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First Air-To-Air Kills of the Vietnam War

June 17, 1965

1965-06-17_F-4B_Phantom_of_VF-21
1965-06-17_F-4B_Phantom_of_VF-21
A U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom from the carrier USS Midway flies over Vietnam between March and November 1965. (National Naval Aviation Museum)

Two U.S. Navy F-4 Phantom aircrews record the first confirmed U.S. air-to-air kills of the Vietnam War. The Phantoms, of Fighter Squadron 21 from the carrier USS Midway, shoot down two North Vietnamese MiG-17s using air-to-air missiles.1

1Brad Edward, US Navy F-4 Phantom II MiG Killers, 1965–70 (New York: Osprey Publishing, 2001), 24–26. Peter Davies, USN F-4 Phantom II vs VPAF MiG-17/19, Vietnam 1965–73 (New York: Osprey Publishing, 2009), 5, 53–54; John B. Nichols and Barrett Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam (Annapolis, MD.: Naval Institute Press, 1987), 153.