NARRATOR: American F-4 Phantoms
streak into North Vietnam. It's time for revenge. Enemy MiG fighters have been
tearing apart US bombers. Now, legendary ace Robin Olds
has set an intricate trap to lure the elusive MiGs
into one-on-one air combat. It's the most elaborate
sting in aviation history-- code name, Operation Bolo. Using state-of-the-art
computer graphics, you're in the cockpit
as the hard-hitting, F-4 Phantom takes on the fierce
MiG-21 in the biggest aerial battle the War has yet seen-- a deadly air ambush. Experience the battle,
dissect the tactics, relive the dogfights. [electronic sounds] January 2, 1967, Colonel Robin
Olds, veteran fighter pilot and renowned double ace leads
a flight of four Air Force F-4 Phantoms on a mission
over North Vietnam. For months, North
Vietnamese pilots have wreaked havoc
on American bombers with guerrilla
hit-and-run tactics. Now, it's time for revenge. Olds devises an intricate
trap to lure unsuspecting MiGs into a fight. He disguises his agile fighters
to mimic slow and vulnerable bombers. As the pilots approach
the enemy airfields, a thick cloud cover obscures the
target area where they expect to find the MiGs. ROBIN OLDS: So I went past the
target for a couple of minutes, did a 180 and came back. NARRATOR: Olds circles, hoping
the MiGs will take the bait. ROBIN OLDS: I knew
they were airborne, but they were underneath
us and going the other way. So I went further past their
airfield by time and distance and did another 180. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: Suddenly, MiGs
emerged through the clouds. They've taken the bait. One streaks in on Olds' 6
o'clock, directly behind him. Captain Everett Raspberry,
piloting a nearby Phantom, spots the tailing MiG and
radios a Warning to Olds. EVERETT RASPBERRY:
I looked over, and I saw the MiG up of the
clouds right behind him. And I called him by
call sign and told him it was a MiG back there. NARRATOR: Olds orders his
flight to do a defensive split, breaking into elements
of two jets each. But the MiG sticks to Olds. Olds and his wingman are here. The MiG is here. Olds' 3 and 4 man
here must do something to protect their leader. Captain Walter Rediker,
piloting the number 4 Phantom acts quickly. He throttles up into
a steep, climbing turn called a high yo-yo. In the high yo-yo,
Rediker levels his wings, pulls up, and gains altitude. As he comes over the top,
he's inverted, looking down at the MiG. He turns toward the enemy,
staying above and behind. Then, he dives at the MiG. The goal? Come down behind the MiG 21 in
position for a missile shot. He slides in behind the MiG
on Olds' tail and fires. Mortally wounded, the
North Vietnamese jet spins out of control and
disappears in the low clouds. One MiG is down, but more
burst through the clouds. The fight is on. The elaborate sting,
known as Operation Bolo is quickly growing into the
biggest aerial engagement of the Vietnam War. For months, American
aircraft had fallen prey to North Vietnamese SAMs,
anti-aircraft artillery, and MiG pilots. Bolo is a chance
to even the score. Two years earlier,
on March 2, 1965, the United States had kicked
off Operation Rolling Thunder. The objective? Destroy North Vietnamese
base and air defenses, smash bridges,
roads, and railways, choke the flow of
men and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh
Trail, get the North to abandon support of the
Viet Cong rebels in the South. But Washington has
placed restrictions on the American airmen. JEFF DUFORD: The simple answer
to destroying the MiG force was to destroy the bases
where the MiGs flew from. At this time, the
airfields were off-limits, because killing the Russian
advisors at these airfields risked a wider war. The only way to
destroy them, then, was only after they
were in the air. NARRATOR: Even the
approach to a target was dictated by Washington. ROBIN OLDS: You had
to go down a corridor. So where do you suppose
they put all their guns? I was told that the North
Vietnamese possessed more anti-aircraft weapons in a
40 or 50 mile radius of Hanoi than Germany had possessed
