Among other responses to North Vietnam’s invasion of South Vietnam on March 30, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced on May 8 the full resumption of bombing North Vietnam’s supply centers and logistical routes. That same day, McDonnell F-4 Phantom IIs of both the U.S. Air Force and Navy battled Mikoyan-Gurevich fighters of the Vietnam People’s Air Force, which included their first encounter with Shenyang J-6s (Chinese license-built MiG-19s).
Escorting a strike on the Thac Ba hydroelectric plant, Maj. Barton P. Crews of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, with Capt. Keith W. Jones Jr. serving as his weapons systems operator (WSO), got into a confused dogfight with J-6s of the 925th Fighter Regiment (FR) near Yen Bai airfield, during which he saw a yellow parachute and got subsequent confirmation from U.S. intelligence that the enemy fighter was down out of control. On the VPAF side, Nguyen Ngoc Tiep was credited with an F-4 while Nguyen Hong Son reportedly released his brake chute by mistake, then jettisoned his auxiliary fuel tanks and shot down another F-4 before landing. Neither VPAF claim has a corresponding American loss.
A more clear-cut victory that day was a MiG-21MF hit by one of two AIM-7E-2 Sparrow radar-guided air-to-air missiles launched by Maj. Robert A. Lodge and 1st Lt. Roger C. Locher of the 555th TFS, 432nd TRW. Its pilot, Vo Si Giap of the 921st FR, tried to force-land when he saw he was coming down on Thuong Trung Secondary School. He veered off and made for a water-filled ditch but crashed. Although he was rushed to Military Hospital 108 near Hanoi, he died of his injures on May 11. Elsewhere, escorting a strike on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, F-4J crewmen Lt. Randall H. Cunningham and Lt. j.g. William P. Driscoll Jr. of fighter squadron VF-96 of the aircraft carrier USS , after a difficult scrap with MiG-17s of the 923rd FR, hit one with an AIM-9G Sidewinder heat-seeking AAM and were credited with their second confirmed victory of the war. On May 9, the U.S. Navy carried out Operation Pocket Money. While a diversionary force of 17 aircraft from the carrier USS bombed the Nam Dinh railroad siding, another dropped 36 mines into Haiphong harbor.
