and the nose went down before he started going straight down . That wasn ’ t an escape maneuver a MiG-15 could use because it became uncontrollable at . 93 Mach and the F-86 could go supersonic in a dive . My wingman , John “ Red Dog ” Hager , and I followed in pursuit . We followed the MiG down but he disappeared into a cloud deck at about 3000 feet or so , leftover from the thunderstorm off Antung . I couldn ’ t follow him , so we pulled up , but I found a hole in the cloud a couple of miles away and flew down through it back toward where the MiG had disappeared . I was fully expecting to see the crash site , but I couldn ’ t find it . There were numerous hills and it was raining , so we headed home . I claimed a probable kill .
My first confirmed victory occurred in August of 1952 . As I mentioned earlier , the largest enemy airfield was at Antung and my wingman and I flew up along the Yalu River to look down on the base . We saw four MiGs in the traffic pattern : one was on final approach , another on base leg , a third on downwind , and a fourth about to turn downwind . I ’ m at 35,000 feet and put my eye on the number four man . I caught up to him just before the overrun of the runway and fired . I was going 550 knots and he was going 150 so my aim was a little off , but I got a couple of strikes on him . Still , he landed okay . He might have changed his shorts , but he got down safely . Unfortunately for us , as soon as that happened , the antiaircraft guns at the end of the runway started firing at us and here I was seeing those red golf balls again . Our bomber pilots in World War II probably saw more fire than we did , but it was more than enough for me . I heard my wingman say , “ Red Lead , I ’ m hit , and I ’ m going in .” I looked over at him and he was still fine , so I responded by saying , “ Break left , let ’ s get back to the deck .” So we did and headed south down the main street of Sinuiju . We looked each other over and neither one of us had a scratch , so we pulled back up to the right , over the Yellow Sea and back toward Antung , climbing all the time . There were eight MiG-15 specks in the sky who didn ’ t like us playing in their backyard so they were coming after us . A few MiGs didn ’ t relish the fight , but a couple did , and I got behind one of them at a pretty low altitude , somewhere around 7,000 feet . He decided he would climb away , but I already had a head of steam and wasn ’ t letting him go . I fired and got some strikes ; he turned hard left , and I went with him , getting several more strikes . He
turned hard right , and I stayed with him and continued seeing strikes along the body of the aircraft . He finally pulled up straight ahead and the canopy popped off as the airplane exploded . The pilot bailed out right in front of me . He must have pulled the chute in his seat because I can still see those orange and white panels of his chute starting to open as he went over my head . I was able to damage another MiG on my flight home , so that was an exciting day , to get one destroyed and two damaged on one mission . Later , I got three more destroyed , which brought me to four kills , along with another probable victory .
Another engagement proved fateful years later . We were flying at 35,000
THE LAST ACE OF THE KOREAN WAR - CHICK CLEVELAND .
and providing top cover for the other squadrons that were flying low cover for F-84s conducting a strike just south of the Yalu River . I spotted two MiGs at two o ’ clock and thought I had myself a dogfight , but they just kept flying , crossing right in front of me . I knew he saw me . He had to have seen me . I swung way out to his right , eased back into the trail position about 2,500 feet back and started to gain ground slowly . As this was happening , my wingman at the time , Don Pascoe , said , “ We ’ ve got two MiGs coming down from 50,000 feet and they ’ re gaining on us .” When I got within 1800 feet or so of the MiG I was pursuing , I started shooting – and missed . The tracers were going under him , so I raised the gunsight pipper to the top of the tail and fired again . I could see immediate strikes and there was smoke right away . He was losing altitude , and I was gaining and preparing to fire a last burst when Don said the MiGs behind us were in firing range and he called “ Break left .” I didn ’ t hesitate , as I didn ’ t want to become a casualty like Major George Davis . He was the commander of the 334 th Squadron just before I arrived . He was firing at a MiG and after he was told he had another MiG behind him , he kept firing , but the second MiG got him first . I didn ’ t want that to happen , so we broke left and down to the south and came home . I claimed a second probable .
Years later , I told that story to a friend of mine who was an Ace with the 51st Wing . His name was Dolphin D . Overton and he said , “ Why didn ’ t you claim that as a victory ?” I told him that I didn ’ t see the pilot bail out and I didn ’ t see him crash , so I claimed a probable . This was some 50 years later and he said , “ I ’ m going to prove you got that ‘ W ’.” I laughed and said , “ Okay , sure .” I forgot all about it , but Dolph didn ’ t . He spent several years writing and traveling , trying to get it confirmed and wasn ’ t having much luck until he found the Russian flight records at the National Archives II in Maryland . They received records of all Russian combat missions under Glasnost and were able to single out September 21 , 1952 , which was the date in question . Dolph had the record translated and discovered that the Russians had admitted a loss at the exact time , exact place , and under the same circumstances that I had described in my report of the probable kill . When he expressed frustration , I asked Dolph to send all the records , everything he had , to me . This included two cardboard boxes full of letters , weather reports , time zones , combat maps and intelligence reports . I put together a package and we and General Boots Blesse went in front of the Air Force Board for the Correction of Military Records and after deliberation , they said , “ Yes , that should have been a confirmed kill .” It was pretty hard to believe after all those years , but I was now the 40 th jet Ace of the Korean War , more than fifty-five years after the fact .
AVQ
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