The First
Ejection and Rescue - January 12th, 1969
by
Capt. Gary L. Bain USMC (Ret.)
There I was, a long time ago, in
a land far away, and it was a dark and stormy night!! The date
was January 12th, 1969 and I was just off the coast of South Vietnam,
over the South China Sea . I was level at 4,000 feet and securely
strapped in my Marine Corps F-4 Phantom, as was my RIO (Radar Intercept
Officer), Lt. William C. Ryan. I had flown well over a hundred combat
missions with VMFA-323 and on this particular night we were attempting
to get rid of our ten 500 pound bombs that had malfunctioned and
wouldn't come off while conducting a Steel Tiger mission in Laos. Those
missions were secret at the time and were designed to interdict and
destroy men and equipment transporting weapons of war along the Ho Chi
Minh Trail. After diverting to the jettison area out over the water I
hit the pickle button to drop the bombs and when I did the instrument
panel started lighting up like a Christmas tree. It is theorized that
one of the bombs hung up on the aft lug and drove the fins through the
underbelly of the aircraft and into the fuel lines causing an immediate
and catastrophic fire. First the starboard engine overheat light came
on, then a fire light. Almost immediately the port overheat light and
fire light came on. I stated rather emphatically to Bill, " Bill, we're
going to have to get out of here!!". I then started to make my "Mayday"
call and only got one Mayday uttered when an explosion rocked the
ill-fated Phantom. I hardly got the word "EJECT" out of my mouth and
Bill was gone in a flurry of noise and smoke as the canopy was blown
off and his ejection seat rockets fired. I followed shortly thereafter
and we both found ourselves floating slowly down into a dark void,
punctuated only by the violent impact the pilotless Phantom made as the
sea swallowed it's flaming mass.
The sudden departure from the
sanctity of the cockpit to hanging in a parachute, especially at night,
is, to say the least, a humiliating as well as a frightening experience.
That feeling was short-lived though as I soon splashed down and survival
became the motivating factor. I had never been in an ocean at night and
as I popped back to the surface, bioluminescence engulfed me and that
was something I had never seen or even heard of!! In my imagination, the
harmless plankton that was causing the phenomenon, was some alien
creature that was attempting to devour me. That caused me to try even
harder to gain the security of the life raft I had deployed on the way
down, and the harder I tried the more I churned the water and the more
the plankton illuminated. I probably set a record getting into the life
raft because as I pulled myself up, the seat pan, which was still
attached to me started hitting me in the leg and all I could think of
was, "Sharks!!". Gaining the security of the raft, I soon got my
composure back and somehow, Bill and I found each other in that great
expanse of water and rejoiced at our reunion and well being. We started
laughing, blowing our whistles and even discussed doing a little night
fishing!!
A really heads up air traffic
controller out of DaNang heard my one "Mayday" and alerted the Jolly
Greens at DaNang, the 37th ARRS. The Jolly Greens are an Air Force
rescue team with the primary mission of rescuing downed pilots and the
37th was flying HH3E's at the time. The rescue is best told by
Lieutenant Colonel Gerald W. Moore ( Captain at the time ). The
following is an excerpt from a recent e-mail I received from him.
My playmate that
evening, (Jolly 28) aborted his first helicopter due to an APU problem,
....he changed aircraft and therefore was delayed in arrival in your
area. He was supposed to make your pickup, (he was "Primary"), but
since he was delayed in takeoff, I made your pickup. It was a little
sporty that evening in the rescue area, with about a 9,000 foot
overcast, 4,000ft undercast (we came out to your pickup area between
layers at around 6,000ft) and when we got to your location and let
down we hit broken clouds between 600 and 900 feet...thank God and
Siskorski Helicopters for the radar altimeter on the H-3s. Basket Ball
was lighting up the area pretty good with flares, but until we got below
the 600ft mark, the flares did not help much. Basketball said he would
give more flares when I called for them and as soon as I saw your
strobe, I asked for more flares and the sky really lit up. My concern
then was for one of the flares....(they were all over the sky)....
coming down through the rotor blade system and causing problems, but
that did not happen. We made your pickup with a water landing (the H-3
is also a boat as you know) and I steered the refueling probe right into
your raft....maybe you remember me telling you on your survival radio to
"Stay in Your Raft".......which is not what they taught you at the Clark
survival school. On water pickups with the helicopter in a hover, you
should get out of your raft, as taught at Clark, but at DaNang, we
considered it safer on water landing pickups, for the survivor to remain
in the raft.......which you and your GIB( Guy In Backseat) did and I put
the air refueling probe right into your raft as I recall and you hand
walked down the refueling probe to the door of the helo and the PJ and
FE pulled both of you into the cabin. We had less than a minute on the
water. At least that is the way I remember it. On our trip back to Chu
Lai after the pickup we had electrical fumes in the cabin. The
smoke/fumes were reported to me by the Flight Engineer and so we shut
off both generators and the battery to stop the electrical smoke
problem. After popping some select circuit breakers, I turned on the
battery and told my Playmate, who by this time had joined up somewhere
on my right side, that we had an electrical problem and that I would
join on him and that he was to make all radio calls to Chu Lai and I
would follow him in for landing with all my electrical systems off,
which we did. He mentioned later that as he was flying formation with
me on my right on the return to Chu Lai, all of a sudden I was no longer
there... (all exterior lights went out when I turned the generators
off and the battery off to stop the electrical smoke problem).......and
it was very dark with the overcast....he did a wild peel off to the
right to get away from me since he lost visual contact and did not know
where I was. After I came back on the radio with battery power only,
and told him what had happened with the fumes, I joined on him and we
continued on to Chu Lai with no more problems. After landing, and
dropping you and your GIB off, I pulled more select circuit breakers and
turned the generators and battery back on and had no more fumes, so we
returned to DaNang with me tied on to Jolly 28. Maintenance told me
the next day that the electrical smoke problem was the result of a
blower motor shorting out due to salt water getting into the
motor......salt water from YOUR FLIGHT SUIT I might add (just
kidding)......since the blower motor is directly below the cabin floor
where you and your GIB were sitting after the pickup. That blower
motor shorting was a new problem, but to my knowledge, it never happened
again on water pickups....maybe maintenance sealed the floor boards a
little better after this pickup showed the deficiency.
