Post by Don Gieseke on Jul 28, 2012 3:37:30 GMT -6
You just can’t make this stuff up!!
Here are three stories out of Marine pilot experiences in RVN... Enjoy!
1966: At the time, Chu Lai was only an expeditionary field of 4,000 feet
of shifting metal. All takeoffs were with JATO bottles (lots of things
went wrong with these - especially at night) and all landings were
arrested.
One day we taxied in to VMA-223 from a mission and noticed an Air Force
C-123 parked at the main ramp. It had made an emergency landing at Chu
Lai. That night at the club, the only passenger from the C-123 was
there. He was an F-100 pilot in his flight suit on crutches and with
two broken legs.
Of course, we wanted to know how he broke his legs. He told us that he
was an F-100F (two-seater) Misty Fast FAC. They took turns flying
front and back seat. He said that it was his day to go up North in the
back seat.
They found the target for the F-105s and marked it with 5" WP rockets.
Then, after the 105s were done, they were supposed to fly low and fast
and take an after-action picture of the target. He was the guy with
the hand-held camera. Of course, the NVA knew the routine and began
shooting the shit out of them. The front seat guy did a lot of jinking
and somehow, the lens came off the camera and disappeared.
They safely got "feet wet" and in-flight refueled for their return trip
home down south to Tuy Hoa. Our guy said that he kept looking for the
lens but the front seater said to forget it. They would find it after
landing. Upon landing and taxi back, the front seater called "Canopy
Clear" and raised the canopy.
The lens had landed near one of the actuators for the ejection seat.
He said that he heard this tremendous explosion and realized what had happened when he got seat separation about 250 feet up at the top of the arc and saw a miniature F-100 below him missing a canopy. He said that it was like a "Wily Coyote" cartoon. There was a point where you stop going up, a pause, and then a rapid going down thing. The F-100
didn't have a zero/zero seat either (needed 100 kts and 100 feet). So, he said that he had always heard that in a long fall, one dies of a heart attack before one hits the ground.
So he said he kept shouting: "Come on heart attack." The drogue chute
had deployed and that kept his feet straight down. It was real steep
near the taxiway, they had been doing a lot of excavating and it had
rained. He hit feet first. The undeployed chute saved his back and kept
it straight. He skidded down the embankment into a large pool of
water. He had two simple fractures. Needless to say, he couldn't buy
another drink that night.
*****************************1966: The second story is the single
funniest thing that I have ever seen. It was around September 1966 and
they had just completed the installation of the land catapult (Oh good-
no more JATO). We had operated out of there for about 3 weeks with the
land cat and it worked great. Anyway, there was to be a change of
command for Marine Air Group 12. Col. Les Brown was about to hand over
MAG-12 to the great, one and only Jay Hubbard. The change of command
ceremony was to coincide with the official inauguration of the first
combat tactical SATS (Short Airfield Tactical and can't remember the S)
field in the history of the Marine Corps. A real dog and pony show. The
guests of honor were the Secretary of the Navy, FMFPAC Lt.
General Krulak, 1st Marine Air Wing Commander, MGEN Robinshaw (a great
guy by the way - he always flew with 223 and was the world's best
wingman because he could hardly see). All pilots not flying were to
put on their dungarees for formation in the sand for the change of
command. The program then called for all troops to fall out and
observe four A -4s to be launched from the land cat. That was the
planned program.Someone (no one would admit who) suggested the
day before that two F-4 Phantoms be brought in the night before to be
launched after the A-4s. Wouldn't that be a great idea. Well, of
course, with a 4 thousand foot strip and 50' wide taxiways, no F-4s had
ever been to Chu Lai. But, in the late afternoon the day before the
ceremony, two F-4s landed and took the arresting gear. They folded
their wings and proceeded to very carefully taxi into the biggest two
revetments.
