Captain Patterson, the folks back home
would like to know how you feel
about your first kill.

We had just completed our mission
and were rolling out when we saw four MIG 17s
off our left wing.
They were headed toward us
so we jettisoned our tanks
and blew our afterburners
and climbed left.
The lead MIG started firing.
The fight was on.
I put our Phantom into a 70° dive.
One MIG crossed our canopy from right to left,
leaving the area at a good speed.
I was about to take off after him
when another MIG appeared at 10 o'clock high.
“That's our baby,”
I called to Doug
“Let's get him on the radar.”
He locked in
and for three miles we were in trail.
Then we closed in and fired the sidewinder
real smooth off our left wing.
For a long while it just trailed the MIG,
then delicately at about a thousand feet behind
it straightened out and sailed into his tailpipe.
Blew him into a brilliant fire ball.

It was a piece of cake.
We wish they'd come up
and say hello more often.