MiG ALLEY
______1950 saw the invasion of the free Republic of Korea, or South Korea, by the communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea. The unprovoked attack resulted in United Nations intervention on behalf of South Korea, and the United States sent in its armed forces.
______Much to the surprise of the United States Air Force, however, the skies over Korea did not belong entirely to the U.N., despite the USAF's new jet fighters just coming into service. A new and unexpected player entered the fray in the form of the MiG-15.
______The Soviets, like the Americans, captured much in the way of advanced military technology at the end of World War II, not to mention the designers and scientists who originally dreamed them up. The Soviets continued work on jet technology and produced a fighter that was any many ways the match of the F-86 Sabre, the most advanced aircraft in the West. In the jet-to-jet duels over Korea, the first of their kind anywhere, their performance could prove deadly.
______But who was manning the MiGs? North Korea tried to maintain that the pilots were members of their own air force, but despite the markings on the aircraft it seemed unlikely given the sophistication of the aircraft and the skill with which they were flown. Neither did it seem likely that Red Chinese pilots were flying the machines, as the Chinese Civil War had just ended with no indication that the People's Liberation Army had access to jet aircraft. It was impossible for the Allies to learn the identity of the MiG pilots, since they operated from bases in Red China and rarely ventured past the border area known to USAF pilots as MiG Alley. The presence of the jet fighters in this area made USAF bombing a hazardous proposition along the Yalu River.
______It was not until after the end of the Cold War that it was revealed that Soviet pilots manned many of the fighters Americans faced in MiG Alley, using skills won in battles over the eastern front against the Germans. Stalin was willing to risk U.S. reprisals in order to help the communist DPRK.
______The jets that flew in the Korean War were primitive by today's standards, still relying on cannon for air-to-air engagements and flying at subsonic speeds. But they proved that the jet was the wave of the future and that the propellor fighter was on its way out.
HOW DID THE USAF PICK THIS EMBLEM:
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