America Obliterates Half North Vietnam's MiG-21 Fleet In 13 Minutes - Operation Bolo 

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The more I learn about the Vietnam War, the more I'm convinced that several people in our government wanted us to *lose.*

This is literally what Rambo meant when said "somebody wouldn't let us win".

The last statement at the end by Olds is badass personified. "The migs came up, they were aggressive. We tangled. They lost". Deadly serious the whole time saying it.

This story only scratches the surface of just how badass Robin Olds was. As he neared his 100th sortie, (at that point they sent you home) Olds continued to erase the flight numbers on the blackboard so he could keep going up.

Hearing politicians telling the military to not bomb anti air and making them take a specific path and only that path genuinely angered me.

"You know what technology doesn't fix? Politicians being fucking stupid." I replayed that bit no less than 10 times and laughed my ass off each occasion.

There is a new memorial for Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. here in Pensacola, his hometown. His statue and an F4 Phantom are in a plaza at the foot of the newly named Chappie James Bridge spanning Pensacola Bay. He grew up watching new Naval Aviators being trained over Pensacola Bay, and it inspired him to pursue aviation.

Im a retired F-15C pilot, I was a little too young for Vietnam, but my father was a fighter pilot in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, as was my uncle, although we lost him in the skies over Korea. Two of my older brothers flew in Vietnam, one an F-4 pilot in the US Air Force, the other flew A-6's in the Navy. Another brother was a LRRP Ranger and helicopter pilot in the Vietnam war. Dad knew Robin, although he didnt fly in this battle. He was leading an F-4 squadron of his own at the time. You did an excellent job with this video, its rare that people get the facts right. Thank you for your attention to detail and accuracy.

Still waiting for the Destroyer that faught like a battleship. USS JOHNSON, and Uss Roberts.

I'm a Vietnam vet who just turned 74 today. What a great birthday present to be able to sit and watch this story. We (Vietnam vets) often hear about how we "lost the war." My answer is that the FUBAR politicians in Washington lost the war; we were just innocent bystanders. The F-4 is still my favorite airplane, and the Huey is my favorite helicopter. Btw... Your channel is the best channel on RU-vid. It always makes my day when I see that you posted a new video. I've never been disappointed. Keep up the good work brother. A quick story..... about 10 years ago i had the honor of meeting one of the Tuskegee airmen. One of the nicest men I've ever met. When I met him, he walked over and put his arms around me gave me a big hug. He then whispered in my ear, "You and I are brothers!" I hardly ever cry, but I got tears in my eyes when he said that.

"You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather" I lost it there

Ah yes 2 ace pilots grounded half of the country's airforce in 13 minutes where have i heard that befo- *DISTANT FLAMENCO GUITAR PLAYING*

"...they can probably fuck up boiling water." A man after my own heart and mind when it comes to politicians, cackled like a goblin after hearing that!

“Black Man and Robin” is the dopest duo name I have ever heard. 💪🏻💪🏿

My father was a crew chief on F4C when he was in country in 1966-67 and when he returned to Edwards AFB he work in the F4E test program. I remember one time during the program he was working longer days. I found out later that during the first test fight and firing the nose cannon the exhaust caused one if the engines to flame out. My father got his start in WWII as crewman on a P47 so he got to work with some interesting planes until his retirement in 1973.

Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. deserves his own video; he was LITERALLY Black Air-Force Energy personified.

My physics/calculus teacher in high school flew the F4 and did two tours in Vietnam. He described the Phantom as "what happens when engineers set out to prove if you give a brick enough thrust, you can make it fly." Great physics lesson.

This reminds me of a Quote that I heard in the 1970's, while in the USMC. "We the willing, led by the unknowing. Are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we are now capable doing anything, with nothing."

We studied Olds and Operation Bolo as part of our Leadership course when I was in the USAF. Lot of good lessons in there.

Robin Olds' memoir "Fighter Pilot" is also an amazing read. I highly recommend it.

