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 ...
I grew up about 15 miles from Selfridge Air National Guard base. When we go married we were about five miles from there.
F-4’s when I was a kid were over the house all the time. Later f-16’s then A-10’s. C-130’s and KC-135’s also flew out of there. One day a B-52 lumbered over our downtown at about 200 feet.
I now live near Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Mostly helicopter traffic around us now. Often low enough that the rotor wash shakes the house.
I love the sound of Freedom (Insert favorite Biden insult here)
My first thought as well.
I was deployed aboard the FID. I worked the flight deck.
An F-4 was on the cats, getting ready to go. As it started down the cat, a deck wrench came flying out from the catwalk (sabotage was a very real thing). The F-4 ate the deck wrench. It then spit out the engine in a million little pieces. Then it hit the end of the cat.
As soon as the pilot cleared the deck, all stores were jettisoned, and the aircraft dropped below the flight deck, out of sight. I was watching for the pilot to eject.
After what seemed like an eternity, I saw the aircraft, just above the waves, flames coming out of 1 engine, but still airborne. It went on it’s way, and then started to climb. It flew around and landed safely.
One tough aircraft, and one hell of a pilot.
Missing one critical detail: did they ever catch the wrench thrower?
Over twenty years ago, I contacted the F-4 Phantom Club for information. Whether that organization still exists, I don’t know.
They sent me a copy of their latest glossy club magazine....I have it packed away somewhere.
I saw the Blue Angels fly the F-4 years ago at Point Mugu Naval Air Station, near Oxnard, California.
There’s a military supply store/gun store and indoor shooting range in Holden, Maine, near Bangor.
There’s an F-86 Sabre on permanent display in the parking lot.
Don Trump Jr. held a rally in front of the store toward the end of last Fall’s campaign. Thousands of people showed up.
They had him on camera, there are cameras all over the flight deck, but back then the video was very grainy, at best..
I do not know
Donald Trump Jr held a rally with thousands last fall?
That is FAKE NEWS!
Joe Biden and Harris won the erection in 2020 with the most votes ever received. Maybe a few hundred showed up but there couldn’t have been thousands... /sarc
Back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, I was with a DOD contractor working at MCAS Beaufort (think Parris Island) repairing/rebuilding F-4B’s, C’s, and D’s.
And while we were there I even got to do a repair on one of the Blue Angel’s when they were passing through.
Not all of them were Marine Corp. Occasionally we’d get AF and Navy models come through.
Looking at the battle damage on some of these it was amazing they could still fly. Panels missing, wire harnesses hanging out, and so many holes they looked like swiss cheese.
And since our rent house in Beaufort was right under the flight path, my wife and I became very familiar with the compressor ‘howl’ from the J-79’s as they throttled back on approach. BTW the ‘howl’ is supposedly what led to the name ‘Phantom’.
About 10 years later we moved into our new house in the Clear Lake area south of Houston when I went to work for NASA on the Shuttle. The moving van had just left and we were looking at all the boxes piled up around us when we heard a rumble overhead and then the distinctive ‘howl’.
My wife looked over at me with a big smile, and said, “Phantoms. I think we’re home.”
Turns out our house was right under an approach path for Ellington AFB.
Thanks for sharing a great and fascinating story.
Brings tears...incredibly brave men...true heroes.
Well, if they did I’m sure they would keep it quiet. Not the kind of story the DoD would want to see in the media.
My uncle was a RIO ina Phantam out of DaNang. :)
Silver Eagles
Robin Olds’ crew...he sure trained them well.
Great Story. Unfortunately, in todays Air Force and todays “leadership” all four would have been courts martialed.
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