MiG debate still smouldering after 51 years
Traditional wisdom has it that a Navy F-4 splashed the first U.S. air-to-air victory of the Vietnam conflict when it smoked a Chinese MiG-17 on 9 April 1965. However, the Aviationist has the backstory on the fact that a North Vietnamese MiG-17 was shot down by a USAF F-100D, flown by Capt. Donald Kilgus on 4 Apr, achieving both the only Super Sabre air-to-air victory (ever) and predating the Navy MiG kill by almost a week.
The thing is, though Kilgus painted a MiG kill marking beneath the windscreen of the F-100D tail number 55-2894 and another on the F-105G Wild Weasel that he flew later in the war, he was never given offical credit for the kill, although even the Vietnamese say it happened.