These excerpts from various issues of “The Air Force Now” news magazine begins with a segment showing AC-130 gunships operating at night over North Vietnam. NVA tanks and boats are seen being targeted, with gigantic explosions observable in the material. The film also contains a reunion of fighter pilots at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Colonel Erich Hartmann, the all time WWII ace, is briefly shown being interviewed and speaking. U.S. Air Force bicyclists who are hoping to join the 1972 Olympic Team are also shown. The film also shows relief efforts in Peru by USAF personnel following a major earthquake. The film ends with Sammy Davis Jr. speaking about his experience visiting Vietnam to entertain the troops.
Erich Alfred Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), nicknamed “Bubi” by his comrades and “The Black Devil” by his Soviet adversaries, was a German fighter pilot during World War II and is the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions. He claimed, and was credited with, shooting down 352 Allied aircraft—345 Soviet and 7 American—while serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crash-land his damaged fighter 14 times due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.
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