Skip to content

This Day in History – June 10, 1969 – The X-15 gets a place in history

10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum. The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and

Read More »
Main Menu
  • Home
  • History
    • About The SSS
    • Headed West
    • Biographies
    • Today in F-100 History
    • SSS Caterpillar
    • Wall of Honor
    • F-100 Information
    • Friends of the Super Sabre
    • N. American F-100 Super Sabre
  • Galleries
  • The Intake
    • About The Intake: Journal
    • The Intake: Journal of the Super Sabre Society – Archives
  • What’s New
  • Contact

Buttell, Duane A

  • Home
  • Biography
  • Biographies
  • Buttell, Duane A

Duane A. Buttell

Preferred Name: Duane
Nickname/Call Sign: Dood
Date of Birth: March 10, 1941
Highest Military Grade: 0-6 – Colonel
Hometown: Chillicothe. IL
Biography
Pilot Information
Album

14 July 1966 MiG-21 Destroyed by Duane’s aircraft…F-4C (63-7489)

Two MIG-21’s were destroyed on 14 July by F-4C aircrews of the 480th TFS. Capt. William J. Swendner and 1st Lt. Duane A. Buttell, Jr. flew the lead Phantom, and 1st Lts. Ronald G. Martin and Richard N. Krieps the number 2 aircraft. They were part of a flight of four F-4s providing MIG cover for an Iron Hand flight of three F-105’s. (1)

Credited with the first kill today was Ist Lt. Duane A. Buttell, 25, of Chillicothe. 111., and Capt. William J. Swender, 31 of Alamogordo, N.M. The second MIG21 was hit by Lt. Ronald G. Martin, 26, of Lake Villa, 111., and Ist Lt. Richard N. Krieps, 24, of Chesterton, Ind. “The MIG looked like a big red barn door,” said Buttell. “We shot him down with our first missile.” No American planes were lost in any of the dogfights but the air war was “heating up,” a spokesman in Saigon said. U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots flew 85 missions over the north Wednesday, concentrating on targets near Hanoi, the key port of Haiphong and along the southern panhandle on the coast, through which Communist supplies flow into South Viet Nam. (2)

Sources (1) http://greatwarhawknation.com/migkillers-swendner-buttell-14-jul-66/

(2) Desert Sun, Volume 39, Number 294, 14 July 1966

 

Units Assigned

  • 1964 Pilot Training
  • 2/1966 Da Nang AB, Vietnam (credited with a MiG-21 kill during aerial combat over North Vietnam on July 14, 1966)
  • 12/1969 Left Active Duty
  • 1970-1981 127th Tactical Fighter Squadron/184th Tactical Fighter Group, KANG (F-100)
  • 1981-1993 9001st Liaison Officer for the USAF Academy/Air Force ROTC
  • 1993 Retired USAF

Awards & Decorations

Silver Star
Silver Star
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross
Air Medal
Air Medal with 2 Silver/8 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters
Air Force Commendation Medal
Air Force Commendation Medal
Air Force Achievement Medal
Air Force Achievement Medal

Flight Info

F-100
F-105
F-4

Rating: Senior Pilot
Flight Hours: 4,000+ in military fighter aircraft, 20,000+ in commercial aircraft

Military & Civilian Education

Military Education:

  • ROTC
  • AF Squadron Officer School
  • Air Command and Staff College

Civilian Education:

  • 1964 University of Illinois

Swedner And Buttell
Album Slideshow
Slideshow
Click To View

Wall of Honor Location

Our Mission

The mission of the Super Sabre Society is to preserve the history of the F-100 Super Sabre and the men who flew the aircraft.

Follow Us

Copyright © 2025 Super Sabre Society
Website by: Heart and Soul Web Design
Scroll to Top