Explore Robin Olds Wiki Age, Height, Biography as Wikipedia, Wife, Family relation. He chandelled steeply to the left and I shot some more. Tags: 434th Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, Bf-109, Col. Zemke, College Football Hall of Fame, Colonel Robin Olds, Eighth Air Force, European Theater of Operations, Focke Wulf, Henry "Hap" Arnold, Maj. He really was "larger than life." His father Robert was an aviation pioneer from the WW I era so the boy grew up in the company of airpower greats like Hap Arnold, Billy Mitchell, and Tooey Spaatz. Scat XXVII (F-4C-24-MC 64-0829), the plane he flew for his four MiG kills, was retired from operational service and placed on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, with the four red MiG stars representing his four MiG kills in Vietnam painted on the splitter vane of the intake. Olds decided to leave the Air Force when the offer was refused (he was offered another inspection tour instead) and he retired on June 1, 1973. USAF biography, Photostatic copy of Olds' victory claim report of 14 Feb 45 with links to other reports, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing Vietnam Era Website, Memorial Service for Brigadier General Robin Olds @ U.S. Air Force Academy, 30 June 2007, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robin_Olds&oldid=1118555116, United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II, United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War, Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United States), Recipients of the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom), Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France), Recipients of the Distinguished Service Order (Vietnam), Pages using college Football HoF with unknown parameters, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 October 2022, at 17:30. [65] In late May, the 412th was ordered to undertake Project Comet a nine-city transcontinental mass formation flight. Your email address will not be published. Robin taught her to drive on the Academy grounds and ride horses at the equestrian center. Robin married Abigail Morgan Sellers Barnett in January 1978, and they divorced after fifteen years of marriage. His reputation as a superbly skilled fighter pilot and outstanding leader continues to inspire active duty, retired and aspiring pilots and air crews alike. Over Btzow, undetected by the Germans, Olds and his wingman jettisoned their fuel drop tanks and attacked, although the second element of the flight had been unable to keep up during the climb.[43]. Brig. 208 cadets including Olds completed the course, while five classmates died in accidents. Through the remainder of the year, he flew as part of a jet demonstration team with Lt. Col. John C. Pappy Herbst. A 14-aircraft aerial review included four F-4 Phantoms flying a missing man formation. I was the only one to return homeWhen I tested the stall characteristics of my wounded bird over our home airfield, I found it quit flying at a little over 175mph (282km/h) indicated and rolled violently into the dead wing (note: the right flap had been blown away and two large holes knocked in the same wing). In February 1971, Olds became director of aerospace safety in the Office of the Inspector General. [91][92], He was awarded a fourth Silver Star for leading a three-aircraft low-level bombing strike on March 30, 1967, and the Air Force Cross for an attack on the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi on August 11, one of five awarded to Air Force pilots for that mission. Robert Olds had asked his son the status of the U.S. Air Force and got a detailed debriefing on whats wrong with the service. Table of Contents show. On that date, Colonel Olds led his strike force of eight F-4C aircraft against a key railroad and highway bridge in North Vietnam. The man was bigger than life and reading his memoir will confirm all the amazing stories about this legendary fighter pilot. It was imprinted in his genes. [68], Olds was assigned to command the 71st Fighter Squadron, which was soon detached from the 1st FG to the Air Defense Command and based at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport in Pennsylvania. The Bf 109 passed beneath him and as he rolled the nose down he fired, taking the Bf 109 out before heading home. RFT 185: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System, Who Decides the Punishment in a Smuggling Court, Which of the following Is the Legal Standard of Proof at a Civil Trial, Which Is the Oldest and Most Original Source of International Law, When Did Abortion Become Legal in Illinois. In a few weeks, Zemke turned things around and added to Robins already formidable determination to succeed as a shooter and a leader. (1936), born from his father's third marriage to Helen Post Sterling and an older maternal half-brother, Carter Nott (19191998), born from his mother's first marriage to Frederick Dickson Nott. From dead astern, he fired a five-second burst and observed many hits. This training ended a year later by Christmas 1942. Arriving in Britain in May 1944, Olds squadron quickly entered combat as part of the Allied air offensive before the D-Day invasion of Normandy. [116], Olds' fondness for alcohol was well known. [76] James and Olds worked closely together for a year as a command team and developed both a professional and social relationship which was later renewed in combat. As a young man he was also recognized for his athletic prowess in both high school and college, being named an All-American as a lineman in college football. [52] He completed his first combat tour on November 9, 1944, accruing 270 hours of combat time and six kills. Robin Gibb left behind $35 million in his estate for his wife Dwina Gibb and kids Robin . The oldest of four, Olds spent the majority of his childhood at Langley Field, Virginia where his father was stationed as an aide to Brig. Robin Olds was a "triple ace" American fighter pilot with a combined total of 17 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War. Olds decided to leave the Air Force when the