Soviet veteran, retired lieutenant colonel Yuri Trushechkin, who took part in the Vietnam war, was part of a rocket crew that destroyed an American plane in the sky over Vietnam, piloted by the future US presidential candidate John McCain, and even took his personal documents as a trophy.
Let's remember this story in more detail …
Were on the safe side
In an old photo that has turned yellow from time to time, there are several people in civilian suits, but short neat haircuts betray the military in them. When the S-75 mobile anti-aircraft missile systems first appeared in Vietnam, the first two years of combat crews for them were completely Soviet. In the USSR, meanwhile, they began to train Vietnamese missilemen under the full program, including shooting at the range. Soon the brothers in arms took over the equipment from our specialists and sat down at the missile consoles themselves. Officers from the USSR were already sent to them for insurance.
On the S-75 air defense system, the combat crew consisted of about 80 Vietnamese and 7 Russians. Moreover, the "specialists" moved from division to division.
I am interested in Yuri Petrovich: how was their selection for a business trip?
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- They sent to Vietnam those who had experience in combat missile launches at the range, who knew the technique well. The team recruited a variety of different - a coordinator, a diesel operator, a high-frequency operator … I was a guidance officer. Our task, - continues to tell the veteran, - was primarily equipment tuning. In addition - troubleshooting, training Vietnamese, training. And most importantly, they exercised complete control over the functioning of the complex. The Vietnamese crew was on duty.
- Where were you during the shooting?
- A Vietnamese was sitting at the console. Naturally, I was there. All combat work was carried out by our brothers in arms. The task of advisors is to insure their actions.
We continue to look at the photos.
“And here the Americans have hit us,” Yuri Petrovich hands me a picture. - This is a blow to the marching column.
The photo shows a warped Soviet rocket.
- Did you get bombed often?
- It happened. The Vietnamese did not deploy fully anti-aircraft missile battalions. They had 4 launchers each instead of 6. This allowed the crews to quickly fold and change their location in a short time. The divisions were always in motion, because their satellites were spotted.
Subtleties of Vietnamese politics
- Of course, we also had disagreements, - says Yuri Petrovich. - For example, I heard the following story from our guys. At one of the meetings, the deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, summing up the results for the next week, said that the missilemen fought well, shooting down two American aircraft with twenty missiles.
These caused bewilderment among our specialists - according to their calculations, 12 aircraft were shot down. But the Vietnamese continued: the girls' self-defense units achieved success, which, having adopted the combat experience of the elderly self-defense units, shot down 10 American aircraft from carbines, spending only twenty rounds on them …
Some of the advisers could not resist:
- Why then are we sending you echelons of missiles? Let's drive a wagon of cartridges - there will be enough for all American aviation!
The speaker ignored this, and then came up to our specialists and said:
“You don’t understand, because we have a people's war going on. And we must use such examples to raise the enthusiasm of the people. These are the subtleties of our policy.
Another unexpected discovery of that time was the difference in the number of aircraft shot down according to Soviet and Vietnamese data. So, a sign of the destruction of a target for the Soviet calculation of the air defense missile system was primarily the fact of undermining the warhead of a missile in the target area, while the Vietnamese assessed the result by the debris on the ground, which, referring to safety requirements, Soviet specialists were rarely and reluctantly allowed to approach.
By that time, the VNA soldiers had learned to fight well. Therefore, they often greeted the arriving Russian specialists with some arrogance, they could arrange a check on them. Let's say they pull out some lamp from the block - look, what's the matter? And there are 40 lamps …
We looked closely at each other for a week, then the relationship improved.
- My friend Slava Snetov injured his leg, - says the veteran rocket scientist. - The wound seemed to be small, but the leg began to swell quickly, the temperature rose. What to do? We must get to the hospital in Hanoi. It is 70 km to it on the map, but the road is all broken, solid craters. Then the translator says that there is a grandfather Ho who can help the Russian in the village nearby. The risk, of course, is great, but we decided to go to him. Slava returned three days later as if nothing had happened. He said that he was lying in the hut of this old man, who made terrible lotions to the wound and gave him some kind of "nasty" liquid to drink.
