Operation Bolo
Part of Vietnam War
8th TFW F-4C Phantom II on static display at Pacific Coast Air Museum
Date January 2, 1967 Location North Vietnam Result American victory
Belligerents
United States Air Force	Vietnam People's Air Force
Commanders and leaders
Robin Olds Daniel James, Jr.	Ta Kwok Hung
Strength
56 F-4C Phantom IIs (28 participated)	16 MiG-21 'Fishbeds' (8 engaged)
Casualties and losses
None	US claim: 7 MiG-21s confirmed destroyed 2 MiG-21s probably destroyed VPAF claim: 5 MiG-21PFL lost (serials 1812, 1908, 1909, 2106, 2206)

Operation Bolo was a deception-based mission during the Vietnam War devised to lure fighter aircraft of the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) -- Không Quân Nhân Dân Việt Nam -- into battle where the odds were stacked against the defenders. The mission was planned in response to North Vietnamese tactics during the Operation Rolling Thunder aerial-bombardment campaign wherein MiGs were used to attack heavily loaded fighter-bombers while circumventing their fighter escorts.

Bolo pitted the F-4 Phantom II multirole fighter against its rival, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 interceptor, and was considered to be one of the most successful combat ruses of all time,^[1] eventually prompting VPAF pilots and strategists, as well as Soviet tacticians, to re-evaluate the tactics and deployment of the MiG-21.

Background[link]

Opposing aircraft[link]

By the start of 1967, the F-4 Phantom II had been in operational service with the United States Air Force since 1964. The latest fighter in American service, the F-4 had powerful engines, excellent handling, and an air-to-air configuration of eight air-to-air missiles. However, the Phantom suffered from one critical armament weakness – the lack of an internal cannon, as its original conception as a fleet defense interceptor dictated that air combat would occur at beyond visual range with radar-guided missiles. It was also a large, heavy fighter, with high wing loadings that degraded its performance in high-G turns, and with engines that tended to produce large amounts of smoke, making it highly visible in combat.^[2]

The F-4’s missile armament consisted of the AIM-7 Sparrow and the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Although the short-range AIM-9 was thought to be an effective weapon, the use of the beyond visual range AIM-7 was constrained by Rules of Engagement which in most cases required visual confirmation of a target before firing – essentially defeating any advantage that the missile would have conferred to the American pilots. Both missiles had exhibited reliability problems in 1966 combat, exacerbated by maintenance problems caused by the tropical conditions of Southeast Asia, with the majority failing to ignite, fuse, or guide to the target.

The F-4’s primary adversary during this engagement was the Soviet-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, NATO reporting name ‘Fishbed’, a small fighter designed as a short-range interceptor, a role that perfectly suited its use by the VPAF. Armed with two Vympel K-13 missiles (known to US pilots by their NATO designation "Atoll"), the MiG-21 had rapid acceleration, was agile at supersonic speeds and at high altitudes, and significantly outperformed its primary target – the F-105 Thunderchief - in all flight regimes.^[3]

A small, light fighter, its low wing loadings were excellent for air combat maneuvering and its small size made it difficult to spot even when its adversary was warned of its presence. Typically, the MiG-21 was used in hit-and-run tactics; being vectored by Ground Control Intercept (GCI) to an intercept position to the vulnerable rear of an American strike formation, then executing a missile attack and diving away before fighter cover could intervene. Scoring its first kill on October 5, 1966,^[4] in December intercepting MiG-21s shot down two F-105s and forced 20% of all strike sorties to jettison their bombloads.^[5]

The MiG threat[link]

The agility of the MiG-21 and the VPAF tactic of high-speed slashing attacks from astern under GCI control posed a significant challenge to American pilots, who had become predictable by staging large formation strikes from Thailand flying roughly the same routes and times of day allowing the VPAF to challenge them with a relatively small force of 15 MiG-21 fighters used as point defense interceptors.

The USAF relied mostly on missiles to down enemy aircraft and, constrained by their rules of engagement and a fleeting adversary that only engaged when the situation was ideal, many American pilots were not even able to use these to their advantage. If the MiG-21 was a significant threat to the Phantoms, it was an even bigger threat to its main target, the comparatively sluggish F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bombers that carried out the bulk of the attack and bombing missions in the North Vietnamese interior during Operation Rolling Thunder.

"Operation Bolo" was created to deal with the new MiG threat. Since October the F-105s had been equipped with QRC-160 radar jamming pods that had virtually ended their own losses to surface-to-air missiles, but had shifted SAM attacks to the Phantoms, unprotected because of a shortage of the pods. Rules of engagement that had previously permitted the F-4 MiGCAP to escort the F-105s in and out of the target area had been revised in December to limit MiGCAP penetration to the edge of SAM coverage.^[6]

MiG interceptions had consequently increased, primarily due to MiG-21s using high-speed hit-and-run tactics against bomb-laden F-105 formations, and although only two bombers had been lost, the threat to the force was perceived as serious. Bombing of North Vietnamese airfields was still forbidden at the start of 1967, and 8th TFW wing commander Col. Robin Olds proposed an aerial ambush as the best means of mitigating the threat.^[7]

Robin Olds[link]

Colonel Robin Olds was the commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing and an experienced fighter pilot who had become a double ace in two tours over Europe during World War II. He was sent to Southeast Asia to revive the performance of the 8th TFW and he did so from the cockpit. Five days after he arrived at Ubon, the 8th TFW lost an F-4C to an air-to-air missile shot from a MiG-21, the first such loss in the war.^[8]

Considering also two other F-4 losses to MiGs in the two weeks preceding his taking command, Olds was upset by the sudden negative trend (only two USAF Phantoms had been shot down by MiGs previously, the most recent in April 1966), but was also convinced that his pilots could take on the MiG-21 and prevail if the MiGs could be drawn into the air on even terms. His idea for Operation Bolo was relatively simple: substitute Phantoms armed with air-to-air missiles for the bomb-laden F-105 strike aircraft and lure the MiGs into a dogfight.

Planning Operation Bolo[link]

A MiG-21 'Fishbed'.

Olds assigned the planning of Operation Bolo to a quartet of veteran junior officers in his wing: the wing tactics officer Capt. John B. Stone, 1st Lt. Joseph Hicks, 1st Lt. Ralph F. Wetterhahn, and Maj. James D. Covington. Working under the tightest security, the pilots assigned to fly the mission would not be briefed until December 30.^[9]

The group planned for a coordinated mission by a "west force" of seven flights of F-4Cs from the 8th TFW at Ubon and an "east force" of seven flights of F-4Cs from the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam. The west force would simulate the F-105 strike force while the east force would cover alternate airfields and provide a barrier against MiGs attempting to flee to China. The task force also included 6 flights of F-105s for protection from SAMs, airborne radar support by College Eye EC-121 aircraft, and radar jamming support by EB-66s, escorted by four flights of F-104s of the 435th TFS at Ubon.

The planners determined that if the MiGs reacted, their fuel endurance from takeoff to landing would extend to a maximum of 55 minutes. Arrival times of the F-4 flights over the targeted airfields were set five minutes apart to ensure maximum time for engagement and to attempt to run surviving MiGs out of fuel. The mission was also planned so that no other US aircraft would be present, allowing the first three flights of F-4s "missile-free" engagement without having to first identify the target.^[10][11]

Everything hinged on getting the MiGs airborne; if they didn't take the bait, then the plan would not come to fruition. In order to deceive the North Vietnamese, the west force had to fly the same ingress routes, altitudes, and speeds as the F-105, use the same air refueling tanker tracks and altitudes, and use F-105 jargon on the radio. (However, to Olds's dismay, the flights were still assigned callsigns of MiGCAPs throughout the war, which were the names of American-made automobiles: Olds, Ford, Rambler, Lincoln, Tempest, Plymouth, and Vespa.)^[11]

The F-4s were fitted out with the QRC-160 jamming pods normally carried only by F-105s, so that their electronic signature would be the same, and the F-4s would also fly the inflexible line-abreast pod formations used by the F-105s to maximize pod effectiveness. The pods had to be mounted on one of the fuel tank wing pylons, forcing the F-4s to carry a centerline and single wing tank, creating an asymmetric imbalance that made takeoffs difficult (the aircraft would try to roll on liftoff to the side carrying the wing tank).^[12]

The operation plan was presented to Gen. William Momyer, commanding the Seventh Air Force, on December 22, 1966. Momyer approved the plan, which was assigned the code name "Bolo", after the cane-cutting machete which doubled as a Filipino martial arts weapon. Sharp and deadly, the Filipino bolo does not appear to be a weapon until the opponent is drawn in too close to evade. This was the intent of the plan — to draw the MiGs into the Phantoms' killing zone and strike while the North Vietnamese were still expecting to find the less-dangerous F-105s.

