This Day in History: “Robbie” Risner, Korean War Ace
On this day in 1952, an Air Force pilot uses his plane to do something it was never designed to do: push another jet through the sky.
James Robinson “Robbie” Risner is legendary for his heroic leadership among POWs during Vietnam. But long before that, he was already making a name for himself in the skies over Korea.
“Korea was probably the high point of my whole career as far as real gratification is concerned,” he would say. Indeed, Risner was an ace of the Korean War—and the 20th American to become a jet ace.
One of his eight kills came on September 15, 1952.
Then-Capt. Risner and his wingman, 2nd Lt. Joe Logan, were escorting F-84 Thunderjet fighter-bombers as they attacked a chemical plant near the Yalu River. Four MiGs attacked but were rebuffed. Risner was soon pursuing the last MiG in what has been called a “wild, twisting, low-level chase.”
The two planes were going at near supersonic speeds as they went in and out of riverbeds and hills. Risner had blown the canopy off the enemy plane, but its pilot nevertheless maneuvered erratically, trying to lose his pursuer. Yet Risner was right there with him.
“I never thought about what I was doing, it was all reflex,” Risner later said.
The MiG fled for an enemy airfield 35 miles inside China, perhaps thinking Risner would be unwilling to follow. If so, he thought wrong. Risner chased him—even flying between two enemy hangars! By then, the enemy plane was badly damaged: It ultimately broke up over the airfield, taking out quite a few parked enemy MiGs as it crashed.
“You just took out the whole Chinese air force!” Logan reportedly cheered.
The two were soon returning to base—or, at least, they were until Logan was hit by enemy fire.
“Joe’s aircraft got hit in the belly and began losing fuel,” Risner described. “When he was down to five minutes remaining, I told him to shut down and I would try to push him to Cho Do Island, where we had a rescue operation.”
The island was sixty miles away. Risner didn’t know if it was possible to use one plane’s nose to push another. And he knew he’d be in danger if broken parts from Logan’s plane got sucked into his own engine.
But he couldn’t focus on that. “A typical fighter pilot thinks less about risk than about his objective,” he later shrugged. His first goal was to help Logan: He didn’t want his wingman bailing out over enemy territory.
Carefully, Risner eased his jet’s nose into the tailpipe of Logan’s plane.
“It stayed sort of locked there as long as we both maintained stable flight,” Risner later explained, “but the turbulence created by Joe’s aircraft made stable flight for me very difficult.” Complicating matters, hydraulic fluid and jet fuel were streaming from Logan’s jet and onto Risner’s windshield.
The two planes were closing in on Cho Do, still maintaining a speed of 190 knots, when Risner broke away, leaving Logan to bail out in friendly waters. “I’ll see you at base tonight,” Logan radioed.
Risner never heard from Logan again. Tragically, Logan became tangled in his parachute lines and drowned before he could be rescued.
“But the measure in a heroic act lies not in success. It lies in the doing,” an Air Force Magazine article later concluded.
Risner didn’t make much of what he’d done. Many years later, he wrote an autobiography. He barely mentioned his attempt to save Logan.
“Brig. Gen. James Robinson ‘Robbie’ Risner was part of that legendary group who served in three wars,” General Mark A. Welsh III concluded when Risner passed away, “built an Air Force, and gave us an enduring example of courage and mission success. . . . I’m proud to serve in Robbie Risner’s Air Force and to try and live up to his example.”
A note for those who are interested: Some of you might know I am running an experiment in history reels. If you are so inclined, check out my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to those HERE. Don’t miss the reel I created about Article V & the Constitution, posted over the weekend.
Primary Sources:
120914-Z-JV725-014 (Air Force Photos)
Blake Stilwell, How an Air Force Pilot Tried to Save His Wingman by Pushing His Plane in Midair (Military.com; March 28, 2022)
Douglas G. Adler, Giant of the Air Force Stood Tall in Korea and Vietnam (Aviation History Mag.; July 2020) (reprinted HERE)
Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, A true airpower giant (U.S. Air Force; Oct. 24, 2013)
James Risner (Arkansas Aviation Historical Society)
James Robinson Risner (Military Times: Hall of Valor)
John L. Frisbee, Valor: When Push Came to Shove (Air Force Mag., Dec. 1983)
John T. Correll, Nine Feet Tall (Air Force Mag., Feb. 1, 2012) (reprinted HERE)
John Darrell Sherwood, Officers in Flight Suits (1996)
USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft Korean War (USAF Historical Study No. 81; June 1963)
William Lawson, In 1952, a Korean War Pilot Chased an Enemy Plane into China (National Interest; July 16, 2026)
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