The History of an Exceptional but Typical Fighter Pilot

Welcome to our Aviation History blog. The history of aviation is replete with stories about military pilots who performed heroic acts while just performing their duty to protect our country. This is the story of Brigadier General James Robinson "Robbie" Risner.

 

Former POW and U.S. Air Force Colonel Robinson Risner, (Captured 16 Sep 65) at a press conference.

 

Childhood:

 

On a cold day on January 16, 1925, in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, a small town on the northern border of the state, a sharecropper and his wife welcomed a new member of their family and named him James Robinson Risner. These were tough times in the United States, particularly in the rural South. In 1931 the family moved from Arkansas to Tulsa Oklahoma, where young James grew up.

 

 

James' father quit farming, and during the Great Depression became a day laborer for the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA). Apparently, James' father was a hard worker, and by the time James started high school his father was self-employed, selling used cars.

 

 

Clearly James understood the work ethic, and during his youth James worked at various part time jobs to help support the family. Among those jobs were being a paper boy (I delivered newspapers as a boy), ran errands for folks, and even served as a soda jerk for a drug store in town. By the time James reached age 16 he had found work as a welder, and at the same time also helped his father's business by polishing used cars.

 

 

Young James and his family were members of the 1st Assembly of God Church, and while attending Tulsa Central High School he was very active in sports as a wrestler. James also had a love of horses, and enjoyed riding motorcyles. In 1942 James graduated from high school, and in April of 1943 decided to enlist in the Aviation Cadet Program of the United States Army Air Force. 

 

Military Career:

 

Young James "Robbie" Risner was sent to flight training at Williams Field, Arizona, and in May of 1944 had earned his pilot wings and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the USAAF. Upon graduation from primary flight training, 2nd Lt. Risner was then sent to transition training into the P-40 Warhawk and P-39 Airacobra fighters, followed by an assignment to the 30th Fighter Squadron in Panama, Central America.

 

 

It turns out that this assignment was at a primitive airstrip where Risner could fly as much as he wanted, but there was a lack of discipline on the grround in the squadron. In January of 1945 the pilots were sent to trainsition training in the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters, and shortly thereafter the Squadron's pilots were banned from the Officers Club for being to rowdy.

 

 

Risner was still riding motorcycles, and while off duty he was injured in a motorcycle accident, and that sent him to an Army hospital for recovery. It was there he met his first wife, Kathllen Shaw, an Army nurse. Shortly thereafter they both were discharged from the Army, and they were married a month later.

 

 

Now a civilian, Risner tried a number of different jobs from training as an auto mechanic, running a gas station, and managing a service garage. During that same period Risner joined the Oklahoma AIr National Guard, trained as a P-51 Mustang pilot, and flew at every opportunity he got. In fact, on one occasion, while on a flight to Brownsville, Texas, Risner became lost as he flew into the edge of a hurricane, wound up landing on a dry lake bed in Mexico, and was confronted by bandits. After the weather passed by he flew the Mustang to Brownsville, his original destination, whereupon he was reprimanded for flying an armed fighter aircraft into a foreign nation.

 

 

On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans invaded South Korea, igniting the first major conflict of the post-World War II Cold War. In February of 1951 Risner was recalled to active duty, and was assigned to the 185th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the Oklahoma National Guard at Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was then sent to Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, where he made the transition into the F-80 Shooting Star.

 

The Korean War

 

Risner longed to be given a combat assignment, and on the last day before being sent overseas broke his hand and wrist when he fell from a horse he was riding. He hid the fact of his injury until he arrived in Korea on May 10, 1952, where he was able to convince a flight surgeon that the injury had healed. In fact, his cast was removed so that he could fly his very first mission.

 

 

Risner was assigned to the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron at Kimpo AIr Base, Korea, but shortly thereafter the 4th Fighter Wing sought out experienced pilots to fly North American F-86 Sabre jet fighters. Risner was able to arrange a tranfer to the 4th Fighter Wing, and was assigned to fly the F-86. 

 

North American Aviation F-86A Sabres of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, Kimpo Air Base, South Korea.

 

 

Now a Captain, Risner often flew F-86E-10, Air Force serial number 51-2824, nicknamed Ohio Mike, and bearing a large cartoon of Bugs Bunny on the side below the canopy. It was in this particular aircraft that Capt. Risner achieved most of his aerial victories.

