14Dec 1967 engagements over Vietnam!

[PoseidonSv]

I am trying to find out what aircraft and what markings they had that were involved in this engagement over North Vietnam flying from USS Oriskany (and Uss Constellation?).

On 14 December a Crusader pilot, Lieutenant Commander Rich Schaffert, would earn a towering reputation among his Navy Air colleagues that day even without scoring a kill.

Schaffert was flying an F-8C from the USS ORISKANY, providing escort for an A-4 piloted by Lieutenant JG Chuck Nelson on an Iron Hand mission. Schaffert's aircraft was armed with the normal four cannon and three Sidewinders, one missile having been removed before takeoff when it failed its preflight test.

The A-4 was preparing to attack a radar with one of its Shrike anti-radar missiles when two MiG-17s appeared to converge on the A-4. Schaffert tried to sneak up on them, but they got wise, tossed off their drop tanks, and turned to fight. As Schaffert turned to stay with them, he suddenly found two more MiG-17s attacking him from out of the Sun.

Schaffert was now confronted by four MiGs. He didn't like the odds. Unfortunately, his face mask had fallen down during his maneuvers, he couldn't spare the seconds to replace it, and so he couldn't call for help. Much to his own surprise, he managed to turn out of the attack by the second pair.

For the next ten minutes, Schaffert mixed it up with the four MiGs. He was not only badly outnumbered, the North Vietnamese pilots were clearly experienced and no pushovers. He managed to get off his three Sidewinders. The first should have been a kill but failed due to a defective proximity fuze; the second went wide; and he was too busy to watch what happened to the third. In response, two MiGs fired a total of four Atoll missiles at him, but they all went wide.

His missiles gone, Schaffert then closed on a MiG to kill it with cannon fire. He was a good shot and felt confident, but the guns jammed due to depletion of air pressure in the pneumatic feed system from the wild maneuvers.

Now all he could do was try to survive until help arrived. Chuck Nelson was coaching Schaffert on what he could see of the situation from his Skyhawk, and other Crusaders were moving in. Three of the MiGs gradually dropped out of the fight, but Schaffert found himself engaged in a deadly confrontation with the last, performing a series of violent up and down "scissors" maneuvers to get on the other's tail. The agile MiG-17 was slowly gaining the advantage, so Schaffert decided to bug out. At the top of the sixth scissors, he pointed his nose down, engaged afterburner, and left the slower MiG behind, pulling out of his high-speed dive just skimming the treetops.

Schaffert got his Crusader back to the ORISKANY with too little fuel to perform a second go-round. While weapon failures had cheated him of any kills, his duel had lasted an adrenalin-drenched 10 minutes 45 seconds, an eternity in a high-speed dogfight. He had simply outflown his adversaries and became a legend among Navy fighter jocks.

* The MiGs didn't get away unscathed that day, however. While Schaffert was trying to stay alive, several other Crusaders had jumped into the fight, which became a wild mixup. Lieutenant Richard Wyman found himself on the tail of a MiG-17, with the two aircraft streaking over the treetops. Wyman launched a Sidewinder and scored a hit, later recalling: "The wing fell off. Red fire streaked along the side of the aircraft as it cartwheeled into a rice paddy."

Another Crusader pilot who was in the same fight, Commander Cal Swanson, gave the North Vietnamese pilot a admiring obituary in a conflict where such sentiments were scarce: "That was probably the longest MiG engagement of the war. That MiG pilot was a tiger. He came to fight."

Does anyone know which aircraft which was involved in the epic fighting over Vietnam?

What I really need is information on what aircraft Dick Schaffert was flying on the historical 14th of december 1967 mission.

*I also wonder which sidewinder was removed before the launch when failing preflight test?

*Did his aircraft had the Omar sharkfin marking on the fin or was this only applied later to Vf-111 F-8:s?

*Was it an F-8C with Bu number 146999 and AH 106 he flew that day?

*Maybe also it is possible to know what A-4 he was escorting that was doing the Iron Hand mission and how it was marked?

*I guess it was a "Blue Diamonds" marked A-4C of VA-146 from USS Constellation with marking NK ???

What about what other aircraft was flying that way and what individual airframes and pilots were flying them?

Also what A-6 Intruded did Dick Wyman meet that he protected?

There were:

Mig 17

Mig 21

A4

A6

F8