Roger Locher

The second MIG-21 was downed by Lodge's wingman, 1st Lt John D. Markle, and his WSO, Capt Stephen D. Eaves.

A few minutes later Ritchie and DeBellevue shot down a third MiG.

Roger Clinton Locher (born September 13, 1946) is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and a former McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II Navigator/Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) and subsequent Pilot who, during the Vietnam War and Operation Linebacker, was shot down only 40 mi from Hanoi, North Vietnam.

The 23 days Locher spent behind enemy lines evading capture was a record for downed airmen during the war.

USAF General John W. Vogt, Jr., commanding general of the Seventh Air Force "shut down the war" and sent 119 aircraft to recover him.

His rescue was the deepest inside North Vietnam during the entire War.

When his aircraft, F-4D, AF Ser.

He received transition training at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, and was then sent to the "Triple Nickel", the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand.

Oyster Flight, composed of four F-4s from the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, had three of its Phantoms equipped with the top secret Combat Tree Identification friend or foe (IFF) interrogators.

The APX-80 electronic set could read the IFF signals of the transponders built into the MiGs so that North Vietnamese radar would not shoot down their own aircraft.

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.

At 9:23 a.m., Oyster Flight was warned by EC-121 Disco over Laos, and then by the US Navy radar picket ship, the guided missile cruiser USS Chicago (CA-136), call sign Red Crown, of four MiGs headed towards them.

Locher attended Kansas State University, where he participated in Air Force ROTC program, and was commissioned as a 2d Lieutenant in the Air Force in 1969.

He completed undergraduate navigator training at Mather Air Force Base, California and was assigned to fly the F-4 Phantom II as a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) in the rear seat of this principal fighter aircraft of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.

No. 65-0784, was shot down by a Shenyang J-6 on May 10, 1972, Locher was on his third combat tour and had over 407 combat missions.

He was one of the leading MiG killers in Vietnam with three aerial victories.

No one saw him eject or his parachute open, and it was unknown whether he had died or been captured.

Over the next two weeks, U.S. air crews in the area tried to raise him on UHF radio without success.

The North Vietnamese did not add his name to the roster of captured airmen, which gave the Americans some hope.

Traveling only at dusk and dawn, over three weeks Locher traveled about 12 mi, evading farmers and living off the land.

On June 1, Locher was finally able to successfully contact a flight of F-4 aircraft overhead.

Vogt committed to rescue him and canceled the scheduled attack on Hanoi that day, diverting all of the available aircraft to assist in his rescue.

Despite the proximity of the Yên Bái Air Base only 5 mi away and its well-developed anti-aircraft defenses, there were no U.S. losses during his rescue.

On February 21, 1972, Locher took part in the first U.S. Air Force aerial victory in four years at night over northeast Laos, about 90 mi southwest of Hanoi.

Major Robert A. Lodge was pilot and Locher was the weapon systems officer in an F-4D flying combat air patrol to interdict Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) MiGs (MIGCAP).

The two men were the most experienced crew in Southeast Asia.

Red Crown, the call sign for the radar-equipped USS Long Beach stationed in the northern part of the Gulf of Tonkin, "called out bandits (MIGs) at our 060° position and proceeded to vector us on an intercept," recalled Lodge.

During the air battle, they shot down a MiG-21.

On May 8, 1972, Lodge and Locher responded to a request for assistance from Red Crown for fighters who were engaging MiGs near Yên Bái.

Their element leader was Captain Stephen Ritchie and his WSO, Captain Charles B. DeBellevue.

"We were about Mach 1.4, with the MIG about as fast as us in afterburner. I was low on the MIG, and I do not believe he was aware he was under attack. He was in a right turn, initially, then reversed to the left. I fired two AIM-7 missiles in ripple fire at a distance of 4,500 feet, using a pure pursuit attack at about 20 degrees angle-off. Both missiles guided directly to the target. The first hit the MIG's right wing, which was breaking up when the second missile hit the center of the fuselage."

They scored their third MiG kill, placing them in the lead of all USAF crews then flying in Southeast Asia.

On May 10, 1972, the first major day of air combat in Operation Linebacker, Locher's group was one of two flights of the F-4D MiGCap for the morning strike force.

These were from the 921st Fighter Wing.

Four J-9s were also flying combat air patrol (CAP) to protect the Thac Ba hydroelectric power station.

The Americans engaged an equal number of MiG-21s head-on, scattering them.

Lodge and Locher identified two hostile contacts 50 mi south of Yên Bái.

They attacked in a modified fluid-four formation and accelerated to 1.4 mach.

At 9:48 they fired two AIM-7s and the second destroyed one of the MiGs.

Oyster Flight shot down two more MiGs.