Big Day

Dozens of swept-wing F-86 Sabre jets streaked north across the Korean battle-line one morning last week, climbing steadily but slowly to conserve fuel. At the Yalu at 45,000 feet they found what they were looking for, and Russian-made MIG-155 began falling from the sky. In the afternoon the Sabres went back to the job. By nightfall they had destroyed 15 MIGs, set a new record for a single day's action (previous record: 13 MIGs downed on July 4, 1952), and brought the month's MIG total to 74. Delighted, the Fifth Air Force's new boss, Lieut. General Samuel Anderson, announced that in 75 days the Sabres had shot down 143 MIGs, with only one Sabre lost in air-to-air combat.

Last week's big day belonged to the aces. Back in harness was Major James Jabara, who became the first jet ace in 1951, to shoot down his 13th and 14th MIGs. Colonel James Johnson, 37-year-old commander of the Fourth Fighter-Interceptor Wing, destroyed his tenth. Another oldster, Lieut. Colonel Vermont Garrison, 37, who shot down eleven Nazi planes in World War II, got his ninth MIG the same day. Among the younger aces who added to their scores was Captain Ralph Parr, 28, who flew 165 fighter-bomber missions on his first Korean tour in 1951. Said Parr after destroying his seventh MIG: "I waited two years for this, and I'm going to make the most of it."

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