Colonel Robin Olds (1922-2007) would become an air fighting legend by adding four kills in Vietnam to the thirteen victories he had achieved whilst flying P-38 (five) and P51s (eight) against the Luftwaffe in World War II.
Olds commanded the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (433rd, 497th and 555th Tactical Fighter Squadrons) in Vietnam during 1967. The first of his four Vietnam victories occurred during Operation Bolo (January 1967), which had been devised by his deputy-Captain John B Stone as a plan to lure the communist MiG-21s into battle with the American F4C Phantoms. On the 2nd January the 8TFW launched a mission against the Communist Phuc Len airfield and in the ensuing engagement Colonel Olds would account for one of the seven MiG-21s destroyed that day for no American loss.
Olds would later account for a second MiG-21 (4th May 1967), and on the 20th of May, during a particularly vicious dogfight, he would down a pair of MiG-17s.
Olds would retire from the Air Force in 1973 in the rank of Brigadier-General.
