarterly (July 1953), 251.

4. South Africans of Number 2 Squadron flew F-86 fighter-bombers while attached to the 18th Fighter Bomber Wing. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 75; Jim Hanford, “Sabres in Combat,” Yankee Wings (November/December 1993), 11; Milberry, The Canadair Sabre, 93, 96–97, 102; John Melady, Korea: Canada’s Forgotten War (Toronto: Macmillan, 1983), 120; Christopher Shores, Air Aces (Novato, Cal.: Presido, 1983), 166.

5. The Navy credits Schirra with one victory, Simpson Evans with one, and Paul Pugh with two. However, the USAF credits Evans and Pugh with one victory each. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Cagle and Manson, Sea War in Korea, 526; D. C. Bennett (National Museum of Naval Aviation) interview with author, 11 February 2001.

6. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Bruce Gamble, “The Oral History of Lt. Col. John F. Bolt, USMC (Ret.)” [National Museum of Naval Aviation] Foundation (Fall 1993), 99.

7. “John Glenn: USMC Sabre Jet Pilot, Astronaut,” available at www.acepilots.com/korea_glenn.html; Above and Beyond: The Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space Sciences (Chicago: New Horizons, 1968), vol. 6, 983; Richard Hallion, The Naval Air War in Korea, 114; Glenn Infield, “The Day John Glenn Almost Died Over Korea,” in Fighting Aces, Phil Hirsch, ed. (New York: Pyramid, 1965), 117.

8. John Glenn, John Glenn: A Memoir (New York: Bantam, 1999), 141–42.

9. Far East Air Forces, General Order no. 356, 17 August 1953 HRA K720.193; Askold Germon, Red Devils on the 38th Parallel (Kiev: unknown, 1998, translation 2000), 348; Glenn, John Glenn, 144.

  10. Boyd flew twenty-two missions in Korea but never got to shoot at a MiG. Later at the Fighter Weapons School he established a reputation as the hottest pilot in the Air Force. He went on to develop the “energy-maneuverability” theory, helped design both the F-15 and F-16, and led the Military Reform Movement. Hammond, The Mind of War; Infield, “The Day John Glenn Almost Died,” 119.

  11. Glenn, John Glenn, 146,145; Infield, “The Day John Glenn Almost Died,” 119–26.

  12. General Order no. 356, 17 August 1953; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; “John Glenn.”

  13. “John Glenn”; USAF Museum, “Maj. John H. Glenn, Jr., Exchange Pilot,” available at www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/korea/kc20.htm; Above and Beyond, vol. 6, 984.

  14. This included accidents, non-combat operational losses, and fighter-bomber losses. It is unclear, but the missing probably includes prisoners of war, some of whom later returned home. United States Air Force Statistical Digest: fy 1953, 28 HRA K134.11-6.

  15. Chronological Record of Military Service [Thomas Sellers]; Thomas M. Sellers to Commandant of the Marine Corps, sub: “Integration into the Regular Marine Corps,” request for, 18 July 1953; Flight Log, VMF-115 [Thomas Sellers]; Individual Flight Record, Thomas Sellers, 336th Ftr-Intcp Sq.

  16. Sellers to wife, 5 April 1953. Sellers wrote his wife on average every other day. Sharon MacDonald, Sellers’s daughter graciously made sixty of her father’s letters and other documents available to the author.

  17. Sellers to wife, 9 April 1953.

  18. Sellers to wife, 29 April 1953.

  19. Sellers to wife, 4 May 1953.

  20. Sellers to wife, 16/17 May 1953.

  21. Sellers to wife, 29 May 1953.

  22. Sellers to wife, 22 June 1953; USAF Korean War Victor Credits. Bolt not only visited Sellers’s widow but he also helped answer questions she and (more recently) her daughter had about Sellers’s death.