 

 

 

Aircraft Specifications for the North American F-86 Sabre jet:

 

• Crew: 1
• Length: 40 feet 4 inches
• Wingspan: 37 feet 1 inch
• Height: 14 feet 12 inches
• Propulsion: 1 General Electic J47-GE-17B with 5,216 lbf of thrust
• Speed:  614 knots
• Service ceiling: 54,600 feet
• Range: 835 miles
• Empty weight: 12,500 pounds
• Max takeoff weight: 17,100 pounds
• Armament: 6 x 12.7mm heavy caliber machine guns, 3 to a side

 

 

By now Capt. Risner is a flight leader, and after a short 3-day leave to Japan he returned to learn that North Korean MiGs were active. When he arrived back at Kimpo Air Base late at night, he found his flight was on alert status. On August 5, 1952, he lead a group of four F-86s, and soon enough they found a group of MiG-15s consisting of 14 aircraft. Immediately the dog fights began, and during this flight Capt. Risner earned his first kill, a MiG-15.

 

 

On September 15, 1952, Risner's flight group were assigned to escort some F-84 Thunderjet bomber-fighters who planned to bomb a chemical plant on the Yalu River near the East China Sea. As the flight defended the F-84s they encountered some MiG-15s which they immediately engaged in dogfights with. While chasing one of the MiG-15s, Risner found himself flying nearly supersonic speeds at ground level as they overflew an airfield which was some 35 miles inside China, and which was called the Antung Airfield.

 

 

Risner's continued to pursue the enemy MiG, which flew down a dry riverbed and across some low hills towards the air base. Undeterred, Risner chased the MiG down between hangars at the airbase and managed to score a lot of hits on the MiG, blowing off its canopy, and then shooting it down where it crashed into a group of parked fighters.

 

 

As the flight turned to return back to Kimpo Risner's wingman, 1st Lt. Joseph Logan, had his aircraft struck by anti-aircraft fire over the Chinese air field. His fuel tanks were struck by the anti-aircraf fire, and it was clear Lt. Logan would not have enough fuel to make it back to Kimpo.

 

 

After a brief chat, Risner told Logan to shut his engine down, and then Risner would then push the nose of his F-86 into the tailpipe of Logan's airplane, an unprecedented and untried manuever. Risen then gently inserted the upper lip of his air intake into the tailpipe of  Logan's aircraft. The plan was to push Logan to the island of Cho Do, which was just off the North Korean coast, and where the USAF had a helicopter rescue detachment.

 

 

But, this was not an easy fix. As long as both pilots could maintain stable flight it worked well, but the turbulence from Logan's airplane made stable flight for Risner extremely difficult. There were updrafts and downdrafts flowing off of the back of Logan's airplane, and any change of more than a few inches would eject Risen's aircraft nose out of Logan's tailpipe.

 

 

Every time Risner could re-engage Logan's aircraft, leaking hydraulic and jet fuel covered the windscreen on his F-86, making it very difficult for Risner to see. Miraculously, Risen got Joe Logan and his airplane all the way to the island while maintaining an airspeed of 190 knots, staying high enough to avoid automatic weapon fire. But, their luck unfortunately ran out.

 

A composite of a picture of Risner and an image of the "Push."

 

 

Close to the island, Logan bailed out near the shoreline, but Logan found himself tangled in his chute lines, and as a result drowned before rescuers could reach him. But, the measure of a heroic act lies not in whether or not it is successful; rather, it lies in the effort.

 

On September 21, 1952, Capt. Risner shot down his fifth MiG-15, becoming the 20th jet ace of the Korean War. In October of 1952 Risner was promoted to Major, became the operations officer of the 336th Fighter-Inerceptor Squadron (FIS). During his time in Korea Maj. Risner flew a total of 108 missions and was credited with destroying and shooting down eight MiG-15s, his last victory occuring on Januray 21, 1953.

 

 

Upon his return from Korea Risner was commissioned into the Regular Air Force, and he continued to climb the ranks. During his tour of duty at George Air Force Base in California, Risner was chosen to fly a two-seat F-100 Super Saber on a Commemoration Flight from New York to Paris. 

 

 

Vietnam Comes Calling

 

In August of 1964, Lt. Col. Risner takes command of the 67th Tactical Fighter Squadron, an F-105D Thunderchief fighter-bomber group stationd a Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Japan. In January of 1965 Lt. Col. Risner led a detachment of seven airplanes to Da Nang Air Base, and from there they were to fly combat strikes, including one on January 13 where he and his pilots destroyed a bridge.

 

A photograph of a Republic F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber.

