Pete Bonanni - The Art of the Kill

Brenda 01 then let off the G to lag to the outside of the perceived turn circle and almost immediately picked up the MiGs again as they began to show some planform view due to their continuing right, descending turn.

Planform — Top view.

Pulling the nose to pure pursuit, Brenda 01 asked for and got 5 mile boresight.

Pure pursuit — Nose of your aircraft pointed directly at the target.

5 mile boresight — A radar and HUD symbology setting. The pilot, Handley, asked his backseater, Smallwood, for the desired setting.

With the pipper on the trailing MiG, an “auto acquisition” radar lock-on was achieved.

After four seconds of settling time, Brenda 01 ripple fired his two AIM-7 Sparrows.

Settling time — Time allowed for the radar and missile circuits to settle to a stable lock-on.

Ripple fired — Fired multiple weapons at once in the hope that one would reach the target.

The first missile’s rocket motor did not ignite, and the second failed to guide.

The MiG leader, apparently seeing the smoke trail from the second AIM-7, tightened his turn greatly, turning both MiGs in balls of condensation in the humid SEA air.

SEA — Southeast Asia.

Seeing this, Brenda did a lag pursuit roll to reduce angle-off as he selected heat missiles.

Lag pursuit — A roll to the outside of the turn to reduce angle-off.

Angle-off — The difference in nose direction between two aircraft.

Heat missiles — A heat-seeking (infrared-guided) missile.

Brenda 01 got the standard AIM-4 background tone, heard it rise to tracking tone as he put his pipper on the trailing MiG, uncaged the missile heads, pulled lead, and ripple fired his two remaining AIM-4E missiles.

AIM-4 — An early generation of infrared-guided missile.

Uncaged — Enabling the missile seeker head to independently track the target after lock-on.

The first missile went ballistic, and the second never left the right inboard pylon launcher rail.

Ballistic — The missile failed to track its target, flying as straight as a bullet instead.

By now, the fight had descended to approximately 500 feet AGL, and the slant range from Brenda 01 to the MiGs (which were still in very close bearing formation) was decreasing very fast from about 3,000 feet, with an angle-off rapidly approaching 90°.

Slant range — The straight line distance between the two aircraft.

Brenda 01 selected guns, pulled his nose into lead pursuit (carrying the trailing MiG in the left quarter panel of his windscreen so he could keep him in sight), and at the last moment, rolled slightly left and up into the plane of motion, and held down the trigger.

Once in the plane of motion, Brenda 01 was unable to see the MiG due to the long nose of the F-4E, but shortly thereafter the trailing MiG flew squarely through Brenda 01’s plane of turn at a slant range of 200-300 feet and 90°-100° angle-off, at which time he saw multiple 20mm hits down the axis of the MiG.

Brenda 01 quarter-rolled and zoomed and continued to watch the MiG, which was now in heavy wing rock, nose dropping, with fire, pieces of the aircraft and fluids streaming from the right wing root.

Zoomed — Traded speed for altitude.

The MiG’s nose continued to drop and it crashed almost vertically into a green meadow, exploding in a huge orange ball of fire, approximately 10 seconds after Brenda 01’s 300 round burst.

Brenda 01’s quarter roll and zoom maneuver terminated with a hard pull down from vertical to horizontal flight to a heading of east, at an altitude of over 15,000, with an indicated airspeed still something in excess of 700 knots.

Brenda Flight

Brenda 01: Handley and Smallwood

Brenda 02: Green and Eden

Brenda 03: Downey and Leach

Brenda 04: Ellis and White

Other Players

Red Crown: control agency from U.S. Navy cruiser in gulf

Worm: controller on Red Crown

Tea Ball: “black” (highly classified) control agency

Fletch: another F-4 MiG CAP in the area

Milo: photo reconnaissance flight

Time: 0+00

Handley: “Brenda, reverse.”

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E-SAM high tone

Handley: “Brenda has the E-SAM high.”

E-SAM high tone — There are typically four phases to the firing of an SA-2 missile. 1) When the SA-2 SAM radar operator first acquires lock-on (E-SAM low), the F-4 RHAW will emit a soft “chirping” tone that sounds like a rattlesnake. 2) As the operator refines his lock-on and increases his power and pulse recurring frequency (PRF), the F-4 RHAW tone increases in pitch and volume (E-SAM high). 3) When the SA-2 is launched, the F-4 RHAW emits a piercing, solid, l,000Hz tone and illuminates a large red warning light in the cockpit that says, “LAUNCH.” 4) As the SA-2 (now inflight) begins to receive command guidance signals from the controlling radar (triplicate movement), the RHAW illuminates a second cockpit warning light that is yellow and is labeled “A. S.,” which stands for Azimuth Sector. (However, most pilots referred to this light as the “Ah Shit” light, for it definitely meant that you were the target.)