In a turning battle, as first discovered in the Have Doughnut tests, the F-4 had to keep its speed up, to insure the turn rate was even. The MiG 21 was also optimized for high altitudes — above 30,000 feet. At lower altitudes, the F-4's higher-thrust engines gave it an advantage.[656]
The data from the Have Doughnut and Have Drill tests were provided to the newly formed Top Gun school at NASA Miramar. The Top Gun instructors had been studying the Ault Report, accounts of dogfights, and intelligence reports on North Vietnamese tactics for six months. Now they were shown a film of the Have Doughnut tests; then they were given clearances to see and fly the MiGs.
The selected instructors would fly in pairs to Nellis Air Force Base to be briefed by Teague or his assistants. They would be told to fly to "a certain spot" and wait for the MiGs. The event was eagerly anticipated; the instructors had known for weeks they would be going up against the MiGs in simulated combat. One instructor later recalled his heart racing as the MiGs drew closer on radar. Finally, at about three and a half miles, they were spotted visually.
The first step was for the MiGs to pull alongside the F-4s so the instructors could get a good look at them. The MiGs were not much to look at; there were bumps and rivets that would never have been on an American plane.
The F-4 would then follow along behind as the MiG 17's good low-speed and poor high-speed maneuverability was demonstrated. The tendency of the MiG 21 to lose speed in turns was also shown. The flights were very helpful in a number of areas. Ironically, although the instructors were combat veterans, few had ever seen a MiG. A close-up view of the MiGs lessened the surprise. The radar intercept officers (RIOs — the rear seat crewmen who operated the F-4's radar) also got the chance to study the MiG's radar return. Finally, the instructors were able to actually try out the techniques they had been developing with the "real thing."
By 1970, the Have Drill program was expanded; a few selected fleet F-4 crews were given the chance to fight the MiGs. Eventually, for the vast majority who could not go to Top Gun or participate in Have Drill, a thirty-minute film called Throw a Nickel on the Grass (the name of a fighter pilot's song) was produced. It was shown to every navy squadron. In the film, Teague noted, "The most important result of Project Have Drill is that no Navy pilot who flew in the project defeated the [MiG 17] Fresco in the first engagement."[657]
The Have Drill dogfights were by invitation only. The other pilots based at Nellis Air Force Base were not to know about the U.S.-operated MiGs.
To prevent any sightings, the airspace above the Groom Lake range was closed. On aeronautical maps, the exercise area was marked in red ink. The forbidden zone became known as "Red Square."[658]
Although much of the MiG operations were connected with such training, tests were also being conducted. Several MiG 17 flights were made to test fire the plane's twin 23mm and single 37mm cannons. (When the two MiG 17s landed in Israel, their cannons were fully loaded.) A special dogfight test was conducted with navy and air force F-4 crews. The navy RIOs were specially trained for their task; in contrast, the air force used pilots for the position. The tests showed that the navy's pilot-RIO team worked better than using two pilots. The navy crews were able to detect the target at longer ranges and go over to the offense faster. The air force crews scored fewer simulated kills. Soon after, the air force started specialized training.[659]
The MiGs were also used for familiarization flights by high-ranking naval officers. At the 1969 Tailhook Convention in Las Vegas, Foster convinced several admirals to go with him to Groom Lake to fly the MiGs.
Once special permission had been granted, Foster loaded them into a transport and flew them out to Groom Lake. The admirals were carefully briefed, then strapped into the MiGs. The Have Drill personnel were worried about the high-ranking pilots flying the irreplaceable MiGs. At one point, Teague, who was flying chase, thought that an admiral was flying a MiG 17 too hard. He radioed, "Goddamnit, Admiral, put it on the ground."[660]
Another senior officer to fly the MiG 17 was Marine Corps Gen. Marion Carl. He had become the first marine ace over Guadalcanal in the dark early days of World War II. On August 25, 1947, he set a world speed record of 650.6 mph (Mach 0.82) in the Douglas D-558-I Skystreak. On August 21, 1953, he set a world altitude record of 83,235 feet in the Douglas D-552-II Skyrocket. He had also served as commander of the first marine jet fighter squadron and flew secret reconnaissance missions over Communist China.
He was a living link between the days of propeller fighters and the missile-armed, supersonic fighters of the 1960s.
General Carl was flown to "a secret desert site" in a T-33 trainer. He flew two missions in the MiG 17, totaling 1.7 hours of flight time. (He was not allowed to log the time, of course.) The first was a simulated dogfight with several F-8s, while the second was with A-4s. Carl was very impressed with the MiG 17's maneuverability. It could be stalled flying straight up and allowed to fall off but would be under full control within 1,500 to 2,000 feet.
The only drawback he noted was the cockpit size — pilots over six feet tall were cramped.
While at Groom Lake, General Carl ran into one of the security precau-tions surrounding the MiGs. About midday, the ground crews began pulling the MiGs into the hangars. Carl asked about this and was told a Soviet reconnaissance satellite would soon pass overhead. It was a clear day, so the MiGs were being hidden to prevent any photos being taken of them by the satellite.[661]
In spite of the valuable lessons learned from the MiG program and from Top Gun, the future of both programs was by no means assured. High-level support was needed. Air-combat training was dangerous, and several aircraft had been lost in accidents. In one simulated dogfight with a MiG 17, a brand-new F-4 was lost when it went into a flat spin. The crew ejected at the last moment. The Vietnam War was also winding down — there had been only one MiG 21 shot down since the bombing halt in 1968.
Top Gun and Have Drill had produced a small group of navy pilots skilled in the art of air combat, but they had yet to prove the value of their training. Just after midnight on March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese Army launched the Easter Offensive. On May 8, President Richard Nixon ordered the mining of North Vietnam's ports and the start of the Linebacker I bombing campaign.
Two days later would come the greatest dogfight in the history of jet aviation.
On May 10, 1972, the F-4J crew of Lt. Randall H. "Duke" Cunningham and Lt. (jg) William R. "Willie" Driscoll was assigned to an air strike on the railyards at Hai Duong, located halfway between Hanoi and Haiphong.
Cunningham and Driscoll had already shot down two MiGs — a MiG 21 on January 19 and a MiG 17 on May 8. As the strike force neared the target, twenty-two MiG 17s, MiG 19s, and MiG 21s rose to challenge the navy planes.[662]
Cunningham and his wingman, Lt. Brad Grant, dropped their cluster bombs on a storage building. As Cunningham looked to his right at the building, two MiG 17s were coming in from the left. Grant saw them and radioed a warning, "Duke, you have MiG 17s at your seven o'clock, shooting." Driscoll also saw the MiGs as two black dots approaching fast and yelled, "Break port." Cunningham could see the muzzle flash from the lead MiG. The MiG 17s were moving fast, so he knew the controls would be hard to move. He turned toward the lead MiG, and it overshot the F-4.
658
Research File "Groom Lake (Nevada), Area 51 and Project Red Light" (W. L. Moore Publications, Compiled 1987).
661
Maj. Gen. Marion E. Carl, USMC (Ret), with Barrett Tillman,
662
John T. Smith, "Day of the 'Top Guns',"