Operation Bolo Proved Col. Robin Olds’ Status as an Air Force Legend

“We flew in the Wolfpack with Robin Olds/Some of us ain’t coming back/In a Foxtrot-Four called the Phantom II/We flew with the Red River Rats/Robin came over to Ubon, an ace with 22 kills [actually 13.5 kills]/He led the 8th Wing to victory/In the skies over Hanoi’s hills/Bandits! Bandits! over Thud Ridge/MiG Ridge and Haiphong, too/No sweat, Sir, Robin Olds is there/And behind him is the Wolfpack Crew”

“The Ballad of Robin Olds” by Dick Jonas (Lt. Col, USAF, ret.).

By the time then-Col. (later brig. gen.) Robin Olds, U.S. Air Force, arrived in-country to do his part in turning the tide of the aerial phase of the Vietnam War, he was already a living legend in the American fighter pilot community. Olds was already a double ace, with five air-to-air kills obtained in a P-38 Lightning and 8.5 more kills attained in a P-51D Mustang. (Due to bureaucratic inertia, he was not allowed to serve in combat during the Korean War.)

But it was his Vietnam service—more specifically during Operation Bolo on January 2, 1967—that would cement his status as a brilliant and unstoppable aerial warrior across two wars that took place two decades apart.

The Specific North Vietnamese Problem: MiG-21s Killing F-105s

In spite of its impressive straight-ahead speed, the USAF’s Republic F-105 Thunderchief (aka, the “Thud”) fighter-bombers were being severely ravaged by the far more nimble and maneuverable MiG-21 “Fishbed” fighter planes of the Communist North Vietnamese Air Force (today known as the Vietnam People’s Air Force). Part of the problem was due to (1) the ridiculous rules of engagement (ROE) imposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert S. McNamara, and another part of the problem was the lack of updated dogfighting training on the Air Force bureaucracy’s part.

Col. Olds’ Solution: Operation Bolo

Olds, as a loyal and faithful military officer, couldn’t do anything about an incompetent commander-in-chief and secretary of defense, but by golly, he could fix the dogfighting training issue—and that is exactly what he set out to do when he took command of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Ubon Air Base in Thailand. My National Interest colleague Brent M. Eastwood picks up the story from there:

“Olds and one of the unit’s captains had an idea. Since the MiG-21s were feasting on F-105s and then flying away quickly, Olds thought the F-4s could mimic the F-105s and ‘employ ingress routes, altitudes, speeds, formations, call signs and communications jargon typical of an F-105 strike package,’ according to an account written by Lyon Air Museum … In January 1967, one group of F-4s approached from the West over Hanoi and the others came from the East from South Vietnam. The East flight had the mission to block the escape of the MiG-21s while the other served as bait … Sure enough, MiG-21s took to the skies to go for what they thought were sitting ducks. Little did they know the F-4s were waiting for them. Once the MiGs figured out they were fighting F-4s, it was too late. The Phantoms feasted on MiG pilots. The North Vietnamese did not know what to do. They tried running for the clouds, but it was too late.”

Final score: Phantoms seven, Fishbeds zero. This single engagement destroyed half the North Vietnamese MiG-21 fleet!

Postscript

Olds was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on June 1, 1968, and retired from the USAF exactly five years thereafter, with a final confirmed kill tally of sixteen, good for triple ace status. He passed away due to congestive heart failure in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on June 14, 2007, one month shy of his eighty-fifth birthday. His ashes are housed at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he had served for three years as commandant of cadets after returning from Vietnam.

A wee-bitty personal tale is in order here. Though this reporter and Air Force veteran never had the honor and pleasure of meeting Olds in-person, I did manage to speak with him over the phone, for maybe a whole minute, back in 2004 when I was a twenty-nine-year-old 1st lieutenant at Scott AFB, Illinois. I was on the Air Force Ball Committee at the time, and the purpose of my phone call to Olds was to try to sweet-talk him into agreeing to be the ball’s guest speaker. Alas, he turned down my offer.

R.I.P. and God bless, Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, ‘til Valhalla. You’ve definitely earned your spot in Fighter Pilot’s Heaven. 

About the Author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.

Image: USAF - National Museum of the U.S. Air Force photo 110330-F-DW547-003, Public Domain