Charles B. DeBellevue

He completed F-4 Phantom combat crew training at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona and was assigned to the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, as a McDonnell Douglas F-4D Weapon Systems Officer (WSO).

A competition to become the Air Force's first Vietnam "ace" developed between Ritchie and Captain Jeffrey S. Feinstein, a WSO in another one of the 432nd's squadrons, the 13th TFS, who scored his 3rd and 4th kills on July 18 and July 29.

Each had a claim denied by Seventh Air Force's Enemy Aircraft Claims Evaluation Board, Ritchie and DeBellevue for a claim of a MiG-21 on June 13 and Feinstein for a claim June 9.

Colonel Charles Barbin DeBellevue (born August 15, 1945) is a retired officer in the United States Air Force (USAF).

DeBellevue was born in New Orleans on August 15, 1945 and grew up in Louisiana.

After applying unsuccessfully to the United States Air Force Academy, he attended and graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then named the University of Southwestern Louisiana), in 1968.

Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) program at the university.

Accepted into Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT), he failed to complete the course, but subsequently applied for and was accepted into Undergraduate Navigator Training (UNT) at Mather Air Force Base, California in July 1969.

In October 1971, DeBellevue was sent to the famed 555th ("Triple Nickel") Tactical Fighter Squadron, of the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand.

In 1972, DeBellevue became one of only five Americans to achieve flying ace status during the Vietnam War and the first as a USAF Weapon Systems Officer (WSO), an integral part of two-man aircrews with the emergence of air-to-air missiles as the primary weapons during aerial combat.

He was credited with a total of six MiG kills, the most earned by any U.S. aviator during the Vietnam War, and is a recipient of the Air Force Cross.

Flying in a F-4D as the Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) with pilot Capt Steve Ritchie on May 10, 1972, he and Ritchie scored the first of four Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 kills they would achieve together.

May 10, 1972 was the same day that Cunningham and Driscoll scored their third, fourth and fifth aerial victories, becoming the U.S. Navy's only Aces of the war.

An advantage that the "Triple Nickel Squadron" pilots and WSOs had over other U.S. aircrews was that eight of their F-4D Phantoms had the top-secret APX-80 electronic set installed, known by its code-name "Combat Tree".

Combat Tree could read the IFF signals of the transponders built into the MiGs so that North Vietnamese GCI radar could discriminate its aircraft from that of the Americans.

Displayed on a scope in the WSO's cockpit, Combat Tree gave the Phantoms the ability to identify and locate MiGs when they were still beyond visual range (BVR).

Ritchie and DeBellevue's assignment on May 10, 1972, the first major day of air combat in Operation Linebacker, was as element leader (Oyster 03) of one of two flights of the F-4D MiGCap for the morning strike force.

Oyster flight had three of its Phantoms equipped with Combat Tree IFF interrogators and two days previously its flight lead, Major Robert Lodge and his WSO Captain Roger Locher had scored their third MiG kill to lead all USAF crews then flying in Southeast Asia.

At 0942, forewarned 19 minutes earlier by the EC-121 "Disco" over Laos and then by "Red Crown", the U.S. Navy radar picket ship USS Chicago (CA-136), Oyster flight engaged an equal number of MiG-21s head-on, scattering them.

Oyster flight shot down three and nearly got the fourth, but fell victim to a MiG tactic dubbed "Kuban tactics" after those of the Soviet World War II ace Pokryshkin, in which a GCI-controlled flight of MiG-19s trailed so that they could be steered behind the American fighters maneuvering to attack the MiG-21s.

The F-4 flown by Lodge and Locher was shot down.

Major Lodge was killed, Capt. Locher ejected and was rescued three weeks later.

Almost simultaneously Ritchie and DeBellevue rolled into a firing position behind the remaining MiG-21 of the original four with a radar lock, launched two AIM-7 Sparrow missiles and scored a kill with the second.

USAF strike and chaff forces suffered a severe series of losses to MiGs between June 24 and July 5 (seven F-4s) without killing a MiG in return.

On July 8, 1972, Ritchie and DeBellevue were leading Paula flight in gun-equipped F-4Es instead of the Combat Tree F-4Ds they usually flew, on a MiGCAP to cover the exit of the strike force.

While they were west of Phu Tho and south of Yen Bai, the EC-121 vectored them to intercept MiG-21s returning to base after damaging one of the US chaff escorts.

The MiGs were still approximately 4 miles away and Ritchie turned the flight south to cross the Black River.

As they closed, Disco gave them warning that the MiG return had "merged" with the Paula flight's return on his screen.

Ritchie reversed course, observed the first MiG at his 10 o'clock position and turned left to meet it head-on.

When Ritchie passed the first MiG-21, he recalled the engagement of May 10 and waited to see if there was a trailing MiG.

When he observed the second MiG, which he also passed head-on, he reversed hard left to engage.

The MiG turned to its right to evade the attack, an unusual maneuver and Ritchie used a vertical separation move to gain position on its rear quarter.

DeBellevue obtained a solid boresight (dogfighting) radar lock on it while at the MiG's 5 o'clock and although fired from the edge of their flight envelopes, both AIM-7s struck home.

The first MiG had also turned back and was attacking the last F-4 in Ritchie's flight from behind, an often fatal consequence to US aircraft employing the then-standard "fluid four" tactical formation.

Ritchie made a hard turn across the curving intercept of the MiG, again coming out at its 5 o'clock and the MiG, apparently perceiving the threat, broke hard right and dove away.

Ritchie fired an AIM-7 from inside its minimum range and at the limit of its capability to turn.

Expecting the Sparrow to miss, he was trying to switch to a gun attack in the relatively unfamiliar F-4E he was flying that day when the missile exploded the MiG, 1 minute and 29 seconds after the first kill.

Ritchie's final victory (his 5th making him an "ace") with DeBellevue (his 4th) came on August 28, 1972, while leading Buick flight, a MiGCAP for a strike north of Hanoi.

As a counter-measure, 7th Air Force added a second Disco EC-121 to its airborne radar coverage, positioning it over the Gulf of Tonkin.

Both DeBellevue and Ritchie, along with Capt Jeffrey Feinstein of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, would become the only USAF Aces during the Vietnam War.