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  • Tracking the MiGs: EC-121 Airborne Early Warning

    EC-121s played a key role by monitoring airborne North Vietnamese MiGs and guiding USAF fighters to intercept them. Orbiting securely outside the border, EC-121 crews used the aircraft's radar and enemy radio communications to detect and locate MiGs within North Vietnamese airspace. These operations

  • USAF Southeast Asia War Aces

    Three USAF F-4 Airmen, Capts. Charles "Chuck" DeBellevue, Richard "Steve" Ritchie and Jeffrey Feinstein, became aces during the Southeast Asia War. Ritchie was the only USAF pilot ace (DeBellevue and Feinstein, backseat weapon system officers [WSO], received equal credit for victories as the pilot

  • OPERATION BOLO

    Led by Col. Robin Olds, OPERATION BOLO used a brilliant deception tactic that destroyed half of the North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighter force, with no USAF losses.In late 1966, the USAF was not permitted to bomb North Vietnamese airfields and could only destroy enemy fighters in the air. Complicating

  • Countering MiGs: Air-to-Air Combat Over North Vietnam

    The key mission for U.S. Air Force fighter escorts (or MiGCAPs) over North Vietnam was to prevent enemy MiG fighters from interfering with American strike aircraft. The MiG pilots' primary goal was to force strike aircrews to jettison their bombs early, thereby disrupting the bombing mission.In

  • Reconnaissance and Retaliatory Strikes

    President Johnson ended the bombing of North Vietnam in October 1968. believing that USAF unarmed reconnaissance aircraft would be permitted to fly over the country unopposed. When North Vietnam fired on some of these planes, newly elected President Richard Nixon ordered several retaliatory strikes

  • Sanctuaries and Bombing Halts

    To avoid the possible entrance of Chinese or Soviet forces into the conflict, Washington tightly controlled these bombing operations. Limitations imposed included no bombing in the "sanctuaries" around Hanoi (the capital of North Vietnam), Haiphong (North Vietnam's main port), and a buffer zone

  • North Vietnam: Rolling Thunder

    GOING NORTHAlthough the U.S. Air Force began sending advisory personnel to South Vietnam in 1961, and carried out combat missions in South Vietnam shortly thereafter, US forces did not initially strike North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese Navy attack in the Tonkin Gulf in August 1964, however, led to

  • South Vietnam: The Easter Offensive

    COMMUNIST GAMBLE With the majority of U.S. troops out of South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese sensed an opportunity to end the war with a conventional invasion. On March 30, 1972, North Vietnam launched the Easter Offensive -- a large, three-pronged drive into South Vietnam using heavy tanks and

  • Hitting Sanctuaries: Cambodia

    During the 1960s, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong enjoyed sanctuaries in Cambodia, crossing the border for attacks into South Vietnam and then fleeing back across the border to safety. Moreover, the North Vietnamese, with permission of the "neutral" Cambodian government, used Cambodian ports and

  • Secret War: Green Hornets, Dust Devils and Blackbirds

    To supply their forces in South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese built a secret road system through neutral Laos and Cambodia. This supply line, named the Truong Son Road but called the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" by Americans, consisted of a network of roads and hiding places concealed by jungle. In an effort