Hell Over Hanoi

Dogfights: Hell Over Hanoi (12/01/06) wikipedia

Basco.btl

Adapted from the History Channel series "Dogfights!", episode "Hell Over Hanoi".

April 16, 1972, at the beginning of the Linebacker aerial bombing campaign, Fred Olmsted lead a flight of F-4 Phantoms (call sign "Basco") tasked with flying escort for a group of B-52s on a bombing mission in North Vietnam. Due to a foul up, the B-52s never left the ground, and Olmsted decided to take his Phantom flight out prowling for MiGs. Soon they detected on radar two MiGs heading straight for them at 20 miles and they closed in to engage. In the ensuing fight, Olmsted and the leader of the other F-4 element, Dan Cherry, destroyed one MiG-21 each with no losses.