The Unauthorized Randy “Duke” Cunningham Page

Evidently, you DID shoot somebody down in a MiG-17 in 1972, or else my 3 separate resources are all lying.

Who might it have been, if not this "Col Tomb"?

"Evidently, you DID shoot somebody down in a MiG-17 in 1972, or else my 3 separate resources are all lying." Thisstatement is apropos to what or whom?


The was no Col Tomb that had a huge shoot down record. The biggest ace in the NVAF was some gomer with 6.

Cunningham's last engagement was likely against one of 2 NVAF sticks that had not shot down anyone before, and came up missing that day. For that matter, and Cunningham has often admitted that he was damb lucky to get a kill against the guy, because Cunningham screwed up several times in the fight.

(My question was initially addressed to Cunningham, since he shot down the MiG.)

I do not dispute the research that denies the existence of Col Tomb; rather, I was asking for [the next-best thing to] a description or name of the MiG pilot.

Thank you for answering my question!

There is some book floating around by an Eastern Block author that details the war from the North Vietnamese Air Force's point of view. That info is in it. If I can find the name and author, I will post it.

On the other hand, parts of the book have been challenged, but not the Col. Tomb part.

We aim to get out good information here.

Ah John, loyal researcher!

I read the "Vietnam" page before I started this thread, and I saw the book from the East Bloc author. The Amazon.com review says:

"...In fact, the book is nothing more than a considerably abridged, very slightly edited and annotated TRANSLATION of the official "History of the People's Air Force of Vietnam" (LICH SU KHONG QUAN NHAN DAN VIET NAM) published in Vietnam in 1993 and freely available to the public there. I have checked Toperczer's book against the "History of the People's Air Force" and found that virtually every paragraph, every sentence, every word of Toperczer's book is lifted directly from the "History of the People's Air Force...."