Col. Olds also charged his maintenance crews with inspecting, cleaning, and repairing all equipment on the aircraft assigned to the mission, a task that took several days. As soon as the F-4s were equipped with the QRC-160 Electronic Countermeasures Pods, the date of the attack was set for January 1, 1967.^[9][11]

Executing the mission[link]

The mission was delayed because of bad weather and rescheduled for January 2. The mission launched from Ubon that afternoon after another hour's delay, and Olds, leading the first flight, arrived over Phuc Yen airfield at 1500 local time. Flying southeast on the ingress route used by F-105s, the mission drew no defensive reaction, and Olds found that a floor of thick clouds blanketed the area below, concealing any view of MiGs taking off.^[11]

Unknown to Olds, the North Vietnamese GCI controllers had delayed takeoffs by approximately 15 minutes because of the overcast. He reversed course and flew to the northwest. When three minutes had passed without contact, and with Ford flight almost in the area, he canceled the missile-free option.^[11] Just as Ford flight arrived in the target area, the first MiGs emerged from the clouds below.

Olds flight[link]

The first attack came as the second flight of F-4s was also entering the area. Olds' flight immediately dropped fuel tanks and lit afterburners to engage three MiGs that, although apparently emerging at random, actually had been directed to have the first appear at the flight's "six" (rear) and the next two moments later at its "ten" (left front), presenting one MiG with a tail-shooting solution and tactical surprise. All three flights that engaged MiGs later reporting encountering this tactic.

Olds 02, flown by mission planner Ralph Wetterhahn, scored the first kill by shooting the MiG with an AIM-7 Sparrow as Olds 01, flown by Col. Olds, fired three missiles that failed either to launch or guide. Olds stated:

The battle started when the MiGs began to get out of the cloud cover. Unfortunately for me, the first one appeared in my ‘six o’clock’. I think it was more an accident than a planned tactic. As a matter of fact, in the next few minutes many other MiGs started to exit from the clouds from different positions.

I was lucky. The flight behind me saw the MiGs and tried to divert its attention. I broke to the left, sharply enough to get away of his line of fire, hoping that my wingman would take care of him. Meanwhile another MiG came out of the clouds, turning widely about my ’11 o’clock’ at a distance of 2,000 yards. He went into the clouds again and I tried to follow.

A third enemy plane appeared in my ‘10 o’clock’, from the right to the left: in simple words, almost in the opposite direction. The first MiG zoomed away and I engaged the afterburner to get in an attack position against this new enemy. I reared up my aircraft in a 45 degree angle, inside his turn. He was turning to the left, so I pulled the stick and barrel-rolled to the right. Thanks to this maneuver, I found myself above him, half upside down. I held it until the MiG finished his turn, calculating the time so that, if I could keep on turning behind him, I would get on his tail, with a deflection angle of 20 degrees, at a distance of 1,500 yards. That was exactly what happened. He never saw me. Behind and lower than him, I could clearly see his silhouette against the sun when I launched two Sidewinders. One of them impacted and tore apart his right wing.^[13]

The vertical maneuver, known as a "vector roll," positioned his Phantom above the tighter-turning MiG-21, then when it completed its turn, Olds dropped in behind it and fired two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. One struck the MiG's right wing and tore it off. The MiG went into a spiral and disappeared into the clouds below, the second kill of the battle. At nearly the same time, Olds 04, flown by Capt. Walter S. Radeker III, spotted a MiG tracking his element lead and maneuvered to engage it. Radeker was unable get a consistently good tone (which would indicate missile lock), but launched. His Sidewinder guided perfectly, however, and struck the MiG just in front of its tail, sending it into a spin. Olds flight had destroyed three MiG-21s without suffering a loss and at its fuel consumption limits left the area.

Ford flight[link]

Ford flight, led by 8th TFW Vice Commander Colonel Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr. entered the target area at 1505, just as the MiGs began to engage, and James radioed a warning to Olds.^[11] Though he did not score a victory himself, James witnessed the victory made by his wingman, Captain Everett T. Raspberry:

"At 15:04 my flight was attacked by three MiGs, two from the ‘10 o’clock’ and one from the ´6 o’clock´. Initially I didn’t see this last one because I had been concentrating on those approaching head-on. My WSO excitedly warned me about this rapidly approaching MiG, which was within firing range of my #3 and #4. I hesitated a while before interrupting my attack against the two MiGs in front, because I had seen the ‘Olds’ flight passing below us a few seconds before. I thought that the plane seen by my WSO could be one of them. Despite that, I suddenly turned left and then right, and caught sight of the third MiG. I ordered to my numbers 3 and 4 to break right. As they did so, the MiG broke left for some mysterious reason and for a split second we were side by side. We were so close that, besides the red stars in his wings, I could clearly see the pilot’s face. I began a horizontal barrel roll to get away from him and into an attack position, once in position, I launched a Sidewinder. The missile missed because the evading MiG broke left at full throttle. But when he did it, he put himself in the line of fire of my number 2, Captain Everett T. Raspberry. I ordered him to follow the prey, because the two aircraft that I initially saw had been placed in my forward sector. I was in an advantageous position, so I fired two AIM-9s against them in a quick sequence, and I turned to place myself as wingman of my #2, Captain Raspberry. […] I kept on descending besides Captain Raspberry and I remember that I thought that he was still out of the optimal launching envelope. But he performed a barrel roll that placed him in a perfect position again and he launched an AIM-9 which hit against the tail section of the MiG-21. It was shaken violently and later fell in a slow, almost plane spin.”^[13]

James, preoccupied with two MiGs approaching Ford flight head-on, was attacked from the rear by a MiG-21. He executed a horizontal barrel roll, got behind his attacker, and fired an AIM-9 that the MiG evaded. However, the maneuver placed the MiG in front of Raspberry, who shot it down with a missile hit behind the cockpit. After Ford 02 scored its kill, Ford flight left the scene without loss, its success due partially to the high-speed maneuverability of the F-4 at 17,000 ft.^[14]

Rambler flight[link]

Rambler flight, the third into the area, was led by Captain John B. Stone, the wing tactics officer and one of the architects of Operation Bolo. When Rambler entered the engagement, Stone spotted a pair of MiGs popping up through a break in the clouds, dove and launched an AIM-7 Sparrow, which failed to ignite. Stone fired again a second Sparrow that successfully guided to one of the MiGs. Observing a third MiG behind him, he coordinated his maneuvers with his wingman and steered the MiG into the line of fire of Major Philip P. Combies (Rambler 04). He saw the battle in this way:

"We flew at 13,440 feet (4,800 meters) above sea level and our speed was 540 knots. A little bit after completing a turn to the northwest, we identified a patrol of four MiG-21s in spread formation at a distance of 5 miles –about 8 km- at ‘2 o’clock’ and below than us. Two more MiGs appeared 2 miles –about 3 km - behind. . . . When the MiGs crossed in front of Stone, he started to follow, breaking left and losing height. Due to that, the flight spread wide to the right, and I found myself higher and somewhat to the right than the others. I kept the throttle to the minimum during the first phase of the combat. So, the MiGs broke to the left, and the engagement began. I choose one of the MiGs and followed him with my radar. I don't think that we ever exceeded 4 g during the whole engagement. I decided to follow the Navy pilots' tactics - at close range foregoing the radar tracking, but looking through the reticle instead. When I realized that I was in the right position, I pushed the fire button, released it, pushed it again, and waited. I did not even see the first Sparrow. However, I followed the entire trajectory of the second one, from launch to impact. I fired the missiles at less than 2,000 yards from the MiG’s tail, height 9,800 feet (3,500 meters) and turning to the left. The second one hit the tail section of the enemy aircraft. A second later I saw a huge, orange ball of fire."^[13]

Seconds later, another MiG-21 crossed in front of Rambler 02 and was apparently destroyed by a Sparrow fired by its pilot, Lawrence Glynn. The MiG, hit behind the tailfin, exploded in a fireball. This, the third MiG-21 downed by Rambler flight, raised the final score of the day to 7:0 in favor of the F-4s. SA-2 missile launches (five in all) began to threaten Rambler flight, which also disengaged. The entire combat lasted twelve minutes.

