Re: What is "MiG Alley"?

[William Richter <richterw@sbcglobal.net>]

I was in the 1901st AACS (Airway and Aircraft Service) Detachment 6, stationed at Chodo. Our squadron motto was "The Eyes And Ears Of MIG Alley". The long range radar on the northern end of the island covered that area of North Korea up to the Yalu River and beyond into Manchuria. The radar tracked air strikes into North Korea and also tracked the MIGs sent out to intercept them. The island was/is approximately 2 miles from the North Korean coast, and about 10 miles south of Chinampo (spelling?) Harbor.

 

I was classified as a Ground Radio Mechanic, and worked a daily shift at the radio relay station connecting Chodo to the next island south, and eventually to Seoul City airbase. The call sign of the relay at that time was "Kodak". I was stationed there from early January of 1953 until the truce was signed in July of that year. We had a week to evacuate the island before it was turned back to North Korean control. Everything that could not be transported from the island in that time was either burned or blown up.

 

It hardly seems like 50 years has passed since that time. After my discharge from the Air Force in April 1955, I went on to get a degree in Engineering Electronics using the Korean GI Bill. I worked in the electronics field until my retirement in 2001, and still dabble in electronoics and computers.

 

Bill Richter

Les Hanson <hanson@totalnetnh.net> wrote:

Received this from AFHRA to-day--Air Force Historical Research Agency

Comments:
Thanks for your inquiry,in looking through AFHRA source
documents/books,I could not locate any definitive instance where an aircraft
performed a supersonic flight during the Korean war.I did find instances of
jets flying "near supersonic " speeds,particular by F-86s while in a dive.
Chuck Yeager is credited with the first supersonic flight,on October 14,1947

http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/

Les Hanson A longAgoAirman
6303rd Air Terminal Squadron
Naha AB,Okinawa
Nov 1949--Sept 15 1951
----- Original Message -----
From: "Les Hanson"
To:
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2003 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: What is "MiG Alley"?


> Cookie,
> I just sent a require to Maxwell AFB for their information on
the
> Air Forces first supersonic flight.When ever i receive i will let you know
> results.
> Les Hanson ALongAgoAirman
> 1948-1953
> Naha Okinawa 1949-1951 51st FIW to sept 1950
> ----- Original Message -----
> From:
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2003 7:45 PM
> Subject: Re: What is "MiG Alley"?
>
>
> > Les,
> >
> > Don't think he was arguing with the quote, but its authors.
> >
> > F-86 could only go supersonic in a shallow dive (if the pilot wanted to
> pull
> > out of it!) and the MiG-15 had an automatic gizmo that popped the
> airbrakes
> > around Mach 0.95-0.97 to make sure it could not. Also, the kills listed
> were
> > validated claims, and the Soviet lists are quite different -- something
> around
> > 30-35 aircraft vice 117.
> >
> > It sounds more like early 1950s "Hoorah!" stuff than fact.
> >
> > Cookie Sewell
> > AMPS
> >
>