Ralph Wetterhahn, Aviation Archaeologist and Author

Ralph Francis Wetterhahn was born on April 20, 1942, in New York City, NY, to John William and Marie Bernadette Wetterhahn. There is little I can find about Wetterhahn's early life, but he did earn a Bachelor of Science Degree upon graduation from the United States Air Force Academy in 1963. Ten years later, In 1973, Wetterhahn graduated from Auburn University with a Master of Business Administration degree.

During his 29 year career in the USAF Ralph F. Wetterhahn spent most of his time as a fighter pilot flying F-4 McDonnel Douglas Phantoms, Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair IIs, and the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. At one point in time, the AF sent Wetterhahn to Norton Air Force Base for a course in aircaft accident investigation. There, he learned the technique for analyzing aircraft wreckage and how to write accident reports detailing exactly what happened to the pilot and aircraft.

One of the more interesting experiences for 1st Lt Wetterhahn occured while he was flying the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs in Vietnam. By 1967 1st Lt Wetterhahn had completed his flight trainng and was sent to Vietnam to the 555th TFW (Tactical Fighter Wing), called the "Triple Nickel" and based at the Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand, some 300 miles northeast of Bangkok. While during the Korean War American fighter pilots had an impressive 8-to-1 kill ration, by the mid-1960s most of those pilots had retired and left the military.

The result was that the few who remained were faced with an almost impossible task of preparing the new generation of fighter pilots, like 1st Lt Wetterhahn, to fight with new, unproven jets, unreliable air-to-air missles, and restrictive rules of engagement. In fact, the military at that time considered dogfighting as a skill of the past. Furthermore, early U.S. fighter pilot training emphasized safety over realism. By then aerial dogfights were considered "old hat."

The F-4, despite its faults, was a vital instrument in the American air-war against North Vietnam.

One of the problems with the F-4 Phantom II aircraft was the fact that it was powerful, but flawed. Visibility was limited on the sides and towards the rear, it trailed smoke without afterburners, and could not match the tight turn abilities of Soviet MiGs. Unfortunately, US pilots simulated battle conditions by sending F-4 Phantoms against other F-4 Phantoms, while the North Vietnamese were flying the tight-turning MiG-17, Mig-19, and MiG-21 Soviet fighters.

The biggest shortfall of the F-4 Phantom II? No guns! It was designed as an interceptor to shoot down Soviet bombers at long range, relying entirely on air-to-air missles. In 1966 the North Vietnamese Air Force started flying Soviet MiG-21 "Fishbed" interceptor aircraft with heat-seeking missiles. They would deploy their heat-seeking missles against the Republic F-105 Thunderchief aircraft with hit-and-run tactics on their tails.

MiG-21 'Fishbed' interceptors used ground-coordinated attacks to exact a heavy toll on F-105s.

Specifications:

Crew: 1;
Length: 47 feet 7 inches;
Wing Span: 23 feet 6 inches;
Height: 13 feet 7 inches;
Max Takeoff Weight: 19,425 pounds;
Empty Weight: 11.770 pounds;
Range: 720 miles;
Service Ceiling: 57,750 feet;
Normal Cruise: 1,174 knots;
Engine: Tumansky R-13-300 16,546 lbf - w/afterburner 21,806 lbf
Armament: 1 NR-30 30mm cannon and 2 K-13 Atoll air-to-air missles.

From April to September of 1966 the unit lost 18 Phantom IIs, eight in September alone, and 21 pilots were either dead or missing. The generals thought that fighter pilots were never going to just put on their leather jackets, their scarf, helmet, and goggles, and to out and do battle with the Red Baron. The generals told the fighter pilots that they would never again fight a conventional war.

Operation Bolo

Operation Bolo came about when one of the generals finally understood that the Air Force couldn't sustain the number of losses they were suffering. Enter Colonel Robin Olds who, a month before the fall of Nazi Germany, chased a German ME-109 through a formation of B-24 Liberators and shooting it down.

Two decades later a U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules dropped Colonel Robin Olds on the wrong end of the runway at Ubon Royal Thair Air Force Base, home of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing. Olds found himself standing on hot concrete a mile away from base ops, thinking it was a heck of a greeting for their new commander!

