1/72 Scale die
cast,2008 product editions, was property of
longtime military collector never opened, shelf wear, minor edges use, ideal
for displays or gifts, dioramas, modeling, genealogy, ancestry, or military
history. Will be properly packaged for collector large flat rate
Ritchie volunteered for
a second combat tour in 1972 and was assigned to the 432nd Tactical
Reconnaissance Wing at Udorn Royal
Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. Flying F-4 Phantom IIs with the famed 555th ("Triple
Nickel") Tactical Fighter Squadron he shot down his
first Mikoyan-Gurevich
MiG-21 on 10 May 1972, scored a second victory on May 31, a
third and fourth on July 8, and a fifth on August 28. All of the aircraft he
shot down were MiG-21s, and all were shot down by the much-maligned AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided air-to-air missile.
Ritchie became the United States Air
Force's first and only pilot ace of the Vietnam War.[5]
An advantage that the
Triple Nickel pilots had over other US aircrews was that eight of their F-4D
Phantoms had the top secret APX-80 electronic set installed, known by its
code-name Combat Tree.[6] Combat Tree could
read the IFF signals
of the transponders built
into the MiGs so that North Vietnamese GCI radar could discriminate its
aircraft from that of the Americans. Displayed on a scope in the WSO's cockpit,
Combat Tree gave the Phantoms the ability to identify and locate MiGs when they
were still beyond visual range.