On 21 Apr 2004 23:03:01 GMT, (BUFDRVR) wrote:


Ahhh, Checkmate..."John Warden? I knew John Warden. John Warden was a
friend of mine. And, frankly, Senator, you're no John Warden...."

Nothing personal to your friend Ed, but I take that as a compliment.

Poetic license. John Warden was not a particular friend of mine. He
was stationed at Torrejon when I arrived there in '73. He had a combat
tour in the R/C/P and then moved to the front seat. No NVN experience.
He was a pompous ass.

Read about Chuck Horner's dismissal of John Warden when setting up the
offensive team for Desert Storm in Clancy's collaboration, "Every Man
a Tiger."

I have, great stuff, go Chuck!

Good! Note for your background that Chuck was an F-105 driver and
participated in the first disasterous SAM site raid along with Roger
Myhrum and Dick Pearson, two old friends of mine and IPs when I qual'd
in the 105.


The
positions in the illustrations are wrong. The sequence of events is
wrong. The ranges between aircraft are wrong. Even the location
relative to the target and other flights is wrong.

Now define; "wrong"...is it possible Ed, that you recalled it incorrectly. I'm
not choosing sides in this one, just pointing out, as in the case of our
fameous B-52 tail gunners, sometimes the participant is wrong.

Since you haven't yet read When Thunder Rolled, I'll excuse you for
not acknowledging the details of the situation, but suffice to say
that when you wind up in a five-ship with a MiG-17 in the middle of
your flight and the conclusion is the MiG trapped at six hosing your
brains out with his 37MM the memories are very explicit.

The only interview
conducted to establish the definitive historic account was done eight
months after the event with the flight lead in Wichita KS.

Than I would conclude that unless one of you wrote it down immediately after
the fact and verified it with other potential witnesses, that there is no way
of knowing for sure what happened. You may be right...or he may be right, but
as someone who was 4 years old at the time I can not accept either account as
fact.

Since it was me engaged with the MiG and not the flight lead, I'll
lean heavily toward my perceptions as correct.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8