Things were going to change! Col Olds quickly realized that the pilots had little time or respect for their wing commanders. And, why would they? The wing commanders knew very little about the missions, and rarely flew on missions themselves. But Col Olds saw something more in these young fighter pilots like 1st Lt Wetterhahn. All of the pilots remember Old's intro to them: "I'm the new guy. You know a lot that I don't know, and I'm here to learn from you. But in two or three weeks, I'm gonna be better than all of you. And when I know more about your job than you do, you're in trouble."

Well, at the start Col Olds was flying at the tail-end of the formations like a 2nd Lt, but a couple of weeks later he had shown his stick and rudder skills, and he was leading the missions. Olds also scanned the 8th TFW's casualty records and found that the biggest problem was Air Force doctrine. Bombing raids used the same formations and flight patterns, same routes, same time of day, and the enemy knew they were coming.

Col Robins understood that doing the same thing along the same route from the same direction wasn't a survivable tactic. But his pilots had little experience, particularly in dogfighting. He also faced another hurdle: the pilots had little experience and not much training in dogfighting tactics. The only other pilot in the group with dogfighting training and missles was Capt. Everett Raspberry, so Olds told Razz "so teach them!"

Capt. John B. Stone, of the 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, had flown more than 50 missions up north had an idea. Because the MiGs were avoiding the F-4 Phantom fighters and focusing on the F-105 Thuderchief bombers, he thought it would be a good idea to disguise the F-4s as F-105s to lure the North Vietnamese into a dogfight. Recently the "Thuds" had been equiped with new radar jamming equipment against the North Vietnamese SAMs (Surface-to-Air Missiles,) so Olds and Stone put some of those jammers in the F-4 Phantoms, making them look like F-105s.

The ruse was simple: the F-4s would use F-105 call signs, routes, and timings, the stuff the North Vietnamese were used to. The F-4s would then carry four radar-guided AIM-7E Sparrow missles and four heat-seeking AIM-9B missiles. If the MiGs fell for the bait-and-switch, they would find themselves tangling with waves of Phantoms loaded and ready for a fight.

On January 2, 1967, Col. Olds led the first of three flights north with 1st Lt Wetterhahn as his wingman. After passing over the North Vietnamese airfield at Phuc Yen in North Vietnam, Olds and Wetterhahn turned back towards the other two flights approaching Phuc Yen. All at once MiGs were swarming up through the clouds, and the F-4s turned against the nearest attackers. Olds described the action for the book "Phantom In Combat" by Walter J. Boyne:

" Unfortunately, the first one to pop through came up at Olds 6 o’clock position. Olds broke left, trying to get away of the enemy line of fire, hoping that his wingman would take care of him. At the same time he saw another MiG pop out of the clouds in a wide turn about his 11 o’clock position, a mile and a half away. He went after it ignoring the one behind and fired missiles at the Mig just after this disappeared back into the clouds.

But another MiG appeared after few seconds: “I’d seen another MiG pop out in my 10 o’clock position, going from my right to left; in other words, just across the circle from me. When the first MiG I fired at disappeared, I slammed full afterburner and pulled in hard to gain position on this second MiG. I pulled the nose up high, about 45°, inside his circle. Mind you, he was turning around to the left, so I pulled the nose up high and rolled to the right. This is known as a vector roll. I got up on top of him and, half upside down, hung there and waited for him to complete more of his turn, and timed it so that as I continued to roll down behind him I’ d be about 20° angle off and 4,500 to 5,000 ft behind him. That’s exactly what happened. Frankly, I am not sure that he ever saw me. When I got down low and behind he was outlined by the sun against a brilliant blue sky. I let him have two Sidewinders, one of which hit and blew his right wing off” Olds explained in “Phantom In Combat.”

