Posted on 02/25/2026 11:09:05 AM PST by Jacquerie
Retired Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams has been keeping a secret for more than 50 years.
To his friends, family, and others he served with, Williams was known as a decorated fighter pilot, who led a successful career in the Navy, where he served for more than 30 years and flew more than 220 missions in Korea and Vietnam. However, even his wife wasn’t aware of what he’d done on Nov. 18, 1952.
That morning, Williams was continuing what had become a daily routine for him as a young Navy pilot stationed onboard the USS Oriskany off the coast of Korea during the Korean War; flying his F9F-5 Panther fighter aircraft over the skies of North Korea to attack targets in support of operations on the ground. On this particular morning, the only difference was the targets were further north than usual – close to the country’s border with the Soviet Union.
Despite a blizzard sweeping in with heavy winds and snow, Williams said the mission began successfully, with minor amounts of anti-aircraft fire. However, they hadn’t counted on the nearby Soviet base to notice their presence. Within minutes, the Soviets went to general quarters and scrambled seven MiG-15 fighters to react to the situation.
“Our combat information center notified us that there were inbound bogeys,” said Williams. “I spotted seven contrails coming from the north, and identified them as MiGs.”
Once the MiGs passed over Williams and his wingman, they circled around and split into two groups – four to the right, and three to the left. Williams lost sight of the aircraft, and was ordered to move closer to the strike group to protect it in case the Soviets attacked.
That’s when they dropped back in on Williams.
“They dropped back in and started shooting,” said Williams. “Since they started the fight, I shot back.”
Williams quickly locked on to one of the aircraft and hit it, watching as it caught fire and billowed smoke on its way down. His wingman followed it, leaving Williams alone with the remaining MiGs. In another intense moment, Williams was able to dodge the weapons fire and shoot back, downing another MiG, leaving two of the original four in the fight.
“I’m on the defensive – I’m not really declaring war on them,” said Williams.
As he kept maneuvering to avoid being hit by the hundreds of bullets being fired, one of the Soviet pilots made a grave mistake, putting his aircraft directly in Williams’ sights. He took the opportunity and opened fire, downing a third MiG.
On another turn, Williams felt his aircraft shake violently as it was hit by a MiG’s 37mm cannon – ripping holes in his fuselage and exploding, leaving his aircraft severely damaged.
As he struggles to stay in the fight, something else goes wrong – Williams runs out of ammunition.
The remaining MiGs followed Williams as he turned his damaged aircraft into the storm, using the high winds to shield himself from the incoming rounds as he headed full speed back towards his task force. “I could see the bullets coming over me, and under me,” said Williams.
As he approached the task force, the remaining MiGs quickly retreated, assuming Williams probably wouldn’t make it back to the Oriskany due to severe damage regardless. Williams knew if he ejected, he’d end up freezing to death before he could be rescued, and his communications were now severed due to the damage done to his aircraft. He had no choice but to attempt a landing.
To make matters worse, the task force had gone to general quarters with orders to open fire on any unidentified aircraft; since Williams couldn’t communicate with them, they opened fire on his aircraft – luckily stopping once he got close enough to identify.
His Panther was unable to slow down or it would stall, which forced Williams to make his landing at 200 miles per hour. Somehow, he was still able to catch a wire on the flight deck and emerged unscathed. The next day, the crew inspected his Panther and found 263 holes in the aircraft.
“You’d be surprised, it was almost like a training mission,” said Williams, recounting the story. “I was pretty stable.”
Soon after returning, Williams was ordered into a meeting with his Admiral and a representative of a brand new government agency – the National Security Agency. The NSA had been testing new communications equipment that was intercepting radio chatter from the Soviets, and they knew if any details from Williams’ mission went public, the Soviets would know the United States could hear their communications. Therefore, Williams was ordered not to tell a soul about his mission – it was classified as Top Secret.
For the rest of his accomplished Navy career, and for decades after retirement, the details of Williams’ dogfight with Soviet MiGs over North Korea remained a secret. When he was finally contacted by the government and told his mission was declassified, the first person Williams said he told was his wife.
OK ... so you just graduated from AFA or AFROTC! Congratulations! Youve just been commissioned a 1LT, and you’re about 21 years old.
18 months of flight training? That makes you about 23 years old.
We’re talking about 26 year olds ... just about the right age to be flying a military aircraft for any of the services that have aircraft. That would be everybody except Space Force. And old enough to be getting pretty good at it.
I’m not sure what your point is, if any ... and the incident we’re talking about here occurred during the Korean WAR ... so also not sure why you’re going on about WWII.
https://issa.house.gov/issues/royce-williams
God bless Captain Royce Williams, and God bless President Trump!
He sure wasn’t on his wing, where he should be.
Weren’t there Soviet pilots and fighters in NK at the time?
Then let me try to simplify if for you. World War 2 or the Korean war, it doesn't matter. Today's fighter pilots have years of education and training before combat missions as compared to to the non education requirement and only months of training for the WW-II and Korean kids who flew combat missions.
There is no comparison between today's pilots and those of the Korean and WW-2.
Does that help?
I think an earlier poster was right, and the MIGs flew out of China across the Yalu river. I’m not sure they ever flew out of or landed in NK. I think the planes were supposed to be flown by Chinese and were supposedly sold to China by Russia. Whether either of these is true, or not, I have no idea.
My understanding from the 21st Century is that what Russia had done with Mad Mao in China, was being attempted by Mad Mao in Korea.
