The following is a tale from Alpha Strike Vietnam, an interview based history of Naval Air Combat over North Vietnam. Not all combat was squinted eyes, frantic callouts ending with the loud crunching of metal impacting a foreign hilltop. Sometimes, downright funny stuff happened:
Alpha Strike Vietnam
Jeffrey L. Levinson
pp. 99-100
The other
incident took place between Bobby Kirkwood and Paul Dempewolf. I'm on
top of these two when Kirkwood shoots a sidewinder and gets a MiG.
Dempewolf also shoots s Sidewinder and it heads straight for Kirkwood's
tailpipe. I'm look down on this incredulously, and I'm saying to myself,
Self, I know what I'm going to tell Kirkwood as soon as he's hit. I'm
going to say, "Hey Bobby, you've just been hit with a Sidewinder, that's
your problem, better get ready to jump out of that thing." Just as the Sidewinder approaches his tailpipe, Kirkwood launches another
one, and the Sidewinder headed for him goes after the one he just
launched, lops off the starboard horizontal stabilizer of his airplane,
and puts roller markers on the underside of the wing.
One of the
missiles hits the MiG, and the other flies through the debris. Kirkwood
keeps on going. Meanwhile, I've got my hands full and decide not to say about the whole thing because Kirkwood is still flying the
airplane, and he doesn't have utility or hydraulic failure.
We
got back, had this big debrief, and I said, "Okay, now I'm going to tell
my story." They said, "Impossible," and I said, "Go out and look at the
airplane." We went up on the deck and the [plane's] starboard
stabilizer was sliced off and there's a big line down the
underside of the wing made by the stainless steel guidance and balance
fin of the Sidewinder. Kirkwood about, and Dempewolf tried to claim
half a kill. He's lucky he didn't get his ass kicked, but it was funnier
than hell.
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