The final four flights of 8th TFW aircraft arrived to find the engagement over and departed the area because of the SAM threat, while the Da Nang-based East Force assessed the weather conditions and did not penetrate North Vietnamese airspace. Two of the Ubon-based West Force had aborted the mission for maintenance problems, and ultimately only 26 of the 56 assigned fighters entered the target area, and only 12 of those engaged.

Bolo summary[link]

The following table summarizes the 8th TFW's seven MiG-21 victories:^[13]

¹In 1967 all USAF F-4s were crewed by two rated pilots, with the more experienced flying the front seat as "aircraft commander." The use of rated navigators as Weapon Systems Officers began in 1969.

Original Vietnamise sources confirm loss of only five MiG-21 during Operation Bolo, other pilots (Dang Ngoc Ngu, Dong Van De and Nguyen Van Coc) return safely to base:^[15]

Mission impact and followup[link]

As the F-4s landed at Ubon, their ground crews lined the taxi way. As each Phantom passed, cockpits opened, the pilots indicated with upheld fingers the numbers of kills they'd scored. Of the 16 MiG-21s known to be in the VPAF inventory, 11 to 14 had been engaged (depending on the source), with 7 destroyed and two others probably shot down (by Combies and Maj. Herman L. Knapp, Rambler 03).

The success of Operation Bolo led Seventh Air Force to plan a similar mission simulating an RF-4C photo reconnaissance mission. The immediate reaction to Bolo by the VPAF was to challenge the daily "recce" mission on the two days immediately following Bolo, in each case causing the mission to be aborted. On both January 5 and January 6, a pair of 555th TFS F-4C Phantoms, flying a close formation to appear as a single target on North Vietnamese radar, flew the high-speed profile. On the second day, intercepted by 4 MiGs, they again surprised and shot down two during the encounter, with Crab 01 (Capt. Richard M. Pascoe and 1st Lt. Norman E. Wells) and Crab 02 (Maj. Thomas M. Hirsch and 1st Lt. Roger J. Strasswimmer) each scoring a kill.^[16]

For the North Vietnamese (and their Soviet allies who supplied the MiG-21 aircraft and helped set up the integrated air defense network), the two reverses forced them to husband their assets by grounding the MiGs for several months for retraining and devising of new tactics.

See also[link]

• Operation Rimon 20

Notes[link]

1. ^ http://www.scribd.com/doc/71339476/6/Operation-Bolo
2. ^ Aircraft
3. ^ Sherwood, John Darrell (1999). "Old Lionheart". Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience. Free Press. ISBN 0-312-97962-2. , 73
4. ^ Tempest 03 of the 8th TFW's 433rd TFS. The rescue of one crew member by Cpt. Leland T. Kennedy is recounted in that article.
5. ^ Sherwood, John Darrell (1999). "Old Lionheart". Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience. Free Press. ISBN 0-312-97962-2. , 73
6. ^ Marshall L. Michel (1997). Clashes: Air Combat Over North Vietnam 1965-1972. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-585-3. , 66.
7. ^ Sherwood, 31
8. ^ Michel, Clashes: Air Combat Over North Vietnam 1965-1972,p. 63.
9. ^ ^{a b} Sherwood, 33
10. ^ Lou Drendel (1984). ...And Kill MiGs. Squadron/Signal Publications. ISBN 0-89747-056-7. , 11, quoting 1LT Dunnegan
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Mig Sweep". AIR FORCE Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070127154348/http://www.afa.org/magazine/Nov1998/1198mig.asp. Retrieved 8 February 2007.  Boyne's account states January 2 but is apparently a typographical error. He makes it clear in the next paragraph that the mission was delayed 24 hours to January 2.
12. ^ Drendel, 12
13. ^ ^{a b c d} Zampini, Diego (2003). "Robin Olds Mastermind of Operation Bolo". Acepilots.com. http://www.acepilots.com/vietnam/olds_bolo.html. Retrieved 2006-12-08. 
14. ^ Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who changed the Art of War, by Robert Coram, page 215
15. ^ Lịch sử dẫn đường Không quân (1959-2004)
16. ^ Drendel, 17-18 and 20-21

External links[link]

• futurshox. net - aviation photography (Picture source for the F-4 and MiG-21)
• Operation Bolo MiG Sweep by Walter J. Boyne
• History Channel video clips
• Cockpit photo of MiG-21 kill
• Kunsan Air Base -- How It Was...8th Fighter Wing (1974-Present)
• Operation Bolo (Korean)
• Hill Aerospace Museum - General Electric AN/ALQ-71 Electronic Countermeasures Pod
• 8th Tactical Fighter Wing Vietnam Era Website

Sources[link]

• Boyne, Walter J. "MiG Sweep", AIR FORCE Magazine, November 1998
• Drendel, Lou. (1984) ...And Kill MiGs, Squadron/Signal Publications. ISBN 0-89747-056-7
• Michel, Marshall L. (1997) Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam 1965-1972. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-585-3
• Nordeen, Lon O. (1986) Air Warfare in the Missile Age, Smithsonian Institution Press, ISBN 0-87474-680-9
• Sherwood, John Darrell. (1999) Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience, Free Press, ISBN 0-312-97962-2

Robin Olds
Col. Robin Olds with trademark mustache, Ubon RTAFB, Thailand. The missile is an AIM-9 Sidewinder with its seeker head covered.
Born	(1922-07-14)July 14, 1922 Honolulu, Hawaii
Died	June 14, 2007(2007-06-14) (aged 84) Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Place of burial	United States Air Force Academy
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1943–1973
Rank	Brigadier General
Commands held	434th Fighter Squadron No. 1 Squadron RAF 86th Fighter-Interceptor Group 81st Tactical Fighter Wing 8th Tactical Fighter Wing
Battles/wars	World War II Vietnam War *Operation Bolo
Awards	Air Force Cross Air Force Distinguished Service Medal (2) Silver Star (4) Legion of Merit Distinguished Flying Cross (6) Air Medal(40) British Distinguished Flying Cross Croix de Guerre with Palm (France)
Relations	Robert Olds (father) Ella Raines (spouse)

Robin Olds^[1] (July 14, 1922 – June 14, 2007) was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 16 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War.^[2] He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general.

