The Jet-$Ge Gladiatorby John Lowery
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5DOSK3DUULVWKHRQO\DLUPDQHYHUWRHDUQERWKD 'LVWLQJXLVKHG6HUYLFH&URVVDQGDQ$LU)RUFH&URVV Capt. Ralph Parr (l) describes his final “kill”—the destruction of an enemy transport—to Col. Thomas DeJarnette and other members of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing in July 1953. By John Lowery 7KH-HW$JH*ODGLDWRU 60 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2013 DYLQJ just landed from a combat mission, four pilots saw a flight of four MiGs perpendicular to our flight path with from the 334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron walked a dive angle of about 15 degrees and firing at us,” he said. Parr casually from the squadron’s sandbagged revetments and Cox broke hard left into the attackers, but the lead element at Kimpo AB, South Korea, toward the operations broke right, thus separating the flight. With the attack thwarted building for the usual intelligence debriefing. The and because flight integrity was required, the two Sabres turned deafening engine whine of another returning flight of west, toward the confluence of the Yalu River and Yellow Sea, F-86 Sabres went up. At the time, all fighter-interceptor pilots before having to turn south toward home base. +instinctively checked the gunports of returning flights for the dark “After that encounter I was trying my best to look in 16 dif- gray soot indicating their guns had been fired. This would imply ferent directions at once, to keep us from getting bounced again. contact with MiGs. Sure enough, the .50-caliber blast shields of Then I looked down very low and saw something flicker across the No. 4 aircraft showed the unmistakable signs. But something some light-colored sandbars along the Yalu River shoreline and else looked odd: The ship’s entire fuselage was badly scorched called them out,” Parr remembered. from nose to tail—as if it had been burned with a giant blowtorch. It was June 7, 1953, and the fighter’s pilot was Capt. A Busy June Ralph S. Parr, returning from his sixth combat sortie in the Cox said he didn’t have it and urged Parr to take on the enemy, Sabre. His flight’s mission had been a “fighter sweep”— so Parr rolled a split-S and went straight down, pulling nine Gs to intercept and destroy any enemy aircraft found over to level off at 300 feet going very fast. North Korea. The fouled gunports and scorched airplane Parr spotted two MiGs a ways ahead, but when he got closer, he provided visual confirmation of realized there were more— what turned out to be the first first four, then eight in all. two of Parr’s 10 aerial victories. Parr looked to his left and Born on July 1, 1924, in saw eight more and im- Portsmouth, Va., the son a mediately decided to put Navy pilot, Parr began his a “big notch” in the MiG military career on Nov. 4, 1942, leader directly ahead. when he enlisted at age 18 in As Parr closed in on the the Army Reserve. On Feb. 2, leader, the eight in front 1943, he began flight training went into a break. Parr as an aviation cadet, earning stuck with the leader and his wings and commission as fired as close to a “track- a second lieutenant on Feb. ing shot” as he could get, 8, 1944. but with a deflection angle His first taste of combat was of 70 degrees, he had to very late in World War II, as a use 9.5Gs to do it. “There P-38 pilot based in the Philip- Parr’s gun camera caught this image of the Russian transport was no way I could stay just before he shot it down in the last aerial combat action of pines. He had no significant the Korean War. with him without making engagements. He did, however, a square corner,” Parr said witness the smoke still rising of the encounter. from the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The MiG and Parr continued with an old-fashioned dogfight, When the Korean War began, he immediately volunteered to fly after Parr’s gunsight malfunctioned, nearly rolling canopy to combat. He was sent to the F-80-equipped 49th Fighter-Bomber canopy 300 feet above the ground. Group. Following 165 interdiction missions, he returned to an “What happened next I don’t know, but I detected a faint F-86-equipped fighter wing at George AFB, Calif. The next year movement that put him just slightly ahead. I thought to myself, he spent perfecting tactics for use against the MiG-15. ‘Damn you. That’s going to cost you, friend.’ Then I got a little With the war winding down, he wrangled an assignment to more spacing and slid in behind him,” Parr recalled. They were the F-86-equipped 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing. In the remain- so close Parr was afraid the nose of his aircraft would take off ing 11 weeks of hostilities he shot down 10 enemy aircraft in the MiG’s stabilizer. just 47 missions. Parr’s wing entered the MiG’s jet wash, which pushed him Through three wars, Parr received more than 60 decorations. back a few feet. He was now only 10 feet behind his foe. He The Distinguished Service Cross, predecessor medal to the Air leaned the guns against the MiG and pulled the trigger, not Force Cross, is second only to the Medal of Honor for heroism needing a gunsight. in combat. Parr is the only airman ever to receive both a DSC “About the fourth or fifth time I hit him, it was like a bucket and an AFC. of water sloshed over my windshield,” Parr said. It was fuel The day of his first two kills of the Korean War, Parr was flying from his enemy’s wing caps. Staying close, Parr worked back as Shark Four, wingman to element leader 2nd Lt. Al B. Cox, into firing position, firing again, and the MiG burst into flames. Shark Three. Normally a wingman was forbidden to fire his guns The gunfire caused Parr’s jet to stall and he dropped low, with without specific permission from his element leader. But Cox flames from the other aircraft barely missing his intake and going knew of Parr’s extensive jet fighter background. He said to Parr over the canopy and the top half of his aircraft. The MiG hit the while walking to their jets, “You have more Sabre experience than ground and exploded. Pulling up rapidly, recovering from the I’ve got total flying time. If you should see something, call it out. stall, Parr saw five MiGs lined up against him. The first opened If I can’t see it, I’ll clear you to take the bounce and cover you.” fire, with tracers from the cannons arcing toward his jet. Parr As they cruised along “MiG Alley,” Parr recalled, the weather worked to avoid the fire, and the MiGs overshot him one by one. was beautiful, with unlimited visibility. “With the two elements One MiG looked like it was about to break off from the attack- almost line abreast, I was looking north into China. Suddenly I ing element, and Parr eased up on his turn a bit—encouraging AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2013 61 him to come closer. Parr maneuvered when the MiG pulled close Parr had been observing the aircraft for a while when it slowly enough and rolled over on top and behind him, pulling the trigger. crossed the Yalu River into North Korea. After two or three quick shots the MiG went down. Soon after, As Parr’s flight approached the target area, he asked the marine Parr headed back to base, the soot from his guns still apparent pilot if he could get his photographs of the target. The answer when he landed at Kimpo. was no, the target was socked in with cloud cover. On June 10, three days later, Parr downed a third MiG. The mission commander gave permission to check out the On June 18, 1953, Parr achieved the magic five victories “bogey,” and Parr and his wingman descended to about 500 feet to become a jet ace, after earning another double kill. In the above the aircraft to check it out. postflight debriefing, Parr said he was halfway home before he “It had the same markings as the MiGs, a big red star, but no realized he was an ace. “You get pretty focused when in enemy civilian markings,” Parr said. This was verified by his wingman, territory, because in this game, losing can be permanent,” he 1st Lt. Edwin J. Scarff. said of the day. Parr made two more passes to confirm the identity of the On June 30, Parr was flying a mission with Cox as his wingman transport, checked his map to make sure he was south of the when 10 MiGs attacked. Parr shot down two and was maneu- Yalu, then opened fire and shot the aircraft down. vering for a third kill when a distress call came from his wing The Soviets were outraged and immediately claimed the trans- commander, Col. James K, Johnson, whose F-86 had flamed out port was a civilian airliner with the negotiation team aboard—and after ingesting debris from a that it was 200 miles north in MiG he had shot down. Manchuria. An investigation Johnson was now under showed a straight line from attack himself. Low on fuel, the aircraft’s departure point Parr found Johnson, drove USAF photo of Port Arthur, China, to its off the attackers, and gave destination, Vladivostok, Si- Johnson time to restart his beria, took it across the Yalu engine and get back to base.