A special edition of #PhantomFriday -- 56 years ago today was the first US air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War, and there is more to the story than meets the eye...

It had been about 1 week since the first MiGs had been sighted, and already 2 F-105s had been shot down by North Vietnamese fighters. Both the Navy and Air Force grew increasingly concerned about the MiG threat, increasing patrols and airborne warning.

The morning of April 9, 1965 got off to a rough start. F-4B Phantoms on USS Ranger prepared for launch for a CAP mission in the Gulf of Tonkin. During the catapult of the 1st F-4, the engine failed and the plane crashed into the ocean. Both crew members ejected and were rescued.

More Phantoms launched. 2 were already at their patrol point in the Gulf, and 2 more were about 20 minutes behind, including an F-4B flown by Lt(jg) Terence Murphy and Ens Ronald Fegan.

The Phantoms were close enough to Hainan that the Chinese military considered it a provocation and launched a flight of 4 MiG-17s (Jian-5s) to intercept--allegedly with orders not to fire unless fired upon.

Murphy & Fegan, with their wingman, picked up a radar contact at 40,000 ft and went to investigate. The other 2 Phantoms on patrol turned to join, but were still about 60 miles away.

The 2 F-4s arrived in the area to see Murphy/Fegan and their wingman already engaged with the MiGs. The newly arriving F-4s got in a turning battle. They fired 2 AIM-7 Sparrows, one had a motor failure, the other didn't guide. They shot an AIM-9 Sidewinder but the MiG dodged it.

The 2 F-4s pulled away to get separation and then came back around to see Murphy & Fegan still fighting and firing missiles, they then called over radio to say they had 1 missile left and were making one more run. Murphy & Fegan snapped up toward the high-flying MiGs

The other F-4s lost sight of Murphy & Fegan. About a minute later, their wingman saw an airplane on fire--and swore it was one of the MiGs, which slowly fell away. Murphy & Fegan said over radio: "Good shooting, all missiles gone, I'm going home."

Their wingman asked who got the MiG, but got no answer. The other two F-4s reentered the area and tried to engage the MiGs, firing more missiles that either had firing problems, motor failures, or didn't guide.

The Phantoms were low on fuel and returned to the USS Ranger, but Murphy and Fegan didn't check in and were not seen anywhere. They never returned. A SAR effort spent two days covering 2,000 square miles, but found no evidence of a crash, ejection, or emergency beacon.

The Chinese claimed that one of the missiles fired at them had mistakenly hit Murphy and Fegan's F-4, but a USAF investigation ruled out that possibility, concluding they either ran out of fuel or were shot down by one of the MiGs.

The Chinese claimed they had zero losses in this fight, but the other F-4 crews were positive one of the MiGs went down in flames. The political sensitivity of claiming kills against Chinese aircraft prevented the US from making the aerial victory claim public.

This battle became emblematic of many of the trends that would later emerge in the air-to-air battles over Vietnam: Formations often fell apart, communication was poor, F-4s could not turn against the smaller, agile MiGs, and missiles were unreliable for many reasons.

It also demonstrated the politically fraught nature of a war like this, which sought to prevent escalation that might draw in other nuclear powers, making aerial encounters and some victory claims potential international incidents

From its beginning, the Vietnam War in the air was a unique historical moment--air combat looked different there than it had in previous wars, and pointed toward an even more different future for how air forces contributed to war, both their new limits and new capabilities.