The son of regular Army Maj. Gen. Robert Olds, educated at West Point, and the product of an upbringing in the early years of the U.S. Army Air Corps, Olds epitomized the youthful World War II fighter pilot. He remained in the service as it became the United States Air Force, despite often being at odds with its leadership, and was one of its pioneer jet pilots. Rising to command of two fighter wings, Olds is regarded among aviation historians and his peers as the best wing commander of the Vietnam War, both for his air-fighting skills and his reputation as a combat leader.^[3]

Olds was promoted to brigadier general after returning from Vietnam but did not hold another major command. The remainder of his career was spent in non-operational positions, as Commandant of Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy and as an official in the Air Force Inspector General's Office. His inability to rise higher as a general officer is attributed to both his maverick views and his penchant for drinking.^[4]

Olds had a highly publicized career and life, including marriage to Hollywood actress Ella Raines. As a young man he was also recognized for his athletic prowess in both high school and college, being named an All American for his play as a lineman in American football. Olds expressed his philosophy regarding fighter pilots in the quote: "There are pilots and there are pilots; with the good ones, it is inborn. You can't teach it. If you are a fighter pilot, you have to be willing to take risks."^[5]

Early life[link]

Olds was born in Honolulu into an Army family and spent much of his boyhood in Hampton, Virginia, where he attended elementary and high school. His father was Captain (later Major General) Robert Olds,^[1] an instructor pilot in France during World War I, former aide to Billy Mitchell from 1922 to 1925,^[6] and a leading advocate of strategic bombing in the Air Corps. His mother, Eloise Wichman Nott Olds, died when Robin was four and he was raised by his father.^[7] Olds was the eldest of four brothers, followed by Stevan (1924), Sterling (1935), and Frederick (1936).^[8]

Growing up primarily at Langley Field, Virginia,^[9] Olds came in almost daily contact with the small group of officers who would lead the US Army Air Forces in World War II (one neighbor was Major Carl Spaatz, destined to become the first Chief of Staff of the USAF),^[10] and as a result was imbued with an unusually strong dedication to the air service, and conversely, with a low tolerance for officers who did not exhibit the same.^[11] On November 10, 1925, his father appeared as a witness on behalf of Billy Mitchell during his court-martial in Washington, D.C.. He brought three-year-old Robin with him to court, dressed in an Air Service uniform, and posed with him for newspaper photographers before testifying.^[12]

Olds first flew at the age of eight, in an open cockpit biplane operated by his father.^[13] At the age of 12, Olds made attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point an objective to accomplish his goals of becoming an officer, a military aviator, and playing football.^[14]

His father was made commander of the pioneer B-17 Flying Fortress 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field on March 1, 1937, and promoted to lieutenant colonel on March 7. Olds attended Hampton High School where he was elected president of his class three successive years,^[15] and played varsity high school football on a team that won the state championship of Virginia in 1937. Olds was aggressive, even mean, as a player, and received offers to attend Virginia Military Institute and Dartmouth College on football scholarships.^[14]

Instead of entering college after graduating in 1939, Olds enrolled at Millard Preparatory School in Washington, D.C., a school established to prepare men for the entrance examinations to the military academies. When Germany invaded Poland, Olds attempted to join the Royal Canadian Air Force but was thwarted by his father's refusal to approve his enlistment papers.^[16] Olds completed Millard Prep and applied for admission to West Point. After he received a conditional commitment for nomination from Pennsylvania Congressman J. Buell Snyder, Olds moved to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where he lived in the YMCA and supported himself working odd jobs. He also took and passed the entrance examination. Olds was accepted into the Class of 1944 on June 1, 1940, and entered the academy a month later.^[16]

West Point and football[link]

As a plebe, Olds played football on a freshman squad that began the season with three losses but finished 3-4-1 while the varsity won only one game in its second consecutive losing season. As a result, the new academy superintendent, Maj. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger, replaced the head coach (an Army officer) with Earl "Red" Blaik, a 1920 graduate and head coach at Dartmouth, who had recruited Olds in 1939.^[17]

Olds played on the varsity college football team in both 1941 and 1942. At 6 foot 2 inches in height and weighing 205 pounds, he played tackle on both offense and defense, lettering both seasons. Army's record in 1941 was 5-3-1, with wins over The Citadel, VMI, Yale, Columbia, and West Virginia, a scoreless tie with Notre Dame, and losses to Harvard, Penn and Navy. The loss to the midshipmen was followed eight days later by the attack on Pearl Harbor.^[18]

In 1942 he was named by Collier's Weekly as its "Lineman of the Year" and by Grantland Rice as "Player of the Year." Olds was also selected as an All-America as the cadets compiled a 6-3 record, beating Lafayette College, Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, VMI, and Princeton, and falling to Notre Dame, Penn, and Navy.^[19] In the Army–Navy Game of 1942, which was played at Annapolis instead of Philadelphia, Olds had both upper front teeth knocked out when he received a forearm blow to the mouth while making a tackle. Olds returned to the game and reportedly was cheered by the Navy Third and Fourth Classes, which were assigned as the Army cheering section when wartime travel restrictions prevented the Corps of Cadets from attending.^[20] In 1985 Olds was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.^[19]

Olds developed ambivalent feelings about West Point, admiring its dedication to "Duty, Honor, Country", but disturbed by the tendency of many tactical officers to distort the purpose of its Honor Code. In March 1943, Olds was braced by an officer upon returning from leave in New York City, and compelled on penalty of an honor violation to admit he had consumed alcohol. The infraction reduced him in rank from cadet captain to cadet private, characterized by Olds in his memoirs as "only the second cadet in the history of West Point to earn that dubious honor."^[21]

He walked punishment tours until the day of his graduation in June. The incident left its mark on Olds such that when he became Commandant of Cadets at the Air Force Academy, use of the Honor Code as an instrument for integrity rather than as a tool for petty enforcement of discipline became a point of emphasis in his administration.^[22] During his Academy years Olds also acquired a strong contempt for alumni networking, commonly called "ring knocking",^[23] to the degree that he went out of his way to conceal his West Point background.^[24]

By an act of Congress on October 1, 1942, during Olds' Second Class year, the academy began a three-year curriculum for the duration of the war for cadets entering after July 1939. Cadets applying to the Air Corps were classified as Air Cadets, with a modified curriculum that provided flying training but eliminated Military Topography and Graphics required for Ground Cadets. Olds' class was given an abridged second class course of study until January 19, 1943, when it began an abridged first class course.^[25]

Olds completed primary training in the summer of 1942 at the Spartan School of Aviation in Tulsa, Oklahoma,^[26] and basic and advanced training at Stewart Field, New York. 208 cadets including Olds completed the course, while five classmates died in accidents.^[27] Olds received his pilot's wings personally from Gen. Henry H. Arnold on May 30, 1943,^[28] and graduated on June 1 as a member of the Class of June 1943, 194th in general merit of 514 graduates.^[29]

World War II fighter pilot[link]

P-38 Lightning missions[link]

Lieutenant Olds completed fighter pilot training with the 329th Fighter Group, based at Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California. His initial twin-engine training at Williams Field, Arizona, was in the Curtiss AT-9, followed by transition training to the P-38 in its P-322 variant.^[30] After gunnery training at Matagorda, Texas in the first half of August 1943, he was assigned to P-38 phase training at Muroc Army Air Field, California.^[31]

In early 1944 he became part of the cadre assigned to build up the newly activated 434th Fighter Squadron and its parent 479th Fighter Group, based at Lomita, California. Olds logged 650 hours of flying time during training, including 250 hours in the P-38 Lightning, as the 479th built its proficiency as a combat group. It departed the Los Angeles area on April 15 for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and shipped aboard the USS Argentina for Europe on May 3. The 479th arrived in Scotland on May 14, 1944, and entrained for RAF Wattisham, England, where it arrived the next day.^[32]

The 479th began combat on May 26, flying bomber escort missions and attacking transportation targets in occupied France in advance of the invasion of Normandy.^[33] Olds flew a new P-38J Lightning that he nicknamed Scat II.^[34] Olds' crew chief, T/Sgt. Glen A. Wold, said that he showed an immediate interest in aircraft maintenance and learned emergency servicing under Wold. He also insisted his aircraft be waxed to reduce air resistance and helped his maintenance crew carry out their tasks.^[35] On July 24 Olds was promoted to captain and became a flight and later squadron leader. Following a low-level bridge-bombing mission to Montmirail, France, on August 14, Olds shot down his first German aircraft, a pair of Focke-Wulf Fw 190s.^[36]