The peasants always brought us food - fish, chickens, whatever, - Yuri Petrovich recalls, - although they themselves were starving. We, in turn, gave them stewed meat, condensed milk, sweets, if any. We communicated through translators. Every officer had them. There was also a special team that served us: guarded, even fought against insects, of which there is an incredible amount and of all sorts.
The life of our soldiers in a foreign country was rather mundane
When changing the location of the anti-aircraft missile system, they always tried to settle us in a safe place, as a rule, on the edge of the village. The peasants immediately began to dig holes into which they inserted concrete rings, in which we took refuge. From above they were covered with bamboo lids. Hundreds of such wells have been dug throughout the country. They were located about fifteen meters from each other, so as not to fall under one bomb attack. Each division of the air defense missile system was tightly covered with anti-aircraft guns, even after firing all the missiles, the missilemen were protected.
We ate our own products as much as possible. Sometimes they could be obtained from the trade mission.
The current US Senator John McCain in the summer of 1967 on the right.
After a while, the translator brought his documents and a sphere - a flight helmet to the position. Glass was highly valued on it, which changes the illumination depending on the intensity of the light. They brought in another block of equipment and a "beggar's flag" - this is a tag where it was written in several languages that he, an American citizen, suffered a disaster, asks for help. It was sewn on every soldier and officer of the US Army.
Among the things was a flight book - these are two cardboard folded in half. It was written in felt-tip pen: John Sidney McCain. I opened it - there are lined columns in which the dates of the parachute check were recorded. The last mark was made on the eve of departure. I took the book for myself as a souvenir. She always lay among the "Vietnamese" photographs, and then, during numerous travels, she got lost.
Why do I remember the name of the downed American well? Because this is the only real US document that it held in its own hands and then kept at home for many years.
The absurdity of Hollywood plots
I am interested in Yuri Petrovich:
- Many Hollywood action films are devoted to various operations of the "green berets", the lone heroes in that war. Were there any attempts by the special forces of the US Army, say, to penetrate your position, commit sabotage, free the prisoners?
- What do you! I don't even remember such conversations. True, when an American plane was shot down, the Yankees did everything possible to save the pilot. We tried by all means to ensure its departure to a place where the pilot could be picked up, for example, by a helicopter. On the decks of aircraft carriers, the Americans always kept forces ready to immediately fly out to help a pilot in trouble. Each of them had a direction finder, so it was not difficult to determine the location of the person.
- In general, - continues Trushechkin, - the Americans did not forget about us, they made themselves felt. For example, now we can safely say that we listened to Radio Enterprise. The powerful radio station of this nuclear aircraft carrier was broadcasting its programs in Russian, which we listened to by tuning the receivers. It was surprising that the enemy even knew our commanders by their names …
A reason for memories
Many years later, in 1986, Trushechkin caught a message on TV with the edge of his ear that a certain John McCain was running for Senatorial office in Arizona. And when they said that his plane was shot down in Vietnam by a Soviet missile, and he was in captivity, all doubts were dispelled. During the recent pre-election hype in the United States, the veteran of the air defense forces once again recalled his Vietnamese victories …
- And there were many of them in general? - I am interested in the interlocutor.
- In my personal file there are 5 destroyed American aircraft, not counting "drones", awarded the Order of the Red Star.
The missilemen do not see the results of the launches: the missiles flew 25-30 kilometers from the launch site. And this plane fell 5-6 kilometers from the position.
- The pilot ejected, - recalls Trushechkin, - and we could see how he descended on the "wing" - a new form of parachute at that time.
The capture group took him:
In Vietnam's Hoa Lo prison, McCain was treated on an equal footing with other American prisoners of war - hated for the villages burned down by napalm. He tried several times to commit suicide, they did not give him … But it would be better if they did! How many wars and deaths could have been avoided!
For the shot down of McCain's plane, the rocketman Trushechkin received the Order of the Red Star and a thousand rubles in addition to his pension.