in all of Europe in War II. So the opposition from
guns, missiles, and MiGs was quite impressive. NARRATOR: Losses mounted. Among the hardest-hit were
fighter bombers, like the F-105 Thunder Chief, known
affectionately as the Thud. Laden with bombs, the
Thud lost its agility and suffered greatly in the
face of communist surface-to-air missiles and fighter pilots. In July 1966, the
North Vietnamese downed 43 American aircraft--
the highest monthly loss in over a year. In that same summer of 1966,
the eighth tactical fighter wing lost 22 pilots and 11 aircraft. The men were frustrated,
disheartened, and walking away. Over 1,400 veteran pilots
had left the Air Force for the fast-growing
commercial aviation sector. But one commander saw what
needed to be done and spoke up. He was a committed warrior-- a double ace. For years, he had
advocated a greater need for aggressive
dogfight training. His name was Robin Olds. ROBIN OLDS: Basically, the
people who are training pilots were more concerned about
safety and their own rear ends than proper training. Besides, they didn't
proper training, anyway. Youngsters were taught about
all the switches in the cockpit, and how to start it,
and take off, and land, and dropping a few
little practice bombs. None of the new
fighter pilots were really trained in dogfighting. Robin was about results. And if he had to fold, spindle,
or mutilate some regulations in order to get the job
done, he would do it. NARRATOR: On September
30, 1966, Robin Olds assumed command of the Air
Force's 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at Ubon Air
Base in Thailand. BARRETT TILLMAN: he brought
was rock-star charisma coupled in a powerful, dynamic
package that, in another era, would have been a warrior king. So Robin's personality
really is what turned around the 8th Fighter Wing. NARRATOR: Colonel Olds will
teach the 8th Fighter Wing how to dogfight and get
revenge on the MiG 21s. To teach dogfighting, you
have to be a dogfighter. And Olds is a pro. In teaching the
8th Fighter Wing, he would draw on a vast
reservoir of knowledge learned the hard way decades earlier. Robin Olds cut his
dogfighting teeth in World War II in the
skies over Germany. August 24, 1944-- 22-year-old Captain Robin
Olds pilots his P-38, named Scat III, over Germany. His mission-- to protect
American heavy bombers from Luftwaffe fighters. Olds' flight of four
P-38s is on the far left of three squadrons. Between them, they cover
nearly 20 miles of sky. On the lookout, Olds spots
tiny specks at his 11 o'clock. I knew what they were. I knew they were enemy, because
there were nobody else supposed to be there. NARRATOR: It's a swarm of
Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters. ROBIN OLDS: There
must have been 55-- at least 55 or 60-- 109s. NARRATOR: Olds 3 and 4 planes
report in with engine problems from poor fuel quality
and lagged behind. But Olds and his
wingman, B.E. Hollister pull ahead to investigate. Then, Olds makes
an aggressive move. He firewalls his
throttle and races towards the Messerschmitts. Olds' wingman
faithfully keeps up. Olds is about to
do the unthinkable. His two fighters will
take on 50 Me-109s. But in the right hands,
the twin-engine Lightning is up to the task. ROBIN OLDS: The P-38 was a
great fighter-- fun to fly. With a decent pilot, you
could whip anybody down low. NARRATOR: From its first
flight on January 27, 1939, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning
is seen as a radical departure from traditional American
fighters of the day. It boasts twice the power
and almost twice the size of its predecessors. With four, .50
caliber machine guns, plus a 20-millimeter
cannon, the P-38 packs enough firepower
to sink a ship. The Germans dubbed the new
fighter the fork-tailed devil. The P-38's opponent is the
small, nimble Messerschmitt Me-109, a favorite
of the Luftwaffe. Over 35,000 are built-- more than any
fighter in history. The Me-109 is heavily
armed with two machine guns and a devastating
30-millimeter cannon. A single hit would
shatter Olds P-38. The P38 is faster, can