  23. Sellers to wife, 29 June 1953.

  24. Sellers to wife, 1 July 1953.

  25. Sellers to wife, 14 July 1953.

  26. Sellers to wife, 17 July 1953.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Ibid.

  29. James Johnson [commander 4FIW] to Mrs. Thomas M. Sellers, 22 July 1953; F. P. Tatum, Head, Casualty Section [USMC] to Mrs. Thomas M. Sellers, 31 July 1953; John Bolt to Mrs. Sellers [5 August 1953]; Albert Dickey to Mrs. Sellers, 27 August 1953; Dean Pogreba to Mrs. Sellers, 3 September 1953. One aspect of the action that is unexplained is why the MiGs fired on Sellers and not on Dickey who was closer to the Communist fighters.

  30. According to a third hand source, Sellers’s Sabre crashed on the Antung airfield. USAF documents listed the crash site as off the mouth of the Yalu, however, they conducted a twenty-minute search for Sellers 25 km north of Antung airfield. Jack Bolt to Dorothy [Sellers], 7 January 1954; John Bolt to Sharon MacDonald, 30 November 1997; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; General Order no. 13, 22 January 1954; Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Reviewing Officer to Head, Personal Affairs Branch, sub: “Finding of death in the case of Maj. Thomas M. Sellers, O29118, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve,” 20 July 1954; A. Hammers, Assistant Head Casualty Section, Military Personnel Services Branch, Personal and Family Readiness Division [USMC] to Sharon MacDonald, 13 December 2000.

  31. This is based on my research into the unit and prisoner records. It includes all causes and all F-86s (fighter-bombers as well). It indicates that thirty-nine pilots were killed, thirty listed as missing in action, twenty-eight returned from captivity, two died in prison, and forty-two rescued from the sea or from behind enemy lines.

  32. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Roy Wenzl, “Son Finds the Father He’d Lost,” available at www.iwitnesstohistory.org/Felix/felix5.htm; 336th Fighter Squadron History, March 1952, appendix in 4th Fighter Wing History, March 1952.

  33. A Russian account of the action that day adds only confusion to the story. Germon, Red Devils on the 38th Parallel, 250. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; 336FS History, August 1952 in 4th Fighter Group History, August 1952; Paul Cole, “POW/MIA Research Project: Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Berlin vol. 1: Moscow,” available at www.aiipowmia.com/koreacw/mockbacole03.html; Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 45; Zampini, “MiG Fagots over Korea,” available at www.dzampini.boom.ru/Korea/MiGsoverKorea.htm; Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu, 135–36.

  34. USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, USAF Historical Study no. 85. Hereafter cited as USAF World War II Victory Credits. Flint DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary (New York: Franklin Watts, 1965), 158; Walker Mahurin, Honest John (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1962), 23; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 420; Shores, Air Aces, 167.

  35. Mahurin, Honest John, 40–43.

  36. Ibid., 47–48.

  37. Mahurin, Honest John, 74–75; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 421.

  38. Clark, “Not Quite a Hero”; Mahurin, Honest John, 89–90, 93–97.

  39. The Sabres claimed five MiGs destroyed on this day, four by the 4th. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Mahurin, Honest John, 98–106; Germon, Red Devils on the 38th Parallel, 231.

  40. Bruning, Crimson Sky, 115; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 158; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 420; Shores, Air Aces, 167.

  41. Eric Hammel interview with author, 12 March 2002; Ed Heller, “Out of Control,” in Aces in Combat: The American Aces Speak, vol. 4, Eric Hammel, ed. (Pacifica, Cal.: Pacifica, 1997), 213; Edwin Heller, “All the Way,” draft for “Bluenoser Tales.”

  42. General Order no. 2, 2 January 1953; USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Heller, “All the Way.”

  43. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Dolph Overton interview with author, November 2000; Paul Cole, “POW/MIA Archive Research Project,” 243n49; Edwin Heller, “I Thought I’d Never Get Home,” in Barbara Stahura, ed., The F-86 Sabre Jet and Pilots (Paducah, Ky.: Turner, 1997), 40–41; Heller, “Out of Control,” 213, 216, 218–21.

  44. These included F-86 pilots Lyle Cameron, Harold Fischer, Roland Parks, and Paul Turner. Heller, “I Thought I’d Never Get Home”; Heller, “All the Way”; Appendix C, “Korean War USAF F-86 Pilots Who Were Captured and Repatriated,” available at www.nationalalliance.org/korea08.htm. Of the three USAF MiG shoot downs on this date, Fischer’s seems to be the most likely although Heller writes that his attacker came at him from a considerable angle, while Fischer writes that the MiG he bagged was “zooming up behind the lone F-86.” Fischer, Dreams of Aces, 135. USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  45. Germon, Red Devils on the 38th Parallel, 297.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Heller, “Out of Control,” 221.

