duke

I see that Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned from Congress after pleading guilty to corruption charges. A sad end to the man's political career, but there is a Tom Cruise connection. Years ago I first heard that there was a politician named "Duke" Cunningham who was also an Ace F4 Pilot in Vietnam, it occurred to me that Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell had a late father was named "Duke" but what I didn't know until now was how close in the plot line from the movie matches up with the real events of the day that Duke Cunningham shot down three planes. Wretchard at the Belmont Club points to this description of the battle that day in 1972 over North Vietnam:

10 May 1972
This was a bad day for the Vietnamese Peoples Air Force, losing eleven aircraft... Three of the MiG-17s were downed by one VF-96 crew, LT. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his RIO, LT(JG) Willie Driscoll, flying a Phantom F-4J, ShowTime 100. Combined with two earlier kills on 19 January and 8 May, the victories would make Cunningham and Driscoll the first American aces of the Vietnam War and the first to make all their kills with missiles... They were participating in a strike against the Hai Dong railyards, on flak suppression, when a score of enemy fighters challenged them... Showtime 100 loitered to cover the A-7 fighter-bombers
still engaged. Responding to a call for help, Cunningham took his F-4J into a group of MiG-17s ("Frescoes"), two of which promptly jumped them. Heeding a "break" warning from Grant in Showtime 113, Cunningham broke sharply and the lead pursuing MiG-17 overshot him. He instantly reversed his turn, putting the MiG dead ahead; he loosed a Sidewinder and it destroyed the MiG... Cdr Dwight Timm hasd three MiGs on his tail, one being very close, in Timm's blind spot. Seeing the danger to the XO, in Showtime 112, Duke called for him to "break," to clear the Phantom's hotter J-79 engines from the Sidewinder's heat seeker, thus permitting a clear lock on the bandit... After more maneuvering, Cunningham re-engaged the MiG-17 still threatening his XO. He called again for him to break, adding, "If you don't break NOW you are going to die." The XO finally accelerated and broke hard right. The MiG couldn't follow Showtime 112's high speed turn, leaving "Duke" clear to fire. Calling "Fox Two," Cunningham fired his second Sidewinder while the MiG still inside the minimum firing range. But the high speed of the Fresco worked against it, as the Sidewinder had time to arm and track to its target. It homed into the tail pipe of the MiG-17 and exploded. Seconds later, Cunningham and Driscoll, finding themselves alone in a sky full of bandits, disengaged and headed for the Constellation... As they approached the coast at 10,000 feet, Cunningham spotted another MiG-17 heading straight for them. He told Driscoll to watch how close they could pass the MiG's nose, so he could not double back as easily to their six o’clock. While this tactic worked against A-4s back in training at Miramar, it turned out to be a near-fatal mistake here... A-4s didn’t have guns in the nose... "Hang on, Willie. We’re gonna get this guy!" Driscoll strained to keep sight of the MiG, as Duke pitched back towards him for the third time. Once again, he met the MiG-17 head-on, this time with an offset so he couldn’t fire his guns. As he pulled up vertically he could again see his determined adversary a few yards away. Still gambling, Cunningham tried one more thing. He yanked the throttles back to idle and popped the speed brakes, in a desperate attempt to drop behind the MiG. But,
in doing so, he had thrown away the Phantom's advantage, its superior climbing
ability. And if he stalled out ... The MiG shot out in front of Cunningham for the first time, the Phantom’s nose was 60 degrees above the horizon with airspeed down to 150 knots. He had to go to full burner to hold his position. The surprised enemy pilot attempted to roll up on his back above him... "This is no place to be with a MiG-17," he thought, "at 150 knots... this slow, he can take it right away from you." Now the MiG tried to disengage; he pitched over the top and started straight down. Cunningham pulled hard over, followed, and maneuvered to obtain a firing position. With the distracting heat of the ground...As he started to fire his last Sidewinder, there was an abrupt burst of flame. Black smoke erupted from the Fresco. It didn’t seem to go out of control; the fighter just kept slanting down, smashing into the ground at about 45 degrees angle...While headed back to the carrier, Cunningham’s Phantom was hit by a SAM over Nam Dinh...I could see ocean, then land, then ocean, then land... We were in a flat spin... [in the water after ejecting].. it turned out to be the rotting corpse of a North Vietnamese that had floated downstream, decaying, with its teeth showing. He told Willie later, "I thought it was you at first, but the guy was too good looking."

Cunningham was the only American to shoot down three MiGs in one day. He
would receive the Navy Cross for his heroism and superior airmanship.

(Heavily abbreviated by me. Go read the whole thing. Emphasis Mine)


Here is the relevant quote from Top Gun where Maverick goes to see Viper about his dad and his options:

Yeah, he did it right... Is that why you fly the way you do? Trying to prove something? Yeah your old man did it right. What I'm about to tell you is classified. It could end my career. We were in the worst dogfight I ever dreamed of. There were bogeys like fireflies all over the sky. His F-4 was hit, and he was wounded, but he could've made it back. He stayed in it, saved three planes before he bought it. (Emphasis mine)

So in real life Duke Cunningham stayed in it to provide cover for the still attacking strike planes and in the movie the plot is story is much the same except he is not damaged when he decides to continue combat. Being set upon by a score (20) MiG 17s certainly would qualify as "bogeys all over the sky". Someone with more time to Google this than me may find a link somewhere in which the writer talks about what his infuences were

A few other things that appear in Top Gun:

-Maverick crashes in the ocean after his plane goes into a flat spin just like Cunningham.
-Maverick trained against A-4s in Top Gun, just like Cunningham did in real life.
-Maverick used the exact same maneuver Duke did to defeat their final "MiGs" by pulling up and decelerating and letting the enemy plane continue past.


Did you know Tim Robbins played Maverick's RIO "Merlin" for that final battle scene.