out-turn the Me-109, and is more heavily-armed. But the German fighter
has its own advantages-- it's better in a dive. ROBIN OLDS: I could out-turn the
109 at the altitudes with which we flew. I couldn't dive with him. NARRATOR: If the German
aircraft are formidable, so are the men who fly them. The German Air Force is the
most experienced in the world. Some pilots, in combat since
1937, have hundreds of kills. You have some superb
pilots, so you never know what you're going
to be up against. I never got in two
battles with the same. NARRATOR: Olds and his
wingman steal even closer, approaching undetected behind
the vast, German formation. To reduce drag, the P-38s drop
their heavy, long-range fuel tanks that they needed to
fly this far into Germany. ROBIN OLDS: And I told my
wingman, B.E. Hollister, tanks. Off went the drops, and
we kind of barge ahead. I lined up with
Taylor and Charlie until we were just about to
shoot, and both engines quit. NARRATOR: Startled,
Olds realizes that when he dropped his
tanks, he forgot to switch over to his internal fuel supply. So what the hell? I shot anyway. And to this day, I claim to
be the only fighter pilot in the history of aerial warfare
to shoot down an enemy aircraft while in the glide mode. NARRATOR: As that first enemy
breaks up and tumbles away, Olds restarts his
engines and presses his attack into the formation. ROBIN OLDS: I know it sounds
ridiculous for two guys to attack that many airplanes. But I ask anyone
who's listening, put yourself in one of
those German airplanes. One of your people screams
that he's been hit, he's bailing out. Every man in that huge
gaggle would wonder if it were somebody right behind him. NARRATOR: The German
pilots scatter in panic. The P-38s speed into the
formation of 50 enemy planes. Olds wingman chases
after two aircraft. Olds, in a climbing left turn,
pursues another Messerschmitt. ROBIN OLDS: Then I went
on into the fight-- got another one. B.E. got two of them
up here with one pass. And I looked down,
and there was a P-51. Where he came from,
I have no idea. NARRATOR: The
American P-51 Mustang is being chased by two Me-109s. Olds breaks into a
steep, screaming dive to help the outnumbered Mustang. But in his excitement,
Olds dives too fast. Olds pulls and turns
his control yoke. Scat III doesn't respond. His P-38 plummets
out of control, plunging toward the
German countryside. [dramatic music] August 23, 1943. Army Air Force
Captain Robin Olds dives to help an American
P-51 under attack. But he dives too fast. The speed built up in his
dive has rendered his flight controls useless. The P-38 is now gripped by
an aerodynamic effect known as compressibility. It was a phenomena
only beginning to be understood by aircraft
engineers and pilots. In the dive, Olds' P-38 actually
approaches the speed of sound. The air on the leading edge of
the wing begins to compress. As the speed increases,
a shock wave develops. The airflow over the wings
and critical control surfaces is disrupted. The pilot is no longer
master of his machine. When the pilot in the P-38 was
in a dive with compressibility, the control surfaces
were almost useless. And they could pull and yank
on it as hard as they could and get almost no reaction. It must have been a
terrifying experience. NARRATOR: With the
loss of control, Olds focuses his attention
inside the cockpit. ROBIN OLDS: I saw
that 51 down there and drove without thinking. So to heck with the Germans. All I wanted to
do-- try to recover, because many had not
been able to do so. NARRATOR: But as he reaches the
denser air at lower altitude, the control surfaces
start to respond. He pulls back hard on
the P-38's control yoke. ROBIN OLDS: I pulled so many G's
that my canopy window broke out which was horrifying noise. And I know it sounds
like an exaggeration, but I managed to pull out
right above this wheat field near the town of Rostock. NARRATOR: With a
shattered canopy, it's time for Olds
to call it a day. Now, I want to go home. I've had enough. NARRATOR: But a string of
