THE AIR WAR: Aces on Sunday

• Share

For some reason, the enemy's Russian-built MIG-15s come out to fight more willingly and in greater numbers on Sunday than on weekdays. Last week 1st Lieut. Ralph D. Gibson, operations officer of the Fourth Fighter Interceptor Wing, remembered the Reds' Sunday predilection. Eager for combat, he went over the wing's ready list for Sunday, scratched out another pilot's name, put down his own.

On Sunday, 28 of the wing's Sabre jets, flying top cover for other jets and B-29 bombers, were jumped by 70 or more MIGs in northwestern Korea. In the ensuing dogfight, one of the war's biggest, "Hoot" Gibson, 26, of Mt. Carmel, Ill., downed his fifth enemy plane. So did Captain Richard Becker, 24, of Fleetwood, Pa. Gibson and Becker thus became the second and third jet aces of the Korean war.*

The Air Force immediately pushed the buttons to send Aces Gibson (93 missions) and Becker (83 missions) back to the U.S. Becker, a married man, was glad to go, but Bachelor Gibson was not. "Hell," he said, "I'd just as soon stay over here and learn a little more. After all, I've been training for seven years to do just what I'm doing right now."