It’s September the 10th, 1952.
And a pair of F4U-4B Corsair’s make their way across a clear North Korean skies.
On board the lead plane is Captain Jesse Folmar of the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron number 312,
also known as the “Checkerboards”
Him and his wingman, 1st Lieutenant Willie Daniels, are on a bombing mission with the old WW2 fighters,
their usual role since the dawn of the jet age.
Folmar scans the shores as the pair fly straight into the mouth of the Taedong river.
He’s carrying over 2,000 pounds of bombs and rockets and he’s looking for targets.
This been a reported enemy movement on the south shores of the river mouth.
However, Folmar can’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Do you see them?”
“That’s a Negative, Checker 9”
Without a target, Folmar orders to patrol the estuary just in case the enemy show themselves.
Little does he know, up high and in the distance there are two MiG-15’s that have noticed the pair of blue aircraft.
Folmar and Daniels fly back towards the sea, taking a look at the river banks and the coastal city of Chinnampo.
They reach the coast and turn back around for another observation run through the estuary,
but as he turns, Captain Folmar spots the glimmering form of two enemy MiG-15’s preparing to dive upon them.
“Bandits!”
The Corsairs immediately release all of their payload upon the uttering of the word,
the thousands of pounds of bombs and external fuel tanks fall away to the sea and the pilots feel the aircraft come alive.
Folmar slams the throttle to full and tightens his turn towards the MiGs, racing to pass underneath them.
Up above the MiGs dive straight down towards them, barreling for their prey with the blazing speed of modern fighter jets.
But the Corsair is closing in too much, and the dive angle is becoming far too steep.
Folmar watches as the MiGs level out of their dive and roar past overhead.
He catches his breath; his maneuver had worked but its only gained him some time.
He orders Daniels into a defensive weave as he looks back over his shoulder desperately searching for the enemy jets,
but instead he see something much worse: this two more MiG 15’s approaching in from his left.
His heart races, the already stacked deck suddenly is becoming all but unwinnable.
The two proud Marines are going to back down easy though,
he can only hope the old fighter-bomber underneath him can stay the course.
Full of determination he turns his Corsair hard towards the two incoming enemies hoping to meet their assault head on,
but they’re closing in too fast.
Mid-turn the pair of MiG’s unleash their cannons upon the Corsairs,
their 23 mm shells streaking past right in front of Folmar’s windshield, but miraculously they miss.
Realizing his opponents are about to overshoot,
Folmar turns his aircraft back towards the right as the MiGs race past at blistering speed.
The enemy gives him their backs and he quickly brings his sights onto the closest MiG.
Folmar pulls the trigger and unleashes a barrage from his quad 20mm cannons.
The shells fly across the Korean sky, guided by Folmar’s impeccable aim.
They explode into the rear of the jet and tear right through its fuselage.
Folmar can see the flashes of the impact, it’s the hit and the MiG starts to pour a gray trail of fuel.
It banks away from Folmar’s sights and speeds off for a couple of seconds before the gray trail turns a deep black.
The Marine watches as the pilot loses control of the burning machine and ejects over the North Korean fields.
Now pumping with adrenaline the pair resume their defensive weave with 3 MiGs still circling around them, but they don’t make any move.
Folmar wonders why until he spots 4 more jets in the distance coming to join the fray.
Dread grips him, if the situation was near unwinnable before, now it’s absolutely impossible.
In a last-ditch attempt he orders to dive and flee for the sea, the two Corsairs race away as fast as they can,
the Yellow Sea is so frustratingly close but the bandits are coming in fast.
The two aviators can feel it, they aren’t going to make it.
The lead MiG is coming right in on their tail with its sight square on Folmar.
Daniels sees it coming and slows his Corsair to let the enemy overshoot.
The MiG flies past him and Daniels tries to bring his sights onto its fuselage
but the bandit knows the Marine’s intentions and pulls away from the attack run barely escaping his crosshairs.
With Daniels focused on the first MiG
the second bandit in line finds itself with a clear line of sight to Folmar’s straight flying Corsair and it pulls the trigger.
Folmar sees the tracers of 23mm fire streaking past his canopy but has no time to react before an explosion rocks his airframe.
The aircraft shakes violently and pulls hard to the left,
he fights it hard as his assailant flies past,
Folmar wants to shoot back but the Corsair is critically wounded, still pulling left despite holding the stick full right.
He turns his eyes towards his wing and he sees the entire left aileron is missing,
a section of wing near the root is completely torn open, and 4 feet has been shaven off the wingtip.
He can tell he won’t land this bird.
Thinking quickly, he takes his radio and broadcasts a distress signal along with his position
as a third MiG opens fire and its tracers fly past.
Finishing the transmission, he hurriedly opens his canopy and jumps out of the stricken aircraft.
The wind crashes into him like a wall, sending him tumbling through the air.
Folmar gathers his senses and opens his chute just as the ear-piercing roar of a jet engine sounds right past him,
MiGs swarming his pilot-less Corsair.
Meanwhile, Daniels seizes the distraction of his flight leader’s troubled plane and bolts out to sea,
diving for speed and escaping as fast as he can.
His chasers have instructions not to venture towards the waters or separate from their comrades,
so with many focusing on the crippled Corsair, the planes chasing Daniels let him go and he manages to escape.
Folmar watches his plane get torn apart by MiG fire and fall like a rock into the ground,
slamming into the sea in a monumental splash.
The bandits disperse almost immediately afterwards,
by the time Folmar falls into the rolling waves below the shore has already largely fallen back to its natural silence.
Thankfully the rescue wouldn’t take long,
allied forces heard his transmission and an Albatross sea plane was dispatched to his location.
He would be picked off from the water not 10 minutes later without a scratch.
Jesse Folmar would be awarded the Silver Star
for his actions that day and would earn the distinction of being the first Marine Corp pilot to shoot down a MiG-15.
He would survive the war and return home with his Silver Star and a Purple Heart.
He passed away in 2004, aged 83.
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