tracer fire past his nose brings him back into the fight. [gunshots] ROBIN OLDS: And there
was a 109 shooting at me. And I quickly turned hard,
thinking, this isn't fair. Leave me alone. I'm hurt. All I want to do is go home. NARRATOR: Olds has to
make a quick decision. He can increase
power, pull ahead, and hope to outrun the German. Or he can climb to
gain room to maneuver. But a climb could slow him down
and give the enemy an easier shot at him. Olds is here in
front of the German. Olds goes for the extreme. He flat-planes, pulls on
the yoke as hard as he can, turns hard left 90
degrees, and shudders into a high-speed stall. It's the air combat equivalent
of locking the brakes. But uh-- and a g-force like
that, I slowed down rapidly. [airplane engine roars] He overshot. Drove the wings level, and
he was right in front of me. So I pulled the trigger. [airplane engine roars] Down he went. NARRATOR: It's Olds' fifth kill. He's officially an ace. By the end of World War
II, captain Robin Olds tallies 12 kills. During his days
fighting over Europe, Olds learns lessons and
tactics taught by his squadron commander, the
legendary Hub Zemke. Zemke focused the
men on the basics but strongly believed
an aggressive spirit was the most valuable asset
of a fighter pilot. Now, 23 years later in Vietnam,
Olds pilots a jet with speeds three times faster than his
P-38 and with an arsenal that includes high-tech missiles. His dogfighting
skills and leadership will inspire and
revitalize the young pilots and instill in
them the confidence to wrest control of the
skies over North Vietnam. [explosion] JB STONE: All the guys loved
Robin when he got there, and one reason was
he came in and said, this is the way it is. I'm the new guy, but I'm going
to give you guys about two weeks, and I'm going to
be better than any of you and pointed to every
person in that room. NARRATOR: Olds is a maverick
and does things his way. He ignores rank and assigns
flight leaders by ability. Things changed for the better. It became a fighter wing. NARRATOR: His pilots
are ready for combat, and Olds has picked the target-- the Soviet-built MiG-21s. They're taking their toll
on American aircraft, and Olds wants revenge. But to destroy the MiGs, Olds
must fight them in the air, engage them, and kill them. He devises one of the
most ingenious traps in aerial history. ROBIN OLDS: I went to
my boss, General Momyer, and suggested that the MiGs
were getting very frisky, as he knew, and that I had an
idea that we could do something about it. NARRATOR: Olds' plan is simple. Trick the enemy into thinking
that his F-4 Phantom fighters are the more vulnerable
F-105 Thunder Chiefs. When bomb-laden F-105s
flew over enemy territory, the MiGs came up and engaged
the slower, less-agile fighter bombers. JEFF DUFORD: The North
Vietnamese Air Force developed a hit-and-run
tactic that's akin to guerrilla tactics,
where the MiG-21s would come in at low altitude, pop up and
try and hit the F-105 strike forces, but then escape
before the F-4s could come down and attack them. NARRATOR: The reluctance
of the MiG pilots to engage didn't mean they lacked
courage or skill. The US estimated that the North
Vietnamese only had 16 MiG-21s. They were very careful
how they used them. Robin Olds and his Phantoms,
by flying like-F-105s, using the same approaches, radio
frequencies, call signs, and flight patterns,
hoped to deceive the North Vietnamese radar operators into
ordering the MiG-21s to attack the presumably easy prey. Once in the air, the
American fighters would cut down the MiGs. Olds names the
plan Operation Bolo after a lethal,
Filipino fighting knife. But Olds needed one more
trick to complete the ruse. The QRC-160 electronic
countermeasures pod jammed enemy radars,
decreasing the ability of anti-aircraft guns and
surface-to-air missiles to find their targets. The pod was always
carried by the Thuds but had never been
fitted to an F-4. JEFF DUFORD: So the
North Vietnamese, upon catching their signals,
would surely think, well, these are F-105s. It was one more key to the
