MiG 21 vs OV-10

submitted by: Alva Leon Matheson

I hope my brain still has this tale right after all this time. My backseat on that particular day was occupied by an IP, Capt Clyde Edgerton, who might have corrections. I was still in the checkout phase of how to be a FAC in Laos with Capt Clyde Edgerton doing his best to convey all the necessary info to the student in the front seat (me). It was late afternoon; the sun was setting behind us to the West. We were at 5,000 feet AGL give or take, heading East near the NVN Laos border, getting a few more glances toward Mu Gia pass before turning West to RTB NKP .
I spotted a fast mover on the trees heading our direction. Saying to no one in particular over the mike I said, “What does he think he’s doing?”
Edge said something like “huh.”
The next moment I said, “Why didn’t he check in?” (It was our area and anybody entering it had to be cleared in).
Edge said “what?”
I think I next said “what’s the Navy doing out here by himself?” (The fast mover was a Gray airplane).
Edge said, “What are you talking about?” (Obviously I was not a great communicator).
In the next breath I said, “Is that a MiG?”
“Where!”
“There!”
Poor Edge, a slightly slow stud in the front seat and an honest to God MiG 21 just a little further forward!
In an eye blink my conscious brain caught up with my subconscious brain. I had all the guns and rockets armed, Edge had the MiG in sight, the MiG went vertical popping up to our altitude and started looking for his prey...us! Many times I have tried to figure out how close the two aircraft were. The MiG was at our altitude flying a North-South pattern about I think, 4,000 feet to 6,000 feet directly in front of us. Too far for us to shoot if we had to but not vice versa. We were still drilling East towards the MiG. I had enough sense to keep the wings mostly level and the nose mostly pointed at the MiG, which Edge quickly reinforced.
The MiG pilot either lost sight of us (the sun was directly to our rear) or he was looking in the wrong direction to begin with. The MiG flew north-south three or four legs as we flew toward him, then he rolled over, back to the deck and into NVN.
We RTBd and told Intel our tale. Edge seemed pretty relaxed about it all. I figured it was going to be a long year!
The next day or shortly thereafter my roommate was jumped by a MiG. He too survived just fine with a war story better than ours. It turns out there was a NVN GCI site vectoring those Migs our way. Their tactic was to pop up behind us using GCI control, a technique that they had had considerable success with earlier in the air war against F 4s and Thuds.
Shortly thereafter, F4s were put on alert at NKP and that put and end to the Nail vs Migs episodes.