"Scratch one Bandit" by Bob Leone
On Jun. 20, 1965, a flight of Skyraiders from the Squadron VA-25, took off from the
USS Midway (CVA-41) supporting the rescue of a down USAF pilot in the northwest corner
of North Vietnam. They were attacked by a flight of MiG-17s.
The two enemy jets launched missiles and fired with their cannons against the two prop driven Skyraiders,
but both pilots, Lt. Charles W. Hartman III, flying 573, and Lt. Clinton B. Johnson, flying 577,
evaded them and maneuvered to shoot down one of the MiGs with their 20 mm cannons.
Lt. Johnson described this engagement in Donald J. McCarthy, Jr. book “MiG Killers A Chronology of
U.S. Air Victories in Vietnam 1965-1973” as follows: “I fired a short burst at the MiG and missed,
but got the MiG pilot’s attention. He turned into us, making a head-on pass. Charlie and I fired
simultaneously as he passed so close that Charlie thought I had hit his vertical stabilizer with
the tip of my tail hook. Both of us fired all four guns. Charlie’s rounds appeared to go down the
intake and into the wing root, and mine along the top of the fuselage and through the canopy.
He never returned our fire, rolled, inverted, and hit a small hill, exploding and burning
in a farm field.” The subsequent MiG kill of this engagement was shared by both Hartmann III
and Johnson.
According to Mr. David Hanson, Curator, USS Midway Museum; Captain Clinton Johnson
(from Midway’s VA-25) said, "It was probably the most realistic depiction that he had ever seen".
Original artwork displayed in
USS Midway Museum
910 N. Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92101