success of Operation Bolo. JON STONE: So in
a moment's notice, the F-4s were wired to
carry a QRC-160 jamming pod and switches installed in
the cockpit to activate them. And they, luckily, had this
pod to make the Operation Bolo work. NARRATOR: January 2, 1967-- Phantoms from Ubon Air Base in
Thailand roar off the runway. Seven flights of four Phantoms
each head toward the MiG airfield surrounding Hanoi. The flights, mimicking
the call signs usually given to the F-105s
are named for cars. The first is Olds. The second is Ford. The third is Rambler, followed
by Lincoln, Tempest, Plymouth, and Vespa. The fighters depart
their home base in Thailand in
5-minute intervals to maximize their time to engage
MiGs over the target area. The first Phantoms
to reach the target is Olds flight, led
by Colonel Robin Olds. One MiG has already
been shot down, knocked out by Olds number
4 man, Walter Rediker. [explosion] But more MiG-21s burst
through the cloud layer below. They realized
we were not Thuds. And the lead called out,
these are not Thuds. They're Phantoms. What shall we do? Mass confusion. NARRATOR: The MiG pilots had
been trained to follow orders, not react by instinct. ROBIN OLDS: They always had
to obey what they were told to do by the ground people. And the ground people
were in a tizzy. They didn't know
what to do about it. NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese
have taken the bait. Olds orders his men to attack. Operation Bolo is about to
change the air war in Vietnam. [dramatic music] January 2, 1967-- Colonel Robin Olds and the
other three F-4 Phantoms of his strike group streak high
over the Phuc Yen Airfield, emulating a favorite
prey of enemy MiGs-- the F-105 Thunder Chief. In an elaborate
bait-and-switch sting, their F-4 fighters carry
an arsenal of weapons built for dogfighting. The radar-guided
AIM-7e Sparrow Missile can strike targets at
over 25 miles away, while the heat-seeking AIM-9
Sidewinder can accelerate in seconds to a
speed of Mach 2.5, over three times
faster than most jets. With more bandits scrambling
from the airfield below, the dogfights are
just heating up. It's time to find out
if Olds and his pilots can knock the vaunted
MiG-21s out of the sky. First supplied to North Vietnam
from Russia in March 1966, the nimble MiG-21 was
a vast improvement over the MiG-17 and 19. It had greater speed,
higher ceiling, and more advanced weaponry. It could reach speeds of
almost 1,400 miles per hour. It was armed with a hard-hitting
23-millimeter cannon and K-13A Atoll heat-seeking missiles-- a Soviet copy of the
American AIM Sidewinder. ROBIN OLDS: MiG-21, at
altitude, was better than F-4. If you could get him down
low and in a churning battle, he loses energy in high-g turns. So you could battle
them down low-- dogfight, if you will. But up high, forget it. NARRATOR: The MiG's opponent
is the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom, which entered service
in 1960 with the US Navy. The Phantom's two turbo-jet
engines deliver a top speed of nearly 1,500 miles per hour. It could strike targets out to
1,200 miles without refueling. Though formidable,
it was designed to intercept enemy bombers
with missiles, not dogfight. The weaknesses of the F-4
were it didn't have a gun. The MiGs were real good
at employing their gun. NARRATOR: The MiG is more agile
than the Phantom above 20,000 feet. It's smaller, harder to spot,
and has the important advantage of a gun. But down low, the
more powerful Phantom can out-turn the MiG-21. The F-4 is faster and has
a better rate of climb. It carries a greater
number of missiles. The MiG-21s that rise and strike
at the masquerading Phantoms on January 2 are no easy prey. ROBIN OLDS: The MiG
pilots, to their credit, were very aggressive,
most of them. And it was a great opportunity
for us to test our skills. NARRATOR: Olds spots
another MiG at 11 o'clock. He brakes left and zeros
in for an easy kill. Olds fires two Sparrow Missiles. The missiles lose radar
lock and tear past the MiG. Olds sticks with him and fires
a heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder Missile. But the MiG brakes hard,