"Blackman and Robin" is the best nickname for a duo that i have ever heard, and the fact that a 4 Star General and war hero was okay with it, means we have to also, no comments

Politicians: you cant shoot down enemy jets until you can physically identify them as enemy jets Pilots: Aim7s are on sale today boys, buy one get 3 free. Politicians: how did you ID those jets from 10+ miles away? Pilots: Sir, chow hall serves carrots 3x a day and no allied planes were in the sky. Only enemies were positively identified.

I just played this for my 81 yr old Mom. My dad was a crew chief on one of the Thuds during Rolling Thunder. She loved this breakdown.. she's now pulling out the photos. Thank you for all you do!

There is a great documentary called 100 Missions: Surviving Vietnam. After 100 missions pilots got to go home so apparently Olds was erasing how many flights he had been on when he got up around 80-90 because he wanted to stay with his men as long as possible.

One badass fact about Robin Olds you could have mentioned was. Normal pilots went home after 100 complete missions. But Olds ordered the record keeper to miss count or represent his number of missions to the point where Olds had 130+ successful missions over north Vietnam before the top brass caught on and sent him home.

Our soldiers over in Vietnam must've been looking at the politicians like "Your tactis confuse and frighten me, sir."

My Dad was part of Op Bolo, he always said that the war was fought with one hand tied behind your back, and it was tied by the politicians. No person should go to war until politicians are forced to be in the front line. PS, holy geeze, you talk at Mach 1!!

Here's a lead on a possible story for you. I was having a conversation with a fellow aviation/military enthusiast and he mentioned one of his favorite stories is something about the black PBY Catalinas from WWII possibly being the world's first stealth bomber. Apparently they did a lot of raiding of Japanese shipping but also..."stuff" that was dangerous, risky, and sometimes unwise. Sounds exactly like your cup of tea!

Definition of Old Man Strength. Never doubt the old warriors.

One of my favorite pictures is Robin Olds climbing out of the cockpit of an F-4 and someone has just handed him a martini. Dude was a legend.

This is the best video I've seen in years. Love your fast talking style, makes it a concentrated fountain of info. Had to hit pause from time to time to let what you said sink in. Great job!

Thanks again, you never cease to come up with the most fascinating stories!! Love your channel, thank you for all your hard work and research

Mrs. Electrician: I know that the research, filming, editing, etc. of these videos cuts into family time. I don’t know how involved you are in the production but regardless I’m sure you are making some sacrifices for these videos to happen. I wanted to thank you for supporting your husband, this is my favorite RU-vid channel.

Robin Olds is the poster boy of the USAF and arguably the best pilot of the entire war.

I love your knowledge of military history, I myself am a military aviation historian by acquiring my own education on it, your videos are amazing and I can’t wait to see more of your videos.

Ive heard a couple people tell this one before, but the energy and detail you show made me watch your take and im so glad i did!

And another thing to add to Robin Olds being an absolute badass pilot: during an escort mission on August 23, 1944, he and his wingman were about to ambush a group of approximately 50 Messerschmitt Bf 109s and “Just as Olds began firing, both engines of his P-38 quit from fuel exhaustion; in the excitement of the attack he had neglected to switch to his internal fuel tanks. He continued attacking in "dead-stick mode", hitting his target in the fuselage and shooting off part of its engine cowling. After fatally damaging the Bf 109 he dived away and restarted his engines,” making him the only pilot of the war to down an enemy aircraft while in a gliding mode

Col. Robin Olds is so bad ass his Wikipedia article includes a whole ass chapter on his out of regulations mustache.

I've been bingeing the hell outta your channel and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Such great stories and storytelling!

Ah yes, rules of engagement. Also known as making the military fight battles while cosplaying Helen Keller.

Oh goodie! Another ‘he didn’t even get a chance to fuck around, he just found out.’ story!

It’s been rumored Chappie eventually wound up helping a high school kid rescue his dad who was being held behind enemy lines in the eighties by hijacking 2 F-16’s.

You're ability to wrap something up in a hilarious one liner is fn great. Love your videos.

I never had the sack to serve myself but I love these stories and how accessible you make military history

All I'm really hearing is, politicians are why we lost the Vietnam war.

My father is a Vietnam veteran and he always said the Vietnam War was not a “real war” and that it was more about politics than it was about actually wanting to win the war.

Im so glad I found your channel. You have been the best history teacher I have ever seen!!

