How 15 seconds of daring ingenuity turned a Texas fighter pilot into an Air Force legend

Thank you, my friend Lt Col Charlie Brown for honoring Capt. Bob Pardo

Badly shot up on a mission over North Vietnam, an F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber with the radio call sign Cheetah 4 was rapidly leaking fuel.
A few feet away, Capt. Bob Pardo was flying Cheetah 2 — also damaged — and trying to think of a way to help Capt. Earl Aman and his weapons officer, First Lt. Robert Houghton.
The F-4 was famously fast and tough, but it was heavy and not much of a glider. If it ran out of fuel, it would drop fast, and Pardo knew that if Aman and Houghton bailed out over North Vietnam, they would face either execution by angry civilians or imprisonment in Hanoi.
What happened next became Air Force legend — “Pardo’s Push,” a feat accomplished only once before, in the Korean War, and never attempted since. Pardo and his backseater, 1st Lt. Steve Wayne, pushed Aman and Houghton some 88 miles into Laos before all four of them ejected and were rescued.
“I had originally thought of flying in underneath him and coming up against his belly and giving him a piggyback ride. But we got within about a foot of his airplane and the nose of mine started trying to come up,” Pardo, 85, recently recalled. “And I said, ‘No, that’s going to bang us into him.’
“About 40 years later I figured out what was happening,” he continued, chain-smoking and laughing at the memory in a recent interview at his home in College Station. “The jet wash from his engine was coming right down on the tail of my airplane. But as I backed out from under him and I saw the tailhook, I said, ‘Well, we’ve got nothing to lose and we’re not going to hurt the airplanes - they’re both dead anyway.’ So I said, ‘Put the hook down.’”

The Pardo Push
" On March 10, 1967, Captain Bob Pardo (back-seater 1st Lt Steve Wayne) and Wingman Captain Earl Aman (back-seater 1st Lt Robert Houghton) were assigned to the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. They were attacking a steel mill in North Vietnam just north of Hanoi. Both F-4 Phantom IIs were hit by anti-aircraft guns. Aman's plane's fuel tank had been hit, and he quickly lost most of his fuel. He did not have enough fuel to make it to a refueling tanker over friendly Laos. To prevent Aman and Houghton from bailing out over hostile territory, Pardo used his F-4 Phantom to push his fellow American's badly damaged jet from North Vietnam into friendly territory."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O7QWk4y4ec

FYI LTC Wayne Brandon LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj Robert Thornton CPT Scott Sharon SSG William Jones SSG Donald H "Don" Bates PO3 William Hetrick PO3 Lynn Spalding SPC Mark Huddleston SGT Rick Colburn CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke SP5 Jeannie Carle Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey Sgt Albert Castro

WoW - outstanding story about 4 combat Air Force heroes. A lasting friendship and special family relationships.

We often forget the valor our hero's show when faced with a difficult decision or situation that human nature and adrenaline brings forth! Often they go either I noticed, or ignored. When combined with "promotion into a position of incompetency", you have those who were great (or simi-great) become disasters in leadership, management, or integrity. That is what happened with the General who wanted to Court Marshall the pilot who saved himself, his crew, and the crew of his wing man!

Until almost forgotten, this hero was unknown and the General was well known and celebrated. Yet, they got the meddles they deserve. And, this time, it was not posthumous.

There will be other hero's (most not seeing themselves as heroes) hindered by their superiors. This will probably never change as long as human nature is involved. But, with better education, technology, and science, maybe we can see a future where this is limited.