On February 3, 1968, two of the Vietnam People’s Air Force top pilots, Pham Thanh Ngan and Nguyen Van Coc, took off on MIG-21s on their fourth interception mission of the day: a radar-detected pair of enemy aircraft, most likely light bombers.

However, as the duo approached the Laotian border, MiG-21 pilot Ngan thought he spotted an EB‐66 ECM aircraft; a closer look revealed a much more valuable target: two Convair F-102 Delta Daggers, the world’s first supersonic all-weather jet interceptor.

Also, the United States Air Force’s first operational delta-wing aircraft, the Delta Dagger, had been wreaking havoc on Vietnam for nearly six years as one of America’s first deployed aircraft models to the area.

That day, the Daggers were piloted by Major A. L. Lomax as the flight leader, with 1Lt Wallace Wiggins as his wingman. Sensing the imminent threat, the leader reacted with the precision of a seasoned warrior and tried to unleash the fury of three of his missiles.

But when every missile missed its mark, the Americans were becoming an easy target.

With this, seizing the moment and about to become the first-ever North Vietnam pilot to fire at the iconic Convair Delta Dagger directly, Ngan sneakily maneuvered into the blind spot behind Wiggins and aimed.

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