America’s Prop Monster No Jet Could Kill

Dark Skies

On June 20, 1965, two MiG-17s circled the smoking wreckage of an F-4 Phantom deep in North Vietnam, the first of its kind shot down in the war. Somewhere below, an American pilot hid in the jungle. The MiG pilots expected what usually came next: more Phantoms screaming in at twice the speed of soun