Innovate to Survive: Vietnam Air Combat Perspectives Part 2 — Ep. 287

Episode Summary: The air war over Vietnam represents one of the most dynamic, evolutionary periods of airpower innovation. This impacted tactics, operational concepts, training, and technological developments. In part two of this conversation, we continue our interview with two legendary Vietnam veteran airmen: Col. Leonard “Lucky” Ekman, USAF (Ret.) and ace Col. Chuck DeBellevue, USAF (Ret.). We focus on how the air-to-air tactics and technology evolved as well as key details behind the Wild Weasel mission. Credits: Host: Heather "Lucky" Penney, Director of Research, The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Producer: Shane Thin Executive Producer: Douglas Birkey Guest: Col. Leonard “Lucky” Ekman, USAF (Ret.) Guest: Col. Charles DeBellevue, USAF (Ret.) Guest: John "JV" Venable, Senior Fellow for Airpower Studies, The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Links:

You can listen to Innovate to Survive: Vietnam Air Combat Perspectives Part 2 — Ep. 287 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Innovate to Survive: Vietnam Air Combat Perspectives Part 2 — Ep. 287 is an episode from The Aerospace Advantage by The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

This episode is 61:18 long.

This episode was published on Apr 25, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Aerospace Advantage when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.