Don Paul Email
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997
Hi Ted:Subject: Korean air war, 154th F/B Sqdn.- 136th Bomb Wing
All of these events took place during the Sept.'51 and May '52 time frame.Our F84's were coming back to K2 from a mission over North Korea, which was always an exciting time on the field. The scuttlebutt was that one of them was badly damaged.
I don't know how this news traveled so fast, but it did! Anyhow, most of the undamaged aircraft made their passes and landed. This guy made a low and slow pass so the tower could take a look at him.
It didn't look good!
One main was fully up, one was jammed halfway down as was the nose gear. A landing in this condition would spread the aircraft and the pilot all over the field.
The word got around that he had been told to eject. He climbed to about 5,000 feet, right over the field, and punched out. We saw him come out and saw him separate from the seat and his chute blossom. The seat dropped like a stone.
But then an eerie thing happened. The unmanned F84 began to circle the field as if someone was flying it. It must have made two or three circuits of the field coming lower and lower.
West of the field was a range of mountains and on the last downwind pass it caught a wingtip and was gone in a flash! The pilot came down with no problems. All the time this was going on I remember there being a deathly silence on the field, like everyone was holding their breath.
Don.
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