On an escort mission to Wismar on August 25, his flight was on the far left of the group's line abreast formation and encountered 40-50 Messerschmitt Bf 109s near Wittenberge, flying north at the same 28,000 ft (8,500 m) altitude in a loose formation of three large vees. Olds turned his flight left and began a ten-minute pursuit in which they climbed to altitude above and behind the Germans. Over Bützow, undetected by the Germans, Olds and his wingman jettisoned their fuel drop tanks and attacked, although the second element of the flight had been unable to keep up during the climb.^[37]

Just as Olds began firing, both engines of his P-38 quit from fuel exhaustion; in the excitement of the attack he had neglected to switch to his internal fuel tanks. He continued attacking in "dead-stick mode", hitting his target in the fuselage and shooting off part of its engine cowling. After fatally damaging the Bf 109 he dived away and restarted his engines.^[38] Despite battle damage to his own plane, including loss of a side window of its canopy, Olds shot down two during the dogfight and another on the way home to become the first ace of the 479th FG.^[39][40] His combat report for that date concluded:

Still in a shallow dive, I observed another P-38 and an Me 109 going round and round. It seemed that the 38 needed help so I started down. At about 4,000 ft (1,200 m), the Jerry, still way out of my range, turned under me and slightly to the right. I rolled over on my back, following him and gave him an ineffective burst at long range. By this time I was traveling in excess of 500 mph (800 km/h). My left window blew out, scaring the hell out of me. I thought I had been hit by some of the ground fire I had observed in the vicinity. I regained control of the aircraft and pulled out above a wheat field. I tried to contact the flight to get myself recognized, but observed an Me 109 making a pass at me from about seven o'clock high. I broke left as well as my plane could and the Jerry overshot. I straightened out and gave him a burst. He chandelled steeply to the left and I shot some more. He passed right over me and I slipped over in an Immelman. As I straightened out at the top, I saw the pilot bail out.^[41]

He made eight claims while flying the P-38 (five of which are sustained by the Air Force Historical Research Agency) and was originally credited as the top-scoring P-38 pilot of the European Theater of Operations.^[42]

P-51 Mustang pilot[link]

The 479th FG converted to the P-51 Mustang in mid-September. On his second transition flight, at the point of touchdown during landing, Olds learned a lesson in "false confidence" when the powerful torque of the single-engined fighter forced him to ground loop after the Mustang veered off the runway.^[43] Olds shot down an Fw 190 in his new Scat IV on October 6 during a savage battle near Berlin in which he was nearly shot down by his own wingman.^[44] He completed his first combat tour on November 9, 1944, accruing 270 hours of combat time and six kills.^[45]

After returning to the United States for a two-month leave, Olds began a full second tour at Wattisham on January 15, 1945. He was assigned duties as operations officer of the 434th Fighter squadron.^[46] Promoted to major on February 9, 1945, Olds claimed his seventh victory southeast of Magdeburg, Germany the same day, downing another Bf 109. On February 14, he claimed three victories, two Bf 109s and an Fw 190, but the latter was later changed to a "probable".^[47]

His final WWII aerial kill occurred on April 7, 1945, when Olds in Scat VI led the 479th Fighter Group on a mission escorting B-24s bombing an ammunition dump in Lüneburg, Germany. The engagement marked the only combat appearance of Sonderkommando Elbe, a German Air Force Squadron formed to ram Allied bombers.^[48][49] South of Bremen, Olds noticed contrails popping up above a bank of cirrus clouds, of aircraft flying above and to the left of the bombers. For five minutes these bogies paralleled the bomber stream while the 479th held station. Turning to investigate, Olds saw pairs of Me 262s turn towards and dive on the Liberators. After damaging one of the jets in a chase meant to lure the fighter escort away from the bombers, the Mustangs returned to the bomber stream. Olds observed an Me 109 of Sonderkommando Elbe attack the bombers and shoot down a B-24. Olds pursued the Me 109 through the formation, and shot it down.^[50]

Olds achieved the bulk of his strafing credits the following week in attacks on Lübeck Blankensee and Tarnewitz airdromes on April 13, and Reichersburg airfield in Austria on April 16, when he destroyed six German planes on the ground. He later reflected on the hazards of such missions:

I was hit by flak as I was pulling out of a dive-strafing pass on an airfield called Tarnewitz, up on the Baltic. Five P-51s made a pass on the airdrome that April day. I was the only one to return home...When I tested the stall characteristics of my wounded bird over our home airfield, I found it quit flying at a little over 175 mph (282 km/h) indicated and rolled violently into the dead wing (note: the right flap had been blown away and two large holes knocked in the same wing). What to do? Bailout seemed the logical response, but here's where sentiment got in the way of reason. That airplane (note: "Scat VI") had taken me through a lot and I was damned if I was going to give up on her...why the bird and I survived the careening, bouncing and juttering ride down the length of the field, I guess I'll never know.^[51]

Olds had not only risen in rank to field grade but was given command of his squadron on March 25, less than two years out of West Point and at only 22 years of age. By the end of his combat service he was officially credited with 12 German planes shot down and 11.5 others destroyed on the ground.^[40]

Career highlights and assignments[link]

Returning to the United States after the war, Olds was assigned at West Point as an assistant football coach for Red Blaik. Apparently resented by many on the staff for his rapid rise in rank and plethora of combat decorations,^[52] Olds transferred in February 1946 to the 412th Fighter Group at March Field, California, to fly the P-80 Shooting Star, which began a career-long professional struggle with superiors he viewed as more promotion- than warrior-minded.^[53]

In April 1946, he and Lieutenant Colonel John C. "Pappy" Herbst formed what may have been the Air Force's first jet aerobatic demonstration team.^[54] In late May, the 412th was ordered to undertake PROJECT COMET, a nine-city transcontinental mass formation flight. Olds and Herbst performed a two-ship acro routine that thrilled the crowds at every stop, the highlight being a three-day layover in Washington, D.C. In June, Olds was one of four pilots who participated in the first one-day, dawn-to-dusk, transcontinental round trip jet flight from March Field to Washington, D.C.^[55]

The jet demonstration performances with Herbst ended tragically on July 4, 1946, when Herbst crashed at the Del Mar Racetrack after his aircraft stalled during an encore of their routine finale in which the P-80s did a loop while configured to land.^[56] Later that same year Olds took second place in the Thompson Trophy Race (Jet Division) of the Cleveland National Air Races at Brook Park, Ohio over the Labor Day weekend. In this first "closed course" jet race, six P-80s competed against each other on a three pylon course 30 miles in length.^[57]

RAF Gloster Meteor.

Olds went to England under the U.S. Air Force/Royal Air Force Exchange Program in 1948. Flying the Gloster Meteor jet fighter, he commanded No. 1 Squadron at Royal Air Force Station Tangmere between October 20, 1948 and September 25, 1949,^[52] the first foreigner to command an RAF unit in peacetime. Following his exchange assignment, Olds returned to March AFB to become operations officer of the 94th Fighter Squadron of the 1st Fighter Group, flying F-86A Sabres, on November 15, 1949.^[58]

Olds was assigned to command the 71st Fighter Squadron, then an Air Defense Command unit stationed at Greater Pittsburgh Airport, Pennsylvania, and as a result missed service in the Korean War, despite repeated applications for a combat assignment.^[59] Discouraged and at odds with the Air Force, in which he was seen as an iconoclast, Olds reportedly was in the process of resigning when he was talked out of it by a mentor, Maj Gen Frederic H. Smith, Jr., who brought him to work at Eastern Air Defense Command headquarters at Stewart AFB.^[60]

Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on February 20, 1951, and Colonel April 15, 1953, while just thirty years of age, Olds served unenthusiastically in several staff assignments until returning to flying in 1955. At first on the command staff of the 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing at Landstuhl Air Base, Germany, Olds then commanded its Sabre-equipped 86th Fighter-Interceptor Group from October 8, 1955, to August 10, 1956.^[61] He then was made chief of the Weapons Proficiency Center at Wheelus Air Base, Libya, in charge of all fighter weapons training for the United States Air Forces Europe until July 1958.^[62]

Olds had administrative and staff duty assignments at the Pentagon between 1958 and 1962 as the Deputy Chief, Air Defense Division, Headquarters USAF.^[63] In this assignment he prepared a number of papers, iconoclastic at the time, which soon became prophetic, including identifying the need for upgraded conventional munitions (foretelling the "bomb shortage" of the Vietnam War), and the dearth of any serious tactical air training in conventional warfare.^[64] From November 1959 to March 1960, his section worked intensely to develop a program reducing the entire structure of the ADC with the purpose of generating $6.5 billion for classified funding to develop the SR-71 Blackbird.^[65] Following his Pentagon assignment, Olds attended the National War College, graduating in 1963.

