SoonerStormchaser
9/8/2007, 10:45 PM
I'm halfway to drunkytown after several hurricanes...and I begged and pleaded with Homey to tell this story. He obliged, so I must fulful my duty or else be banished to the Good Morning infernal regions.
September 9, 1972: (then) Capt. Charles B. Debellevue becomes the top ace in Vietnam when he records his 5th and 6th kills.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Capt_C_DeBellevue.jpg/200px-Capt_C_DeBellevue.jpg
On this date, 35 years ago, Captain Charles B. Debellevue, a WSO (that's a fighter nav, for those of you keeping score) in a F-4D, scored his 5th and 6th kills when he and his pilot (Capt. John A. Madden Jr) shot down two Mig-19's...thus earning Debellevue both the coveted "ace" and "ace of aces" monikers.
http://www.warbirdalley.com/images/F4rnd-01.jpg
McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom
DeBellevue was born in New Orleans on August 15, 1945 and grew up in Louisiana. After applying unsuccessfully to the United States Air Force Academy, he attended and graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1968. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) program at the university. Accepted into pilot training at Craig AFB, Alabama (near Selma), he failed to complete the course, but instead applied for and was accepted into undergraduate navigator training (UNT) at Mather Air Force Base, California in July 1969. He completed F-4 combat crew training at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona and was assigned to the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, as a McDonnell Douglas F-4D WSO.
http://www.aviano.af.mil/shared/media/ggallery/webgraphic/AFG-060810-013.jpg
Squadron patch of Col. Debellevue's fighter squadron in Vietnam.
In October 1971, DeBellevue was sent to the famed 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron (“Triple Nickel”), of the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, at Udon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand. Flying in a F-4D as the WSO with pilot Capt. Steve Ritchie on May 10, 1972, he and Ritchie scored the first of four MiG-21 kills they would achieve together. Both DeBellevue and Ritchie, along with Capt. Jeffrey Feinstein of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, would become the only USAF "Aces" during the Vietnam War.
An advantage that the "Triple Nickel Squadron" pilots and WSO's had over other U.S. aircrews was that eight of their F-4D Phantoms had the top secret APX-80 electronic set installed, known by its code-name Combat Tree. Combat Tree could read the IFF signals of the transponders built into the MiGs so that North Vietnamese GCI radar could discriminate its aircraft from that of the Americans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:F-4_Phantom_II_Collings_Foundation.jpg
Ritchie and DeBellevue's assignment on May 10, 1972, the first major day of air combat in Operation Linebacker, was as element leader (Oyster 03) of one of two flights of the F-4D MiGCap for the morning strike force. Oyster flight had three of its Phantoms equipped with Combat Tree IFF interrogators, and two days previously its flight lead, Major Robert Lodge, and his WSO Capt. Roger Locher had scored their third MiG kill to lead all USAF crews then flying in Southeast Asia.
At 0942, forewarned 19 minutes earlier by the EC-121 "Disco" over Laos and then by "Red Crown", the US Navy radar picket ship USS Chicago, Oyster flight engaged an equal number of MiG-21s head-on, scattering them. Maj. Lodge was shot down and killed, despite clumsy flying by the MiG-19's. (He might have been able to eject, but had previously told his flightmates that he would not be captured because of his extensive knowledge of classified and sensitive information.) Almost simultaneously Ritchie and DeBellevue rolled into a firing position behind the remaining MiG-21 of the original 4 with a radar lock, launched two Sparrows and scored a kill with the second.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Aces6b.jpg
Debellevue and Ritchie.
On July 8, 1972, Ritchie and DeBellevue were leading Paula flight, in gun-equipped F-4Es instead of the Combat Tree F-4Ds they usually flew, on a MiGCAP to cover the exit of the strike force. While they were west of Phu Tho and south of Yen Bai, the EC-121 vectored them to intercept MiG-21s returning to base after damaging one of the US chaff escorts. The MiGs were still approximately 4 miles away and Ritchie turned the flight south to cross the Black River. As they closed, Disco gave them warning that the MiG return had "merged" with the Paula flight's return on his screen. Ritchie reversed course, observed the first MiG at his 10 o'clock position and turned left to meet it head-on. When Ritchie passed the first MiG-21, he recalled the engagement of May 10 and waited to see if there was a trailing MiG. When he observed the second MiG, which he also passed head-on, he reversed hard left to engage. The MiG turned to its right to evade the attack, an unusual maneuver, and Ritchie used a vertical separation move to gain position on its rear quarter. DeBellevue obtained a solid boresight (dogfighting) radar lock on it while at the MiG's 5 o'clock, although fired from the edge of their flight envelopes, both AIM-7s struck home.
