Cmdr. Randall “Duke” Cunningham, who flew the F-4 Phantom II in Vietnam and became the U.S. Navy’s only pilot ace of the war, will speak about his career and experiences in the cockpit on Thursday, March 17, at 7 p.m. as part of the EAA Aviation Museum Aviation Adventure Speaker Series.
Duke joined the U.S. Navy in 1967 as the war in Southeast Asia continued to escalate. After going through pilot training, graduating at the top of his class, Duke was assigned to the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, which was the Navy’s primary fighter during the conflict. While the high-speed F-4 struggled at times in dogfights against the more agile MiG-17s and MiG-21s operated by the North Vietnam Air Force, it could be used effectively in a multitude of roles including air superiority, ground attack, aerial reconnaissance, and others, which made it a valuable asset for the Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Air Force throughout the entirety of the Vietnam War.
From Duke’s perspective, he enjoyed flying the F-4 and became very comfortable with its strengths and shortcomings through training and two deployments to Vietnam.
“During a time when they just said, ‘Go exercise the airplanes,’ I’d pick it up and see what altitude it took me, the split-S at 200 knots, 500 knots, and so on. I actually got the airplane up to 60,000 feet, which I wasn’t supposed to do. It scared me because the turbine started to overspeed,” Duke said. “But I wanted to see how fast it would go, I wanted to know how many gs I could pull.”
Duke served his first combat tour in Vietnam from USS America and then completed the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) stateside. In 1971, Duke returned to Vietnam as the war entered its final years of direct U.S. involvement, this time with VF-96 aboard USS Constellation. It was during this second tour of duty that Duke recorded five kills to become the Navy’s only pilot ace of the war. His first victory came on January 19, 1972, against a MiG-21, before earning his next victory a few months later on May 8, this time against a MiG-17.
Just two days later, on May 10, Duke and his radar intercept officer, Lt. j.g. Willie Driscoll, became the war’s first aces, recording three MiG-17 kills in the F-4J Showtime 100, and were later awarded the Navy Cross for their actions that day. In the years following Vietnam, Duke actually became well-acquainted with many of the North Vietnamese pilots he was up against, including their families.
“I made some very good friends and gained a different respect,” Duke said. “When you go into combat, you just want to do what your job is. But the one guy that I shot down that didn’t survive — when I was there [in Vietnam], his family wanted to talk to me and I was a little hesitant about going and meeting them. But I went to the graveyard, I bought a white scarf and a plaque with words that basically said ‘We respect [the pilot] as much as we do when we lost one of our own.’ I presented that to the family, we had lunch, and after a couple hours, the two brothers and two sisters came over to me and put their arms around me and said ‘Lieutenant Cunningham, you are now our new brother.’ It was pretty powerful.’”
Following Vietnam, Duke served as an instructor at TOPGUN and then held a number of positions in the Navy until retiring in 1987. He was elected to Congress in 1991, representing the 44th District of California in the U.S. House of Representatives, and remained in office until 2005.
Thursday’s event is free for EAA members and youths 5 and under, and just $5 for non-members. Copies of Duke’s book, Fox Two: The Story of America’s First Ace in Vietnam, will be available for purchase at the event.