Re: Mustangs vs Il-10s, Yaks and MiG-15s

[<RonaldS842@aol.com>]

    Jack Broughton in "Fifteen Sams for Geeno". (Jack was leader of the USAF 
demonstration team Thunderbirds for a number of years. He was a fighter pilot 
in Korea and Vietnam)
   Yes, Geeno got 15 Sams in one raid in Nam. Things were moving at breakneck 
speed and the strike force was at work. There was no faltering, no 
hesitation, just deadly split-second precision work. You don't look for 
anybody else and you don't think about anybody else during these seconds when 
your ass belongs to Uncle Sam. Each one  understands that, but they don't 
particularly care to dwell on it. The strike was a beauty and everyone got 
out. Everyone, that is, except Geeno... the fighter pilot commander who bet 
his life that he could knock out the toughest guns in the world and save his 
buddies. (we talked about the Sams and the USAF pilot heros a few months 
back) 
   But back to Korea...
   Diego, here is what Jack has to say about MiG. He says that he doesn't 
think you will find a truely professional fighter pilot who would not sell 
his front seat in Hell to be a MiG squadron commander in the face of an 
American fighter-bomber attack. Because they were lighter, they were faster, 
could accelerate faster and could turn better. He said that they could have 
murdered us if they did the job properly.
   They didn't go first class and our guys were both good and dedicated. I 
guess that was the difference.
   He said he had been on the low end of odds as high as 16 to 2... and 
that's pretty lousy. He said he was hung up for 23 minutes, an almost unheard 
of time period for aerial combat even in the early days of Korea when this 
occurred. They didn't scratch him only because their cannon couldn't hit the 
round side of a board. 
   The secret to our high kill ratio...you tell me. I guess the air-to-air 
result reports from our guys is a good indication.

Ronald Schultz
Moraga, CA