Toward the end of our VC-35 Korean combat tour in the summer of 1951 we had established a routine for the night heckler and intruder flights in the AD4N flying off the USS BOXER, CV-21. The usual ordnance load was one 500 pound GP and eight 260 or 220 pound VT fragmentation bombs plus flares and a full load of 20mm ammo. Earlier on we had used Napalm, a few Tiny Tim 1,200 pound rockets and assorted loads of butterfly bombs and tetrahedrons to drop on main traffic points. I had liked the Napalm and had spotted a humongous pile of coal at a major power plant just south of Hamhung. It must have been a supply for a year or two about 100 feet high and 1000 feet long. Since our targets at night were largely left up to us, I had intended to start a world-class conflagration at the appropriate opportunity but the powers to be decided it was too dangerous to let us make Napalm runs at night.
Our AD4N aircraft on the BOXER CV- 21 were old and tired when we inherited them and no replacement was available in the Pacific for one of our machines when the wing spar was shot out and we needed a third bird. They assigned us an AD4Q with only one rear seat and old gyros that sometimes tumbled on a night cat shot. The new AD4NL aircraft with beefed up armor plate under the engine and cockpit were being sent from the factory to the Sixth Fleet in the Med to be available if the Russians hiccuped. Our original Team Leader, Dave Arrivee, was shot down and lost at night flying a straight AD2 with no aircrew capability.
We were usually assigned a route to run at night and go after targets of opportunity especially trucks or trains. I would try to find something worthwhile such as a large warehouse or rail terminal early in the flight to get rid of the 500 pounder. We could run the assigned route in an hour or less and then be free to move around looking for more lucrative targets.
The AD4Q replacement arrived August 30, 1951 and it had a limited Radar Countermeasure (RCM) capability and only one seat in the belly. I launched about 9 PM in the middle of September on a very clear moonless night with my aircrewman, Joe Neithercut. Joe finished with 41 combat missions and was selected as the enlisted representative for the Navy on a 60-city War Bond tour that almost killed him with "fried chicken" banquets in the states. For this he was flown back a week early from the combat tour. Our assigned route this night was much further north than usual because the intelligence folks wanted traffic information and a try at some RCM work with the 4Q. We came in feet dry just south of Chongjin, close to 200 miles north of Hamhung. We were totally blacked out as we ran north and did our usual heckling dropping a bomb here and there. My regular wingman, Jammie Morris with his aircrewman, Lee Sausser, had a mechanical abort so we were alone on this flight. Visibility was excellent and I was to have turned around before reaching a place called Najin which was about 50 miles from the boarders of China and Russia. Since we had plenty of time before recovery, I told Joe I would head a bit further north to see what kind of road traffic was coming south. As I climbed through ten thousand the city lights of a rather large place began to come into view so I started a turn since I was afraid I might have gone a few clicks too far. Then the entire city disappeared. It happened as if one switch had turned off every light in the area. Joe and I surmised that the air defense folks had a master control of all electricity in the entire region.
I was now southbound at a good clip descending and agreeing with Joe that we should not debrief this incident because of the possible politics. Just then a flaming cannon ball passed under the right wing followed by some tracers. I jerked hard left and went down as a few more heavy cannon balls went by but further to the right. I told Joe that we had just had a MIG 15 firing at us. He replied that the shells were a lot closer to him although he was only ten feet in back of me. The MIG must have been under complete ground control including when to fire since they had no radar capability. I had a lot of respect for that airplane and pilot as well as their ground controllers to be able to tail me and get that close in the black of a black night. I was doing about 230 knots going downhill so he must have had to throttle back to 60/70 percent with some flaps and speed brake control to even get close. They were formidable foes for the under gunned F86's since they had 37mm cannon and 20mm guns versus the Saberjet's 50 caliber machine guns.
The trip home to Boxer was uneventful from this point and we did debrief the MIG attack We agreed not to say anything about putting out the lights at Vlad because the politicians would get excited. The Russians evidently never said anything to the State Department and we heard nothing more on this which could have caused an international incident.
