https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Olds

There needs to be a movie about this guy

I believe there was an old episode of Air Aces on about him yesterday as a matter of fact.

If you haven't read it, I recommend his autobiography.

He's featured prominently in the Bill Whittle podcast series Cold War: What We Saw (highly recommend). A great American!

shooting down a German plane with his P-38 in the glide...nice!

Bill

He is a great story, but previously discussed.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/1650076354

He and my father-in-law were contemporaries in the Army Air Corps and Air Force, although My father-in-law retired as Vietnam was heating up. He was out of fighters then, but had flown fighters up until that last assignment, which was in the U-2.

My father-in-law knew him a little and more by reputation. He thought he was a bit of a hot-dog, but that type of pilot just about has to be, doesn't he?

fun fact he was married to Ella raines, for a while.


who was in Tall in the Saddle with John Wayne ,Gabby Hayes, ward bond Paul Fix and Ben Johnson

He is in two separate "Dogfight" episodes by History Channel. Both are excellent (one on WWI, one on Vietnam).

He had 4 'official' kills in Vietnam. The preponderance of evidence indicates he got at least 5 kills, making him the first US Vietnam War Ace (yeah, kills not documented/approved 'never happened').

He was amazing.

100 missions surviving Vietnam has a large portion of the show devoted to his flight skills and ability to motivate others. {smithsonian channel}

Those planes must have some mighty powerful engines to be able to engage in ACM while hauling a pair of gigantic balls.

Not a movie, but there are a couple videos of presentations given by his daughter available online. I enjoyed watching them several months back.

The original Maverick !

The guy you don’t see will kill you - Robin “Wolf” Olds

Found his wallet.

His F-4 from Vietnam went to the USAF Museum. He insisted they keep the paint as-is - chips, faded paint, worn areas, etc. He didn't want it painted and polished up to look like a 'museum piece' - he wanted it to look like it just finished a mission over Thud Ridge.

Reading his biography and some declassified oral interviews, he hinted that he scored more than his four 'official' kills. He knew that if he scored 5 kills, the USAF would have sent him home. It was more important to him to finish his year with the unit flying combat (putting his life on the line every time, by the way). In one interview, he stated a MiG-17 just wandered right in front of him. He didn't have to maneuver at all - all he had to do was press the fire button, and he would have had his fifth kill. Well, he also said "Make the kill, get sent home (punishment as far as he was concerned). Interestingly, he never said what he did. The implication is he let the MiG go, but that was not his style. That MiG pilot could have gone on to kill other American flyers, and Colonel Olds would NOT have allowed that. Also, had he fired and missed, why not report it? To me, it's obvious he actually shot that one down (and more afterwards). To his final days, he never claimed more than his 'official' four kills, as he probably considered it bad manners to claim more than he was entitled to. In the military, a 'kill' is only a 'kill' once it's been confirmed. And, since he didn't officially claim these 'extra' kills during the war, he had too much honor to go back and try to say that he was REALLY the first US ace of the Vietnam war.

Another story, he was returning to base and was critically short of fuel. He tanked up to refuel, but then the tanker disengaged and said it was returning to base due to lack of fuel reserves. Now, Colonel Olds knew the tanker had plenty of gas, but there was a line in a reg somewhere that the tankers had to return immediately if they got to a certain point. Olds got on the radio and told the tanker pilot that if he had to eject after running out of gas, the last thing he would do before leaving the plane was salvo all his missiles at the tanker. The tanker pilot saw the irrefutable logic in Col Olds' argument, and gave him the gas he needed.

Oh, and he HATED SAC. They are going to erect a statue of Col Olds here on the Air Force Academy, and it will be right next to the B-52 (tail number 667, which flew combat over Nam). Well, the way the sun is here, his statue will face south to catch the light on his face. Just coincidentally, that means his back will be to the B-52 (symbolizing him turning his back on SAC). He didn't hate the people or the organization; just their dogmatic way of fighting the war. They did a LOT of stupid stuff - for instance, after dropping bombs on targets in Nam, they would immediately make a hard almost 90-degree breakaway bank from the target area. They did this, since it was required if they were dropping hydrogen bombs to escape the blast. Well, over Nam, this was entirely unnecessary, but also it caused the electronic jamming equipment to suddenly face the horizon, and not the ground, leaving the B-52s open to radar guided guns and SAMs. Still, they refused to change their tactics since "that was how they did it in SAC". More than anything, Col Olds hated stupid doctrine and bureaucracy that got people killed needlessly.

The book he wrote with his daughter is awesome... There is a similar book about Gen. LeMay that is also really good.

Hopefully Robin is having a drink with Chuck Yeager at the O Club in another universe.