Like so many
people today, I communicate with friends via email. Often I receive
letters and speeches that have been forwarded to me by my friends
and they are from people I don't know. After awhile you keep seeing
the same name at the top of the email that has been forwarded and
you get the feeling that you know this person, though you have never
met formally. The content of their letters speak to your spirit and
somehow you connect.
Several years
ago, our friend Ron Sheardown started forwarding emails from John
Lowery. John sends detailed, long reads with a conservative slant
that focus on veterans and military issues.
Finally, I
asked Ron about his friend Lowery and was surprised when he told me
that Col. John Lowery, USAF (ret.) was a combat jet fighter pilot
in Korea with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), 4th Fighter
Interceptor Wing (FIW) and had 43 missions in the F-86 Sabre.
With 25-years
active duty, Col. Lowery logged 5,000 hours in fighters, including:
Lockheed F-80/T-33s and F-104s; North American F-86s and F-100s; Republic
F-105s; Northrop F-5s and McDonnell Douglas F-4s. He spent twenty-four
years as an Instructor in the Sabreliner and King Air, was a FAA Designated
Check Pilot for ten years and has accumulated over 13,500 flying hours.
One of John's
emails to Ron said, "I just finished a week of escorting Ken
Rowe (also known as: No Kum-Suk) around the Bay Area, Folsom, and
Lake Tahoe. Ken was the North Korean Mig-15 pilot who defected to
Kimpo Air Base where I was stationed on 21 September 1953. He's a
great personality and fun to be with. You cannot believe the conditions
he and his buddies lived under. If you are interested I'll send you
a photo of his airplane parked in our alert area at Kimpo."
On the morning
of September 21, 1953, Lt. Kum Sok No, a 21-year-old North Korean
Air Force MiG pilot flew Russia's finest secret jet fighter to Kimpo
AFB in Seoul, Korea and defected.
In his haste
to get on the ground at Kimpo, he landed on a straight in approach,
ignoring the traffic pattern and was actually downwind. He pulled
off the runway, shut down the engine, pulled the canopy back and stood
up with hands in the air.
Of course,
pilots and aircrews gathered around the MiG, taking pictures with
wide, unbelieving eyes. The tower scrambled the entire 4th Fighter
Wing to protect the MiG on the ground from any Soviets or North Koreans
who might want to attack and destroy the defecting plane and pilot.
A cargo plane
flew the MiG to Okinawa for testing by two Air Force test pilots,
one being Chuck Yeager. The testing lasted several months and comparisons
were made against the F-86 Sabre. Later, the plane was disassembled
again and airlifted to Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
During flight
tests the MiG-15 proved to be a better dogfighter with more maneuverability
and acceleration, although the top speed was slightly less that the
F-86. The wingspan of the F-86 is 37-feet, 1-inch and the fuselage
measures 37-feet, 6-inches, while the MiG-15's wingspan is 33-feet,
¾ -inch and the fuselage is 35-feet, 7.5-inches.
The MiG had
more firepower with a 37mm cannon, compared to the six .50 caliber
machine in the wings of the Sabre, but fortunately we had fine pilots
like Col. Lowery, with superb flying abilities.

Photo of MiG-15 at Kimpo AFB in Seoul, Korea
Lowery continues
today to be instrumental in efforts to find out what happened to missing
F-86 pilots and other servicemen lost in duty to their country.
John visited
Mojave Airport after SpaceShipOne had won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to show him White Knight One
and SpaceShipOne on November 16, 2004 at Scaled Composites.
On April 16,
2011, John Lowery came to Mojave again and was the featured guest
speaker at Plane Crazy Saturday. He enjoyed sitting in the F-86 owned
by my husband, Al Hansen.
John has authored
many books and aviation articles too. One of our favorites is Life
in the Wild Blue Yonder: Jet Fighter Pilot stories from The Cold War.
Thank you
John for being a wonderful friend, in person and through email!
See you on
our next flight!
Cathy Hansen
The Loop:
Korean
War fighter pilot, John Lowery (by Cathy Hansen)
Sabrejet
Secrets - Article
containing information from John Lowery