Following the disappointing air-to-air kill success rate achieved by American aviators during the Vietnam War, a campaign to revamp the training of fighter pilots within the USAF, US Navy, and US Marine Corps was instigated. The immediate result of these efforts was the establishment of TOPGUN, the US Navy’s advanced training course for fighter pilots. Soon thereafter, the USAF created the Aggressor program to provide Dissimilar Air Combat Training to frontline fighter pilots worldwide.
The final missing elements were the actual Soviet threat aircraft themselves. This became a reality with the creation of the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron under the program name Constant Peg in 1978. Over the course of its ten-year existence, this unit secretly operated MiG-17s, MiG-21s, and MiG-23s, providing frontline US fighter pilots with the ultimate in aerial combat training – exposure to the very aircraft they could expect to see in any combat theater worldwide.
This is an insider’s account of what really went on by Lt Col Rob Zettel, “Bandit 39”, who completed no fewer than 476 sorties in MiG-21s and MiG-23s. He describes his experiences as a “Red Eagle” of the 4477th in tales that are hair-raising and sometimes unbelievable. Only here, in this squadron, in this location, could this happen. The likelihood of another such unit being put together in the manner it was, with the sheer talent it contained, is doubtful. The exploits of the “Red Eagles” are now simply the stuff of legend.