Sort-of like the rabid dog getting a pet of its own.
The actions of the Tryon County Militia, as well as members of the Oneida Nation, held up the British forces long enough so that they couldn't get to Saratoga to reinforce the British, contributing to the eventual American victory there.
A replica of Fort Stanwix was built on the site of the original Fort and is run by the National Park Service.
The anchor of the USS Oriskany is set in a memorial in Oriskany, NY:
Followed it down to finish it off, maybe.
Outside of the service academies, all college does is create hate America attitudes among young adults. With a few notable exceptions.
Thank you. Your point (even if true) is irrelevant to mine. Thank you very much.
If you want to know what my point is, read the post to which I responded.
Yet it is also unfashionable to alarm others that,
Seventy-one percent of young people are ineligible to join the military, according to 2017 Pentagon data. The reasons: obesity, no high school diploma or a criminal record...According to one report, 52 percent of employers in Pennsylvania find it challenging to hire people with adequate skills, training or education. - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/14/military-service-most-young-people-dont-qualify-careers/3665840002/
Most ineligible youth (44 percent) are disqualified for multiple reasons rather than in only one area. Among those ineligible for only one reason, being overweight was the highest disqualification, at 11 percent. Drug use (8 percent), medical/physical only (7 percent) and mental health only (4 percent) were the other leading categories found in the study. The largest increases in disqualification estimates observed between 2013 and 2020 were for mental health and overweight conditions.- https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/03/77-of-young-americans-too-fat-mentally-ill-on-drugs-and-more-to-join-military-pentagon-study-finds/
Gen Z First Ever to Show Lower IQ Than Previous Generation, Breaking Century-Long Trend .. For most of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century, average intelligence test scores gradually increased across generations.Improvements in education access, nutrition, public health, and information availability contributed to that rise... researchers argue that educational environments increasingly centered on screens, condensed information, and short video formats may influence cognitive development.
According to this view, frequent exposure to fragmented content encourages rapid scanning rather than deep comprehension, which can lower the national average IQ.- https://nchstats.com/gen-z-iq-decline/
Fifty years ago suicide among young people aged 15–24 was a relatively infrequent event and suicides in this age group constituted less than 5% of all suicides in the United States. As can be seen in Figure 21.1, between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, the rate of suicide rose markedly among this age group. This increase was observed most dramatically among young males, whose suicide rates more than tripled between 1955 and 1977 (from 6.3 per 100,000 to 21.3). Among females ages 15–24, the suicide rate more than doubled during this same period (from 2.0 per 100,000 to 5.2). By 1980, suicides by 15-to 24-year-olds constituted almost 17% of the approximately 30,000 suicides in the United States (National Center for Health Statistics, n.d.). - https://academic.oup.com/book/38543/chapter/333673952
From 1970 to 1980 the suicide rate for older teen-agers and young adults, both male and female, rose 40 percent, the national Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday.Feb 22, 1987. - https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/22/us/youth-suicide-is-rising.html
October 12, 2022: Teen Suicides Jump 29% Over the Past Decade,
And younger generations are far less active than previous generations. "Four in five children don't do any housework, even though "doing chores is proven to be one of the strongest predictors of success in life overall, and lacking in initiative.
Which started before the more recent generations. Related to that,
Rising Number of Men Don't Want to Work - Newsweek May 6, 2024 American men are opting out of the workforce at unforeseen rates. For many, it's not an issue of not being able to find a job. They have simply opted out altogether.
Millions of men have dropped out of the workforce, leaving companies ... A large number of American men between 25 and 54 years old are not working or even looking for work.
Back to kids, lack of unstructured play, which is important, is part of the indolence among youth. Which even includes not riding bikes, an unstructured activity of freedom:
From 2019: Fewer Children Are Riding Bikes - Forbes Jul 31, 2019 Various surveys find a sharp decline in the number of children who ride bikes -- and there are many, many reasons why.
The number of kids riding their bikes regularly has dropped from 20.5 million in the 1990s to just 10.9 million in 2023 - https://www.boisebicycleproject.org/about/blog/2025/7/22/why-fewer-kids-are-biking
Did you write that, or did you ask a computer to do it for you?
It is my compilation from previous posts of research I engaged in, with source attribution, as usual, versus simply stating my opinion.
So if you disagree with it, post research refuting it, not just an opinion.
As for AI, if I asked it (not all are equal: I find perplexity.ai and its Sonar model better than others I tried) to provide research on the the issues cited and posted its response - as I have often done on issue, with source attribution - then again it would be as valid as the sources cited (and would be far better formatted).
As one who researches things I have seen the decline of search engines, and the bias of Google in particular, and thus AI can be better for research, if sources are provided.
So again, if you disagree with what I posted, then post research refuting it, not just an opinion.
” but they in turn were the entirety of the cause of the Korean war and the killing of Americans, there.”
Yes, the Soviets gave the green light for the invasion by the Norks. At that time, no one in the communist world would dare do anything, no matter how small, without Joe Stalin’s approval.
I neither agree nor disagree ... I’m just not impressed with your “wall of text” posts. Since they’re usually posted to someone else, I usually just ignore them.
I can admit some are too prolix, and need more proof reading, but most of what I think you refer to are in response to reiterated assertions that have already been refuted, since the posters ignore such .
And or they are in the interest of actually providing a documented response.
What I not impressed with are bare assertions as being fact, or a denial of what is rather well-established. Which recently included responding to moon landing deniers.
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