John T. Smith, 'Day of the 'Top Guns',' Air Enthusiast 45 (1992), 21; and ''Fox 2' Part 3,' Take Off #43, 1186, 1187.
Wilcox, Scream of Eagles, 269, 270; and ''Fox 2' Part 3,' 1187.
Don Hollway, 'Showdown between Two Top Guns,' Aviation (March 1994), 43; and ''Fox 2' Part 3,' 1188.
Wilcox, Scream of Eagles, 275, 276; and Hollway, 'Showdown between Two Top Guns,' 43.
Wilcox, Scream of Eagles, 276, 277; and ''Fox 2' Part 3,' 1188, 1189.
Don Hollway, 'Showdown between Two Top Guns,' 44.
''Fox 2' Part 3,' 1189, 1190; and Hollway, 'Showdown between Two Top Guns,' 44, 45.
''Fox 2' Part 3,' 1190, 1191.
Spike, Jet Fighter Performance, 148.
Wilcox, Scream of Eagles, 288-91.
Drendel…. And Kill MiGs, 50; and Smith, 'Day of the 'Top Guns',' 23.
Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price, One Day in a Long War (New York: Berkley Books, 1991), 190-95. The North Vietnamese have complicated the search for Toon by being unwilling to give a true account of wartime events. They claimed that 16 U.S. planes were shot down on May 10, 1972.
This was later 'improved' to 18. They have yet to admit the loss of any MiGs. Even when there is a rough match between accounts, North Vietnamese claims have major discrepancies as to location and timing.
Robert S. Hopkins III, 'In Search of Colonel Toon,' Journal of Military Aviation (July/August 1993), 22, 23. The Soviet pilots indicated that Pham Tuan was a gifted pilot. The Soviets traditionally looked down on Third-World pilots, but Tuan was described as an equal. Between 1973 and 1975, he was at the Mary Air Base in the Kara Kum Desert, which was the Soviet counterpart to Red Flag/Top Gun. In 1977, he attended the Soviet Air Force Academy. In 1979, he was selected for cosmonaut training.
Michael O'Connor, 'Aces of the Yellow Star,'yi/r Combat (January 1979), 20– 22.
Ethell and Price, One Day in a Long War, 194, 195. That the epic Cunningham-Toon dogfight should have an element of controversy should come as no surprise. One need only recall the debate over who shot down the Red Baron or Admiral Yamamoto.
