began his pull-up, but
luckily my timing was
good. I wrapped up
my Mustang, and while
I was in my turn I began
firing. I saw tracers converge
on both wings. I eased the rudder to the right
to keep him in sight. Then a long blue plume
of smoke began to trail from one of his wings
and he wobbled and fell out of his turn.“He slowly rolled over and went into a
long glide. I watched the Yak go down...
a leftover from World War Two, just as my
plane and I were. On the flight back I
thought about the duel
with the North Korean,
resulting in a kill, and it
was rewarding to me to
know that after almost
six years I still knew
how to fight.”YAK ATTACK
Captain Howard Price
was a pilot in the 67th
FBS, one of many 18th
Group pilots involved in
aerial combat with the
Yaks.
He recalled a
mission on November
6, 1950, when flying
reconnaissance east of
Sinuiju in the extreme northern
sector of North Korea, immediately “after
we’d been kicked out of Pyongyang by the
advancing Chinese”.
The 18th Group was staging out ofChinhae (K-10), in the southwest of the
country, and some out of Suwon AB (K-13),
south of Seoul.
“We took off and climbed to altitude, usually
5,000 to 10,000ft, depending on where we
were going. The No.4 man in our flight aborted
just about the time we crossed the front lines.
The remaining three Mustangs continued on to
the assigned area,” said Price.
“We were armed with four 4.5in rockets
and ammo load. Our mission was to recon
[reconnaissance] vehicular traffic bringing
supplies out of China. While this brought us
close to the Yalu River [the Korean/Chinese
border], we were constantly on the look-out
for the new swept-wing MiG-15s that could
venture across the river. We had just now
run across these fighters, but our intel knew
very little about them.
“We could see them warming up at their
bases in China by the amount of dust kicked
up. On this day, six Yak-9 types came up at
us from the east of the Yalu. My wingman,
Lieutenant [George] Olsen, spotted them
first and called them out as they came up
from our 9 o’clock position. The group of six
had no specific formation.”
Price said he turned into them to ensure66 Aviation News incorporating Jets September 2017Above: A Mustang seen from the top
of the control tower as it heads for a
reconnaissance mission out of K-10. Tom
Shockley via Warren Thompson
Below right: The patch worn
by members of the 67th
FBS during the Korean
War. Warren Thompson
Below: Red-tailed
Mustangs belonging
to the 67th FBS at
Hoengsong Air Base
(K-46) in South Korea.
The snow during the
winter of 1950-1951
was heavier than usual.
Elmer Dunlap via Warren
Thompson64-68_mustangDCmfDCmfDC.indd 66 04/08/2017 12:36