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USAF F-4D

From dogfight enemies to unlikely friends

By Bruce Rolfsen – Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 10, 2009 9:04:15 EDT

As young fighter pilots, Dan Cherry and Nguyen Hong My never imagined that they would ever meet again, let alone become friends.

But 37 years after they fought each other over North Vietnam, theyÂ’ve done both.

The first time the men set eyes on each other was April 16, 1972. Cherry in an Air Force F-4D Phantom got the better of the day, firing off an AIM-7 Sparrow missile and striking Hong MyÂ’s MiG-21.

Hong My had earned the respect of the two U.S. aircrews chasing him. It wasnÂ’t until the fifth launch that a missile successfully locked on his fighter. The lieutenant ejected out of the burning MiG.

As Hong My drifted through the sky, Cherry quickly turned his jet to avoid his adversary, who was passing less than 500 feet from his F-4D.

The ejection broke Hong MyÂ’s arms and left him suffering a host of other injuries, but he landed safely. The injuries kept him in hospitals for months and forced him to leave the North Vietnamese military two years later.

Back at Udorn Royal Thai Air Base, Cherry celebrated his first aerial victory. A photograph of Cherry describing the dogfight with his hands made the cover of Air Force Times.

Cherry wondered what happened to that MiG pilot, but soon he was back in the rhythm of the war.

“I didn’t dwell on it, not for years,” Cherry, now 70, told the crowd that turned out in April at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington to see him and Hong My, now 63.

Cherry, a major, went on to command the Thunderbirds, the 8th Fighter Wing and the Recruiting Service before retiring in 1988 as a brigadier general.

The road to the adversariesÂ’ reunion started with CherryÂ’s June 2004 visit to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

A museum staff member mentioned to Cherry, who was with friends from Bowling Green, Ky., that there was an F-4D sitting outside a Veterans of Foreign War club in the community of Enon, about 25 miles from base. Then and there, the group decided to make a side trip on the chance the F-4D was the same one Cherry flew when he downed the MiG.

Sure enough, the fighter was CherryÂ’s old Phantom. The plane still had a painted red star, signifying it had shot down a MiG, but bird droppings had stained the faded gray paint and rust had eaten away the steel parts.

“The condition she was in was pretty bad,” Cherry said.

The discovery, though, inspired Cherry and his friends to restore the jet and make it the first plane in an outdoor display in Bowling Green, the Aviation Heritage Park. A year and a half later, a truck carried the F-4D to Bowling Green and restoration began.

The red star and CherryÂ’s tale often raised questions from friends about what happened to the MiG pilot.

Other than the shoot-down date and location, Cherry had no way to identify the MiG pilot. He reached out to fellow aviators and the Vietnamese community without any luck. Then, an unexpected telephone call came from a Vietnamese television show that focused on reuniting people, usually Vietnamese, separated by the war. If Cherry agreed to fly to Vietnam and appear on the broadcast, the show would bring the fighter pilots together.

“I thought it was a hoax” Cherry said.

Before he agreed, Cherry talked with friends from the war and aviators who were held as prisoners by North Vietnam.

“Every place I turned, I got encouragement,” he said.

In April 2008, Cherry flew to Ho Chi Minh City, called Saigon during the war, to appear on the show.

“I was very nervous that day,” Cherry said. “My heart was beating 90 mph.”

First, Cherry told the showÂ’s host about himself. Then, Hong My walked on stage.

“We locked eyes immediately,” Cherry said.

The men shook hands. As the show continued, the former enemies — through interpreters — talked about their lives today.

“We were two old fighter pilots crying their eyes out on national television,” Cherry recalled.

Once the show was over, the men went out for dinner together.

On the spur of the moment, Hong My invited Cherry to visit his home and family in Hanoi the next day; Cherry accepted, finding himself welcomed by Hong MyÂ’s family and neighbors.

“It just really touched me,” Cherry said. “I couldn’t believe how our trust had grown.”

A year later, Cherry played host to Hong My for the dedication of Aviation Heritage Park and appearances at the Air and Space Museum and the Sun Â’n Fun aircraft rally in Florida.

Cherry also arranged a visit that Hong My wanted to make. In January 1972 Hong My shot down an RF-4C over Laos and wanted to meet the planeÂ’s aircrew members if they had survived.

After pouring through records, Cherry and others learned the pilot and weapons officer bailed out and were rescued by an Air America helicopter. The pilot, Bob Mock, died in 2008, but the weapons systems officer, John Stiles, retired in North Carolina.

“I was very happy,” Hong My said of sharing dinner with Stiles.

Stiles, 63, found relief, too, sharing memories and hearing from Hong My details of the shootdown that no one else knew.

“I’ve had post-traumatic stress syndrome sometimes,” Stiles said. “Meeting Hong My, it took a huge weight off my shoulders.”

The reunion of Hong My and Cherry has struck a chord. At the Sun Â’n Fun talk, more than a dozen Vietnam War veterans came up to shake Hong MyÂ’s hand. In the Air and Space Museum, a line of about 100 snaked through the lobby waiting for autograph. Several hundred had listened to their presentation.

Cherry believes he understands the appeal.

“We think there is a real life lesson here for everyone, not just the military, not just aviators …,” he said. “Holding grudges doesnÂ’t do anybody any good.”

MIG 21