SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A Central Valley man discovered his late father served alongside Medal of Honor recipient Captain Royce Williams.
And a dated journal entry proves it.
The same entry that details the day of one of the most legendary solo dogfights in military history.
It's in the hands of Christopher Garcia.
He combs through the pages of a cruise book from the early 1950s.
"That's my dad there. He's playing around, the chutes,” said Garcia.
As he pointed out the black-and-white photos of his father aboard the USS Oriskany, he spotted a familiar face.
“Now we're getting to it,” said Garcia. “There!”
It was Captain Royce Williams, an Escondido war veteran, who was recently awarded the Medal of Honor.
I sat down with Williams just weeks before he was flown to Washington, D.C.
He told me about the bravest 35 minutes he ever spent: Fighting 7 Soviet planes.
"I could see clearly because of their contrails that there were 7, and as they flew over me, I could see that they were MiG-15s. A superior fighter airplane,” said Williams.
Williams shot down 4 of the aircraft and escaped back to the carrier.
The dogfight was classified until the early 2000s.
But despite the American public not knowing the details, that doesn’t mean others on the carrier weren’t aware.
Garcia has his father's journal, which includes an entry from the day Williams earned that medal.
"All at once, we got word on the teletype that 7 MiG-15s were sighted 10 miles from the task force,” Garcia read from the page.
When Garcia found the journal entry, the date confirmed everything.
"When I looked at the journal, and I saw the date of November 18th, he had each page dated, and sure enough, there it was."
Garcia wants to share the story with Williams once some of the Medal of Honor commotion dies down.
Until then, he'll hold on to the memories- ones he believes his father would be proud of today.
"And my dad passed away in 2012, and he did not really know about this, but you know if I told him about it right now, he would think it would be pretty cool. He'd get a kick out of this coincidence of things,” said Garcia. "Plus, since Captain Williams was awarded the Medal of Honor, it makes it even a bigger deal."
