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Colonel Tomb, also Nguyen Toon (Nguyễn Tuân) or Colonel Toon was a mythical North Vietnam Air Force
fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...
loosely based on a North Vietnamese pilot from the 921st Fighter Regiment named Nguyen Van Coc. Tomb allegedly shot down 13
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
aircraft during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. According to legend, he was killed in action on May 10, 1972, by the U.S. Navy
F-4 Phantom The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers ...
crew of pilot Lt.
Randy "Duke" Cunningham Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham (born December 8, 1941) is an American former politician, Vietnam War veteran, fighter ace and convicted felon. A member of the Republican Party, Cunningham represented three California districts in the United S ...
and
radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
operator Lt.(jg) William "Irish" Driscoll.Ethell and Price 1990, pp.189–190. It was later revealed by historians that there had been no such
colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
in the North Vietnam forces. The name "Colonel Tomb" rose to prominence among U.S. Navy aviators during the latter part of the war. Photos of a North Vietnamese
MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 an ...
with the tail number 3020 bearing numerous red victory stars contributed to the rumor, and was occasionally identified as the Colonel's aircraft. However, it was normal practice in the
Vietnamese People's Air Force The Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF; ), officially the Air Defence - Air Force Service (ADAF Service; ) or the Vietnam Air Force (), is the aerial, air and space defence service branch of Vietnam. It is the modern incarnation of the so-cal ...
to add victory stars to an aircraft for all claims in the aircraft, regardless of the pilot flying it. A photo of a
MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...
, with tail number 4326, was reported in a Vietnamese official magazine to have been flown by at least nine different airmen. This aircraft also had numerous red victory stars. Six of its pilots received the title "Hero of the People's Armed Forces". Information on Toon/Tomb's life and career was never published by the North Vietnamese, nor did they release a photo of him. MiG-17 number 3020 was confirmed shot down and destroyed, on May 10, 1972, by Cunningham and Driscoll following a protracted air fight. Much of the information the U.S. obtained about the North Vietnamese air force came from radio signals intelligence or "
SigInt Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...
", which monitored enemy radio transmissions. Though Tuân is a Vietnamese name, Toon and Tomb are not. It is likely that a name similar in sound to Tomb was used as a radio
callsign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assi ...
, and was responsible for the creation of the story of a Colonel Tomb. Complex psychological factors have also contributed to the creation of the story of the epic aerial duel against the alleged high-ranking Vietnamese fighter ace and his demise.


May 10, 1972, by VPAF records

The 'MiG-17F' no. ''3020'' was a license-made
Shenyang J-5 The Shenyang J-5 ( Chinese: 歼-5) (NATO reporting name ''Fresco'') is a Chinese-built single-seat jet interceptor and fighter aircraft derived from the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17. The J-5 was exported as the F-5 and was originally designat ...
attached to the VPAF's 923rd Fighter Regiment, and was flown by at least two of the six VPAF's MiG-17 fighter aces, including
Nguyễn Văn Bảy Nguyễn Văn Bảy (1936 – September 22, 2019), was a Vietnamese jet fighter ace for the Vietnam People's Air Force (North Vietnamese Air Force) during the Vietnam War. Piloting a MiG-17F while assigned to the 923rd Fighter Regiment, Bay claim ...
and
Lê Hải Le is a romanization of several rare East Asian surnames and a common Vietnamese surname. It is a fairly common surname in the United States, ranked 975th during the 1990 census and 368th during the 2000 census. In 2000, it was the eighth-most-co ...
; both of whom survived the war, with Lê retiring as a Senior Colonel. Like all combat-ready VPAF MiG-17s, these were painted a green and brown camouflage by 1967, and were affectionately called ''con rắn'' (snakes) by their ground crew. The beginning of the ''
Operation Linebacker Operation Linebacker was the codename of a U.S. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 air interdiction campaign conducted against North Vietnam from 9 May to 23 October 1972, during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was to halt or slow th ...
''
air interdiction Air interdiction (AI), also known as deep air support (DAS), is the use of preventive tactical bombing and strafing by combat aircraft against enemy targets that are not an immediate threat, to delay, disrupt or hinder later enemy engagement o ...
campaign against
North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it o ...
in May 1972 proved to be especially bloody for both sides of the air war; four of the 923rd FR's MiG-17s were dispatched against a large strike-force of A-6 ''Intruders'', A-7 ''Corsairs II''s and F-4 ''Phantom II''s targeting the bridges around
Hải Dương Hải Dương () is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital of Hải Dương Province, Hải Dương, an industrialized province in the Hanoi Capital Region and the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam. The city is at the midpoint between the capita ...
on 10 May 1972. Although outnumbered, the VPAF pilots attacked the strike-force, and in the ensuing melee, MiG-17 pilot Do Hang was shot down by AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles fired from Lt. Duke Cunningham/Lt.(jg) Willy Driscoll's F-4, and although the MiG-17 pilot Do Hang was able to eject, he was then killed by 20mm gunfire from American fighter/attack aircraft making strafing passes at him while descending underneath his parachute; two more MiG-17s were shot-down by the F-4s of Lt. Cunningham/Lt.(jg) Driscoll and Lt. Connelly III/Lt. Blonski, and pilot Tra Van Kiem was ''KIA'', while Nguyen Van Tho bailed out and survived and the MiG-17 piloted by Ta Dong Trung, who pursued the A-7s out to sea without scoring any hits, was able to return to base. The F-4s however, now flying about 10 km north of Hải Dương, were intercepted by a pair of MiG-21MFs piloted by Vu Duc Hop and Le Thanh Dao of the new 927th FR whom were effectively vectored by GCI against the Phantoms; Vu Duc Hop and Le Thanh Dao each firing R-3S "Atoll" missiles at their selected targets, had found their marks respectively against the F-4s of Lt. Cunningham/Lt.jg Driscoll and Cdr. Blackburn/Lt. Rudloff, and while Cunningham/Driscoll were able eject out at sea where they were rescued, Blackburn/Rudloff were seen to have successfully ejected from their stricken Phantom by the Americans, and while their parachutes were observed to have gone down over land, only Lt. Rudloff was ever on the ''POW'' manifest by North Vietnamese records.'''' The remains of Cdr. Harry L. Blackburn were returned to the Americans on 10 April 1986 and positively identified as his later that year.


