Ace Fighter Pilot - Robin Olds - Forgotten History

foreign [Music] During WW II fighter pilots became legends. They  were heralded as the best and brightest their   respective nations had to offer and the American  fighter pilots were immediate national heroes.   Their exploits became tabloid gold and those who  became aces the five or more aerial victories   became public idols. Some were very colorful almost  legendary in their swashbuckling lifestyles and   demeanor and one Robin olds was perhaps the best  example of the cowboy in the sky a man determined   to be successful despite the odds. Who was Robin  Olds? What was it about him that made him so   different from most other fighter pilots? How did  he handle what he perceived to be the political   problems that impeded military effectiveness?  And how effective was he as a combat leader? Hello I'm Colin Heaton a veteran of the United  States Army and Marine Corps former history   professor book author and welcome to this  episode of Forgotten History [Music] foreign [Music]  Robin Olds was born July 22 1922 in Honolulu Hawaii the  son of Major General Robert olds a World War   One era instructor pilot and later an aide to  General Billy Mitchell and he was a developer   of the long-range bomber program bringing the  B-17 Flying Fortress to life. Oldsl mother died   when he was four years old and he grew up in the  Hampton and Langley Airfield region of Virginia   where his father was assigned. He knew all of the  future luminaries of American aviation men who   would be in high command positions in World War  II. These familiarities would serve him well later.   At the age of eight he flew with his father in an  open cockpit biplane trainer and was transfixed on   aviation. After World War II began with the German  invasion of Poland on September 1st 1939 Olds   attempted to join the Royal Canadian Air Force  but his father would not allow him to. Instead of   entering college right after high school in 1939  Olds enrolled at Millard Preparatory School for   West Point in Washington D.C. This was a school  established to prepare men for the entrance   examinations to the military academies. He was  accepted on June 1st 1940 and attended West Point   where he became an All-American football player.  During this period his father Major General Robert   Olds died in 1943. Despite a rough patch with his  superiors Olds graduated and was commissioned as   a second lieutenant in the U.S Army Air Corps.  Olds completed the primary flight program at   the Spartan School of Aviation in Tulsa Oklahoma  and later completed basic and advanced training at   Stewart Field New York. He completed fighter pilot  trading with a 329th Fighter Group based at Grand   Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California. Olds  was promoted to first lieutenant on December 1st   1943 and joined the cadre assigned to build up  the newly activated 434th Fighter Squadron   part of the 479th Fighter Group based at Lomita  California. Olds logged 650 hours of flying time   during training including 250 hours in the P-38  Lightning. After relocating to Camp Kilmer, New   Jersey his unit embarked upon the USS Argentina  in May Landing in Scotland and then going to their   base at RAF Wattisham, England. His unit began bomber  escort missions and he was now Captain Olds and   a squadron leader. Olds had many memorable combat  events over Europe such as on August 23, 1944 he   and his wingman jettisoned their external drop  tanks to engage around 50 Messerschmitt 109s.   Olds had forgotten to switch his fuel over to the  internal tanks and his engines died. He was still   in dead stick glide mode when he scored the first  of three kills on that mission. He went into a dive   to help a P-51 Mustang with two 109s on his tail  when the g-forces and pressure despite his best   efforts to recover blew out the left window of  his canopy. He experienced compressibility due to   the high-speed dive; his controls were frozen. He  managed to recover control just before he would   have impacted just a few feet above a wheat field  with a 109 on his tail. He stalled at a 90 degree   angle and the enemy passed by it. Olds shot him down.  He had just become the group's first fighter ace.   The 479th Fighter Group transitioned into the  P-51D Mustang in mid-September 1944. Olds completed   his first combat tour on November 9, 1944 logging  270 hours of combat time and six confirmed kills.   After a two-month leave he returned to Wattisham  on January 15, 1945 and he scored steadily and   his final victory was on April 7, 1945. On  this date he shot down a 109 and reported   a damaged Me-262 jet. In reality post-war German  records show that his damaged jet was in fact a   kill; the aircraft was flown by a Captain Tronicke  who landed wheels up on the two engine nacelles on   a grass field but he had been mortally wounded  and was found dead in the cockpit. This was a   victory that Olds never received credit for but  is chronicled in my book The Me-262 Stormbird. Olds   finished World War II officially credited with 13  German planes shot down and 11.5 other aircraft   destroyed on the ground his score should be 14  aerial victories in World War II. Olds was also the   only pilot to make ace in both the P-38 with five  victories and the P-51 scoring eight victories.   He was promoted to Major at the age  of 22 an unheard of accomplishment   being that he was only two two years out of  West Point. Later Olds like all the other pilots   who remained on active duty transitioned into the  new jets flying the p-80. He was also instrumental   in helping form the first air demonstration team  for the newly created and separate U.S Air Force.   Olds competed in Air Races and was returned  to England on an exchange program with the   RAF flying the Gloucester Meteor jet fighter. In  fact he commanded No. 1 squadron at Royal   Air Force Station Tangmere between October 20th  1948 and September 25th 1949 and was the first   foreigner to ever command an RAF unit in peacetime.  Upon his return to the United States in November   1949 he checked out in the North American F-86  Sabre the new Air Force frontline fighter while   stationed at March Air Force Base with the 94th  Fighter Squadron of the 1st Fighter Group. When   the Korean War erupted Olds wanted to go and  fight; that was just his nature, but his repeated   requests were all declined. What Olds did not  know was that his wife at the time actress Ella   Raines had a lot of political pull due to her  status and she did not want him going overseas.   