Charles B. DeBellevue Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

On May 20, 2015, DeBellevue was one of 77 American flying Aces to receive the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony in Washington D.C. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest honor Congress can bestow on behalf of the American people.

DeBellevue was the last American ace on active duty when he retired from active duty as a full colonel, while serving as commander of Air Force ROTC Detachment 440 at the University of Missouri in January 1998 after 30 years of military service.

After pinning on his new pilot wings, he returned to the F-4 as a pilot assigned to the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. In 1975, he moved to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, where he served as the assistant operations officer in the 43d Tactical Fighter Squadron. He went on to serve as the 5th Air Force deputy chief of staff at Yokota AB, Japan and the Commander of the 432d Combat Support Group at Misawa AB, Japan. He was then assigned as the commander of the 95th Air Base Wing at Edwards AFB, California, until 1995. The 95 ABW is the host wing at Edwards AFB, which is the second largest base, area-wise, in the U.S. Air Force.

In October 1971, DeBellevue was sent to the famed 555th (“Triple Nickel”) Tactical Fighter Squadron, of the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. Flying in a F-4D as the WSO with pilot Capt Steve Ritchie on May 10, 1972, he and Ritchie scored the first of four Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 kills they would achieve together. Both DeBellevue and Ritchie, along with Capt Jeffrey Feinstein of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, would become the only USAF “aces” during the Vietnam War. May 10, 1972 was the same day that Cunningham and Driscoll scored their third, fourth and fifth aerial victories, becoming the U.S. Navy’s only aces of the war.

Ritchie and DeBellevue’s assignment on May 10, 1972, the first major day of air combat in Operation Linebacker, was as element leader (Oyster 03) of one of two flights of the F-4D MiGCap for the morning strike force. Oyster flight had three of its Phantoms equipped with Combat Tree IFF interrogators, and two days previously its flight lead, Major Robert Lodge, and his WSO Captain Roger Locher had scored their third MiG kill to lead all USAF crews then flying in Southeast Asia.

On July 8, 1972, Ritchie and DeBellevue were leading Paula flight, in gun-equipped F-4Es instead of the Combat Tree F-4Ds they usually flew, on a MiGCAP to cover the exit of the strike force. While they were west of Phu Tho and south of Yen Bai, the EC-121 vectored them to intercept MiG-21s returning to base after damaging one of the US chaff escorts. The MiGs were still approximately 4 miles away and Ritchie turned the flight south to cross the Black River. As they closed, Disco gave them warning that the MiG return had “merged” with the Paula flight’s return on his screen. Ritchie reversed course, observed the first MiG at his 10 o’clock position and turned left to meet it head-on.

Ritchie’s final victory (his 5th making him an “ace”) with DeBellevue (his 4th) came on August 28, 1972, while leading Buick flight, a MiGCAP for a strike north of Hanoi. During the preceding month, 7th Air Force had instituted daily centralized mission debriefings of leaders and planners from all fighter wings called “Linebacker Conferences”. Ritchie had just started his flight of Combat Tree Phantoms on its return to base (Ritchie and DeBellevue were flying F-4D AF Serial No. 66-7463, in which they had scored their first kill). Red Crown, now the USS Long Beach, alerted the strike force to “Blue Bandits” (MiG-21s) 30 miles southwest of Hanoi, along the route back to Thailand. Approaching the area of the reported contact at 15,000 feet, Ritchie recalled recent Linebacker Conference information that MiGs had returned to using high altitude tactics and suspected the MiGs were high. Buick and Vega flights, both of the MiGCAP, flew toward the reported location.

During Linebacker strikes on September 9, 1972, a flight of four F-4Ds on MiGCAP west of Hanoi shot down three MiGs. Following his fifth kill, Steve Ritchie had been removed from active combat. Two were MiG-19s downed by the new team of Capt John A. Madden, Jr. and his WSO Capt DeBellevue. For Madden, the victories constituted his first and second MiG kills, but for DeBellevue they were numbers five and six, moving him up as the leading MiG destroyer of the war and elevating him to “Ace” status. When DeBellevue acquired the MiGs on radar, the flight maneuvered to attack. Madden and DeBellevue made the first move. They got a visual on the MiG about 5 miles out on final approach with his gear and flaps down. Getting a lock on him, they fired missiles but they missed. They were coming in from the side-rear and slipped up next to that MiG no more than 500 feet apart. “He got a visual on us, snatched up his flaps and hit afterburner, accelerating out. It became obvious we weren’t going to get another shot at the MiG”, says DeBellevue.

During his combat tour, DeBellevue logged 550 combat hours while flying 220 combat missions, 96 of which were over North Vietnam. His skill as a weapon systems officer was recognized when he and the other two Air Force “Aces”, Ritchie and Feinstein, received the 1972 Mackay Trophy. He also received the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Armed Forces Award and the Eugene M. Zuckert Achievement Award.

The six MiG kills credited to DeBellevue in 1972 are:

The night of his fifth and sixth victories, DeBellevue was given transfer papers while being toasted at the military officers’ club, as the Air Force removed aces from combat. He was ordered by the Air Force to enter pilot training at Williams AFB, Arizona, in November 1972, or accept his Discharge. His stated desire to train Weapons System Officers fell second to the Air Force determination that the highest ranking ace of the Vietnam War would not be a non-pilot.

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Title 10, Section 8742, United States Code, takes pleasure in presenting the Air Force Cross to Captain Charles B. DeBellevue (AFSN: 0-3210693), United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force as an F-4D Weapon Systems Officer in the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, in action on 9 September 1972. On that date, while protecting a large strike force attacking a high priority target deep in hostile territory, Captain DeBellevue engaged and destroyed a hostile aircraft. Through superior judgment and use of aircraft capabilities, and in complete disregard for his own safety, Captain DeBellevue was successful in destroying his fifth hostile aircraft, a North Vietnamese MiG-19. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of the enemy, Captain DeBellevue reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Colonel Charles Barbin DeBellevue (born August 15, 1945) is a retired officer in the United States Air Force (USAF). In 1972, DeBellevue became one of only five Americans to achieve flying ace status during the Vietnam War, and the first as a USAF weapon systems officer, an integral part of two-man aircrews with the emergence of air-to-air missiles as the primary weapons during aerial combat. He was credited with a total of six MiG kills, the most earned by any U.S. aviator during the Vietnam War, and is a recipient of the Air Force Cross.

DeBellevue was born in New Orleans on August 15, 1945, and grew up in Louisiana. After applying unsuccessfully to the United States Air Force Academy, he attended and graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then named the University of Southwestern Louisiana), in 1968. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) program at the university. Accepted into Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT), he failed to complete the course, but subsequently applied for and was accepted into Undergraduate Navigator Training (UNT) at Mather Air Force Base, California in July 1969. He completed F-4 Phantom combat crew training at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona and was assigned to the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, as a McDonnell Douglas F-4D weapon systems officer (WSO).

A competition to become the Air Force’s first Vietnam “ace” developed between Ritchie and Captain Jeffrey S. Feinstein, a WSO in another one of the 432nd’s squadrons, the 13th TFS, who scored his 3rd and 4th kills on July 18 and July 29. Each had a claim denied by Seventh Air Force’s Enemy Aircraft Claims Evaluation Board, Ritchie and DeBellevue for a claim of a MiG-21 on June 13, and Feinstein for a claim June 9.

USAF strike and chaff forces suffered a severe series of losses to MiGs between June 24 and July 5 (seven F-4s) without killing a MiG in return. As a counter-measure, 7th Air Force added a second Disco EC-121 to its airborne radar coverage, positioning it over the Gulf of Tonkin.