The Old Guard

In January’s OLD GUARD, (P) Jay Strayer challenged the “Quickest Rescue”

Old Guard Jan 2006  posted on our Web Site.

Steve,
Dale Potter and I also have a very fast rescue of note.  We were flying a training flight in the Bien Hoa AB traffic pattern when an F-100 called in with battle damage on short final.  He was streaming fuel like crazy and for some reason made a go-around.  As he made a left turn away from the runway, the engine flamed out and he bailed out.  As I said, we were on a training flight and the alert crew was in the process of scrambling when this all took place.  We orbited clear of the pilot coming down in his parachute, but when we had a good idea where he would land we were there waiting for him - just far enough away that we didn't get the parachute tangled up in the rotors.  He ran about 20 feet along a rice paddy dike and jumped in the chopper.  From bailout to delivery at the Pedro ramp was probably less than three minutes.  The F-100 crashed into the river that runs near the city of Bien Hoa and by the next afternoon we had new cast aluminum iced tea spoons in the officers club.  They were always in short supply for some reason.  I won't claim that this was the fastest Rescue, because we did not have a stop watch to time it like the other crews apparently had.  However, due to our proximity to the base, it had to be one of the fastest deliveries of a recovered pilot to medical personnel.

Mark Schibler