Ace in the hole: A special welcome for pilot ace Steve Ritchie

     As Steve Ritchie flew into Nellis Air Force Base alongside two other F-4 fighter jets Monday morning, the Air Force ace was struck by the strange familiarity of it all.
      "Coming in in formation, in that three-ship, was almost like going back a quarter-century," said Ritchie, who both trained and taught at the Las Vegas-area base during the Vietnam War. "It was a weird feeling."
      Weird, but good. And it got better. Ritchie received a hero's welcome later in the week as he walked the flight line near the F-4E Phantom II he is scheduled to fly in air shows at the base today and Saturday.
      "Steve, remember me?" a veteran in a wheelchair asked. Ritchie said he did, and shook the man's hand. A boy then asked to have his picture taken with the brigadier general, who earned the distinction of "ace" by shooting down five enemy aircraft during the Vietnam War.
      Ritchie, 54, is the only Air Force pilot ace since the Korean War, and the only American pilot ever to down five of the Soviet-made MiG-21s.
      Homecomings have not always been so sweet. Like many who fought in Vietnam, Ritchie was not cheered when he returned from his first tour of combat duty.
      "I was spit on in San Francisco, in uniform," Ritchie said, with only the slightest edge entering a voice softened by a North Carolina accent.
      After being so reviled, he acknowledged it is rewarding to play a part in this week's celebration of the Air Force's 50th anniversary, to be cheered by a crowd of thousands as he flies over in an F-4 painted to resemble the one he used in combat.
      "It's a very humbling, gratifying and heartwarming experience," said Ritchie, who owns a lecturing and consulting business in Golden, Colo.
      The accolades, he said, do not belong to him alone. Without the help of maintenance and support personnel, he said, "I certainly wouldn't be a fighter ace, and I probably wouldn't be alive."
      Support personnel helped keep him alive July 8, 1972. The flier was patrolling for MiGs near Hanoi when he received a radio transmission that "MiGs had us in sight, and they were cleared to attack. And we did not have a visual."
      The MiGs could see Ritchie, in other words, but Ritchie could not see them.
      "That information was 40 to 60 seconds old. That made it even more critical."
      Then Ritchie got a radio transmission without call signs and the usual protocol: "Steve, they're two miles north of you."
      "I happened to hear it among all of the radio chatter," Ritchie recalled. "He (the radar controller) knew what I needed to know."
      The pilot immediately turned left, and saw a MiG off his left wing.
      Without the warning, "The timing was so perfect that I probably would not have seen them. They probably would have fired heat-seeking missiles, and I probably wouldn't be here to tell you the story today."
      As it was, Ritchie engaged the enemy in a low-altitude dogfight, in which he shot down two MiGs.
      "That support from the air crew and the controller that were over 100 miles away viewing the battle arena made the difference in possibly being shot down and killed, or captured," he said.
      Ritchie downed all five of the MiGs during his second tour of combat duty in Vietnam.
      His first tour was in 1968. Between tours, Ritchie completed the F-4 Fighter Weapons School at Nellis, and stayed on as an instructor.
      Ritchie began his second tour of combat duty with misgivings. It was apparent, he said, that the U.S. government would not allow the military to do its job.
      Rather than relying on air power and naval gun power to win the war, the United States had become bogged down in jungle warfare.
      "There's nothing worse than for the government to ask its young people to fight and die, and not let them win," he said. "We were chased out with our tails between our legs, and we had accomplished nothing."
      Despite what he describes as the country's "miserable experience in Vietnam," Ritchie today serves in the reserves with the U.S. Air Force Recruiting Service. He left active duty in 1974 .
      He encourages young people to join the Air Force because he does not believe the mistakes of Vietnam will be repeated. He cited Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf as an example of the government "allowing the military to run the war."
      "I'm encouraged," he said, "that we have hopefully learned our lesson."