 

Specifications of the F-105 Thunderchief:

• Crew: 1 pilot
• Length: 64.2 feet
• Wingspan: 34.9 feet
• Height: 19.6 feet
• Service ceiling: 41,207 feet
• Powerplant: 1 x Pratt & Whitney J75-P-19W turbojet 7,798 pounds of thrust
• Empty weight: 27,500 pounds
• Max takeoff weight: 52,838 pounds
• Max speed: 1,390 mph
• Range: 920 miles
• Armament: 1 x M61 20mm internal automatic cannon
• Bomb capacity: 8,000 pounds of bombs

 

 

But, as usual, Risner also decided to destroy another nearby bridge, an operation which was clearly not included in his orders. He was reprimanded for losing an aircraft while bombing that second bridge. On February 19, 1965, President Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder.

 

 

Risen's squadron led the first Rolling Thunder strike on March 2nd, bombing an ammunition dump 10 miles north of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone.) His wingman on this strike, Capt. Robert F. "Boris" Baird, was shot down on the opening pass, and the mission was in danger of collapsing until Risen took command of the strike. Once the strike was completed, Risner and two remaining pilots remained in the area, directing the search and rescue team for Baird until their fuel ran low.

 

 

On March 22, 1965, Risner led two flights of F-105s to attack a radar site near Vinh, North Vietnam. This time it was Risner who was hit, and manuevering his aircraft out over the Gulf of Tonkin, he bailed out, and was rescued from the water after only 15 minutes in the Gulf. On April 3rd and 4th Risner led two large missions against the Thanh Hóa Bridge in North Vietnam.

 

 

Once again, Risner's aircraft was hit causing a serious fuel leak and filled the cockpit with smoke, but once again he nursed his crippled aircraft back to Da Nang. It was at this time they saw fhe first interception of U.S. aircraft by North Vietnamese MiG-17s. The U.S. lost two F-105s and pilots while they were struck by a hit-and-run attack while awaiting their turn to attack the target.

 

 

For these missions Risner was awarded the Air Force Cross, and his portrait was on the April 23, 1965 issue of Time magazine. The squadron had completed its first deployment to Vietnam on April 26th, 1965, but on August 16th they returned for their second tour of duty.

 

Risner Becomes A POW

 

On August 12, 1965, The U.S. AIr Force and the U.S. Navy received authorization to attack SAM (surface-to-air) missle sites. The initial attempts to locate and destroy these sites were both unsuccessful and costly. Tactics were then revised by using "Hunter-Killer Teams." The "hunters" would locate the missles and attack the radar control vans with napalm which both knocked out the SAM's missle guidance system, and it also marked the location of the target for the "killers" who followed up to bomb the site using 750 pound bombs.

 

 

On the morning of Septemer 16, 1965, Risner scheduled himself as the "hunter" element of the team for the Iron Hand sortie. The plan was to locate and destroy a SAM site near Tuong Loc, 80 miles south of Hanoi and 10 miles north of the Than Hoa Bridge. Risner flew his F-105 in at a very low altitude, and at a speed of 600 mph, approaching a site that was likely a decoy luring aircaft into a concentration of very dangerous (AAA anti-aircraft artillery.)

 

 

Heavy ground fire struck Risner's F-105 in its air intakes when he popped up over a hill to make his attack. Once again he headed for the Gulf of Tonkin, but the aircraft caught fire, pitched up out of control, and so he ejected and was captured by the North Vietnamese while trying to extricate himself from his parachute. This was his 55th combat mission, and his last.

 

 

He was taken to and imprisoned in the Hỏa Lò Prison, better known as the "Hanoi Hilton." Two weeks later he was moved to Cu Loc Prison, known as "The Zoo," where he was interrogated, and where they told him he was a highly coveted capture by the North Vietnamese. But he was severly tortured for 32 days, and soon sent back to the Hỏa Lò Prison as punishment for disseminating behaviour guidlines to the POWs under his nominal command.

 

 

Risner spent more than 3 years in solitary confinement, but he was still able to lead American resistance in the prison complex through an improvised messaging technique called ("tap code.") He was released on February 12, 1973, and returned to the United States. 

 

 

Upon his return he continued to serve in the USAF, finally retiring as a Brigadier General on August 1st, 1976. He divorced his wife Kathleen after 29 years of marriage. In 1976 he met and married his second wife, Dorothy Marie ("Dot") Williams, the widow of a fighter pilot who went missing in action in 1967. They remained married until the end of his life.

 

 

Risner was one of only four airmen who had been awarded multiple Air Force Cross medals, a combat decoration second only to the Medal of Honor. On November 16, 2001, a nine-foot bronze statue of Risner was mounted on a five-foot pedastal of black granite, in the Air Gardens at the Air Force Academy.

 

 

Risner died in his sleep on October 22, 2013, at his home in Bridgewater, Virginia, after suffering a severe stroke. He is buried at Arlington National  Cemetary. 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed this trip, and if you are new to this blog, sign up to receive your own weekly blog post here: Subscribe here!

 

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!