Warriors at 500 Knots

It was one such night that seven flight crewmembers were in Cramer’s room giving the Air Force hell and talking about the state of the war effort when Lieutenant Craig Brown burst into the BOQ room. All in the room instantly recognized his state of mind. His face was pale, he was breathing rapidly, his flight suit was wet from sweat, but most telling were his eyes. They were so wide open that they all but merged into one. “I need a drink and I need it now!” called out Brown. All of those in the room asked the same question, “What happened?” As Brown was served a large glass of Jack Daniels he replied, “We almost bought the farm tonight. I can’t believe we are still alive! Damn!” “What happened?” came the question again. As Brown finished his bourbon he began to tell his story of the night’s events. “We were in Laos on a mission to strike the Trail. The FAC told us that there was a lot of hostile fire in the area and there was also a lot of truck movement on the Trail. Twenty or more trucks were making a midnight run to try and get down to the south. The FAC wanted us to stop them. We went down and began the business of taking out as many of the trucks as possible. The night was black as hell and there was a lot of low-lying fog. It was very hard to see anything, let alone a truck on the ground. Yet, the FAC marked the area well and we could see his rocket, so we rolled in on the target. We delivered our whole load of bombs as there was no use trying to pick out individual targets. As we released and started the pull off, I looked up into our flight path and all I could see was mountain cliffs. There was nothing in our path ahead but rocks! I thought for sure that we were dead men. My frontseater jinked and dodged and pulled until I thought the aircraft was going to be pulled apart. I held on and waited for the sound of the F-4 hitting terra firma. The sound never came. Within three to five seconds we were screaming upward toward the safety of higher altitude. My frontseater commented as soon as he was sure we were out of danger, ‘Well Craig, we almost didn’t go home tonight. I’m not too sure what went wrong and where we screwed up, but I want to think about it and make damn sure it never happens again.’ ‘Sir, I understand. Thanks for saving our lives tonight. You did a hell of a job of flying to get us out of there. I don’t think a lot of pilots could have done it. Anytime… I will fly with you anytime!” The night went on for hours. Question after question was asked about the nearly fatal flight but nothing was really learned or solved. It was just one of those flights! Soon other stories were started and told as the night wore on and on. Somewhere in the early hours of the morning it slowly broke up and flight crewmembers staggered to their BOQ rooms. It was just another night for the band of brave men facing their fears of the day.