And, of course, the familiar F-4 engine wailing sound followed them
everywhere. That night there was much harassment of the F-4 crews in
the club about flying an aircraft that needed a committee to perform (2
seats instead of 1). Furthermore, we took to calling the RIOs
(backseat guys) "hair-lipped dogs" because their only job was to shout
"MARK MARK" when the pilot reached bomb release altitude. Anyway, the
next day those of us not on the flight schedule put on our dungarees
and fell in for the ceremony. VMA-123 was led by the world's greatest
Squadron Commander and my personal hero to this day, Lt. Col. Bob
Sinclair (I was the world's saltiest 2nd Lt. at the time with 125
combat missions and Col. Bob's assigned wingman). The ceremony went
off without a hitch and Jay Hubbard was now our new Group skipper. The
dignitaries lined up on the high ground (read sand dune here) with the
SECNAV on the right then FMFPAC "The Brute" General Krulak, then
General Robinshaw, then the old Group CO , Les Brown and finally J ay
Hubbard. Sure enough, they launched four bomb laden A-4's off the land
cat. This was ho hum stuff for us because we had been doing it for
three weeks already. Next the first F-4 taxied up with folded
wings. The distinctive two F-4 engines were doing a lot of wailing.
Up went the F-4's nose wheel on the dolly. The wings were extended and
locked. The nose wheel was attached to the dolly with the frangible
metal breakaways. The hold-back for the tail was installed. All was
ready for the run-up. The two J-57 engines powering the land cat were
run-up. The two F-4 J-79s were run-up to 100%. Man, there was
something in this show for everyone. Tremendous noise from 4 jet
engines, dust and smoke. Nothing could go wrong now. The CAT Officer
received the salute from the F-4 pilot an d he dropped his hand. BOOM
the CAT fired. BOOM BOOM both F-4 engines went into afterburner. Now
about 60,000 pounds of F-4 and bombs are hurtling down the 1,500 foot
CAT. At this point I must interject a minor technical point about the
frangible metal devices holding the F-4's nosewheel to the dolly. Well,
you see, they break away at the end of the 1,500' CAT ride. This, of
course is not a problem for an A-4 because it has a long nose-wheel and
sits up at a pronounced angle. Unfortunately, the F-4 sits parallel to
the ground. In order to not make this too technical, both
nose-wheel frangible devices did what they were supposed to and broke
off. One went into the left intake and one went into the right intake.
This was problematic for the Phantom. BOOM, the left engine exploded.
BOOM, the right engine exploded. The show got much better. Flaming
metal parts and discs slicing through the side of the F-4. Then total
involvement of flames of the aircraft from the intakes back. BOOM went
the ejection seat of the backseater. BOOM went the ejection seat of
the frontseater. And KABOOM went the F-4 into the sand southeast of the
runway. Then the Three Stooges part: The SECNAV looks to his left at
FMFPAC who looks to his left to 1st MAW CO, who looks at the old MAG-12
CO, Colonel Brown, and finally they are all looking at Jay Hubbard. We
laughed so hard that some of us fell down. Fortunately, both F-4
crewmembers lived. By the way, the second F-4 refolded his wings and
slowly taxied back to the revetments. They downloaded the bombs,
defueled him to a very light fuel load and he flew back to Danang the
next day with a very short takeoff roll. And, to quote Anthony
Swofford author of "Jarhead" about the first Gulf War when asked
whether his book was fact or fiction, he responded: "I don't know.
It's what I remember."Semper Fi, Dave Marshall (aka: PigDog)
***************************************
This next story is from a pilot who was in VMFA 314 at Chu Lai in '69. You Vietnam F4 guys will appreciate this story. Here's another 'bad day' from Chu Lai:
I was one of a half-dozen replacements who checked-in with MAG-13 on
August 2. We were not all assigned to VMFA-314 though. There were two
other combat squadrons in the Air Group: VMFA-115, the Able Eagles, and
VMFA-323, the Death Rattlers. All three squadrons flew the McDonnell
Douglas F4B Phantom II and shared common living areas. Although we may
have been in different squadrons, eventually we all got to know each
other very well.
The first thing we six rookies did was attend an Air Group briefing in
an underground bunker protected by a thick layer of sandbags. This
bunker served as our group in telligence center. Suddenly, an urgent
radio call interrupted our briefing. We listened as one of VMFA-115s
aircraft radioed-in to report a problem. The aircraft had been hit by
enemy ground fire and could not lower its landing gear. The pilot was
going to attempt a belly landing on the runway. At that news, we all
raced outside near the runway to grab a good spot from which to watch
the crash landing.
Crash crews raced to cover the runway with a layer of fire retardant
foam while the damaged F4 circled overhead, burning down its load of
fuel. Two arresting cables were strung across the middle of the
runway. The cables were anchored on each end by a chain made with
heavy, 40-pound links. The plan was for the F4 to lower his tail hook,
to belly-land in the foam, to catch one of the arr esting wires, and to
come to a screeching halt. It did not quite happen that way.
