Posted on 03/13/2021 2:28:59 AM PST by LibWhacker
The air strike that March day in 1967 was on the ferociously well-defended Thai Nguyen steel mill, north of Hanoi, North Vietnam. One of the attacking U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4C Phantoms was hit twice by anti-aircraft fire, and gas was streaming from the fuselage. Pilot Earl Aman and weapons systems officer Bob Houghton no longer had enough fuel to return to safe territory.
The airplane Bob Pardo and backseater Steve Wayne were flying wasn’t in much better shape: During the strike it also caught an anti-aircraft round and was leaking fuel, and the two weren’t even sure they could reach an airborne tanker to refuel for the flight back to their base in Thailand. “But I couldn’t see leaving a guy I’d just fought a battle with,” Pardo says, so he radioed Aman, “I’m gonna try to give you a push. Fly that thing as smooth as you’ve ever flown.”
(Excerpt) Read more at airspacemag.com ...
One of the coolest things I ever saw was an F-4 nose up (probably near a stall) at treetop level rocking back and forth. It looked like it was walking on the tree tops. That was one amazing aircraft.
The strangest thing! We were at the Air Force Armament Museum, Eglin Air Force Base FL yesterday and there was a painting of that event on display.
My father worked on the F-4 as a flight mechanic from start to finish of its production. So I have a liking for that plane.
The F-4 General Electric J79 engines advertised its arrival with a smoke trail visible 25 miles away.
Yup. Massive amounts of coal turned into noise and smoke.
During the Second World War this was called “coming in on a wing and a prayer”. I salute any pilot that can have the presence of mind and the ingenuity to come crippling home with an aircraft demonstrably no longer airworthy.
Aerodynamically, this should not have been possible. Only by the most arcane application of physics could it succeed.
Hot, blind, dead-stick, with the glide angle of a brick.
16:1 glide ratio, as I recall.
Yep, the coolest thing I ever saw also involved F-4s. I had to go to the field with the MASH unit I was assigned to during the very last month of my enlistment. Man, was I ever p***ing and moaning about that! But as it turned out, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Our enormous hospital tents were set up on a huge flat hilltop at an altitude of 1,000 ft or so and four F-4s simulated strafing runs on us for a half an hour or so. It was a thing of beauty, though I'm sure the Cong would describe it differently!
All you could hear was this low generalized rumble as they circled the hilltop at a distance. You couldn't see them from where we were because the hilltop was surrounded by tall conifers.
Then they'd gun it and pop up over the trees at Mach 1 and come in 50 feet over our heads just a couple of seconds later. And you still couldn't hear them until they were right overhead - because they were flying at Mach 1.
Boy, our heads were on a swivel that day because you never knew which direction they'd come in from. The roar as they flew over was incredible. I'd never been 50 feet from an F-4 (or any jet for that matter, but especially an F-4), flying at Mach 1.
They were also dropping little bags of colored (neon colors, yet) flour just over our heads to show us how accurate they could be with bombs. Let me tell ya'... veeeeery accurate!
Great story. Thanks for posting.
I grew up in Valdosta GA. Moody AFB had Phantoms at the time, and apparently one of their regular routes was right over my house. Probably no higher than 1500 feet. Or at least it seemed that way to a 10 year old.
The roar as they flew over was incredible.”””
The roar of the F4 has its own video on YouTube. Even on a smart phone it’s impressive.
Thank you. That’s an amazing story.
Thanks for the post. I have 2 AF grandsons and I know they enjoyed it. I love sharing history, actual recountings so they will know what is possible.
It was a good plane (its length of service attests to that, here and in other countries), but in Vietnam a critical oversight was exposed - it had no gun, so it couldn’t “dogfight”.
I knew I had seen a story like this before, and it was from the Korean War (with F-86es):
Tell that to Randy Cunningham, Duke
I will never forget the two F4 taking off from DaNang flying wingtip to wingtip. It was a gigantic roar and the flaming tailpipes as they whirled off left an indelible memory. So does the memory of the Pilatus Porter I was on which was dancing so hard on the tarmac that it seemed uncontrolled.
One summer afternoon quite a few years ago 4 of them did a terrain following training exercise up the valley where I live.I guesstimate they were only 200 feet above me and below the hilltops.
The noise was LOUD.One after another ,out of nowhere and gone from sight in seconds. No sonic bomm though. We heard those often in the 1960s but guess too many complaints so authorities must have ordered slower speed.
I used to see military aircraft often on weekends following a flight path different from the commercial traffic over our place. Probably going to Jefferson Proving Grounds.
First Ones I remember were the “flying boxcars” in early 1960s and haven’t noticed any military aircraft for the last twenty years.Last time it was multiple choppers flying at maybe 1000 feet.
The Israelis complained of the same thing. That is why McDonnells came out with the F-4E model.
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