lessonslearned Bombs Away I

A fi ghter pilot, eager to arrive in Vietnam, makes a trip to Thailand and, through a series of narrow escapes, confi rms that discretion is sometimes the better part of valor.

In August 1969, I was assigned to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, as a pilot in the F-4C. Like most fi ghter pilots, I was eager to arrive in country and drop my fi rst real bomb. My navigator and I were given the opportunity to transfer a replacement F-4 to Southeast Asia. Two F-4s — includ- ing ours — were going to Ubon, Thailand; fi ve more would land in Vietnam. The seven F-4s, accompanied by two

KC-135s, left California for Hawaii on the fi rst leg of our journey. The F-4s would receive fuel from the two tankers several times during each leg of the trip. During my fi rst cycle on the tanker, I noticed my centerline fuel tank was not feeding. This typically would mean I must return to California and wait several weeks for the next set of replacement fi ghters. My navigator and I decided to remain quiet and ask for additional hook-ups once we were close to Hawaii. When we arrived, we discovered maintenance had not wired the centerline tank. The next morning, all seven of us de- parted for Guam, and the morning after that we left Guam for Thailand. It was pouring rain when I did the prefl ight. My navigator normally checked and placed the aircraft forms, which were in a large hard binder, in the rear cockpit. We both were soaked by the time we closed the canopy. The tankers gave us our last refueling prior to reaching Vietnam. The two of

104 MILITARY OFFICER SEPTEMBER 2015

us going to Ubon did a low-level sight- seeing tour across South Vietnam and Laos, checking out targets we might bomb later. When we landed at Ubon, the crew chief climbed up the ladder and asked for the aircraft forms. It was then I discov- ered the navigator had placed the forms in the nose gear rather than storing them in his cockpit. When we had lowered the gear to land at Ubon, the forms and all their papers had been drawn into the engines. There was paper on the front blades of the engines. The crew chief said it was a miracle the engines didn’t compressor-stall. He also said the wing commander was going to be very unhappy with us, because this would require them to pull both en- gines. I asked the crew chief when the

discretion

fi rst cargo plane was leaving Ubon. He said one was leaving within the hour; we gladly took it and avoided facing the wing commander. I did make it to Cam Ranh Bay on time, and I dropped my fi rst real bomb, along with many more.

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— Richard G. Rhyne retired from the Air Force as a colonel. He lives in Lithia, Fla., and is a member of MOAA’s Tampa (Fla.) Chapter. For submission information, see page 6.

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