After burning off most of his fuel, the pilot gingerly lowered the
airplane onto the foamed runway. A spark set off the fumes in the jet's
empty wing tanks and they erupted into flames. All one could see racing
down the runway were two wingtips protruding from an orange and black
ball of fire heading toward the arresting cables. The F4 hit the first
arresting cable. We watched the cable snap and hurl its 40-pound chain
links skyward. Then the plane hit the second arresting cable. It also
parted and flung its chain links. The aircraft was now just a ball of
fire heading toward the end of the runway.
Then we heard, Boom! Boom! The pilot had lit his afterburners. He was
attempting to take-off without wheels! As the a ircraft roared toward
the end of the runway, it slowly struggled skyward. It got airborne and
began to climb nearly vertically. Then, both the pilot and his
backseater, the radar intercept officer (RIO), ejected.
We stared in wonder as the aircraft crashed into the nearby ocean. The
two crewmen slowly floated down in their parachutes. The wind carried
them over the ocean and they too soon splashed down. A rescue
helicopter was on the scene immediately. Both of the F4 crewmen,
treading water, raised their right hand. This was a signal to the
chopper that they were unharmed. The helicopter slowly lowered itself
and plucked the pilot out of the water and into the safety of the
helicopter. The helicopter then turned its attention to the RIO. As the
helicopter slowly lowered i tself over the RIO, the helicopter pilot
suddenly lost control of his chopper, and he crashed into the water on
top of the RIO. As soon as the chopper hit the water, its pilot
regained control, got airborne again, and yanked the RIO from the
water. Although the RIO was rescued safely, his leg was broken when the
helicopter crashed on top of him.
That night at the Officers Club, the RIO sat with his leg elevated
and encased in a full-leg cast. As he imbibed a few, he related his
story:·
First, we got the shit shot out of us. But, hey, that was okay.· We weren't hurt.
Then, we survived a belly landing. But, that was okay too. We weren't hurt.·
Then the pilot decided he'd take off without wheels, but that worked out well too.·
Then we survived an ejection and a water landing, but that was also okay. We weren't hurt.·
Then the damn rescue helicopter crashed on me and broke my leg!"
Here are three stories out of Marine pilot experiences in RVN... Enjoy!
1966: At the time, Chu Lai was only an expeditionary field of 4,000 feet
of shifting metal. All takeoffs were with JATO bottles (lots of things
went wrong with these - especially at night) and all landings were
arrested.
One day we taxied in to VMA-223 from a mission and noticed an Air Force
C-123 parked at the main ramp. It had made an emergency landing at Chu
Lai. That night at the club, the only passenger from the C-123 was
there. He was an F-100 pilot in his flight suit on crutches and with
two broken legs.
Of course, we wanted to know how he broke his legs. He told us that he
was an F-100F (two-seater) Misty Fast FAC. They took turns flying
front and back seat. He said that it was his day to go up North in the
back seat.
They found the target for the F-105s and marked it with 5" WP rockets.
Then, after the 105s were done, they were supposed to fly low and fast
and take an after-action picture of the target. He was the guy with
the hand-held camera. Of course, the NVA knew the routine and began
shooting the shit out of them. The front seat guy did a lot of jinking
and somehow, the lens came off the camera and disappeared.
They safely got "feet wet" and in-flight refueled for their return trip
home down south to Tuy Hoa. Our guy said that he kept looking for the
lens but the front seater said to forget it. They would find it after
landing. Upon landing and taxi back, the front seater called "Canopy
Clear" and raised the canopy.
The lens had landed near one of the actuators for the ejection seat.
He said that he heard this tremendous explosion and realized what had happened when he got seat separation about 250 feet up at the top of the arc and saw a miniature F-100 below him missing a canopy. He said that it was like a "Wily Coyote" cartoon. There was a point where you stop going up, a pause, and then a rapid going down thing. The F-100
didn't have a zero/zero seat either (needed 100 kts and 100 feet). So, he said that he had always heard that in a long fall, one dies of a heart attack before one hits the ground.
So he said he kept shouting: "Come on heart attack." The drogue chute
had deployed and that kept his feet straight down. It was real steep
near the taxiway, they had been doing a lot of excavating and it had
rained. He hit feet first. The undeployed chute saved his back and kept
it straight. He skidded down the embankment into a large pool of
water. He had two simple fractures. Needless to say, he couldn't buy
another drink that night.