  48. 336th Fighter Squadron History, November 1952 in 4FIG History, November 1952; Risner, Passing of the Night, 46; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 523; Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits, 15–16.

  49. Risner, Passing of Night, 48–49; Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits, 86.

  50. Risner, Passing of Night, 49; Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits, 86.

  51. While some secondary sources claim Risner pushed Logan, I find this extremely unlikely if not impossible. Obstruction of the Sabre’s nose intake would have stalled the engine if sucking in the streaming fuel and hydraulic fluid did not. Of course, pushing the fighter makes a much better story.

  52. Despite some conflicts (and confusion) in the secondary sources, this mission took place on 15 September. The USAF awarded both Logan and Risner the Silver Star for that mission. General Order no. 653, 29 December 1952; Larry Davis, MiG Alley: Air to Air Combat Over Korea (Carrollton, Tex.: Squadron/Signal, 1978), 42–43, 46; Dorr, et al., Korean War Aces, 63–64; Risner, Passing of Night, 51–53; Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits, 2–5. Logan had been Felix Asla’s wingman on the day he was lost. Thompson and McLaren, MiG Alley, 67–68.

  53. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Interview with James Hagerstrom by John Sherwood, 3 February 1995 [date of transcription]; USAF Oral History Interview, BG Robinson Risner, 1–2 Mar 1983, 17 HRA K239.0512-1370; Risner, Passing of Night, 53; Charles Gross, “Turning Point: The Air National Guard and the Korean War,” 14.

  54. Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 523.

  55. Ibid., 373.

  56. Jim Kasler, “Mudder,” in Aces in Combat: The American Aces Speak,” vol. 5, Eric Hammel, ed. (Pacifica, Calif.: Pacifica, 1998), 225–26, 227; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 373.

  57. Kasler, “Mudder,” 227.

  58. Kasler, “Mudder,” 227; Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable, Fighter Aces of the USA, (Fallbrook, Cal.: Aero, 1979), 300.

  59. John Frisbee, “Valor in Three Wars,” Air Force Magazine (November 1986), 119; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 373–74.

  60. Curtis Burns, “Kincheloe Air Force Base, 16th Anniversary”; James Hagerty, First of the Spacemen: Iven C. Kincheloe, Jr. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1960), 45. The Hagerty book is rich on details but contains errors of chronology and other specifics.

  61. Hagerty, First of the Spacemen, 50.

  62. The secondary sources have considerable difficulty with the dates of Kincheloe’s victories. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Burns, “Kincheloe Air Force Base, 16th Anniversary”; Cole, “POW/MIA Archive Research Project,” 274; Mahurin, Honest John, 71.

  63. USAF Korean War Victory Credits, 43.

  64. Harris was a World War II veteran who the USAF recalled from his airline job to active duty. He also bagged three MiGs in the air. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; “Captain Iven Kincheloe, Jr.,” available at www.edwards.af.mil/history/docs_html/people/bio_kincheloe.html. Clark, “Not Quite a Hero”; Haggerty, First of the Spacemen, 47; Wagner, North American Sabre, 67.

  65. DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 126; Olynyk, Stars and Bars, 378; “Captain Iven Kincheloe, Jr.”

  66. Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979), 77.

  67. Clark, “Not Quite a Hero”; DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 126; Mahurin, Honest John, 71; Dale Smiley interview with author, 12 March 2002;

  68. AAF World War II Victory Credits.

  69. Davis was the son of an Army general, a 1936 graduate of West Point, and commander of the 322nd during and after the war. He retired as a two-star general. DuPre, USAF Biographical Dictionary, 52.

  70. Dan Allsup, “Wingman,” Legion Magazine, vol. 149, no. 3; William Brown, “A Fighter Pilot’s Story,” Charles A. Lindbergh Memorial Lecture, 21 May 1992, NASM; “William Earl Brown, Jr.,” available at www.au.af.mil/au/goe/eaglebios/98/brown98.htm.