Olds next became commander of the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Bentwaters, England, an F-101 Voodoo fighter-bomber wing, on September 8, 1963. The 81st TFW was a major combat unit in United States Air Forces Europe, having both a tactical nuclear and conventional bombing role supporting NATO. Olds commanded the wing until July 26, 1965.^[61] As his Deputy Commander of Operations Olds brought with him Colonel Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr., whom he had met during his Pentagon assignment and who would go on to become the first African-American 4-star Air Force general.^[66] James and Olds worked closely together for a year as a command team and developed both a professional and social relationship which was later renewed in combat.^[67]

Olds formed a demonstration team for the F-101 using pilots of his wing, without command authorization, and performed at an Air Force open house at Bentwaters. He asserted that his superior at Third Air Force attempted to have him court-martialed, but the commander of USAFE, General Gabriel P. Disosway, instead authorized his removal from command of the 81st TFW, cancellation of a recommended Legion of Merit award, and transfer to the headquarters of the Ninth Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.^[53][68]

In September 1966, Olds was tapped to command an F-4C Phantom wing in Southeast Asia. En route he arranged with the 4453rd Combat Crew Training Wing, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, (where Col. James was now Deputy Commander of Operations) to be checked out in the Phantom, completing the 14-step syllabus in just five days. His instructor was Major William L. Kirk, the 4453rd CCTW's Standardization and Evaluation officer, who had been one of Olds' pilots at RAF Bentwaters, and who later commanded the United States Air Forces Europe as a full general. Kirk accompanied Olds for practice firing of AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles on the Point Mugu missile range while Olds was en route to Travis Air Force Base for his charter flight overseas.^[69] Olds rewarded Kirk by granting him a transfer to his command in Thailand in March 1967.^[70]

Vietnam[link]

Robin Olds beside F-4C Phantom Scat XXVII (1966-1967).

On September 30, 1966, Olds took command of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base.^[61] A lack of aggressiveness and sense of purpose in the wing had led to the change in command (Olds' predecessor had flown only 12 missions during the 10 months the wing had been in combat).^[71] The 44-year-old colonel also set the tone for his command stint by immediately placing himself on the flight schedule as a rookie pilot under officers junior to himself, then challenging them to train him properly because he would soon be leading them.^[72]

In December Olds was re-united with James, and they again became an effective command team (popularly nicknamed "Blackman and Robin").^[73] Olds took to the air war over North Vietnam in an F-4C Phantom he nicknamed, in keeping with his previous aircraft, Scat XXVII.

MiG killer[link]

After suggesting the idea to Seventh Air Force commander Major General William Momyer, himself a former commander of the 8th TFW, Olds was directed to plan a mission designed to draw the North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s into an aerial trap, and "Operation Bolo" resulted.

Wolfpack pilots of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing sweep Colonel Robin Olds away from his F-4 Phantom II aircraft following his return from his 100th combat mission over North Vietnam. Olds led the Wolfpack through 1967 as it amassed 24 MiG victories, the greatest aerial combat record of an F-4 Wing in the Vietnam war.

In October 1966, strike force F-105 Thunderchiefs were equipped with QRC-160 radar jamming pods whose effectiveness virtually ended their losses to surface-to-air missiles. As a result, SAM attacks shifted to the Phantoms, unprotected because of a shortage of pods. To protect the F-4s, rules of engagement that allowed the MiGCAP to escort the strike force in and out of the target area were revised in December to restrict MiGCAP penetration to the edge of SAM coverage. MiG interceptions increased as a result, primarily by MiG-21s using high speed hit-and-run tactics against bomb-laden F-105 formations, and although only two bombers had been lost, the threat to the force was perceived as serious.^[74]

The Bolo plan reasoned that by equipping F-4s with jamming pods, using the call signs and communications codewords of the F-105 wings, and flying their flight profiles through northwest Vietnam, the F-4s could effectively simulate an F-105 bombing mission and entice the MiG-21s into intercepting not bomb-laden Thunderchiefs, but Phantoms configured for air-to-air combat.^[75]

After an intensive planning, maintenance, and briefing period, the mission was scheduled for January 1, 1967. Poor weather caused a 24-hour delay, but even then, a solid overcast covered the North Vietnamese airbases at Phuc Yen, Gia Lam, Kep, and Cat Bai when the bogus strike force began arriving over the target area, five minute intervals separating the flights of F-4s. Leading the first flight, Olds overflew the primary MiG-21 base at Phuc Yen and was on a second pass when MiGs finally began popping up through the cloud base. Although at first seemingly random in nature, it quickly became apparent that the MiGs were ground-controlled intercepts designed to place the supposed F-105s in a vise between enemies to their front and rear.^[75]

The F-4s and their crews, however, proved equal to the situation and claimed seven MiG-21s destroyed, almost half of the 16 then in service with the VPAF without loss to USAF aircraft. Olds himself shot down one of the seven. Follow-up interceptions over the next two days by MiGs against RF-4C reconnaissance aircraft led to a similar mission on a smaller scale on January 6, with another two MiG-21s shot down. VPAF fighter activity diminished to almost nothing for 10 weeks afterwards, thereby accomplishing the main goal of Operation Bolo: to eliminate or diminish the threat of MiGs to the strike formations.^[75]

Olds' MiG scoreboard on splitter vane of his F-4C

On May 4, Olds destroyed another MiG-21 over Phuc Yen. Two weeks later, he destroyed two MiG-17s, bringing his total to 16 confirmed kills (12 in World War II and four in Vietnam), making him a triple ace. Olds states that following the shoot down of his fourth MiG, he intentionally avoided shooting down a fifth, even during at least ten opportunities to do so, because he had learned that Seventh Air Force, on orders from Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown, would immediately relieve him of command as a publicity asset.^[76][77]

He was awarded a third Silver Star for leading a low-level bombing strike on March 30, 1967, and the Air Force Cross for an attack on the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi on August 11, one of five awarded to Air Force pilots for that mission.^[78] He flew his final combat mission over North Vietnam on September 23, 1967.^[79]

His 259 total combat missions included 107 in World War II and 152 in Southeast Asia, 105 of those over North Vietnam. Scat XXVII was retired from operational service and placed on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.^[80][81]

Olds's mustache[link]

Olds was known for the extravagantly waxed (and decidedly non-regulation) handlebar moustache he sported in Vietnam. It was a common superstition among airmen to grow a "bulletproof mustache",^[82][83] but Olds also used his as "a gesture of defiance. The kids on base loved it. Most everybody grew a mustache."^[84] Returning home, however, marked the end of this flamboyance. When he reported to his first interview with Air Force Chief of Staff General John P. McConnell, McConnell walked up to him, stuck a finger under his nose and said, "Take it off." Olds replied, "Yes, sir."