*****************************1966: The second story is the single
funniest thing that I have ever seen. It was around September 1966 and
they had just completed the installation of the land catapult (Oh good-
no more JATO). We had operated out of there for about 3 weeks with the
land cat and it worked great. Anyway, there was to be a change of
command for Marine Air Group 12. Col. Les Brown was about to hand over
MAG-12 to the great, one and only Jay Hubbard. The change of command
ceremony was to coincide with the official inauguration of the first
combat tactical SATS (Short Airfield Tactical and can't remember the S)
field in the history of the Marine Corps. A real dog and pony show. The
guests of honor were the Secretary of the Navy, FMFPAC Lt.
General Krulak, 1st Marine Air Wing Commander, MGEN Robinshaw (a great
guy by the way - he always flew with 223 and was the world's best
wingman because he could hardly see). All pilots not flying were to
put on their dungarees for formation in the sand for the change of
command. The program then called for all troops to fall out and
observe four A -4s to be launched from the land cat. That was the
planned program.Someone (no one would admit who) suggested the
day before that two F-4 Phantoms be brought in the night before to be
launched after the A-4s. Wouldn't that be a great idea. Well, of
course, with a 4 thousand foot strip and 50' wide taxiways, no F-4s had
ever been to Chu Lai. But, in the late afternoon the day before the
ceremony, two F-4s landed and took the arresting gear. They folded
their wings and proceeded to very carefully taxi into the biggest two
revetments.
And, of course, the familiar F-4 engine wailing sound followed them
everywhere. That night there was much harassment of the F-4 crews in
the club about flying an aircraft that needed a committee to perform (2
seats instead of 1). Furthermore, we took to calling the RIOs
(backseat guys) "hair-lipped dogs" because their only job was to shout
"MARK MARK" when the pilot reached bomb release altitude. Anyway, the
next day those of us not on the flight schedule put on our dungarees
and fell in for the ceremony. VMA-123 was led by the world's greatest
Squadron Commander and my personal hero to this day, Lt. Col. Bob
Sinclair (I was the world's saltiest 2nd Lt. at the time with 125
combat missions and Col. Bob's assigned wingman). The ceremony went
off without a hitch and Jay Hubbard was now our new Group skipper. The
dignitaries lined up on the high ground (read sand dune here) with the
SECNAV on the right then FMFPAC "The Brute" General Krulak, then
General Robinshaw, then the old Group CO , Les Brown and finally J ay
Hubbard. Sure enough, they launched four bomb laden A-4's off the land
cat. This was ho hum stuff for us because we had been doing it for
three weeks already. Next the first F-4 taxied up with folded
wings. The distinctive two F-4 engines were doing a lot of wailing.
Up went the F-4's nose wheel on the dolly. The wings were extended and
locked. The nose wheel was attached to the dolly with the frangible
metal breakaways. The hold-back for the tail was installed. All was
ready for the run-up. The two J-57 engines powering the land cat were
run-up. The two F-4 J-79s were run-up to 100%. Man, there was
something in this show for everyone. Tremendous noise from 4 jet
engines, dust and smoke. Nothing could go wrong now. The CAT Officer
received the salute from the F-4 pilot an d he dropped his hand. BOOM
the CAT fired. BOOM BOOM both F-4 engines went into afterburner. Now
about 60,000 pounds of F-4 and bombs are hurtling down the 1,500 foot
CAT. At this point I must interject a minor technical point about the
frangible metal devices holding the F-4's nosewheel to the dolly. Well,
you see, they break away at the end of the 1,500' CAT ride. This, of
course is not a problem for an A-4 because it has a long nose-wheel and
sits up at a pronounced angle. Unfortunately, the F-4 sits parallel to
the ground. In order to not make this too technical, both
nose-wheel frangible devices did what they were supposed to and broke
off. One went into the left intake and one went into the right intake.
This was problematic for the Phantom. BOOM, the left engine exploded.