shakes the missile lock, then dives for
cover in the clouds. But as fast as one
vanishes, another appears. ROBIN OLDS: Then there was
another MiG going 180 degrees to me, fairly close-- so close that I couldn't
just make a flat turn and get behind him. NARRATOR: Olds must
accomplish two things. First, he must
reverse his direction and get on the MiG's tail. Second, he must create enough
distance between himself and the MiG to gain
a missile lock. Olds uses a classic
dogfighting maneuver he learned in World War II-- the vector roll. I went straight up. When I got up, up, up,
I turned over on my back and hung there for a moment
or two seconds and watched it. And when the time was right,
I rolled to my right-- now, he was down to my left-- so that this role would take me
in a wide, swooping, downward curve. And I wound up right behind him. NARRATOR: Olds exploits the
Phantom's powerful thrust and soars above the MiG. To counter the mind-numbing
g's, Old's g-suit inflates, squeezing his calves,
thighs, and stomach to keep blood in his brain
and prevent a gray out. ROBIN OLDS: I don't think
that MiG saw me, no-- the one that was going
opposite my direction. If he did, he was stupid. NARRATOR: Olds, now
in perfect position, his range only 4,500
feet, arms his Sidewinder. ROBIN OLDS: When I
came down behind him, I got a wonderful growl. Because the Sidewinder
looks at the IR signature of an airplane-- the heat wave. And it speaks to you. It kind of mumbles-- [mumbling] Then, if it sees a
good heat source-- [growling] Then, you
know that your missile is looking at the target. So it's very simple. All you have to do
is pull the trigger. [explosion] [explosion] NARRATOR: The doomed
pilot doesn't eject. Olds has shot down one MiG,
but can't stay for more. His number 4 Phantom, flown by
Captain Rediker, is in trouble. ROBIN OLDS: One of
his tanks didn't feed. I had plenty of fuel. I could have stayed there,
but I wanted to get him home. NARRATOR: Olds streaks
out of the combat zone and escorts Rediker to safety. In less than five minutes,
Colonel Robin Olds and his flight have downed
three MiGs with no losses. [explosion] The second wave of four
Phantoms, Ford flight, screams in. Operation Bolo has suckered
the MiGs into a fight. The deception has done its part. Now, the outcome is in
the hands of Olds' pilots. [dramatic music] January 2, 1967-- over Phuc
Yen Airfield near Hanoi, Ford flight-- the second wave of Operation
Bolo, engages the enemy. Captain Everett Raspberry, an
experienced combat instructor, flies Ford 3. He spots four SA-2
surface-to-air missiles hurtling through the
clouds at their 4 o'clock. The SA-2 has a top speed of Mach
3.5, over 2,660 miles per hour. This missile can obliterate
jets at 60,000 feet. But the Phantoms are
carrying the QRC-160 electronic countermeasures pod. The pod, originally
mounted on the Phantoms to create a more
convincing F-105, now gives Raspberry
a lucky break. It jams the enemy radar. The missiles past to the
rear below the Phantoms and don't detonate. Meanwhile, the MiGs, now
realizing they've been suckered into facing swarms of
well-armed F-4 Phantoms, are forced into a fight. EVERETT RASPBERRY: Some of
them were more aggressive than others. It was hit and miss. Others seemed to want to
hang around and fight. And I think that was the kind
we were really looking for, because it was hard
to catch these guys. NARRATOR: A MiG is closing on
Colonel Chappie James, the Ford leader. Raspberry spots him. I thought he was
coming after our lead. He kept closing too close. So I tried to get the Ford
lead to break to the right three or four times,
and he wouldn't go. So I got between
him and the MiG. NARRATOR: The MiG is coming
up from James' 4 o'clock. When James doesn't break
right, Raspberry accelerates to intercept the MiG. The MiG pilot overshoots
Ford 1 and snaps into a high-g left
turn to avoid a fight. Raspberry breaks
left behind the MiG, but he's pulling too many
g's on his aircraft in order for his missiles to
function properly. Raspberry executes
