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From jet ace to gunfighter: the story of a fighter pilot whose career bookended the history of jet fighters from Korea to Vietnam.

Article Excerpt
The most coveted recognition sought by any fighter pilot is that of 'ace' which indicates five confirmed aerial kills. This has not changed since the wild dogfights over France and Germany in World War I. Aircraft technology increased significantly between WWI and the end of World War II and so did the list of aces. Aviation was a major factor in the favorable outcome in all theaters of the second war. However, between 1945 and 1950, the airspeed of fighters took a dramatic jump from about 375 mph up to the speed of sound, and this was attributed to technology of the swept wing and the jet engine.

There were forty jet aces in the Korean War, all of whom flew the North American F-86 Sabre. It was the only fighter, in theater, that could go one-on-one with the Soviet-built MiG-15. Some of the aerial duels over northwest Korea in MiG Alley were legendary and the caliber of jet pilots that the United States trained during that period was second to none. The period between December 1950 and July 1953 gave aeronautical engineers and designers a glimpse into what was needed in the future. The era of Mach-2 combat, however, began before the war in Vietnam where the primary opponents would be the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom and the agile delta-winged MiG-21.

Dogfighting 'up close and personal' became history after the Korean War, for a new set of rules applied to the aerial combat arena and it wasn't just increased airspeed. The use of air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles changed everything, and in Vietnam, many kills were made from long distances using Sidewinders and Sparrows, far out of the range of guns. Early model Phantoms didn't have guns because of this factor.

One of the top F-86 aces to emerge from the battles over MiG Alley was Capt. Cecil G. Foster. At the end of his tour, he was one kill away from becoming a double ace. On two of his missions, he shot down two MiGs...