BOOM, the right engine exploded. The show got much better. Flaming
metal parts and discs slicing through the side of the F-4. Then total
involvement of flames of the aircraft from the intakes back. BOOM went
the ejection seat of the backseater. BOOM went the ejection seat of
the frontseater. And KABOOM went the F-4 into the sand southeast of the
runway. Then the Three Stooges part: The SECNAV looks to his left at
FMFPAC who looks to his left to 1st MAW CO, who looks at the old MAG-12
CO, Colonel Brown, and finally they are all looking at Jay Hubbard. We
laughed so hard that some of us fell down. Fortunately, both F-4
crewmembers lived. By the way, the second F-4 refolded his wings and
slowly taxied back to the revetments. They downloaded the bombs,
defueled him to a very light fuel load and he flew back to Danang the
next day with a very short takeoff roll. And, to quote Anthony
Swofford author of "Jarhead" about the first Gulf War when asked
whether his book was fact or fiction, he responded: "I don't know.
It's what I remember."Semper Fi, Dave Marshall (aka: PigDog)
***************************************
This next story is from a pilot who was in VMFA 314 at Chu Lai in '69. You Vietnam F4 guys will appreciate this story. Here's another 'bad day' from Chu Lai:
I was one of a half-dozen replacements who checked-in with MAG-13 on
August 2. We were not all assigned to VMFA-314 though. There were two
other combat squadrons in the Air Group: VMFA-115, the Able Eagles, and
VMFA-323, the Death Rattlers. All three squadrons flew the McDonnell
Douglas F4B Phantom II and shared common living areas. Although we may
have been in different squadrons, eventually we all got to know each
other very well.
The first thing we six rookies did was attend an Air Group briefing in
an underground bunker protected by a thick layer of sandbags. This
bunker served as our group in telligence center. Suddenly, an urgent
radio call interrupted our briefing. We listened as one of VMFA-115s
aircraft radioed-in to report a problem. The aircraft had been hit by
enemy ground fire and could not lower its landing gear. The pilot was
going to attempt a belly landing on the runway. At that news, we all
raced outside near the runway to grab a good spot from which to watch
the crash landing.
Crash crews raced to cover the runway with a layer of fire retardant
foam while the damaged F4 circled overhead, burning down its load of
fuel. Two arresting cables were strung across the middle of the
runway. The cables were anchored on each end by a chain made with
heavy, 40-pound links. The plan was for the F4 to lower his tail hook,
to belly-land in the foam, to catch one of the arr esting wires, and to
come to a screeching halt. It did not quite happen that way.
After burning off most of his fuel, the pilot gingerly lowered the
airplane onto the foamed runway. A spark set off the fumes in the jet's
empty wing tanks and they erupted into flames. All one could see racing
down the runway were two wingtips protruding from an orange and black
ball of fire heading toward the arresting cables. The F4 hit the first
arresting cable. We watched the cable snap and hurl its 40-pound chain
links skyward. Then the plane hit the second arresting cable. It also
parted and flung its chain links. The aircraft was now just a ball of
fire heading toward the end of the runway.
Then we heard, Boom! Boom! The pilot had lit his afterburners. He was
attempting to take-off without wheels! As the a ircraft roared toward
the end of the runway, it slowly struggled skyward. It got airborne and
began to climb nearly vertically. Then, both the pilot and his
backseater, the radar intercept officer (RIO), ejected.
We stared in wonder as the aircraft crashed into the nearby ocean. The
two crewmen slowly floated down in their parachutes. The wind carried
them over the ocean and they too soon splashed down. A rescue
helicopter was on the scene immediately. Both of the F4 crewmen,
treading water, raised their right hand. This was a signal to the
chopper that they were unharmed. The helicopter slowly lowered itself
and plucked the pilot out of the water and into the safety of the
helicopter. The helicopter then turned its attention to the RIO. As the
helicopter slowly lowered i tself over the RIO, the helicopter pilot
suddenly lost control of his chopper, and he crashed into the water on
top of the RIO. As soon as the chopper hit the water, its pilot
regained control, got airborne again, and yanked the RIO from the
water. Although the RIO was rescued safely, his leg was broken when the
helicopter crashed on top of him.
That night at the Officers Club, the RIO sat with his leg elevated
and encased in a full-leg cast. As he imbibed a few, he related his
story:·
First, we got the shit shot out of us. But, hey, that was okay.· We weren't hurt.
Then, we survived a belly landing. But, that was okay too. We weren't hurt.·
Then the pilot decided he'd take off without wheels, but that worked out well too.·
Then we survived an ejection and a water landing, but that was also okay. We weren't hurt.·
Then the damn rescue helicopter crashed on me and broke my leg!"