  71. One month later Chandler downed a MiG in an aerial duel. A B-29 night raid on 24 November left 454 bomb craters on the runway, which grounded the Communist fighters. On 15 December they abandoned the field. USAF Korean War Victory Credits; Jarred Crabb Journal, 10–28 November 1951 USAFA MS-2; General Order no. 24, 11 January 1952; Davis, 4th Fighter Wing in the Korean War, 95–96; No Kum Sok, A MiG-15 to Freedom, 102, 106; “Ragland, Dayton William,” available at www.taskforceomegainc.org/r002.html.

  72. Two other African-American F-86 pilots in the Korean War who flew with the 4th were Fred Davis and Beverly Dunjill; “Ragland, Dayton William”; Earl Brown interview with author, 17 October 2003.

  73. Born in April 1919 in Brooklyn, Meyer had enlisted in the Army in November 1939 and earned his commission and wings in July 1940. He went on to four-star rank, retired in July 1974 and died in December 1975. “Biography, United States Air Force: General John C. Meyer,” AUL.

  74. As throughout this study, the credits are taken from USAF World War II Victory Credits and USAF Korean War Victory Credits.

  75. The name “Casey Jones” came from the fact that American radar controllers warned F-86 pilots of MiGs heading their way by radioing that the train (large numbers of MiGs) had left the station (their home base). Hence the use of the name of the crack train engineer for a crack MiG pilot.

  76. Foss and Brennan, eds., Top Guns, 291–92; Bruce Hinton, “Casey Jones and the Eagle,” SabreJet Classics (Fall 1995); Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 30; Wagner, North American Sabre, 51–52.

Chapter 15

1. United States Air Force Statistical Digest, fiscal year 1953, 28 HRA K134.11-6; Hans Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles: An Illustrated Study of the Soviet Aces of World War II and Korea (Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer, 1998), 245.

2. United States Air Force Statistical Digest, fiscal year 1953, 28 HRA K134.11-6; Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245.

3. USAF Statistical Digest, fy 1953, 28; Allan Magnus, lists of People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and USSR Korean War [victory credits], available at www.users.accesscom.ca/magnusfamily/korprc.htm; Al Bowers and David Lednicer, “Fighter Pilot Aces List,” www.au.af.mil/awc/awcgate/aces/aces.htm; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 83; Andrew Mikhailov [list of Soviet Korean War Aces], available at aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/RAFAQ/SovietAces.html; Polak, Stalin’s Falcons; Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245.

4. Bowers and Lednicer, “Fighter Pilot Aces List” (16); Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 83 (16); Mikhailov, [List of Soviet Korean War Aces] (16); Polak, Stalin’s Falcons (17); Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245 (15); Mike Spick, The Complete Fighter Ace: All The World’s Fighter Aces, 1914–2000 (London: Greenhill, 1999), 195 (15).

5. Bowers and Lednicer, “Fighter Pilot Aces List”; Magnus, [victory credit list].

6. Anatoli Dokuchayev, “Aces of Jet Wars,” Krasnaya Avezda (11 March 1995), 6; Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 310.

7. Col. Evgeny Pepelyaev quoted in Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 135, 138; Aleksandr Kotlobovskiy, “Aces of the World: Yevgeniy Pepelyaev,” Mir Aviatsii (February 1993), 25–26; Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 248; Spick, Complete Fighter Ace, 192. While most secondary sources use twenty credits for Pepelyaev’s score, lower figures can be found in Dokuchayev, “Aces of Jet Wars” (19); Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245 (19); and “Soviet Fliers in the Korean Sky,” Translations on the Soviet Air Force Operations in Korea (15).

8. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 134–37.

9. Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 284–85.

  10. Ibid., 300; Igor Gordelianow, “Soviet Air Aces of the Korean War,” available at http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/RAFAQ/SovietAces.html.

  11. Bowers and Lednicer, “Fighter Pilot Aces List” (11 or 14); Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 83 (14); Mikhailov, [List of Soviet Korean War Aces](11 or 14); Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 243 (11–15); Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245 (15); Spick, Complete Fighter Ace, 195 (15).

