Nguyen Van Coc - Biography

Biography

Coc was born in the Viet Yen district of the province of Bac Giang in French Indochina, north of Hanoi. When he was 5 years old, his father, Nguyen Van Bay, who was Chairman of the Viet Minh in the district, and his uncle, also a member of the Viet Minh, were killed by the French. Fearing further trouble with the French, his mother relocated the family, which led to him spending the rest of his childhood near Chu air base, which kindled an interest in aircraft.

He attended Ngo Si Lien school in Bac Giang and upon completion of his schooling, enlisted in the Quan Chung Khong Quan (Vietnamese People's Air Force, VPAF) in 1961 and underwent his initial training at Cat Bi Airbase in Haiphong. He subsequently spent four years undergoing pilot training in the Soviet Union at the Batajsk and Krasnodov Soviet Air Force bases. Of the 120 trainees who were dispatched in Nguyens’s draft to the Soviet Union, he was one of the seven who graduated as a MiG-17 pilot.

After a brief spell back in North Vietnam serving with the 921st Sao Do (Red Star) Fighter Regiment, he returned to the Soviet Union and underwent conversion training to the MiG-21 in a two-seat Mig-21U, before returning to the 921st Fighter Regiment in June 1965. He began operational flying in December 1965.

On 2 January 1967, he was among a group of pilots who fell into the trap set up by F-4 Phantom IIs of the United States Air Force's 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (Operation Bolo). The American fighters flew to Hanoi using the same flight patterns and radio callsigns as F-105 Thunderchief fighter-bomber formations. As a result, the North Vietnamese fliers encountered interceptors armed with air-to-air missiles instead of fighter-bombers loaded with bombs. Coc was among the five Vietnamese pilots shot down, with all ejecting safely.

Flying a MIG-21PF, he normally served as a wingman. He scored all his victories using the heat-seeking R-3S Atoll missile.

In 1969, he was awarded a Huy Hiew medal for each of his nine claimed kills. The end of the American Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign on October 31, 1968 removed him from the opportunity for further air combat. In that year, he was transferred from operational duties so that his valuable combat experience could be put to use in training new pilots. Among the pilots he trained was Nguyen Duc Soat, who obtained five kills in 1972.

After the war, he remained with the Vietnamese National Air Force, retiring with the rank of Chief Inspector in 2002 after a period of health decline.