I’m reading Osprey’s “US Navy A-7 Corsair II Units of the Vietnam War” and in one of the chapters it recounts a A-7 pilot’s mission on the same day that Cunningham and Driscoll scored three MiG-17 kills. At the end of the story the author mentions that “recent scholarship” has called into question the number of kills awarded to Cunningham and Driscoll on that day and suggests that they may have been downed by a MiG-21 instead of a SAM…anyone else know of this new look at that famous mission???
The Vietnamese have claimed that for several years. It is mentioned in Osprey’s MiG-21 units of the Vietnam War. Not so much the number of kills awarded, but the downing of them by a MiG-21 as they were egressing rather than a SAM.
I was aware of the North Vietnamese claims, but I’ve never seen the number of kills disputed or an American author also call into question the events of that day…
Considering the multiple US witnesses: Red Crown, pilots in all the aircraft engaged, and the US rules for verifying a kill, while overclaiming is possible, I do not think that it is too likely. On the other hand, the Viets have not opened up their archives for independent scholars and authors to examine in a non biased manner. Not to mention that it took the Soviets roughly 40 years to come clean about their aerial involvement over Korea. And to my knowledge they did not declassify their archives regarding Vietnam. I have started to recently see stuff online about a supposed Soviet ace with 6 kills from that war. In time I am sure that we may know more- other Communist nations such as North Korea rumored participation confirmed or ruled out. Plus to have much of the US intelligence alluded to (especially regarding SIGINT) in several accounts of that day needs to be declassified as well for a more complete look.
Agree…and when the Soviets DID make their records involving N. Korea available it was found that the kill ratio for US pilots was much LOWER than previously believed, and was admittedly so by the US govy…
Just sayin’…
I’ve never heard anything about any of the kills being disputed (though some of the details may have been embellished at bit).
But there has been a story going around for a long time that they weren’t downed by a SAM, but just ran it out of gas.
Mark