"History" and the History Channel

[Leo Etgen]

Hello John

Ouch! That would be painful! Thanks for explaining the difference between the two versions. I must admit that my knowledge of Vietnam era aerial combat is rather scant. That is why I did actually find the Dogfights episodes on that subject rather interesting. For what I have read, the main reason for the difficulties that the USAF had over 'Nam were: lack of training for classic dog fighting, reliance on missiles instead of guns in the belief that the former made the latter superfluous (technically true but the missile technology of the time was not up to task in high G maneuvers) and poor, politically inspired tactics such as approaching targets through standard routes and not attacking North Vietnamese air control centers due to fear of escalating the conflict as Chinese and Russian technicians were there. I must admit that for what I have seen, most of the USAF losses were due to ground fire and SAMs and not so much to MiGs. A tough job and hats off to the guys who were doing as best they could in a difficult and unpopular war. Even though Dogfights does have its problems at least there is a television program out there about a subject that we all are interested in. That gives me an opportunity to demonstrate my superiority to my coworkers when I run my mouth critiquing the latest episode!

Horrido!

Leo