a vector roll. Raspberry pulls out of the
vector roll on the MiG 6. He's 3,500 feet behind
the MiG in a left turn-- the perfect position to
fire a Sidewinder Missile. Raspberry has to
make this shot count. He has just one
working Sidewinder. He closes in on the MiG's tail. I followed the guy down. He was heading for the clouds. NARRATOR: The MiG,
focused on getting into the safety of the
clouds, makes a frantic dash. But just before hitting
the low cloud cover, he inexplicably
reverses his turn. It's a fatal mistake. Raspberry now has
a perfect shot. I had the tone in the headset
for the vessel, which told you it was tracking. Squeezed the trigger, and
it went like a bullet right in the cockpit with him,
and then he blew up. [explosion] [explosion] EVERETT RASPBERRY: I almost spun
in while I was watching him. It was so spectacular-- first
time I'd ever shut down a MiG, and so I was excited,
to say the least. NARRATOR: Ford flight has scored
a kill, the fourth Bolo victory so far, and suffered no losses. Ford flight exits the target
area as the third wave-- Rambler group, streaks
in with missiles ready. Olds' trap is working
spectacularly. MiGs fill the skies. But Rambler group
faces an added danger-- more telephone pole-sized SA-2
SAMs streak through the clouds. Rambler is led by
Captain John B. Stone-- one of the main planners
of Operation Bolo. JB STONE: You got your
brain, your heart, your gut, and your hand interconnected. And that's what it takes
to pull off the mission. You're going to be scared. You'll be nervous. You'll be sweating. Your voice is going to go
up a few octaves, probably, the first time the SAMs come up. But that's what gets the
ticker going to make it work. NARRATOR: Stone hears the
fight ahead on his radio. Concerned about attacking
friendly fighters beyond visual
range, Stone radios Olds to get a fix
on his position. JB STONE: I could
hear it all going on, and that's when I
ask, where are you? The response was,
go find your own. I thought that is pretty
selfish of him at the time, but there was plenty left. NARRATOR: It didn't take
Stone long to find his own. JB STONE: I looked out
ahead, and I saw two MiGs. Later, I find out
there were four. I just saw the two. They were about my
2 o'clock position. I was high on them, maybe
two to three miles out. NARRATOR: Stone
drops his fuel tanks. Then, he and his wingman break
right and go into a hard dive, keeping their eyes
on the nearest MiG. JB STONE: I'd hollered,
go boresight, which trains my radar to look where
my piper and my windscreen is. NARRATOR: In going
boresight, the piper, visible on the
Phantom's windscreen, acts like a gun sight,
allowing the pilot to aim his weapons by eye. Stone puts the piper at the
wing root of the trailing MiG. The radar locks, and he
fires a Sparrow Missile, but it's a dud. The Sparrow, designed to
follow the Phantom's radar beam to the target, has major
reliability problems in Vietnam's tropical weather. Since the reliability
of the Sparrow was in the range of 10% or
so, pilots would typically ripple fire them so that they
would hope that one would find its way to the target. I fired two more times. The second went right to
the wing root of the MiG-21 and exploded. [explosion] And the guy ejected. NARRATOR: Then, Stone and his
wingman spot two more MiGs, high and above. JB STONE: They were shining-- bright, shiny, silver ones. So I turned to avoid those two. NARRATOR: Suddenly, a blur
of polished silver shoots between Stone and his wingman. JB STONE: You know, I
just saw it peripherally. Found out later, it
was a MiG-21 that came through between my number
two and I, and he was shooting. I didn't even see this. I was glad. That, I'm sure, would
have scared me to death. NARRATOR: Stone gets
an urgent radio call. JB STONE: I hear this voice. It's Rambler 3 said,
it's a MiG on your ass. Break right. NARRATOR: Stone
looks to his right and sees nothing,
then, to his left, and sees a MiG 1,200 feet
away, its 30-millimeter cannons blazing right at him. [dramatic music] [dramatic music] Air Force Captain J.B.
