Codenamed Fishbed by NATO, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is an aircraft I have experienced from both the adversarial and piloting perspectives. During my time with the USAF, from 1966 to 1969 I flew Convair F-102 Delta Dagger interceptors along the Czechoslovakian border. While I never confronted the MiG-21 in combat, it was my face-off on the other side of the 'wall'. The highlight of my Cold War flying career occurred on August 21, 1968. I was leading a flight on patrol, just as NATO figured out that the USSR had invaded Czechoslovakia. Our launch had been routine, with no hint of what was to follow, but shortly into the hop a very agitated controller gave me three coded clearances: to enter the Buffer Zone, to cross the Air Defence Identification Zone and, third, to arm my weapons. I had two targets on my scope. I never got a visual but they had to be MiG-21s.
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