S.E.A. Stories
Reprinted with permission from
John K. Lewis and Michael C. Bennett www.ejection-history.org.uk
“My Funny Little
Valentine”
Thirty-one year old USAF
Captain John Lewis had arrived in
"Troops
in Contact"
The weather on the evening of
Captain John Lewis was, as he had been, on so many other nights, on alert to attack such targets along with other F-100s that were also on standby. His aircraft, callsign "Warhawk" was a North American F-100D Super Sabre, armed and ready if the call came. He and another F-100 took off and were soon over the target.
"We were scrambled one
night for yet another "Troops in Contact" which usually meant someone
shot at a FAC and pissed him off. Anyway, we were a flight of 2 dropping on a
target located on an island in the
Captain Lewis made one successful run against
the target but his luck ran out during the second.
John recalls
The method was to turn off all lights and "Call the Corners" so we could keep track of where the other guy was while we flew a "Traffic Pattern" around the target. I could see the tracers from the Russian version of a"Quad 50" (four guns mounted together on a platform so they could all shoot at once) when lead made his second pass and had an "eyeball" on the target as I started to turn base. We were dropping Mk82 High Drags so you could press in close to the target before dropping.
After releasing a Mk82 High Drag 500 lb bomb on my second pass l started the usual 6 G pull-up when I felt a thump. I was hit in the hydraulic system and lost all hydraulics. Seconds later the stick went limp in my hand. All I had left was throttle and rudder.
The F-100 flight controls were entirely hydraulic except for the rudder which had cables. I managed to keep the nose up with power and ruddered left to fly back up the river towards Bien Thuy with plans to eject over the field. . . "
You may remember the movie
"The Joe McConnell Story". Allen Ladd played the role.
McConnell, a triple ace in Korea, was testing the new F-86H that was
fitted with the new "artificial feel" system. When it failed,
he was sending 3000 PSI of hydraulic fluid to the controls without any
restrictions. Anyway, the same system was installed in the 100, hydraulic
lines to the ailerons and flying tail.
I managed to complete a left turn back up the river toward Bien Thuy
using rudder and keeping the nose up with throttle.
Plans
First plan was to lower the tail hook and make a long straight in approach to Bien Thuy with hopes of snagging the arresting cable. Never going to happen.
Second plan was to fly over Bien Thuy and eject drifting down on the field into the arms of friendlies. Wasn't going to happen either.
Things didn't go according to plan and with the aircraft on fire and the rudder cables burned through, John Lewis was left with no control over the aircraft. He reached for the handles on the side of the North American design ejection seat.
Ejection
Approaching the field, the fire that was burning under the belly burned through the rudder cables; the “HUN” started to roll inverted and I ejected.
John's ejection took place near Cau Ke village South
Vietnam (Mekong river) IV Corps at 3,000 to 4,000 feet (estimated), with the
aircraft speed of 400 Knots (estimated) with the aircraft level or slightly
nose low in a 30 to 45 degree left bank. Due to high speed at the time of
ejection his helmet faceplate was torn off from full impact of wind blast.
After all that training I forgot
to pull my legs back and they were fully extended as I went out. They got
beat up quite a bit but, lucky for me didn't get broken. I've no idea how
fast I was going but was using something just short of burner to keep the
nose up. The air blast ripped off my helmet visor and blackened both eyes.
The chute deployed with a JERK and I found myself swinging under a
beautiful canopy on a cloudless star filled night. The FAC, trying to
help, almost ran into me as he circled the area.
Like many other ejectees he
experienced temporal distortion where time appeared to extend.
Actions were governed
purely by desire to survive and all efforts were aimed at that goal. Things did
seem to be in slow motion even though the time involved was very short.
This was my 106 parachute jump. Five jumps were made at
Rescue
They had already scrambled the Alert
HH-43 Huskie (Detachment 10 of
the 38th ARRS) off Bien
Thuy and they landed in an open field across the river, picked me up and
brought me back. I was airlifted (In a C-47) back to Bien Hoa in the morning.
The FAC relayed the BDA, Quad 50 destroyed, at the cost of an F-100D that
lives to this day at the bottom of the river and about 20 years off my life
span.
This photo is of another “HUN”
Pilot rescued by DET10 38ARRS
|
HH-43 Husky (Pedro) that rescued Captain Lewis that night was flown that night by pilots Leslie Johnson and Larry Conover with Crew Chief Gordon Browning |
“This all happened at night which added to the experience".
“My 15 minutes
of fame!”
John K. Lewis, Maj., USAF,
Ret.
90th Tac Fighter Sq.
Bien
June 2007