Stone, one of the masterminds of Operation Bolo,
spots an enemy MiG-21 coming up from behind
with cannons blazing. Tracers were red
basketballs about this big all over my canopy. Stone brakes hard left to get
out of the MiG's crosshairs. [airplane engines roar] And I hollered nice
expletive and broke into him to defeat this turn. The NARRATOR: MiG going, too fast to
match Stone's turn, overshoots. Stone seizes the
advantage, rolls right, and reverses his turn. In the high-g turn, he fights
to keep his head up and his eyes on the target. Stone expects to see the
MiG right in front of him. MiG's not there. I don't see number 2. So I start another turn. And in this hard turn. I light the burners. NARRATOR: Stone's lost sight of
his wingman and the enemy MiG-- a potentially fatal mistake. He rolls out of the turn
and searches the sky. Then, he spots his wingman
engaging one of the MiGs. When I broke this way,
he couldn't recover. But he did a high-g barrel roll. And he saw the ones that I
was looking at a few minutes before. NARRATOR: Lawrence
Glynn, his wingman, does a perfect barrel roll. He noses up, rolls right, goes
inverted, and rolls back down behind the MiG. The move has
widened the distance between Glynn and the MiG,
allowing him to gain a missile lock. Glen fires a Sparrow. [missile screams] Philip Combies, flying Rambler
4, goes after two more MiGs. JB STONE: Phil Combies had
picked up those other two MiGs that I had not seen
the first time. And he had a little
engagement with them, and he shot down one
out of that flight. [explosion] NARRATOR: Stone finds
no targets in sight. Then, SAM missiles rocket
up through the low clouds. I called egress,
meaning, let's go. Let's get the hell out of here. We got everybody together. It was time to go. NARRATOR: Rambler
flight turns back toward home base in Thailand. They've engaged six
MiGs, obliterating three. The four remaining Bolo flights
arrive too late for action. The MiGs have cut and run. The heavy undercast
masks their escape. JB STONE: I found out later
that for all the talking with the MiGs and their
controllers on the ground told them, get in the clouds. And that's what happened. All the MiGs went into the
clouds, and it was all over. [triumphant music] NARRATOR: Back at Ubon Airbase,
the ground crews eagerly await the Phantoms' return. BARRETT TILLMAN: Those guys on
the ground now see the results. And when the canopies come open
and people start holding up one and two fingers, indicating
MiG kills, the place erupts. It's a party. ROBIN OLDS: Olds and his
men have won a huge victory. In just 13 minutes,
they downed seven MiGs. JEFF DUFORD: Operation Bolo
shot down seven MiG-21s, which may not seem very high. But to put it in perspective,
the North Vietnamese Air Force only had about 12 to
16 MiG-21s at the time, so they lost about half
their MiG-21 force. NARRATOR: It's the
highest kill total of any mission in
the Vietnam War so far with no American losses. But the results reach much wider
than the destruction of so many of the enemy's prized MiG-21s. BARRETT TILLMAN: From the wider
perspective of the air war as a whole, it forced the
North Vietnamese to pull back, regroup, and to
scratch their heads and figure, what in the
world happened today, and how do we prevent
that from happening again? ROBIN OLDS: It kind of put a
damper on the MiG activities for quite a while,
for quite a while. But the main thing, I
think, that Bolo did was, it was exhilarating
for all fighter pilots that we finally got
to do something. NARRATOR: In this
rarely-seen interview shortly after the
battle, Colonel Olds sums up Operation Bolo. Deliberately-planned fighter
sweep went just as we'd hoped. The MiGs came up. The MiGs were aggressive. We tangled. They lost. NARRATOR: Olds receives
his third Silver Star. During his tour in Vietnam,
Olds downs three more MiGs. With a total of 17 kills-- 13 in World War II
and 4 in Vietnam-- he becomes a triple ace-- one of the greatest
commanders and fighter pilots the Air Force has known. ROBIN OLDS: No two engagements,
which I really prefer to call them, are the same, ever. You think you've
got it down pat, but it's always
something different. It's always something that
will surprise you or demand of you flexibility, innovation. [missile screams] [explosion] NARRATOR: The training
and the teamwork that Olds instilled
in his fighter wing turned them into the
premier MiG-killing outfit in the Vietnam War. With a wartime total
of 38 aerial kills, Olds was promoted to
Brigadier General in May 1968 and retired from the
Air Force in 1973. Thanks to outspoken
combat veterans like Robin Olds, who
relentlessly stressed the fundamentals, the Air Force
relearned and mastered the art of the dogfight. [explosion]
