Col. Kenneth Cordier, who served as a Vietnam fighter pilot and endured more than six years as a POW, died June 18 at age 87.
st Lt. Lee Ellis’ F-4C Phantom was shot down on his 53rd bombing mission over North Vietnam. Captured immediately on Nov. 7, 1967, he was take to the notorious Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi, where he stayed for the next five and a half years. ...
President Joe Biden is pursuing a ‘gradualist’ policy in Ukraine, ratcheting up the pressure on the Russian invaders by progressively arming the Ukrainian military. Gradualism didn’t work in Vietnam, and it may not work in Ukraine, writes Brian J. Morra, a former Air Force Intelligence officer ...
Air combat is “a real team sport” requiring agile thinking, persistence, and a willingness to sometimes disregard the rules, retired Col. Charles B. DeBellevue, the highest-scoring Air Force Vietnam ace, said at a seminar held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his last air-to-air kills.
Russia officially unveiled its new Checkmate fighter at the MAKS airshow July 20, offering a series of ambitious performance claims about the jet, which it is clearly promoting as a low-cost, single-engined alternative to the F-35 in the world market. Company officials said an unmanned ...
Howard C. “Scrappy” Johnson, a Collier Trophy winner and founder of the Red River Valley Pilots Association—also known as the “River Rats”—died Dec. 9, 2020, at age 100. Johnson flew hundreds of combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. He also served in World War II.
The Air Force’s new combat rescue helicopter will be named Jolly Green II. The new helicopter, slated to replace the HH-60G Pave Hawk, will carry on the name of the venerable Vietnam-era HH-3E, which flew combat rescue missions from 1967 to 1995. Air Force Secretary ...
President Donald Trump honored Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee during his State of the Union address on Feb. 4, hours after pinning stars on McGee's shoulders in the Oval Office. Throughout his career, McGee flew a record 409 combat missions, more than any other pilot in ...
Aviation author Walter Boyne, who wrote more than 50 books, had a noteworthy Air Force career, and was a former director of the National Air & Space Museum, died Jan. 9, at the age of 90. Boyne flew mainly bombers in the Air Force and, ...
Two US Air Force legends will be promoted, one posthumously, under the draft fiscal 2020 defense policy bill. The bill includes language honorarily promoting retired Lt. Col. Dick Cole, the last living Doolittle Raider who died earlier this year, to colonel. It also honorarily promotes ...