  12. Bowers and Lednicer, “Fighter Pilot Aces List” (11 or 14); Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 83 (14); Mikhailov, [List of Soviet Korean War Aces](11 or 14); Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 257 (12 or 14); Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245 (14); Spick, Complete Fighter Ace, 195 (14).

  13. Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 181; Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245; Spick, Complete Fighter Ace, 193, 195.

  14. Kramarenko quoted in Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 127–29.

  15. Pepelyaev quoted in Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 136. Also see page 135; Polak, Stalin’s Falcon’s, 285.

  16. The USAF admits only the loss of Crone on 18 June 1951 and in turn claimed the destruction of five MiGs that day. USAF Korean War, Victory Credits; Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 308.

  17. Bowers and Lednicer, “Fighter Pilot Aces List” (9); Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 83 (9); Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 118 (15); Mikhailov, [List of Soviet Korean War Aces] (9); Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 308 (12 to 15); Seidl, Stalin’s Eagles, 245 (9); Spick, Complete Fighter Ace, 195 (15).

  18. Gordon and Rigmant, MiG-15, 124–26; Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 239.

  19. Polak, Stalin’s Falcons, 124.

  20. Olynyk, Stars and Bars; Polak, Stalin’s Falcons.

Epilogue

1. Wagner, North American Sabre, 92. The only other USAF fighter that has flown more than a half million flying hours in one year was the F-4, which it did twice. Air Force flying safety statistics available at www.afsc.saia.af.mil/AFSC/RDBMS/Flight/stats/[aircrafttype]mds.html.

2. North American built 6,233 F-86s and 1,148 FJs. Canadair built 1,815, Commonwealth (Australia) 112, Fiat (Italy) 221, and Mitsubishi (Japan) 300. Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 140–41; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 9.

3. Compared with the J47 it was shorter and narrower but weighed almost four thousand pounds, one thousand pounds more that the J47. Curtis, North American F- 86 Sabre, 92.

4. To employ this weapon, the H would use a “loft” (or “toss”) bombing technique that employed the low altitude bombing system (LABS) equipment, first seen on the F model. This computer calculated the path the low flying fighter would take to begin an Immelmann and release the bomb toward the target and then allow the fighter to complete the reversal of direction flying away from the bomb blast. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 92–93; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 67; Wagner, North American Sabre, 86, 88.

5. Maintenance was also a problem due primarily to a shortage of parts and lack of experience with the J73. Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 67; Wagner, North American Sabre, 90.

6. Aircraft Accident Cards, HRA; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 93–94.

7. Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 67; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 94, 96–98. Wagner, North American Sabre, 92.

8. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 94, 96.

9. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 99–100, 102; Larry Davis, “North American F-86 Sabre,” Wings of Fame, vol. 10, 83.

  10. North American built 2,506 D models and 2,239 F models. Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 79. The aircraft was originally designated YF-95A for funding purposes (new aircraft being seen in a different way than developments of older ones), but that designation was short lived (December 1949 to July 1950). Alward, F-86 Sabre, 116; Wagner, North American Sabre, 29–30.

  11. Martin Bowman, Combat Legend: F-86 Sabre (Ramsbury, UK: Crowood, 2004), 50–51; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 41; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 69–70.

  12. Davis, “North American F-86 Sabre,” 64; Taylor, Combat Aircraft of the World, 541; Wagner, North American Sabre, 29.

  13. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 41; Davis, “North American F-86 Sabre,” 64; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 50–51, 75; Swanborough and Bowers, United States Military Aircraft since 1908, 423–24, 426.

  14. Six men died and two survived the accident. DeBolt Accident Report, 25 August 1952 HRA. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 41; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 73; Wagner, American Combat Planes, 456; Wagner, North American Sabre, 29, 31, 40–41.

  15. Alward, F-86 Sabre, 53; Bowman, Combat Legend, 51; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 72; Wagner, American Combat Planes, 457.

  16. Bowman, Combat Legend, 52; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 58; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 72, 75.

  17. Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 73; Taylor, Combat Aircraft, 541; Wagner, North American Sabre, 35.

  18. SAGE automatically relayed information the ground station received to the interceptor, cutting out the previous communication between the ground radar operator and the aircraft.