There is so much information packed into this epsiode that it should be a reference point. Awesomeness Fat, just brillance.

“Maybe I’ll go mow the lawn.” “But it’s winter.” Promptly loads up Lawnmower Simulator

“No Guts, No Glory” Robin Olds, the man was a legendary fighter pilot and a leader of men, I still remember watching the Operation Bolo episode on Dogfights and see him talk about his experience in combat

the moment you showed the first pic of the double ace! my mind was blown. so many characters in movies n media all connected to the og ace! cool story!

Thank you, awesome lunch time story, got me fired up to go bak to work.

Rambler: “I heard you’ve engaged the enemy, where are you?” Olds: “Back off, kill-stealer.”

"Never pick a fight with an old Warrior. They're either really good, or really lucky."

Great video! And I love the playful banter between you and your wife, it's funny and lighthearted. You both have a great sense of humor, and that shows a healthy marriage. :)

Well that left me entirely with goosebumps, entirely choked up and completely entertained. You good Sir have a rare talent for telling a story and bringing it to life. Thanks for not allowing the amazing feats of the past die and pass from our collective memory. Waiting eagerly for the next video.

No one's gonna mention that freakin awesome duo nickname?!?!?? Hell no!! 😂😂😂 Blackman and Robin is just ridiculously hilarious 😂😂😂 Merit above all 💪🏻

[<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="780">13:00</a>] I've had 2 bosses in my career do this. Came in and the first thing they did was sit with the engineers & techs and do their daily jobs with them. Learn not just any tech he wasn't up to speed on, but also how the business was operating. Then maintained open communication on why they started making the changes they wanted to make. The two best bosses I've had in over 20 years in IT. The first one was at my first real job and was literally logged into the queue answering Level 1 tech support calls with the rest of us for most of a week. Same guy that sunk into me one of the standards of my entire career: "If you don't have time to fix it right the first time, when are you going to find time to fix it again?" He really set a high bar for every other boss I've had.

A politician: "I'm gonna boil some water" "Holy sht how'd I end up with ice?"

I took a class on the Vietnam war because my Dad served in that war. None of this was taught. Why? I have no idea. We had marines come and talk to us about their experiences with the viet cong every Monday. Also, my Dad has never forgiven people for how soldiers were treated when they came home. I still regularly learn about military history just to show him how much he is appreciated. Thank you so much for these videos!

Unrelated to the video, this is one of the best ad skits I've seen on RU-vid. That's an achievement in itself. Congrats!

Your sniper rifle analogy hit home. While I was in Afghanistan in 2014, our hands were tied so tightly by ROE, it became disgusting. My gunner literally couldn't shoot at peopleaiming weaponsat us. We finally bought our own stuff off Amazon to build an EOF kit so nothing would have to be reported in a SIR report. I knew a lot about what you talked about regarding the politicians, but it still annoyed me. Good video, I enjoyed it.

man, you are hands down the best storyteller I have ever seen on you tube! I have been binging your vids for the last 2 days. Can't believe I didn't watch you since I follow donut and ak jesus. But I see ya now3. THANKS FOR WHAT YOU DO.. Much love from Oklahoma

As a millennial I'm seeing a similar pattern in Afghanistan where politicians make rules that handicap our soldiers and after fighting in that hell hole for 20 years the politicians tear up a peace treaty/deal we made with the Taliban and now we "lost" again because politicians left behind $100s of millions in military equipment and vehicles, American citizens, and the Taliban run the show now.

The bit about completely bypassing the NSA in order to use their fancy silver spy plane is fucking genius

I absolutely love your channel! Thank you so much!

Robin Olds and his guys are one of my all time favorite stories of the Cold War and Vietnam era. Really happy you did a piece on him, and the impact he had on America's military leaders to - quite literally - save them from themselves. You should also do a video on John Boyd.

@The Fat Electrician I think youre popular because you remind the U.S.A. who we can be. Thats noble no matter which way you slice it. Thanks. Keep up the great work.

"Taco Flosser" I learned something new today. Thank you kind sir.

