Part II: Shoots down B-52, gets “ticket” to space

MIG-21 knocked out the “flying fortress”

Pham Tuan and Gorbatko practise on the Black Sea

“They knew how to lead me to fly through the US’ “flying ghosts”, the different squadrons that protected the B-52. I kept calm and followed the command exactly. I glanced at the monitor of the aiming device as I was quickly gaining a new height,” Pham Tuan added.

Pham Tuan copied the command to attack when he was 10 km from the target. However, he did it much later because he wanted to approach the target closer to ensure success.

After launching two rockets, he dived quickly to a safe altitude and landed.

Several hours later, there was an official announcement that the Vietnamese Air Force had shot down a B-52. Pham Tuan received a call from the Minister of Defence to congratulate him on the victory. But Pham Tuan always thinks that it is the victory of the whole unit.

Pham Tuan’s victory created momentum contributing to the victory of “Hanoi – the Dien Bien Phu in the air”. The date of December 27, 1972 became the day of “Dien Bien Phu in the air” of the Air Force. The night after that, pilot Vu Xuan Thieu shot down another B-52.

The MIG-21 that Pham Tuan flew is not in the Air Force Museum anymore. It was moved to the Museum of Military History. This is an exception for the fighter that made the impossible possible at that time of the war.

When Pham Tuan went to Hoa Lo prison to see US pilots who were captured and jailed, these pilots said that they had not understood how the B-52 had been shot down.

Early in 1973, State President Ton Duc Thang signed a decision, awarding Pham Tuan the title Hero of the Armed Forces.

Pham Tuan continued to serve in “Red Star” regiment with more than 200 combat flights in five years.

From the lowest on the list to the first candidate

Pham Tuan was very happy when he heard that he was to be sent to the famous Iuri Gagarin Air Force Academy to continue studying in 1977.

Two years of study went by. In 1979, Russia and Vietnam signed an agreement, “Intercosmos”. The agreement highlighted the conditions to choose four astronaut candidates from the Vietnamese Army and then two of them would be selected to train in the Star City.

During two years working in Vietnam, Russian doctors could only find three candidates. The Vietnam Ministry of Defence decide to choose one more candidate from among the pilots who were studying in Russia.

Pham Tuan was nominated but his “heart problem” was not good and he could not pass the health screen. It was hard to accept that fact. Luckily, the fourth candidate was not found in Vietnam. Pham Tuan became the fourth candidate by virtue of his record.

The first candidate, obviously, must be the most experienced pilot of Vietnam – the one who shot down nine American planes: Nguyen Van Coc. However, Nguyen Van Coc failed the last test of the medical committee. Once again, Pham Tuan was lucky. From a reservist, he became the first candidate to fly into space.

Pham Tuan felt like he was dreaming when he learned he would be training with the main crew in the presence of Victor Vaxilevic Gorobatco, the man who held two Russian Hero commendations.

Russian-Vietnamese brothers and their challenges

There was a regulation that two astronauts in the same spaceship must be common in their characters. Even if everything else was fine, if their personalities did not mesh, candidates should be changed.

Fortunately, though Pham Tuan and Gorobatco were different ages, they got on well with each other. In different times and situations, they made the same decisions.

For Pham Tuan and Gorobatco, enemy bombings were etched in their minds. Mr Victor remembered the time when fascist planes slaughtered his horses with bombs while Pham Tuan witnessed a village next door destroyed during an American air raid. From those memories, they both nurtured hopes of becoming pilots to fly and devote their lives to their nations.

Pham Tuan still remembers even the smallest activity in the huge work of preparing for the flight into space. The training task of the Russian and Vietnamese crew started with exercises on the sea. Pham Tuan loved the flat blue surface of the sea with waves and the distant horizon where seabirds stretched their wings.

When training on the Black Sea ended, Pham Tuan went on with exercises in harsh conditions, almost impossible for ordinary people.

For example, the crew went into a sealed capsule, which was then released onto the sea from a ship. The capsule bobbed up and down on the surface while rescue boats circled it, ready to help. After that, the crew started to take off their special space uniforms while the capsule kept on bobbing. They then opened the capsule door to jump out into the water, swim and signal with flares.

Exercises like that lasted many days with tasks scheduled from early morning to late afternoon – for two years. Sometimes they had to lose weight just to practise some movements.

“I was strong but still felt tired,” said Pham Tuan. “The most demanding test was the vestibule check. Within 10 minutes, one had to bend his head repeatedly every three seconds. Everyone had to try their best to be ready to cope with pressure under any circumstance.”

The training finished. In the press conference, without hesitation, Gorobatco answered the questions about difficulties during the training period: “There is difficulty in every task, especially for flying into space. However, the Vietnamese astronaut has successfully completed the training.

“Although having difficulty learning Russian, he grasped necessary techniques. In theoretical subjects, he got high results,” Gorobatco added.

With excitement, Pham Tuan also answered a reporter’s question about his plan for the space flight. He said: “I want to see if the earth is really round and I can see my Quoc Tuan village from orbit.”

At last, there came the historic moment that millions of Vietnamese hearts and international friends had waited for.

(to be continued)

Source: Tien Phong