For his part, Olds was not upset with the order, recalling:

To tell the truth, I wasn't all that fond of the damned thing by then, but it had become a symbol for the men of the 8th Wing. I knew McConnell understood. During his visits to Ubon over the past year he had never referred to my breach of military standards, just seemed rather amused at the variety of 'staches sported by many of the troops. (It) was the most direct order I had received in twenty-four years of service.^[85]

The incident with the mustache is given credit as the impetus for a new Air Force tradition, "Mustache March", in which aircrew, aircraft maintainers, and other Airmen worldwide show solidarity by a symbolic, albeit good-natured "protest" for one month against Air Force facial hair regulations.^[86]

Dogfighting advocate[link]

Olds was a strong advocate of the importance of tactical air power and maintaining conventional warfare proficiency during the Cold War, in an era when the Air Force's priority doctrine was on nuclear warfare. In 1962 he was ordered to stop writing a paper on the importance of conventional and tactical air power by his commander.

"We weren't allowed to dogfight. Very little attention was paid to strafing, dive-bombing, rocketry, stuff like that. It was thought to be unnecessary. Yet every confrontation America faced in the Cold War years was a 'bombs and bullets' situation, raging under an uneasy nuclear standoff." The Vietnam War "proved the need to teach tactical warfare and have fighter pilots. It caught us unprepared because we weren't allowed to learn it or practice it in training."^[84]

The History Channel, in its series Dogfights, recreated Operation Bolo using a computer animation for an episode entitled "Air Ambush", first telecast on November 10, 2006. Olds, then 84 years old, appeared as a commentator, and as background, dogfights he experienced as a P-38 pilot were also recreated.

Post-Southeast Asia career[link]

Air Force Academy 1967-71[link]

Official portrait of Brigadier General Robin Olds as Commandant of the United States Air Force Academy, circa 1967–71.

After relinquishing command of the 8th TFW on September 23, 1967, Olds reported for duty to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in December 1967. He served as Commandant of Cadets for three years and sought to restore morale in the wake of a major cheating scandal. Olds was promoted to brigadier general on June 1, 1968, with seniority dating from May 28.^[80]

Director of Aerospace Safety[link]

In February 1971 he began his last duty assignment as director of aerospace safety in the Office of the Inspector General, Headquarters USAF, and after December 1971 as part of the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center, a newly activated separate operating agency located at Norton Air Force Base, California. Olds oversaw the creation of policies, standards, and procedures for Air Force accident prevention programs, and dealt with work safety education, workplace accident investigation and analysis, and safety inspections.^[80]

1971 inspection tour and retirement[link]

Air Force Inspector General and West Point classmate Lt. Gen. Louis L. Wilson Jr., sent Olds to Southeast Asia in the autumn of 1971 to determine the state of readiness of Air Force pilots. Olds toured USAF bases in Thailand (flying several unauthorized combat missions in the process) and brought back a blunt assessment. Air Force pilots, he reported to Air Force Chief of Staff John D. Ryan (a former SAC general and bomber pilot often at odds with the tactical fighter community), "couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag" because of a systemic lack of interest by the USAF in air-to-air combat training. He warned that losses would be severe in any resumption of aerial combat. Olds recalled that Ryan expressed surprise at this assessment and reflected his disagreement.^[87]

When Operation Linebacker began in May 1972, American fighter jets returned to the offense in the skies over North Vietnam for the first time in nearly four years. Navy and Marine Corps fighters, reaping the benefits of their TOPGUN program, immediately enjoyed considerable success. In contrast by June, as Olds had predicted, the Air Force's fighter community was struggling with a nearly 1:1 kill-loss ratio. To the new Inspector General, Lt. Gen. Ernest C. Hardin, Jr., Olds offered to take a voluntary reduction in rank to colonel so he could return to operational command and straighten out the situation. Olds decided to leave the Air Force when the offer was refused (he was offered another inspection tour instead) and he retired on June 1, 1973.^[88][89]

Awards and decorations[link]

Robin Olds' ribbons as they appeared at retirement.^[80]

200px
	100px

From top, and from left to right: Command pilot.

• Row 1: Air Force Cross; Air Force Distinguished Service Medal.
• Row 2: Silver Star, three oak leaf clusters; Legion of Merit; Distinguished Flying Cross, five oak leaf clusters.
• Row 3: Air Medal, with 39 oak leaf clusters.
• Row 4: Air Force Commendation Medal; Presidential Unit Citation, with oak leaf cluster; Outstanding Unit Award, with two oak leaf clusters; American Defense Service Medal.
• Row 5: American Campaign Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with six campaign stars; World War II Victory Medal; National Defense Service Medal, with third award star.
• Row 6: Vietnam Service Medal; Air Force Longevity Service Award, with six oak leaf clusters; Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Medal; Légion d'honneur.
• Row 7: Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom); Croix de Guerre (France), with star; Vietnam Air Gallantry Cross with Gold Wings; Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.

Not shown:

• Vietnam Air Force Distinguished Service Order
• Vietnam Air Force Meritorious Service Medal

Air Force Cross citation[link]

Colonel Robin Olds

U.S. Air Force

Date Of Action: August 11, 1967

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Title 10, Section 8742, United States Code, takes pleasure in presenting the Air Force Cross to Colonel Robin Olds (AFSN: 0-26046), United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while serving as Strike Mission Commander in the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, Ubon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, against the Paul Doumer Bridge, a major north-south transportation link on Hanoi's Red River in North Vietnam, on 11 August 1967. On that date, Colonel Olds led his strike force of eight F-4C aircraft against a key railroad and highway bridge in North Vietnam. Despite intense, accurately directed fire, multiple surface-to-air missile attacks on his force, and continuous harassment by MiG fighters defending the target, Colonel Olds, with undaunted determination, indomitable courage, and professional skill, led his force through to help destroy this significant bridge. As a result the flow of war materials into this area was appreciably reduced. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, Colonel Olds reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.^[90]

Personal[link]

Olds was briefly a stepbrother of author Gore Vidal after Olds' father married for the fourth time in June 1942, to Nina Gore Auchinloss. His father died of pneumonia on April 28, 1943, after hospitalization for constrictive pericarditis and Libman-Sacks endocarditis,^[91][92] at the age of 46, just prior to Olds' graduation from West Point.^[93]

In 1946, while based at March Field, Olds met Hollywood actress (and "pin-up girl") Ella Raines on a blind date in Palm Springs.^[94] They married in Beverly Hills on February 6, 1947, and had two daughters, Christina and Susan, and a son, Robert Ernest, who was stillborn in 1958.^[63] Most of their 29-year marriage, marked by frequent extended separations and difficult homecomings, was turbulent because of a clash of lifestyles,^[95] particularly her refusal to ever live in government housing on base.^[96] Robin Olds and Ella Raines separated in 1975 and divorced in 1976. Robin married Abigail Morgan Sellers Barnett in January 1978, and they divorced after fifteen years of marriage.^[97]

In his retirement at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Olds pursued his love of skiing and served on the city's planning commission. He was active in public speaking, making 21 events as late in his life as 2005 and 13 in 2006.^[98]

Olds' fondness for alcohol was well-known. John Darrell Sherwood, in his book Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience,^[4] posits that Olds' heavy drinking hurt his post-Vietnam career. On July 12, 2001, Olds was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and resisting arrest near his home in Steamboat Springs. Olds, briefly hospitalized during the incident for facial cuts, plead guilty in return for charges of weaving and felony vehicular eluding being dropped. Olds was placed on one year probation, and ordered to pay almost $900 in fines and costs, attend an alcohol education course, and perform 72 hours of community service.^[99]

Days later, on July 21, 2001, Olds was enshrined at Dayton, Ohio, in the National Aviation Hall of Fame class of 2001, along with test pilot Joseph H. Engle, Marine Corps ace Marion E. Carl, and Albert Lee Ueltschi. He became the only person enshrined in both the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.^[100]

In March 2007 Olds was hospitalized in Colorado for complications of Stage 4 prostate cancer. On the evening of June 14, 2007, General Olds died from congestive heart failure in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Olds was honored with a flyover and services at the United States Air Force Academy on June 30,^[101] where his ashes will be kept. General Olds will also be remembered as the Class Exemplar of the Academy Class of 2011, which had begun Basic Cadet Training, the first step towards becoming Air Force officers, two days before Olds' funeral.^[102]

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

Online

External links[link]

United States Air Force portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robin Olds

• Photostatic copy of Olds' victory claim report of 14 Feb 45 with links to other reports
• Olds´ P-38J-15 43-28431 Scat II, August 1944
• Profile image of Scat VI P-51K
• "The Old Man and the Migs", TIME Magazine June 6, 1967
• Ace Pilots.com - Col. Robin Olds - Operation Bolo
• Ace Pilots.com - Maj. Robin Olds - WW2
• The History Channel - Dogfights - "Air Ambush" premiered 10-Nov-2006
• 8th Tactical Fighter Wing Vietnam Era Website
• Memorial Service for Brigadier General Robin Olds @ U.S. Air Force Academy, 30 June 2007
• Air Force Times obituary
• 8TFW.com Photo Gallery tribute

This article is about the pinball and video game designer. For the U.S. Air Force officer, see R. Stephen Ritchie.

