It’s September 15th, 1952
An American formation of F-84 Thunderjet fighter-bombers is flying towards the Yalu River,
near the East China Sea, on the border between China and North Korea.
As a part of the American effort to cripple the Korean and Chinese airforces,
the bombers are tasked with destroying an enemy chemical plant along the river.
Escorting them is a flight of F-86 Sabres from the 336th Fighter Squadron,
spear-headed by flight leader, and future jet ace captain James Robinson Risner.
Risner is piloting his signature F-86.
It’s a striking plane - with Bugs Bunny as nose art.
The mission proceeds without any issues as the formation soars over the seemingly unending mountains and cliffs
that dominate the landscape.
Then, Risner (code sign “John Red Lead”) and his flight start nearing a Chinese base at Antung Airfield.
It’s right inside “MiG Alley”, as it is called due to the large numbers of enemy aircraft present there.
Fittingly, this air base is also filled with MiG-15s.
The pilots stationed there are alerted by their warning posts and scramble to their MiGs.
They take off at full tilt.
As they gain altitude, their heads raise to look at enemy planes roaring above.
They engage the Americans and soon furious dogfights break out.
The MiGs try and take out the Thunderjets
but the Sabre’s doggedly defend their bombers.
Risner quickly finds himself in the middle of the chaos.
He sets his sights on a group of 4 MiGs and starts targeting them with his whole 4 plane flight.
During the fight, Risner manages to catch one of the enemy jets, firing a burst that shatters its canopy.
Now, the other 3 MiGs speed away in one direction, while their injured comrade dives down,
reaching exceedingly low altitudes as he tries to escape.
Risner orders 2 of his pilots to follow the enemy group of 3,
while he and his wingman Lt. Joe Logan dive after the lone damaged plane.
The two begin their pursuit.
Reaching nearly supersonic speeds, the MiG whizzes through the air just above ground level,
in an attempt to throw off Risner and Logan, who instead stay right on its tail.
They pass across the Chinese border deep into Manchuria, which is forbidden territory for all American Pilots.
Despite risking their careers, they’re determined to take the MiG and the two keep up their relentless hunt.
Attempting to get away, the MiG pilot enters a “split-S”.
Finishing the maneuver he just manages to pull out only 10 feet above a dry riverbed,
so low that Risner sees the MiG’s exhaust kick up dust.
James is stunned by this brave maneuver,
but doesn’t skip a beat and turns his plane around, latching back onto his target,
Logan follows close behind.
Now, to get Risner to overshoot, the MiG pilot pulls his throttle to idle and extends his air brakes,
but the Sabre rolls over the enemy aircraft and, in a spectacular move,
comes down on the opposite side adjacent to its wingtip.
Risner would later recall:
‘We were both at idle with our speed brakes out, just coasting.
He looked over at me, raised his hand, and shook his fist.
I thought,
“This is like a movie. This can’t be happening!”
He had on a leather helmet, and I could see the stitching in it.’
The chase continues, with the enemy pilot valiantly eluding the Americans all the way back to Tak Tung Kau airfield,
35 miles inside Manchuria.
Once they are over the field,
Risner and his wingman continue to chase the MiG in a final attempt to down it.
The desperate “hot-headed” Russian begins a series of incredibly risky maneuvers,
speeding over parked planes and narrowly dodging obstacles left and right,
with the two Americans following right behind him as they get targeted by the airbase’s anti-aircraft guns.
Risner is low on ammo and is waiting for the perfect shot to materialize.
With expert skill and bravery, the Russian takes a last-ditch gamble and flies between two hangars!
He’s trying to land on the nearby runway and get away with his life!
Risner steels himself.
He’s not come this far to let his opponent get away.
The sides of the hangars are racing past his vision as he gets a split second to line up his sights on the enemy aircraft.
He fires a precise shot that finds the Russian’s wing, blowing a chunk of it off.
The extremely low altitudes that he was flying at deny the MiG’s pilot time and room for emergency maneuvers,
and he crashes into some parked aircraft along the runway,
bringing a deadly end to the incredible battle.
The chase is finally over,
but now Risner and his wingman, Logan, find themselves in Chinese territory.
On top of this, during the high-speed pass between the hangars,
Logan’s fuel tank has been punctured by Chinese anti-aircraft fire and started leaking.
With barely five minutes of fuel left, he seems to be forced to bail out in hostile territory.
But James Risner has other plans.
He is not about to abandon a great wingman who is also a personal friend.
The Air Force has a helicopter rescue unit on Cho Do island,
roughly 60 miles to the south, with plenty of enemy flak fire along the way.
With time running out, Risner decides to do something that has never been done successfully before.
They gain as much altitude as they can.
His friend is almost out of fuel when Risner urges him to turn off his engine.
Then he gently puts the upper lip of his air intake into Logan's Sabre's tailpipe.
"It sort of stayed there as long as we both maintained steady flight,
but the turbulence caused by Joe's aircraft made stable flight very difficult for me."
Risner later recounted.
As he keeps trying to push his wingman on,
he keeps getting caught between the updraft and the downdraft of the two planes,
just a few inches of movement flinging him either up or down.
Every time Risner re-establishes contact between his F-86's bashed nose and Logan's jet,
it is a potential disaster, and it’s not made any easier by the sea of hydraulic fluid and jet fuel
that by now cover his windscreen and impede his vision.
Risner miraculously carries out this incredible maneuver for 15 minutes,
having to re-connect the two aircraft a total of 8 times,
while also managing to keep his own engine from getting choked by Logan’s fluids.
During the whole thing, he maintains an airspeed of 190 knots
and enough altitude to avoid any enemy A-A fire.
In the end, Risner succeeds in guiding his wingman's F-86 out over the sea and all the way to Cho Do,
where Logan is finally able to bail out near the island; after calling to Risner:
"I'll see you at the base tonight",
he opens his parachute.
After this, Risner attempts to save fuel by shutting down his own engine,
but it ultimately fires out and he is forced to glide to a deadstick landing at Kimpo.
Logan lands in the water, close to the coast, he’s a good swimmer and a fit man,
tragically though, he becomes tangled in his parachute lines and, after a last,
desperate struggle, he drowns before rescuers can reach him.
Risner and Logan never get to meet at the base that night.
Risner is devastated by this loss.
He’s done the unthinkable and has given his best, but he still couldn’t save his friend.
For his efforts, he is later awarded a promotion to major and a nomination to his squadron’s operations officer.
Acts of physical and moral courage would define captain Robbie Risner's Air Force service
even after the Korean War.
He flew with great skill during the Vietnam War,
even leading the very first strike of the famous operation “Rolling Thunder”.
He was downed and captured in Vietnam and had to endure more than 7 brutal years of captivity,
during which he became a symbol of resistance and hope for all his companions.
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