He had to read about the other World War II aces  such as Walker "Bud" Mahuran and Francis Gabreski   now flying against the Communists scoring kills  while he remained stateside. Olds was promoted   to Lieutenant Colonel on February 20th 1951 and  full Colonel on April 15 1953 and then assigned   to Landstuhl, Germany commanding the F-86s of  the 86th Fighter Interceptor Wing. Later he   became chief of the Weapons Proficiency Center  at Willis Air Force Base in Libya in charge of   all fighter weapons training for United  States Air Forces Europe until July 1958.   Not to be deterred Robin Olds saw an opportunity  as Vietnam was getting into high gear. Using his   great personal relation skills and tactical  wisdom he managed to anger his superior a   brigadier general just enough to "punish" him by  sending him to the war. Olds arrived in Thailand and   took command of the 8th Tactical Fighter  Wing based at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base.   Joining olds were Colonel Vermont Garrison an ace in  both World War II and Korea and in December Olds   brought in Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. one of the  original Tuskegee Airmen from World War II.   Olds and James became known as "Blackman and  Robin" and the team was effective. Following up on   a suggestion to the Seventh Air Force Commander  Major General William Momyer, Olds developed his   plan called Operation Bolo. This plan was to draw  North Vietnamese Mig-21 fighters into a fight and   destroy them as they had been hitting the F-105  Thunderchief tactical bombers very hard. Old's   plan was to simulate an F-105 bombing formation  following the same attack routes using their   radio channels and jamming pods. The ruse worked.  7 of the 16 Mig-21s in service with North   Vietnam were shot down. Other missions followed  and Olds again scored three more victories.   On May 4th Olds destroyed another Mig-21 over  Phuc Yen. two weeks later on May 20th he destroyed   two Mig-17s in a massive dog fight. Olds had four  confirmed Mig kills but declined to shoot down his   fifth because he found out that as soon as he made  ace in that war he would be relieved of command.   He was awarded his fourth Silver Star for leading  a three aircraft low-level bombing strike on March   30, 1967 and the Air Force Cross for an attack on  the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi on August 11 1967.   As a result of his success Ho Chi Minh placed  a $100,000 bounty on his head.   Robin in his own word said that he felt insulted.  He felt that he was worth a lot more because he   had cost Ho Chi Minh 10 times that amount  in the losses that he had inflicted upon him.   Olds flew 259 total combat missions which  included 107 in World War II and 152 in   Southeast Asia, 105 of those over North Vietnam. He  bitterly complained about the early Phantoms not   having internally mounted guns and being solely  reliant upon missiles in air-to-air combat.   Many possible victories were lost as a result of  this oversight. In an act of defiance he started   growing his non-regulation handlebar mustache  in his own version of giving the middle finger   to the establishment that he believed had cost  American lives and reduced their effectiveness.   Upon returning to Washington D.C. he reported to  his first interview with Air Force Chief of Staff   General John P. McConnell and McConnell walked  up to him stuck a finger under his nose and said   "Take it off," and Olds replied "Yes sir," and shaved off  the mustache. Olds reported for duty to the United   States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs,  Colorado in December 1967. He served as Commandant   of Cadets for three years and sought to restore  morale following the well-publicized cheating   scandal. Olds was later promoted to Brigadier  General on June 1st 1968. in February 1971 Olds   assumed his last duty assignment as Director of  Aerospace Safety in the Office of the Inspector   General Headquarters USAF, and after December  1971 as part of the Air Force inspection and   Safety Center at Norton Air Force Base, California.  Later that year he toured the Air Force bases in   Southeast Asia on an inspection mission to assess  fighter readiness for air-to-air combat and what   he reported was not what his superiors especially  the Air Force Chief of Staff General John D. Ryan   wanted to hear. Olds was proven correct following  the launching of Operation Linebacker. Navy and   Marine pilots who had attended Top Gun Fighter  School proved the value of Olds' previous warnings.   The USN and USMC pilots flying gun equipped  F-4s scored aerial kills at an average ratio   of three to one while the Air Force suffered  at a one for one ratio proving Olds was right.   Brigadier General Robin olds retired on June  1st 1973. His personal Awards include the U.S   Air Force Cross, U.S Air Force Command Pilot  Badge, two Air Force Distinguished Service   Medals, four Silver Stars, Legion of Merit, six  Distinguished Flying Crosses, 40 Air Medals, the   Distinguished Flying Cross from the United Kingdom  and Croix de Guerre with Silver Star from France.   His final score is 17 victories including four  in Vietnam yet he still needs to be credited   with the Me-262 jet confirmed shot down by  him in World War II from the German records.   His official record should reflect 18 victories  with 14 in World War II. Robin Olds was a true   Maverick but he was a man who got things done  and did so with flair. Those men under his command   loved him and that is about as good as it gets for  a combat leader. I had the privilege of knowing and   interviewing Robin Olds and that interview in its  entirety can be found in my book "Above the Reich."   Thank you for watching Forgotten History. Please  click like subscribe and share. Send us comments   and share ideas and we will get back to you  as soon as possible. Until next time [Music] thank you

Channel: FORGOTTEN HISTORY

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Id: WgDA4oyq0yU

Length: 14min 4sec (844 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2023