Operation Linebacker was a bombing campaign carried out by the US 7th Air Force and US Navy Task Force 77 against the North Vietnamese Army from May 9 to October 23, 1972, during the Vietnam War.
The main rationale of Operation Linebacker was to stem the flow of military supplies for the Nguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive), which was an invasion of South Vietnam, by forces of the communist People’s Army of Vietnam (North Vietnamese Army), that had been launched on March 30, 1972. Linebacker was the first continuous air interdiction campaign conducted against North Vietnam since the bombing halt established by President Lyndon B. Johnson in November 1968.
On the first day of Operation Linebacker, Navy Lieutenant Randall H. Cunningham and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant William P. Driscoll became the first U.S. air aces of the Vietnam Conflict when they shot down their fifth MiG. On August 28, the Air Force gained its first ace when Captain Richard S. Ritchie downed his fifth enemy aircraft. Twelve days later, Captain Charles B. DeBellevue, who had been Ritchie’s backseater during four of his five victories, shot down two more MiGs, bringing his total to six. On October 13, another weapons officer, Captain Jeffrey S. Feinstein, was credited with his fifth MiG, making him the final Air Force ace.
