(Five kills are needed to become an ace.) It seemed that the 38 needed help so I started down. [19], Instead of entering college after graduating in 1939, Olds enrolled at Millard Preparatory School for West Point in Washington, D.C., a school established to prepare men for the entrance examinations to the military academies. Olds commanded the wing until July 26, 1965. [53], After returning to the United States for a two-month leave, Olds began a full second tour at Wattisham on January 15, 1945. [79] Olds rewarded Kirk by granting him a transfer to his command in Thailand in March 1967. With 17 career victories (thirteen in WW II plus four in Vietnam) when the triple ace died, he was Americas third-ranking living ace. When the 479ths first commander was shot down in August 1944, Hub Zemke moved over from the fabled 56th Fighter Group and rejuvenated the Mighty Eighths last fighter outfit. On February 14, he claimed three victories, two Bf 109s and an Fw 190, but one of the former was credited only as a "probable". Gen. Robin Olds, a "triple ace" fighter pilot of World War II and the Vietnam War. After fatally damaging the Bf 109 he dived away and restarted his engines. USAF biography, Photostatic copy of Olds' victory claim report of 14 Feb 45 with links to other reports, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing Vietnam Era Website, Memorial Service for Brigadier General Robin Olds @ U.S. Air Force Academy, 30 June 2007, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robin_Olds&oldid=1118555116, United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II, United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War, Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United States), Recipients of the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom), Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France), Recipients of the Distinguished Service Order (Vietnam), Pages using college Football HoF with unknown parameters, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 October 2022, at 17:30. He had earlier been treated for prostate cancer. [29], By an act of Congress on October 1, 1942, during Olds' second class year, the academy began a three-year curriculum for the duration of the war for cadets entering after July 1939. Upon return to the U.S., Olds was acclaimed as Americas top gun of the war to date, a record he retained for the next five years. His mother, his father's first wife, Eloise Karine Wichman Nott (1896-1926), died when Robin was four and he was raised by his father. [70], Promoted to lieutenant colonel on February 20, 1951, and colonel April 15, 1953, while just thirty years of age and just short of ten years from his graduation from West Point, Olds served unenthusiastically in several staff assignments until returning to flying in 1955. Olds had a highly publicized career and life, including marriage to Hollywood actress Ella Raines. Olds was promoted tobrigadier generalafter returning from Vietnam and became Commandant of Cadets at theUnited States Air Force Academy. That made him one of very few that have recovered from a compressibility event. Air Force pilots, he reported to the Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen John D. Ryan (a former SAC general and bomber pilot often at odds with the tactical fighter community), "couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag," because of a systemic lack of interest by the USAF in air-to-air combat training for fighter crews. In his first two dogfights, he was alone with his wingman, having left formation to hunt on his own. Olds' class was given an abridged second class course of study until January 19, 1943, when it began an abridged first class course. Robin taught her to drive on the Academy grounds and ride horses at the equestrian center. View military histories of over 2 million, If you are a veteran, reconnect with people. His father died of pneumonia on April 28, 1943, after hospitalization for constrictive pericarditis and Libman-Sacks endocarditis,[108][109] at the age of 46, just prior to Olds' graduation from West Point.[110]. Robin Olds [2] (July 14, 1922 - June 14, 2007) was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the United States Air Force (USAF). General Olds received many medals, including the Air Force Cross, the branchs second-highest decoration. Olds was placed on one year probation, and ordered to pay almost $900in fines and costs, attend an alcohol education course, and perform 72hours of community service. Your email address will not be published. Anyone can read what you share. The MIGs reacted as we had hoped, Colonel Olds, who had led the mission himself, told a news conference in Saigon shortly afterward. Shifting to Smiths Eastern Air Defense Command, Olds languished in several staff assignments until receiving an assignment to the 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing at Landstuhl Air Base, Germany in 1955. Olds did not want to live in that world. Fighter pilots used to say that