Vietnam pilot shares his dogfight story and reconciliation with MiG pilot

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Cherry shared his story on Aug. 10 of that day, and a subsequent unique reconciliation with more than 90 veterans at the North Georgia Veterans monthly luncheon at the Big Canoe, Georgia clubhouse.

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By Wayne Tidwell, wtidwell@bigcanoenews.com

U.S. Air Force Major Dan Cherry was awakened at 2:00 a.m. on April 16, 1972 by a phone call from the dispatcher of the squadron command post at Udorn Royal Thai Airbase in northern Thailand. It was the beginning of a day that would mark Cherry forever and recur often in his thoughts into his senior years.

Later on that fateful day Cherry would encounter North Vietnam Lieutenant Nguyen Hong My in a frantic five-minute air battle at 15,000 feet. Cherry shared his story on Aug. 10 of that day, and a subsequent unique reconciliation with more than 90 veterans at the North Georgia Veterans monthly luncheon at the Big Canoe, Georgia clubhouse.

“It’s a war story for sure, but more importantly it’s a story of human needs; the human needs of forgiveness, friendship and reconciliation; things that humans desperately need,” Cherry said.

The History Channel Dogfight program series featured Cherry’s encounter with Hong My in one of its episodes. Cherry shared that video with the veterans group.

April 1972 was the start of the U.S. stepped up air bombing campaign called “Linebacker.” At a briefing at 0400 hours (4:00 a.m.) Cherry found out that his flight of four F-4s, called the Basco Flight, would be escorting a B-52 bomber into North Vietnam. The B-52s remained on the ground as the F-4s went into a holding pattern waiting on them.