Your videos are just incredible bro! Thank you!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1690">28:10</a> not only did they take out the enemy fight force but they shafted the NSA at the same time. Gotta love that. 😂

Robin Olds, while not the highest scoring ace as far as jets kills go, stands proud as the embodiment of the rockstar pilot. He was simply built different. A relic from the past still holding his cutting edge. Honestly, if we're talking about pilots, look no further for people to do vids on than the Aces of the Korean War. Some of those F-86 Sabre pilots were straight up nuts. Pilots like Robby Risner, James Jabara, Joe McConnel, Ralph Parr, and more. Truly a different breed. If you're looking for a "1 v Many" situation for the ages, Israel's ace of aces, Giora Epstein is certainly a case. He was initially denied entry into flight school due to a heart murmur. So, he became a paratrooper, and eventually got his wings later. He would go on to earn 17 kills all in Mirage 3's and Neshers. On October 20th, 1973, he was locked in an ambush with his flight of 4 during the Yom Kippur War in against as many as 20 Egyptian Mig-21's. Not only did he manage to survive it, but also managed to nab a couple kills from the hoard.

Another story from Vietnam: Roy Benevitez. Survived 6 hours of hell and saved 8/12 men in a squadron, all of which were almost definitely gonna die, without Tango Mike Mike, his call sign i think. Can’t recall the details 100%.

I can’t believe I didn’t know about this channel till recently. Loving the storytelling

Great video . Great story .Very engaging presentation.

OK Fat Electrician, now we need the "Rest of the story" on Daniel 'Chappie' James Jr. He is another main character in history that we need to know. You can't just leave us with that little bit! That is just cruel. You just did an incredible segment with two main characters but only really gave a view into one. Oh and thank you for the hard work, it's appreciated.

Olds, Ford and Rambler....great cars. As a fun historical tidbit. John "Shorty" Powers was a spokesman for NASA, USAF as well as....Oldsmobile! He was a transport pilot, on C-47s, did over 100 round trips during the Berlin Airdrop, learned how to snatch transport gliders from the ground without stopping, flew combat ops in Korea, earned a Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. After he retired, he opened his own PR firm, and was the defactor face of Olds, doing commercial for the Delta 88 with the Old Rocket V8! He also advertised cigarettes using NASA technology, and was a raging alcoholic, which sadly cut his life short at 57. The man was the emobodiment of the 60s veteran. I am pretty sure when they named the flights, they were inspired by Shorty, the Oldsmobile star. You got one Olds already, and Fords used to be any color as long as its Black, and all you needed was a Rambler, which at the time, was pretty badass. They couldnt name the third Dodge, since they were doing anything but dodging migs lol. I love these connections.

Its always fascinating when you learn more about stuff from a guy called the Fat Electrician than you ever did in school.

Having talked with vets who have experienced operation bolo first hand they had mad respect for the tactics of olds and the balls he had to do things his way.

Hello, I have a question. When did you realize that you could really razzle dazzle the people of the world with your voice and choice of words? It is GOLD.

Olds should’ve known the first few missiles wouldn’t work, he’s been the main character the whole time he had to drop the “Find your own” one-liner before he started wrecking migs

What legends! Love it. Mustache March was influenced by that famous lip sweater.

