It’s March the 10th, 1967.
4 F-4 Phantom IIs from the 8th tactical fighter wing,
433rd tactical fighter squadron
are taking off from an airbase in Thailand.
The weather’s good and the 4 planes take a heading for Hanoi in North Vietnam.
The element leader is Captain Bob Pardo.
In the rear seat is his Weapon Systems Officer, Lt Steve Wayne.
Their mission is to take out steel mills nearby the city.
The Vietnamese are very much prepared.
The area surrounding Hanoi
has some of the best air defenses in aviation history.
Approaching Hanoi still under clear skies,
the F-4s are at 13,000 feet.
They can see the path to the target
as it’s like a pathway of anti-aircraft fire.
Plane number 4 has Captain Earl Aman in the front
and Lt Bob Houghton behind.
Aman’s plane is hit.
Fortunately it’s not a critical hit this time
and Aman manages to keep his place in the formation.
Going into a steep dive the F-4s release their bombs.
But under the heavy fire, disaster strikes
as Aman’s plane is hit again by anti aircraft fire.
Then Pardo’s plane is hit too.
Both planes are now streaming fuel
and they need to decide what to do next.
They turn for Laos where they can rendezvous with a KC-135 tanker
before pushing on to Thailand.
With the 2 planes now ascending to 20,000 feet,
Aman radios to Pardo.
There’s bad news.
The F-4 is now leaking so much fuel that he’s not going to make it…
the tanks are almost empty.
Pardo checks his fuel.
Even though they have lost a lot,
Pardo can just make it to Laos for the rendezvous with the Tanker.
Aman and Pardo talk on the radio
and Aman relays his plan.
His best bet is to fly as long as he can
and then he and Houghton will eject over North Vietnam.
All the men know it’s a dire situation.
Ejecting over North Vietnam meant almost certain capture
and a long stay in a Vietnamese POW camp…
if they were lucky.
Pardo had the fuel to make it to the tanker,
but just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Radioing back he told Aman he was going to stay with him as long as he could…
maybe he could come up with an idea?
To make it worse, Aman’s engines were spluttering and losing power.
Pardo didn’t have much time to think.
A flash of inspiration hit him and he maneuvered behind Houghton’s plane
and carefully approached from the rear.
Lining up the nose of his F-4 with the rear of the other,
he tried to give it a push!
He was going to use his high tech $2.4m plane
to give a boost to the other Phantom!
With Aman’s spluttering engines running
the turbulence was causing issues.
Pardo told Aman to eject his drag chute from the back of the plane.
That left open a small hatch
which for a while gave Pardo’s F-4 a bit more purchase.
The turbulence wasn’t helping the plan
so he told Aman to shut down his engines
just in case he needed those final drops of fuel.
Despite Pardo’s skill as a pilot,
the Phantom’s nose cone that was ideal for slipping through the air
also made it ineffective as a ram, to push another plane.
Trying again and again and failing,
he had another flash of inspiration.
Originally the F-4 was designed as a fighter bomber for the Navy.
As such it had a rear hook that allowed it to land on aircraft carriers.
Getting on the radio once more, Bob Pardo told Earl Aman to lower his tail hook!
Lining up again and coming in close,
Bob maneuvered to get the tail hook smack in the middle of his windscreen.
The strength of the glass in front of his face took the full weight of the injured F-4
and pushed it through the heavens.
It worked!
That is until turbulence shook the two planes
causing the tail hook to slide off.
Getting the hook back on the glass,
the glass started to crack under the pressure
forming a spider web immediately in front of Bob’s face.
If the glass gave way it would mean certain death.
Again and again Bob kept on like this
with every 15 seconds or so, the tail hook slipping off the windscreen.
Incredibly it slowed the descent of the stricken F-4 to just 1,500 feet per minute.
Alarms went off inside Pardo’s plane.
The left engine was on fire.
He immediately shut it down.
Needing 2 engines for the push, he went through the startup procedure.
The fire started up again.
Pardo’s left engine was critically damaged.
Carrying on with just 1 engine keeping the 2 F-4s in the air,
he realized that his fuel had finally been spent.
The 2 planes had travelled 88 miles under the power of 1 crippled F-4.
They had just made it across the border to Laos.
Pardo watched as Aman and Houghton ejected from their bird.
Immediately after Wayne and Pardo followed suit,
shooting up into the heavens before descending into the jungle below.
Laos was also a war zone at the time
and the natives, conducted a search for the downed pilots.
Hearing shouting and shooting in the jungle
the 4 men managed to avoid the locals.
After just 45 minutes on the ground,
all the men were whisked away by a rescue helicopter.
Incredibly, despite his heroic act,
there was talk of charges against Pardo for not getting his expensive plane home.
But thankfully, reason prevailed and the charges were dropped.
20 years later, the events of that day were revisited
and finally Major John R Pardo and his man in back, 1st Lt Steve Wayne,
received the Silver Star for their actions on that day.
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