there was a glass case in the Pentagon building to the precise dimension of then-Colonel Robin Olds, who would be frozen in time and displayed wearing his tank-less flight suit, crashed fore and aft cap, gloves, and torso harness with .38 pistol and survival knife. Olds is best known today as the father of Brig. Nov 09, 2021 01:40 P.M. At a time when the Air Force was focused on nuclear strategy, General Olds argued for strengthening conventional warfare capabilities. Olds and Ella Raines separated in 1975 and divorced in 1976. He was flying so low, he said in an interview that year, that it seemed the gunners on roofs were shooting down at him. Returning to Europe in January 1945, he was promoted to Major the following month on February 9, and received his seventh aerial victory the same day, using his P-51Ds new K-14 gunsight to calculate the deflection and hit a Bf-109 at 450 yards over Magdeburg with his first burst, a result that surprised even Maj. Olds. Table of Contents show. 39 Robin Olds Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 39 Robin Olds Premium High Res Photos Browse 39 robin olds stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The engagement marked the only combat appearance of Sonderkommando Elbe, a German Air Force squadron formed to ram Allied bombers. He found what he feared: most Air Force fighter crews couldnt fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Commander John Nichols, a Navy MiG killer brought to Udorn, Thailand to teach dogfighting to the Air Force blue suits, saw Olds taxi his F-4 into the chocks after a practice mission. I rolled over on my back, following him and gave him an ineffective burst at long range. Robin stunned fans after she shared a video of herself parading around in her GMA dressing room in her racy morning show look on Instagram. Robert Olds had asked his son the status of the U.S. Air Force and got a detailed debriefing on whats wrong with the service. As a young man he was also recognized for his athletic prowess in both high school and college, being named anAll-Americanas a lineman incollege football. The fact that his book remains unfinished represents a major loss to aviation literature. Legendary fighter pilot Robin Olds dies Published June 15, 2007 U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) -- Legendary fighter pilot, retired Brig. This required some adjustment on Olds part as the single-engine Mustang handled differently than the twin-engine Lightning. [42], On an escort mission to Wismar on August 23, his flight was on the far left of the group's line abreast formation and encountered 4050 Messerschmitt Bf 109s near Wittenberge, flying north at the same 28,000ft (8,500m) altitude in a loose formation of three large vees. [44] Despite battle damage to his own plane, including loss of a side window of its canopy, Olds shot down two during the dogfight and another on the way home to become the first ace of the 479th FG. He was commissioned on June 1, 1943, and completed his pilot training later that year. A 14-aircraft aerial review included four F-4 Phantoms flying a missing man formation. In contrast, todays sedate, sober young professionals are superbly educated, highly competent, and terrified that they might say something that somebody would find objectionable. I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters while Col Olds was the wing commander and Lt Col Chappy James was the DO. Christina Olds was born in Manhattan, NYC on January 5, 1952 and bounced around the world with her USAF fighter pilot father Robin Olds and Hollywood actress mother Ella Raines. [67], Olds went to England under the U.S. Air Force/Royal Air Force Exchange Program in 1948. It was a common superstition among airmen to grow a "bulletproof mustache",[96][97] but Olds also used his as "a gesture of defiance. That airplane (note: "Scat VI") had taken me through a lot and I was damned if I was going to give up on herwhy the bird and I survived the careening, bouncing and juttering ride down the length of the field, I guess I'll never know. VPAF fighter activity diminished to almost nothing for 10 weeks afterwards, thereby accomplishing the main goal of Operation Bolo: to eliminate or diminish the threat of MiGs to the strike formations. [65] In late May, the 412th was ordered to undertake Project Comet a nine-city transcontinental mass formation flight. After suggesting the idea to Seventh Air Force commander Major General William Momyer, himself a former commander of the 8th TFW, Olds was directed to plan a mission designed to draw the North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s into an aerial trap, and "Operation Bolo" resulted. At 12, he vowed to attend West Point, where he hoped to play football and begin the path to becoming a military aviator. Receiving his wings from Gen. Henry Hap Arnold, Olds graduated from West Point on June 1, 1943, after completing the academys accelerated wartime curriculum. Not Robin Olds. 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