  19. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 55; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 78–79; Swanborough and Bowers, U.S. Military Aircraft since 1908, 424; Wagner, North American Sabre, 132. Beginning in 1955 the USAF broke F-86 accident statistics into three categories: D, H, and “others.” For the period starting with fiscal year 1955 and ending in fiscal year 1960 the D had thirty major accidents per one hundred thousand flying hours compared with the H and the “other” F-86s that had thirty-nine per one hundred thousand. During this period the Sabre flew about two thirds of its total flying. For the period calendar year 1950 though 1971 the F-86 had a cumulative major accident rate of forty-four per one hundred thousand flying hours. “F-86 History,” available at www-afsc.saia.af.mil/AFSC/RDBMS/Flight/stats/f86mds.html; United States Statistical Digest fiscal years 1955–60 HRA K134.11-6.

  20. Besides the F-4, more of which were used by the USAF than either of her sister services, these include the A-7 and B-66.

  21. One source attributes the naval problems to its “scandalous commitment to the Westinghouse J40 engine that failed utterly and almost paralyzed naval aviation in the early to mid-1950s.” Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 48. Gordon Swanborough and Peter Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft since 1911 (New York: Funk & Wagnall, 1968), 179, 232, 285, 385; Swanborough and Bowers, U.S. Military Aircraft since 1908, 420.

  22. Curtiss, North American F-86 Sabre, 118–19.

  23. Ibid., 119–20; Wagner, North American Sabre, 97–99.

  24. Curtiss, North American F-86 Sabre, 121; Wagner, North American Sabre, 100–101.

  25. Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 53.

  26. The J65 also powered the Air Force’s F-84F which also experienced difficulties with that power plant. Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 54–57; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 39, 41; Wagner, North American Sabre, 102–3.

  27. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 122, 124–25; Wagner, North American Sabre, 103, 108.

  28. Alward, F-86 Sabre, 123; Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 126, 128; Wagner, North American Sabre, 106.

  29. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 128–29.

  30. The Navy flew a Fury designated FJ-4F with rocket boost in the late 1950s. The throttleable Rocketdyne AR-1 engine pushed the craft to an unofficial speed of Mach 1.4 at seventy-one thousand feet. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 129–30, 132; Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 140; Wagner, North American Sabre, 111.

  31. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 106; Wagner, North American Sabre, 112; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 46.

  32. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 109; Wagner, North American Sabre, 115; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 46–47.

  33. Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 47.

  34. Bowman, Combat Legend, 63; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 46, 49.

  35. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 112–13; Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 66; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 49.

  36. Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 49, 51.

  37. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 115; Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 67; Wilson, Sabre, MiG-15 and Hunter, 51, 54.

  38. Bowman, Combat Legend, 82.

  39. Wagner, North American Sabre, 122–23.

  40. Alward, F-86 Sabre, 94; Knaack, Post–World War II Fighters, 77; Wagner, North American Sabre, 123–24.

  41. Victor Flintham, Air Wars and Aircraft: A Detailed Record of Air Combat, 1945 to the Present (New York: Facts on File, 1990), 28. The second dogfight extended 50 miles into North Korea. Bob Stonestreet, “International Incident over the Yellow Sea, Korea—February 5, 1955,” SabreJet Classics (Fall 1995). The third incident penetrated into China. Dorr, F-86 Sabre, 138–39.

  42. Chris Bishop, ed., The Aerospace Encyclopedia of Air Warfare, vol. 2, 1945 to the Present (London: Aerospace, 1997), 101; Flintham, Air Wars and Aircraft, 248.

  43. Although the first of the five fell to a Sidewinder, the inability of American pilots during the Korean War to down more than two MiGs on a single sortie cast doubt on this claim.

  44. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 167; Flintham, Air Wars and Aircraft, 190–91, 195; Lon Nordeen, Air Warfare in the Missile Age (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1985), 79, 86, 90–91; John Fricker, Battle for Pakistan: The Air War of 1965 (London: Allan, 1979), 12–13, 58, 183–86.

  45. Curtis, North American F-86 Sabre, 168; Flintham, Air Wars and Aircraft, 196, 200–201; Nordeen, Air Warfare in the Missile Age, 93, 103, 106.