The Project

 A half-century after the end of the Vietnam War there is still very  little public consensus about what happened there, or why.   And  certainly, compared to the countless pages of human stories of that  War, The Misty Experiment is a mere paragraph that makes no claim  to document, as do some other films, the larger issues of the decade-long conflict. 

Our  film encompasses only a small, mid-war chapter, 1967-1970,  in which  increased escalation from both sides raised the stakes and prolonged the  warfare. 

 Now, inspired by other nationwide media events surrounding the 50th  Commemoration of the Vietnam War, the producers and MPT believe this  program can help heal deep divisions that have endured since the war’s end.   This film will offer audiences a different perspective of the war—one not seen by most Americans--because its story unfolds in the skies  over North Vietnam and Laos, far above any combat action that took  place in the villages and rice-paddies seen nightly on the Evening News  during the mid-1960s and early 1970s.   In many ways, within a dark and  brutal chapter of military history, The Misty Experiment  tells a success story that will provide for veterans, their families  and, even, for those who opposed the war, an opportunity to learn and  better appreciate the little-known role of Forward Air Controllers  (FACs).   Specifically, it will shine light on the significant  contributions to American aviation history made by a courageous and  relatively unknown Air Force squadron called “Misty." 

“…air power was  shackled.  You should’ve been able to pick out the strategic targets,  the tactical targets that air power could destroy to shape the outcome  of the War.  When you were not permitted to do that, you were just  fighting  on the fringes.  I’m convinced if we’d been  permitted to go in and close Haiphong Harbor  and bomb the railroads coming down from China…but our Rules of Engagement  did not permit that. They were off-Limits.”  

— Ron Fogleman, Misty 86 

  Of the 157 Mistys,

• 34 were shot down (22%).
• 8 others were shot down when not flying with Misty (total 28%).
• 2 Mistys were shot down twice.
• 8 KIA, killed in action in Vietnam
• 4 POWs,
• 1 Medal of Honor winner,
• 2 Air Force Chiefs of Staff,
• 7 general officers,
• The winner of the Collier Trophy, the Louis Bleriot Medal, the Presidential Citizen's Medal of Honor,
• The first man to fly non-stop un-refueled around the world.