[Virginia Ridgerunner]

That was a travesty. The pilot should have ordered the crew to bail out, and he should have ditched the aircraft.

I disagree. Losing an entire trained aircrew would have been far more expensive than the gear on that plane. It was a tough call at the time, and I refuse to second guess him.

[SkyPilot]

I disagree. Losing an entire trained aircrew would have been far more expensive than the gear on that plane

Expensive?

This had nothing to do with material costs.

You can't put a price tag on our intelligence capabilities.

There were horribly compromised. Moreover, the pilot initially ordered the crew to bail out and was planning on ditching the aircraft, but he changed his mind and flew a straight in visual approach to a Communist Chinese military base.

That was a terrible decision - one for which he should not have been awarded the DFC for.

[Mr. Silverback]

I agree that we shouldn’t be second guessing, but the issue isn’t expense, but intelligence value.