On December 17, 1950, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Hinton of the 336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Wing, closed to within 1,500 feet of a MiG-15 south of the Yalu River and scored the first Sabre kill of the war. It was the first chapter in a battle that would define the Jet Age: swept-wing against swept-wing, American radar-ranging gunsights against Soviet cannon, training against numbers. The 4th FW arrived at Kimpo in mid-December 1950 with a few dozen F-86A-5s and a mission to stop the MiG-15 from dominating the skies over North Korea. By June 1951, the 4th FW had flown 427 MiG sweeps in just two weeks. The kill ratio ultimately reached approximately 8:1 in favor of the Sabre, but the numbers hid the truth: many MiG pilots were Soviet "Honchos" flying under Chinese or North Korean markings, and they fought with skill that shocked American squadrons. The F-86 was not a superior aircraft in every respect—the MiG-15 could out-climb and out-turn it at altitude—but the Sabre's hydraulically boosted controls and the experienced WWII veterans flying it proved decisive. MiG Alley, that narrow corridor between the Chongchon and the Yalu, became the proving ground for everything that would follow: the missile age, the Vietnam dogfight, and the eternal argument about whether the machine or the man wins the fight.