It is not quite a fighter pilot story, but I know someone with his own Vietnam story and as a pilot. This man was a Huey pilot, but he only flew one combat mission. He still flew Hueys for the war, but his experience with this mission got him barred from ever being sent out to a combat zone. However, this was because of his air boss at the time. What happened was that he was part of the troop carriers. First wave of troops in, they came under fire. His Huey ended up getting hit and shot down, but fortunately, he had only just lifted off the ground when it happened, so it was not much of a crash - still wrecked the Huey, but not enough to trap or kill anyone in it. Thanks to that, he and his copilot quickly bailed, sprinted to one of the later Hueys, and caught a ride on it back to their FOB. Once they made it back, the air boss saw them hopping out and asked what happened. They told him that they were shot down just as they were about to lift off after dropping off their troops. The air boss had heard the radio calls of enemy contact, so he largely let it slide and sent them to fly another Huey to carry more troops in, which they did. They flew in with the next wave and dropped off their next batch of troops. This time, the Huey got shot up before they could even lift off, so the Huey was pretty much grounded. The copilot ended up taking some shrapnel from the Huey - not enough to cripple or kill him, but it turned out to be enough to ground him after they caught another later Huey and made back to the FOB again. With a second Huey now shot down, the air boss was getting pissed. He angrily commented that they were "costing the Army too many Hueys," but he still sent the man out in a third, this time with a different copilot, and once again with more troops. For the third time, they flew in, dropped off their troops, and started to leave. This time, it looked like they were about to get out without getting hit or shot down. Unfortunately... they still got hit and shot down, but this time, not only were they higher up than the other two times and thus resulted in the worst crash, but the man was wounded in this one. To this day, he does not know what exactly happened. He only remembers something blowing up against the Huey, pretty much destroying the rotor and causing them to slam into the ground. He does not remember if he was wounded by the crash, what shot them down, or both. All he remembers of that time was everything before they were hit in this third flight, them being hit and going down, and him being carried by this other copilot, who was wounded too but not as badly as him, to yet another later Huey. Once again, they made it back to the FOB, but before he got sent away for medical treatment, the air boss chewed him out for "losing so many damn Hueys." The man does not remember what exactly went down after that moment, and he attributes that to being out of it from the wounds and the anesthesia for the treatment. He only knows that after that, while he was still allowed to fly Hueys, he was barred from ever flying to or even around combat zones and would predominantly fly transport between secured locations. Also, the last time he flew Hueys for the Army was the fall of Saigon (he was one of the last Hueys out of there, but he was not in any of the ones you see in photos about the evacuation).

Yo, Nic. You forgot about one of the other main characters of this story: Col. Freddy 'Boots' Blessé. If Olds was James Bond, you can think of Blessé as Q. Thing is, Olds was actually a staunch proponent of the idea that the Phantom didn't need a gun, whereas Blessé argued the opposite. The two once got into a shouting match and almost physical fight over the subject at the Pentagon. Eventually, Olds was sent out to figure out how to fly the Phantom (which Blessé was already qualified on) and Blesse got some Pentagon money to keep developing his idea of the Phantom gun pods. In 1967 Blesse managed to get a hundred or so 20mm gun pods sent to Vietnam. Along with a few guys he knew, they trained how to use 20mm as well as actually get some kills in. Story goes that Olds was still unconvinced, but let a couple of his guys carry the guns. During Operation Bolo, four MiGs were shot down with guns; their usefulness was unquestionable at this point. In credit to Olds; the best part of this particular part of the story is that after the conclusion of Operation Bolo, Blessé was unable to return to his base at Da Nang and had to divert to Ubon, where Olds was based. Upon learning this, Olds stormed to the officer's club...to shake Blessé's hand.

Love your work man. Informative and entertaining and eyecandy. Really enjoy you bringing the wife into the mix. You two look really good together.

Great story telling, really enjoyed that one!

As I’m watching, I’m seeing the video’s likes going up by the hundreds every minute. If there isn’t an award for “Best RU-vid Historian”, I hope they make one just for this channel

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="945">15:45</a> "Black Man and Robin" is fucking amazing 😭

Wow! Great story, superb delivery!

Watching this directly after a Warographics video on why the US lost the Vietnam war almost gave me whiplash

Olds was also the only known pilot to get a kill "dead stick". He was so obsessed with getting a German BF109 he dropped his wing tanks and forgot to switch fuel pumps and stalled the engines of his P38 lightning.

Could you imagine if the US military was actually let off the chain and allowed to run at full capability? I remember all the handicaps they placed on us in Iraq and Afghanistan. Made life 100 times harder for us.

You’ve got a great flow. Subscribed

I have heard about his operation before. However never as entertaining as you made it. Thank you.

"I apologize a trillion times" well played. Freakin love this channel and the stories

The moment you put Robin Olds on-screen, I immediately said, "you'd have to be stupid to fuck with that guy." Main character energy for sure.

I cannot stop watching your videos, if I would've found you in high school I definitely would have been more into history! Much love Nick!

Favorited, youtube algorithms doing their job in the suggested videos tab. Loved your narration and commentary!

Normal politician shenanigans already gives me an aneurysm but the beginning of this video has given me a full on hematoma.