The first MiG had also turned back and was attacking the last F-4 in Ritchie's flight from behind, an often fatal consequence to US aircraft employing the then-standard "fluid four" tactical formation. Ritchie made a hard turn across the curving intercept of the MiG, again coming out at its 5 o'clock, and the MiG, apparently perceiving the threat, broke hard right and dove away. Ritchie fired an AIM-7 from inside its minimum range and at the limit of its capability to turn. Expecting the Sparrow to miss, he was trying to switch to a gun attack in the relatively unfamiliar F-4E he was flying that day when the missile exploded the MiG, 1 minute and 29 seconds after the first kill.
Ritchie's final victory (his 5th making him an "Ace") with DeBellevue (his 4th) came on August 28, 1972, while leading Buick flight, a MiGCAP for a strike north of Hanoi. Attacking in a climbing curve behind the MiG-21's with his AIM-7 guidance radar locked on, Ritchie was given continuous range updates by DeBellevue. With his Phantom barely making enough speed to overtake the targets, Ritchie launched two Sparrows from over four miles away. The firing parameters of the two shots were out of the missiles' performance envelope, an attempt to influence the MiGs to turn and thus shorten the range. Both shots not only missed but failed to influence the opponents. Moments later, tracking one MiG visually by the contrail it was making, Ritchie fired his remaining two Sparrows, also at long range. The first missed, but the MiG made a hard turn and actually shortened the range, and was destroyed by the second. Short on fuel, Ritchie elected not to try to pursue the second MiG-21.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c8/Capts_Ritchie_DeBellevue.jpg
On September 9th, Debellevue and Madden were on MIGCAP near Hanoi when they picked up several MIG's on their scope. When DeBellevue acquired the MiG's on radar, the flight maneuvered to attack. Madden and DeBellevue made the first move. They got a visual on the MiG about 5 miles out on final approach with his gear and flaps down. Getting a lock on him, they fired missiles but they missed. They were coming in from the side-rear and slipped up next to that MiG no more than 500 feet apart. He got a visual on us, snatched up his flaps and hit afterburner, accelerating out. It became obvious we weren't going to get another shot at the MiG.
DeBellevue describes the next two engagements as follows. We acquired the MiG's on radar and positioned as we picked them up visually. We used a slicing low-speed yo-yo to position behind the MiG-19's and started turning hard with them. We fired one AIM-9 missile which detonated 25 feet from one of the MiG-19's. We switched the attack to the other MiG-19 and one turn later we fired an AIM-9 at him. I observed the missile impact the tail of the MiG. The MiG continued normally for the next few seconds, then began a slow roll and spiraled downward, impacting the ground with a large fireball.
Madden and DeBellevue returned to their base thinking they had destroyed only the second MiG-19. Only later did investigation reveal that they were the only aircrew to shoot at a MiG-19 which crashed and burned on the runway at Phuc Yen that day. That gave them two MiG-19 kills for the day and brought DeBellevue's total to six MiG kills, the most earned during the war.
Removed from active combat following his fifth and sixth kills, DeBellevue applied for and re-entered pilot training at Williams AFB, AZ, in November 1972. After pinning on his new wings, he returned to the F-4 as a pilot assigned to the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing at Holloman AFB, NM. In 1975, he moved to Elmendorf AFB, AK, where he served as the assistant operations officer in the 43rd Tactical Fighter Squadron. He went on to serve as the 5th Air Force deputy chief of staff at Yokota AB, Japan. From 1988-1992, he was the base commander at Misawa AB, Japan. He was then assigned as the commander of the 95th Air Base Wing, Edwards AFB, California, until 1995. The 95th ABW is the host wing at Edwards AFB which is the second largest base in the Air Force.
DeBellevue retired as a Colonel from active duty as commander of the AFROTC Detachment 440, University of Missouri-Columbia in January 1998, after 30 years of military service. He was the last American ace on active duty.
http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2214&d=1188307990
On a personal note, Col. Debellevue is a close friend of the family. He currently lives in an undisclosed suburb of Oklahoma City (easy for you to find if you have a phonebook). My family and I have known him ever since he was stationed at Misawa back in the late 80's and he's been my mentor throughout Nav school. Above is a pic of him at my wedding in January...talking to several of my OTS buddies now at pilot training at Vance.
