We are honored that retired Navy Captain Royce Williams is coming to the homecoming air show as a special guest of NAS Pensacola, the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, American Airlines, and Veterans Flight.

 

If you follow Ward Carroll’s YouTube channel, or John Mollison’s “Old Guys and Their Airplanes” website, you recognize Royce Williams’s name. If you haven’t heard of Royce Williams, but plan to attend the air show, you have an opportunity to meet a true American hero who as a young Naval Aviator distinguished himself during one of the most amazing and least known events in the history of Naval Aviation.

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On 18 November 1952, LT Royce Williams was a Navy F9F Panther pilot assigned to Fighter Squadron VF-781 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, which was part of a task force operating off the east coast of North Korea in an area south of Vladivostok, Russia. When an NSA listening post radioed a warning that a flight of four Russian MiG’s was inbound toward the task force, the Oriskany launched four F9F Panthers to intercept the MiG’s. LT Williams was leading the flight’s second element of two Panthers.

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The F9F Panther was the Navy’s first carrier-based jet fighter. Although a tough product of Grumman’s legendary “Iron Works,” it was a straight wing jet better suited to a ground attack role than air to air combat against the much higher performance MiG-15.

 

Soon after the four Panthers took off, the pilot of the lead aircraft reported a fuel pump problem and was ordered to return to the Oriskany. Lead’s wing man returned to the carrier with him, leaving LT Williams and his wing man, a new and inexperienced member of the squadron, to deal with what they had been told were four MiG’s. They believed it would be a difficult “two vs four” encounter, but after visually spotting the MiG’s contrails LT Williams realized there were seven MiG’s, making this an almost impossible “two vs seven” fight he was unlikely to survive.  

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Ward Carroll's and John Mollison's interviews explain what happened during Royce Williams's encounter with the Russian MiG's, and links to their web pages are below. You will enjoy the story and be surprised it remained a secret for many years.  

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Ward Carroll: (45) Secrets of a Soviet MiG Killer - YouTube

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John Mollison: OGTA Debrief with CAPT. Royce Williams on Vimeo

 

During Saturday's air show CAPT Williams will be honored by flying in a formation of six Stearmans. Joining CAPT Williams in the front cockpits of the Stearmans will be CAPT Terry Shashaty, Commanding Officer of NAS Pensacola; retired RADM Kyle Cozad, President and CEO of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation; and John Dudley, Director of Flight Operations for American Airlines, which generously is flying CAPT Williams from San Diego to Pensacola for the air show.

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