Vietnam – October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 25

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non built into the Phantom, was Marine Capt. Lawrence G. Richard.

At his right wing was an RF-4C Phantom reconnaissance plane. The

other three aircraft were F-4Es.

Richard was on exchange duty with the Air Force. “We deployed

to Udorn for six months under what was termed the ‘Summer Help

Program,’ when the forces of Thailand were bolstered up in the sum-

mer of 1972,” he said.

Richard’s weapons systems operator, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael J.

Ettel, had worked in the Air Force’s 10th Weather Squadron, which

had closed down. “He was left without a job,” Richard explained, “so

he went around to the various squadrons hoping to get assigned. Our

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as aircraft commander. That worked out real well, since we were

both on exchange duty with the Air Force.”

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70 miles west of Hanoi, when their headquarters radioed that enemy

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traveling at supersonic speed. “The lead MiG-21 was silver, and his

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my element began a slice turn down into their inside.”

With two F-4Es climbing to guard his tail, Richard followed the

MiGs into a slow left turn until he got a radar lock on the leader and

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pit without exploding. “He passed me, canopy to canopy, no more

than a couple hundred feet away,” Richard said, “rolled around my

six and dove out of sight.”

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Sparrow. It struck just ahead of his target’s

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in a vertical spin. “One of the funny aspects

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were going to engage the MiGs,” Richard

said. “When we turned around, he thought

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August was not a good month for the

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MiG-21s and two pilots. The only communist

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Fighter Regiment, spotted two Phantoms

about 9 miles from the Laotian border. Soat

F-4D Phantom 71-5811 of Marine Fighter-Attack Squadron 232,

shown refueling from a KC-130F Hercules tanker while crossing

the Pacific to Vietnam, was the victim of a MiG attack on Aug. 26,

1972. Weapons systems officer 1st Lt. Darrel Borders was rescued,
      but pilot 1st Lt. Sam G. Cordova, below, died in Laos.