Posted on 07/16/2010 4:34:45 PM PDT by gorush
This from a Fighter Pilot chat group hosted by Tom Weeks about the memorial service held at the Air Force Academy honoring the recently deceased legendary fighter pilot, ace, leader Robin Olds:
Read the article (with picture) at the source, you won't regret it.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightjournal.com ...
I follow shortly after he left Ubon, and learned very quickly, what Col.Olds meant to the Wolf Pack.....
http://www.burrusspta.org/photos/robinolds.html
His dad sat beside Billy Mitchell during Billy’s court martial and knew all the aviators of the day. Robin, as a youth, met all of the old greats; Rickenbacker, Dolittle, etc.
Said it was common knowledge that Olds refused to take credit for some MiGs he shot down over North Vietnam because if he got 5 (officially), PACAF would have pulled him out of country.
Two kills with this F-4 with the 497TFW
Thank you.
Robin and Chappy
A friend gave him a heads up about an upcoming promotion that would have kept him out of Viet Nam. He calculated and performed an offense that would destroy the promotion yet fall short of a court martial. He was soon on his way to Viet Nam.
01/02/67
MiG-21
F-4C
AIM-9
555 TFS
63-7680
8 TFW
COL. Robin Olds /AC
1LT. Charles C. Clifton /P
“I maintain that I am the only pilot ever to have shot down another aircraft while in glide mode.” Great story. (He and his wingman in P-38s jumped a formation of about ME-109s from behind. He ordered drop tanks but forgot to switch to internal fuel tank. Just a he got within range of the trailing 109 his engine died. He figured, “what the heck” and shot him down before switching to internal fuel tanks.)
See it retold by the man himself: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1063762/dogfights_p38_lightning_vs_me_109/
Collins Foundation F-4D Plans are to paint this AC in the colors of 637-680 in honor of Robin.
whoops....have to correct myself he got two with 555th and two with the 433th...
Thanks for posting this!
What a life. To be THAT good at what you do and advance to the point that you can almost grab any high performance aircraft that our country can produce and put it through it’s paces... as an adrenalin junkie myself, what a man!
My pleasure.
Your Dad lived a wonderful, full life. I envy men like that.
Not my dad...it was Robin Olds’ dad.
They covered that on the History Channel.
The transition from WWII aircraft, weapons and tactics to those of the 1960s had to be jarring. I imagine only the best made it.
Gotcha.
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