There were no U.S. AIr Force losses, and seven MiGs were lost in this battle. The North Vietnamese only had 16 MiGs, and having lost nearly half of their planes, the enemy had no choice to stand down its MiG-21 operations. What follows is a list of Confirmed MiG-21 Kills on January 2, 1967:

Col. Robin Olds (555th TFS): 1 MiG-21 (AIM-9)
1st Lt. Ralph Wetterhahn (555th TFS): 1 MiG-21 (AIM-7)
Capt. Walter S. Radeker III (555th TFS): 1 MiG-21 (AIM-9)
Capt. Everett T. Rasberyy (555th TFS): 1 MiG-21 (AIM-9)
Maj. Philip P. Combies (433rd TFS): 1 MiG-21 (AIM-7)
Capt. John E. Stone (433rd TFS): 1 MiG-21 (AIM-7)
1st Lt. Lawrence J. Glynn (433rd TFS): 1 MiG-21 (AIM-7)

The Reciprocal Pilot Exchange Program

This program was designed to cross-pollinate aerial combat tactics and procedures between the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force. Highly accomplished pilots from each branch were chosen for the program, and each pilot served two-year tours in the other branch, where they were required to meet the same standards as in the other counterpart.

Capt. Wetterhahn was one of those chosen to serve in this highly coveted program, and so he served a two year tour in the U.S. Navy flying the Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II. the Navy echange pilots were sent to learn to fly the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark for the Air Force, while Air Force pilot served on U.S. Navy aircraft carriers flying the Navy's new Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II. So now Capt Wetterhahn had to learn how to fly off of and land on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier!

An image of the LTV A-7E Corsair II of VA-86 'Sidewinder' - 1977

Specifications:

Crew: 1 pilot;
Length: 46 feet 1 inch;
Wingspan: 38 feet 9 inches;
Height: 16 feet 0.75 inches;
Empty weight: 19,489 lbs;
Max TO weight: 41,998 lbs;
Powerplant: Allison TF41-A-2 turbojet delivering 14,980 lbf thrust;
Service ceiling: 41,995 feet;
Combat range: 621 nmi;
Max speed: 693 mph;
Armament: One 20mm M61-A gun, provisions for AIM-9 Sidewinders and 10,000 lbs of ordnance.

'Captain Messerschmitt'

Even Forward Air Controllers were somewhat reluctant to let eager A-7 pilots make straffing runs with their guns, unless the situation required it. But, USAF Capt. Wetterhahn, flying an A-7E Corsair II for the Navy, loved to shoot the A-7E's cannon, which did not endear him to his groundcrew. Every time he returned from a flight the airplane was filthy with cordite from shooting the gun.

One day, on an off-duty foray into the fabeled Olongapo City, in the Philippines, Wetterhahn was accosted by an airplane captain (the enlisted man in charge of a specific aircraft in the squadron). On this occasion everyone became inebriated, and one white hat (navy enlisted man's cap) laid into Wetterhahn, calling him 'Captain Messerschmitt.' Wetterhahn thought the nickname was because of his German name, but he was wrong. It was the nickname among the mechanics because whenever Wetterhahn flew he brought the airplane back filthy from shooting the A-7's gun!

It turns out that Capt. Wetterhahn would drop his bombs on the target and then on pullout would open fire with the Gatling gun to keep the AAA crews heads down as he cleared the area. The plane captain's point was that every time Wetterhahn came back, the belly of the aircraft was black with cordite, which had to be cleaned. Two weeks later Wetterhahn caught a night mission with six Mk 83s and a full load of 20mm bullets. Needless to say, upon his return the airplane came back with a black belly.

Seeing the disgust on the PC's face as he looked under the aircraft's belly, Wetterhahn told him 'Don't touch it.' He told the PC to get what he needed to clean it at dawn, and to wait for him. After his debrief and a short two hour nap, Wetterhahn stumbled up to the flight deck. There were around 200 sailors gathered around the A-7 when he showed up. He grabbed the gunk can and a pile of rags, slid under the fuselage and started applying the cleaning solvent. Cameras all around flashed as he moved towards the tail when the plane captain slid in next to him and took the rag. The PC said "Never thought I'd see an officer do this. I'll take over - and another thing. Shoot the gun any time."

Post Retirement

Wetterhahn went on to UC to study to be an author, and following that began writing books, becoming a real-life "Indiana Jones," travelling the world from Cambodia to the Russian Far East, to Guadalcanal, and to the Philippines in search of aircraft wrecks or the missing-in-action, and the amazing stories these discoveries revealed to him.

He is the author of four books: "The Last Battle," which won the prestigious Colby Award, "The Last FLight of Bomber-31," "Shadowmakers," and "The Early Air War in the Pacific."

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!