Don Paul Email
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997
Hi Ted:Again, our aircraft were coming back from a mission and we heard that one of them was pretty badly shot up. The F84 had been hit by ground fire during a bombing run and the pilot had been blinded. His wing man was with him and telling him how to fly the airplane in order to get back to K2!
If you are not a pilot you don't realize how difficult it is to do something like that!
Anyhow, with the help of his wingman he got back to the field, which was probably the easy part of this terribly difficult situation. The wingman talked him through a low pass, so the tower could check his landing gear, and then talked him through a very good landing!
I can't imagine how tight your pucker string must be drawn in a situation like that! We went over to take a look at the aircraft and could see that it had taken a 20mm round right into the engine intake where it penetrated some sheet metal and then struck the top edge of the front armor plate where it exploded.
This explosion blew out the right front Plexiglas windshield which in turn hit the pilot directly in the face. I don't recall if the pilots eyes were damaged but I did hear that all the blood from the wounds had blinded him.
Again, this was quite a feat of airmanship and shows how well trained and gutsy our pilots were.
Don.
Top | Next: 5 Inch Rockets | Back To: Pitchup
|
|
| |
|
|