September 9, 1972: (then) Capt. Charles B. Debellevue becomes the top ace in Vietnam when he records his 5th and 6th kills.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Capt_C_DeBellevue.jpg/200px-Capt_C_DeBellevue.jpg
On this date, 35 years ago, Captain Charles B. Debellevue, a WSO (that's a fighter nav, for those of you keeping score) in a F-4D, scored his 5th and 6th kills when he and his pilot (Capt. John A. Madden Jr) shot down two Mig-19's...thus earning Debellevue both the coveted "ace" and "ace of aces" monikers.
http://www.warbirdalley.com/images/F4rnd-01.jpg
McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom
DeBellevue was born in New Orleans on August 15, 1945 and grew up in Louisiana. After applying unsuccessfully to the United States Air Force Academy, he attended and graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1968. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) program at the university. Accepted into pilot training at Craig AFB, Alabama (near Selma), he failed to complete the course, but instead applied for and was accepted into undergraduate navigator training (UNT) at Mather Air Force Base, California in July 1969. He completed F-4 combat crew training at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona and was assigned to the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, as a McDonnell Douglas F-4D WSO.
http://www.aviano.af.mil/shared/media/ggallery/webgraphic/AFG-060810-013.jpg
Squadron patch of Col. Debellevue's fighter squadron in Vietnam.
In October 1971, DeBellevue was sent to the famed 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron (“Triple Nickel”), of the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, at Udon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand. Flying in a F-4D as the WSO with pilot Capt. Steve Ritchie on May 10, 1972, he and Ritchie scored the first of four MiG-21 kills they would achieve together. Both DeBellevue and Ritchie, along with Capt. Jeffrey Feinstein of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, would become the only USAF "Aces" during the Vietnam War.
An advantage that the "Triple Nickel Squadron" pilots and WSO's had over other U.S. aircrews was that eight of their F-4D Phantoms had the top secret APX-80 electronic set installed, known by its code-name Combat Tree. Combat Tree could read the IFF signals of the transponders built into the MiGs so that North Vietnamese GCI radar could discriminate its aircraft from that of the Americans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:F-4_Phantom_II_Collings_Foundation.jpg
Ritchie and DeBellevue's assignment on May 10, 1972, the first major day of air combat in Operation Linebacker, was as element leader (Oyster 03) of one of two flights of the F-4D MiGCap for the morning strike force. Oyster flight had three of its Phantoms equipped with Combat Tree IFF interrogators, and two days previously its flight lead, Major Robert Lodge, and his WSO Capt. Roger Locher had scored their third MiG kill to lead all USAF crews then flying in Southeast Asia.
At 0942, forewarned 19 minutes earlier by the EC-121 "Disco" over Laos and then by "Red Crown", the US Navy radar picket ship USS Chicago, Oyster flight engaged an equal number of MiG-21s head-on, scattering them. Maj. Lodge was shot down and killed, despite clumsy flying by the MiG-19's. (He might have been able to eject, but had previously told his flightmates that he would not be captured because of his extensive knowledge of classified and sensitive information.) Almost simultaneously Ritchie and DeBellevue rolled into a firing position behind the remaining MiG-21 of the original 4 with a radar lock, launched two Sparrows and scored a kill with the second.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Aces6b.jpg
Debellevue and Ritchie.
On July 8, 1972, Ritchie and DeBellevue were leading Paula flight, in gun-equipped F-4Es instead of the Combat Tree F-4Ds they usually flew, on a MiGCAP to cover the exit of the strike force. While they were west of Phu Tho and south of Yen Bai, the EC-121 vectored them to intercept MiG-21s returning to base after damaging one of the US chaff escorts. The MiGs were still approximately 4 miles away and Ritchie turned the flight south to cross the Black River. As they closed, Disco gave them warning that the MiG return had "merged" with the Paula flight's return on his screen. Ritchie reversed course, observed the first MiG at his 10 o'clock position and turned left to meet it head-on. When Ritchie passed the first MiG-21, he recalled the engagement of May 10 and waited to see if there was a trailing MiG. When he observed the second MiG, which he also passed head-on, he reversed hard left to engage. The MiG turned to its right to evade the attack, an unusual maneuver, and Ritchie used a vertical separation move to gain position on its rear quarter. DeBellevue obtained a solid boresight (dogfighting) radar lock on it while at the MiG's 5 o'clock, although fired from the edge of their flight envelopes, both AIM-7s struck home.
