N the Sunni province of al Anbar, Iraq's wild west. We sent tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles to serve as part of the outer cordon of Fallujah, preventing enemy reinforcements from joining the fight and insurgents from fleeing. My tank battalion was next door, stationed in the town of Khalidiyah. Army and Marine forces responded with all the violence of which U.S. Despite pleas from Marine commanders to conduct targeted strikes against those responsible, the White House issued an order to attack the town in force. They were murdered, and then their bodies were burned by cheering mobs of Iraqis and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River.Īmerica responded with blind rage. On March 31, 2004, four American contractors working for Blackwater Security were ambushed by insurgents. It was not the first time Americans had died in Fallujah. Nearly 100 Americans were killed and more than 500 wounded while reclaiming control of the city from Iraqi insurgent forces led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of the terror group al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). It was 10 years ago that Marines and soldiers engaged in the toughest fighting Americans have seen since the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. He left Vietnam in 1975 and retired from the USAF in 1984.As the nation honored all of those who have fought in its wars this week, the veterans of Fallujah deserve a special place in our memory. Flights under his leadership accounted for 5 enemy aircraft downed, and 1 damaged. That same year Madden led over 50 combat flights and he never lost a wingman. On 28 August 1972 he was part of the same mission when Steve Ritchie made Ace. It must have been his lucky area for on 28 August he scored his fifth and final victory in the same spot, thus becoming the USAF’s only pilot Ace of the Vietnam War and the last US pilot to acheive Ace status.įlying his first combat mission on 5 October 1965, leading fighter pilot John Madden flew three combat tours in Vietnam, notching up an impressive record of 3 kills and 1 damaged, flying F-4's. At the beginning of July he downed two MiG-21s west of Hanoi. His first kill came on when he downed a MiG-21 forty miles northwest of Hanoi, with his second a few weeks later just thirty miles south of the Chinese border. It was with the 555th TFS – the famed ‘Triple Nickel’ Squadron, that he achieved Ace status. He flew his first combat tour in Vietnam in 1968 on Fast FAC operations, before transferring to the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd TRW for his second tour. Brigadier General Richard "Steve" RITCHIEĪbout Brigadier General RICHARD "STEVE" RITCHIE:īorn in June 1942 during World War II, Steve Ritchie graduated and was commissioned from the USAF Academy in June 1964.Behind him a vast trail of devastation marks the mission’s progress, as his fellow Phantom crews continue to wreak havoc with their heavy ordnance, the target area exploding in a series of mighty detonations. Robert Taylor’s powerful new painting shows Steve Ritchie, first into action, flying his lead F-4D Phantom through a hail of deadly enemy flak as he exits the target area after a typical FAST FAC mission on enemy installations in North Vietnam, 1972. The F-4 Phantom was the benchmark against which every fighter in the world came to be judged it was simply the best. It may have been the size of many World War II bombers but it could out-perform anything that crossed its path it was quicker, could turn faster, was better equipped with electronics, carried more ordnance than anything comparable, and it had an unbelievable rate of climb. The biggest, fastest, most powerful fighter of its day, the McDonnell Douglas Phantom was an awesome war machine that came to dominate aerial combat for over two decades. Robert Taylor's third and final follow-up to Phantom Strike and Phantom Showtime featuring the last ever US fighter Ace, Colonel Steve Ritchie.
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