Notable USAF/USN and VPAF losses/victories on 10 May 1972

List of notable kills/losses of the air battles of this day in the Vietnam War.


In mainstream media

The story of the epic aerial combat duel between North Vietnamese MiG-17 pilot Colonel Tomb and the American F-4 crew of Lt. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Lt.(jg) William P. Driscoll was popularly featured with CGI-based reenactment of the battle scenes on ''
The History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the General Entertainment Content division of The Wa ...
'' in the premiere episode of the 2006
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
series '' Dogfights''. The re-enactments of the duel between the high-ranked Vietnamese MiG-17 fighter pilot and F-4 Phantom II crew of Lt. Cunningham and Lt.(jg) Driscoll on The History Channel's ''Dogfights'' ended the segment with the claim that "''a SAM did what no Vietnamese fighter pilot could do; shoot down the F-4" o''f Lt. Cunningham/Lt.(jg) Driscoll.


See also

* Apache (Viet Cong soldier) *
List of Vietnam War flying aces The claimed flying aces of the Vietnam War, pilots who shot down five or more enemy aircraft, include 19 Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) pilots, (six MiG-17 and 13 MiG-21 pilots), and five Americans. United States' aces All the American aces ...
*
Vietnam People's Air Force The Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF; ), officially the Air Defence - Air Force Service (ADAF Service; ) or the Vietnam Air Force (), is the Aerial warfare, aerial, Anti-aircraft warfare, air and Space warfare, space defence service branch of ...
*
Nguyễn Văn Cốc Nguyễn Văn Cốc (born December 1942) is a Vietnamese former fighter pilot and MiG-21 flying ace during the Vietnam War. He served in the North Vietnamese Air Force during the war, and rose to prominence after he was credited for shooting d ...
*
Ghost of Kyiv The Ghost of Kyiv (, ) is the nickname given to a Legend, mythical Mikoyan MiG-29, MiG-29 Fulcrum flying ace credited with shooting down six Russian planes over Kyiv during the Kyiv offensive (2022), Kyiv offensive on 24 February 2022. Various ...
, an unidentified Ukrainian flying ace later acknowledged as a myth


Notes


References

Bibliography *Ethell, Jeffrey and Alfred Price. ''One Day in a Long War''. London:Guild Publishing, 1990. * Toperczer, Istvan, ''MiG Aces of the Vietnam War'', Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2015; .


Further reading

*Toperczer, István, "''MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units of the Vietnam War''", Osprey Publishing Limited, Botley, Oxford, UK, 2001, .


External links


North Vietnamese Aces
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomb, Colonel Disputed flying aces Nonexistent people used in hoaxes Fictional fighter pilots Legendary Vietnamese people Fictional Vietnam War veterans Fictional colonels Propaganda legends