Steven Scott Ritchie (born February 13, 1950)^[1] is an acclaimed pinball and video game designer. He has been called "The Master of Flow" by pinball aficionados due to the emphasis in his designs on ball speed, loops, and the like.^[2]

Ritchie recently left Incredible Technologies for Raw Thrills, a video game production house headed by former WMS employee Eugene Jarvis. He currently suffers from tinnitus and predicts that he will be deaf by 2013.^[3] Steve is the older brother of fellow pinball designer Mark Ritchie.

The Atari Years[link]

After serving a stint in Vietnam and Alaska in the United States Coast Guard from 1968-1972, Ritchie joined Atari in 1976^[4] and first worked on the assembly line as an electro-mechanical technician. Two years later, he was promoted to work at their fledgling pinball division, where he worked on his first game, Airborne Avenger. Ritchie earned the license to make a Superman-pinball based on the Superman comic book, but in the final stages of production of the table, he received an offer from Williams Electronics, a major pinball company, that Ritchie could not refuse.

The Williams Years[link]

Ritchie moved to Chicago, Illinois, the home of Williams' headquarters. His first game for the company, Flash (released in 1979), was noted for its revolutionary figure-8 design and the first pinball game to feature bright Flash Lamps. It would go on to be his best-selling pinball game, having sold 19,505 units. 1980 would be the year for Ritchie, when he designed Firepower (the first electronic pinball to feature multi-ball, as well as Lane Change), and eight months later, he designed Black Knight, which was noted for having the first two-level playfield and the patented "Magna-Save" feature (in which magnets help prevent outlane drains).

After 1981's Hyperball, Steve took a break from designing pinball games to design a video games at his newly-formed company, King Video Design. "Devastator" was the first 68000 microprocessor video game and it was a spectacular 3D flying-shooting game with remarkable graphics. Steve pioneered automated conversion of video-taped color images into objects in the video game system. After that, he returned to pinball with 1986's High Speed, which was based on a true story about him being chased by the police in his Porsche. High Speed's bill of materials was higher than other games, and some rival Williams designers nicknamed it "High Cost". The cost increase was minimal, and the game sold 17,080 units. It was the major title that revitalized the entire pinball market. After that, he released F-14 Tomcat in 1987, and in 1989, he released the sequel to 1980's Black Knight, Black Knight 2000, which was acclaimed for having perhaps one of the best musical soundtracks ever for a pinball game (composed by himself, Brian L. Schmidt, and Dan Forden). It was also one of the first games to feature a "Wizard Mode", called "The King's Ransom".

Next up was Rollergames (based on the TV show of the same name which was cancelled well before game production), it was a game with a loud and rowdy soundtrack and the first solid state game to feature mainstream advertising. Ritchie designed Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which featured the voice and likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger. T2 was the first game by Williams to use a dot-matrix display (although Bally's Gilligan's Island beat it to the market, because T2 had a longer production schedule, and management at Williams felt that other games needed it first.) After T2, he designed The Getaway: High Speed II in 1992, a sequel to 1986's High Speed. In 1993, Ritchie released a widebody game, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which many pinball fans consider to be Ritchie's best game. For the game, Ritchie enlisted the entire cast of TNG, including Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, and Jonathan Frakes to reprise their roles. The game would sell 11,728 units. It was the last pinball machine to sell in the 5-digits. After he was finished with 1995's No Fear: Dangerous Sports, Ritchie left Williams, feeling that he could better serve Williams/Bally/Midway by producing video games at the newly-acquired Atari Games. 1996 was the beginning of the decline of pinball with gradually diminishing sales, eventually leading to the extinction of all pinball manufacturers except Stern Pinball.

Video games and other contributions[link]

Steve Ritchie returned to Atari Games in 1996 as a Senior Staff Producer. There, he would design and produce the racing game, California Speed, which sold 7,856 units for total sales of about $40 million, on a budget of $2 million, with a crew of 16 video programmers and artists.

Ritchie is also known to be an avid fan of pc games, motocross racing, and a dedicated dirt and street motorcyclist as well.

He is a voice actor for many of his own games, as well as Williams and Midway's video games. He is best known for playing the voice of Shao Kahn in the Mortal Kombat series (MKII, MK3, UMK3, MKT, MK:SM). In an interview for the Australian publication Arcade and Flipper Pinball Review (December 2001 & March 2002 issues) he stated that he was the announcer in MK and MKII, along with coming up with the name of Mortal Kombat, which was just called 'Mortal' before his suggestion. Ritchie was also the voice of the Black Knight in both Black Knight and Black Knight 2000, the "Demon" in No Fear, the announcer in Midway's High Impact Football, the monotoned voice of Firepower, and other small parts in many Williams, Midway, and Stern games. He was also on the design team for Williams' Defender (video game).

Ritchie Returns: The Stern Years[link]

After designing and selling a few redemption games, he formed Steve Ritchie Productions (SRP) in 2002, and returned to pinball design contracting with Stern Pinball to distribute his games. For his first game for Stern, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, he once again enlisted Arnold Schwarzenegger to lend his voice and likeness to the game, and also re-assembled the same team who worked with him on the T2 pinball, including software programmer Dwight Sullivan and music composer Chris Granner. After T3, Ritchie released Elvis, which was released in time for the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley's first song recording. Ritchie's third game for Stern was World Poker Tour. World Poker Tour was the first game to use Stern's new hardware, S.A.M., which is the successor to their older Whitestar platform. He has recently revealed in an interview that he was forced by Gary Stern to design the game [1]. Currently, Ritchie has just completed his fourth game for Stern, Spider-Man, using characters licensed from all three movies. Spider-Man was a great success and is still available for purchase.

After completing "24", a pinball machine based on the TV series of the same name, Ritchie was laid off from Stern along with most of the company's other pinball designers. A March 3, 2011 Press Release from Stern reported that Steve had returned to Stern to design the next generation of pinball machines. ^[5] His first game released after returning to Stern is AC/DC. ^[6] In March 2012 Ritchie conducted a comprehensive audio interview with Music Life Radio about his life and career, with focus on the AC/DC pinball game.

Steve Ritchie's games[link]

Atari[link]

• Airborne Avenger (1977)
• Superman (1979)
• California Speed (1996)

Williams[link]

• Flash (1979)
• Stellar Wars (1979)
• Firepower (1980)
• Black Knight (1980)
• Hyperball (1981)
• High Speed (1986)
• F-14 Tomcat (1987)
• Black Knight 2000 (1989)
• Rollergames (1990)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• The Getaway: High Speed II (1992)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993; part of WMS' SuperPin series)
• No Fear: Dangerous Sports (1995)

Midway (Bally)[link]

• Elvira and the Party Monsters (1989; co-designed with Dennis Nordman and Jim Patla)
  • Ritchie did parts of the game, after original designer Dennis Nordman was severely injured in an off-road motorcycle accident.

Stern / Steve Ritchie Productions[link]

• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
• Elvis (2004)
• World Poker Tour (2006)
• Spider-Man (2007)
• "24", based on 24(2009)
• AC/DC (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Steve Ritchie Productions