The first MiG had also turned back and was attacking the last F-4 in Ritchie's flight from behind, an often fatal consequence to US aircraft employing the then-standard "fluid four" tactical formation. Ritchie made a hard turn across the curving intercept of the MiG, again coming out at its 5 o'clock, and the MiG, apparently perceiving the threat, broke hard right and dove away. Ritchie fired an AIM-7 from inside its minimum range and at the limit of its capability to turn. Expecting the Sparrow to miss, he was trying to switch to a gun attack in the relatively unfamiliar F-4E he was flying that day when the missile exploded the MiG, 1 minute and 29 seconds after the first kill.
Ritchie's final victory (his 5th making him an "Ace") with DeBellevue (his 4th) came on August 28, 1972, while leading Buick flight, a MiGCAP for a strike north of Hanoi. Attacking in a climbing curve behind the MiG-21's with his AIM-7 guidance radar locked on, Ritchie was given continuous range updates by DeBellevue. With his Phantom barely making enough speed to overtake the targets, Ritchie launched two Sparrows from over four miles away. The firing parameters of the two shots were out of the missiles' performance envelope, an attempt to influence the MiGs to turn and thus shorten the range. Both shots not only missed but failed to influence the opponents. Moments later, tracking one MiG visually by the contrail it was making, Ritchie fired his remaining two Sparrows, also at long range. The first missed, but the MiG made a hard turn and actually shortened the range, and was destroyed by the second. Short on fuel, Ritchie elected not to try to pursue the second MiG-21.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c8/Capts_Ritchie_DeBellevue.jpg
On September 9th, Debellevue and Madden were on MIGCAP near Hanoi when they picked up several MIG's on their scope. When DeBellevue acquired the MiG's on radar, the flight maneuvered to attack. Madden and DeBellevue made the first move. They got a visual on the MiG about 5 miles out on final approach with his gear and flaps down. Getting a lock on him, they fired missiles but they missed. They were coming in from the side-rear and slipped up next to that MiG no more than 500 feet apart. He got a visual on us, snatched up his flaps and hit afterburner, accelerating out. It became obvious we weren't going to get another shot at the MiG.
DeBellevue describes the next two engagements as follows. We acquired the MiG's on radar and positioned as we picked them up visually. We used a slicing low-speed yo-yo to position behind the MiG-19's and started turning hard with them. We fired one AIM-9 missile which detonated 25 feet from one of the MiG-19's. We switched the attack to the other MiG-19 and one turn later we fired an AIM-9 at him. I observed the missile impact the tail of the MiG. The MiG continued normally for the next few seconds, then began a slow roll and spiraled downward, impacting the ground with a large fireball.
Madden and DeBellevue returned to their base thinking they had destroyed only the second MiG-19. Only later did investigation reveal that they were the only aircrew to shoot at a MiG-19 which crashed and burned on the runway at Phuc Yen that day. That gave them two MiG-19 kills for the day and brought DeBellevue's total to six MiG kills, the most earned during the war.
Removed from active combat following his fifth and sixth kills, DeBellevue applied for and re-entered pilot training at Williams AFB, AZ, in November 1972. After pinning on his new wings, he returned to the F-4 as a pilot assigned to the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing at Holloman AFB, NM. In 1975, he moved to Elmendorf AFB, AK, where he served as the assistant operations officer in the 43rd Tactical Fighter Squadron. He went on to serve as the 5th Air Force deputy chief of staff at Yokota AB, Japan. From 1988-1992, he was the base commander at Misawa AB, Japan. He was then assigned as the commander of the 95th Air Base Wing, Edwards AFB, California, until 1995. The 95th ABW is the host wing at Edwards AFB which is the second largest base in the Air Force.
DeBellevue retired as a Colonel from active duty as commander of the AFROTC Detachment 440, University of Missouri-Columbia in January 1998, after 30 years of military service. He was the last American ace on active duty.
http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2214&d=1188307990
On a personal note, Col. Debellevue is a close friend of the family. He currently lives in an undisclosed suburb of Oklahoma City (easy for you to find if you have a phonebook). My family and I have known him ever since he was stationed at Misawa back in the late 80's and he's been my mentor throughout Nav school. Above is a pic of him at my wedding in January...talking to several of my OTS buddies now at pilot training at Vance.