Ngô Sĩ Liên
Nguyễn Văn Cốc attended Ngô Sĩ Liên school in Bắc Giang and upon completion of his schooling, enlisted in the "Quan Chung Khong Quan" (Vietnamese People's Air Force, VPAF) in 1961 and underwent his initial training at Cat Bi Airbase in Haiphong. Nguyễn subsequently spent four years undergoing pilot training in the Soviet Union at the Bataysk and Krasnodar Soviet Air Force bases. Of the 120 trainees dispatched in Nguyễn's draft to the Soviet Union, he was one of seven who graduated as a MiG-17 pilot.