offer was refused (he was offered another inspection tour instead) and he retired on June 1, 1973. It was something of an exaggeration, but it contained an element of truth: Robin Olds was built for war. The New York Times that May called him everybodys choice as the hottest pilot of the Vietnam War, and last year the History Channel televised a computer animation, complete with his commentary, of his big Vietnam battle. The iconic actor died in 2014. . He became an instructor at the Air Corps Tactical School between 1928 and 1931, the crucial period when the theory of strategic bombardment achieved ascendancy within the Air Corps as the most effective use of airpower. Husband/ Wife: Under Review: Child/ Kids: Not Available: Total Children . General Olds, rated a triple ace for having shot down a total of 16 enemy aircraft during World War II and the Vietnam War, served his country in assignments . Her relationship is with the . Olds observed a Bf 109 of Sonderkommando Elbe attack the bombers and shoot down a B-24. Leading the first flight, Olds overflew the primary MiG-21 base at Phc Yn and was on a second pass when MiGs finally began popping up through the cloud base. In a sea of blonde bombshells, Welch broke the mold of what it meant to be a celebrity. That made him shutter into a high speed stall, the air combat equivalent of locking the brakes. [37], Olds was promoted to first lieutenant on December 1, 1943. . As recognized by the American Fighter Aces Association, Olds was the only pilot to "make ace" in both the P-38 (5 victories) and the P-51 (8 victories). 1 Squadron at RAF Tangmere and flew the Gloster Meteor. After downing a Bf 109 over Berlin on Oct. 6, Olds completed his initial combat tour in November and was given two months leave in the United States. Increasingly unhappy with the U.S. Air Force, despite promotions to Lieutenant Colonel (1951) and Colonel (1953), he debated retiring but was talked out of it by his friend Maj. Gen. Frederic H. Smith, Jr. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 17victories in World War II and the Vietnam War. Required fields are marked *. First, he cut loose the deadwood, the ticket punchers and careerists who had sniveled some counters - missions that counted toward completion of a tour when in fact they had not gone north. Robin Olds [1] (July 14, 1922 - June 14, 2007) was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force. What to do? Olds and Ella Raines separated in 1975 and divorced in 1976. You will laugh, cheer out loud and maybe even shed a tear. The mustache became my silent last word in the verbal battleswith higher headquarters on rules, targets, and fighting the war. Increasing concerned about F-105 Thunderchief losses to North Vietnamese MiGs during bombing missions, Olds designed Operation Bolo in late 1966. It lasted until, as a colonel, he went to Washington after his service in Vietnam to meet the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. John P. McConnell. [24], Olds developed ambivalent feelings about West Point, admiring its dedication to "Duty, Honor, Country", but disturbed by the tendency of many tactical officers to distort the purpose of its Honor Code. He nursed his crippled Mustang back to base but found that it stalled at 175 mph, rolling violently. Adding to his glamorous image, General Olds was a former all-American football player at West Point and the husband of a movie star, Ella Raines. U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who served in both World War II and the Vietnam War. . Olds oversaw the creation of policies, standards, and procedures for Air Force accident prevention programs, and dealt with work safety education, workplace accident investigation and analysis, and safety inspections. In an ultra-low-level attack, leaving rooster tails on the paddies behind them, Olds and two wingmen put their bombs on target. Save Article. His mother, his father's first wife, Eloise Karine Wichman Nott (1896-1926), died when Robin was four and he was raised by his father. He found what he feared: most Air Force fighter crews couldnt fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Commander John Nichols, a Navy MiG killer brought to Udorn, Thailand to teach dogfighting to the Air Force blue suits, saw Olds taxi his F-4 into the chocks after a practice mission. Upon return to the U.S., Olds was acclaimed as Americas top gun of the war to date, a record he retained for the next five years. He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general. When the 479ths first commander was shot down in August 1944, Hub Zemke moved over from the fabled 56th Fighter Group and rejuvenated the Mighty Eighths last fighter outfit. At 12, he vowed to attend West Point, where he hoped to play football and begin the path to becoming a military aviator. They married in Beverly Hills on February 6, 1947, and had two daughters, Christina and Susan, and a son, Robert Ernest, who was stillborn in 1958. Most everybody grew a mustache. Amber is a massage therapist. Gen. Robin Olds' legacy runs far deeper than a mustache. Then he began learning the way the Wolfpack did business so he could improve upon it. Anyone can read what you share. Christina Olds, daughter of the late Brig. This was blocked by his father who forced him to stay at Millard. [47], Although in Dogfights S1EP2,[48] Robin Olds recounts this memory of the P-38 needing help with some variance. Gen. Robin Olds, died June 14 from congestive heart failure one month short of his 85th birthday. His father, Maj. Gen. Robert Olds, a World War I combat pilot who helped devise the United States air-power strategy, reared him as a single parent. [25] In 1985 Olds was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. Legendary British Singer Robin Gibb was a doting father who dearly wanted to be present in his kids' lives. Colonel Olds' Air Force assignments took Susan and her family to South Carolina, England, North Africa, Washington D.C,. In 1925 when he was only three, he accompanied his father to Mitchells famed court-martial. 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