DaNang is called home to hundreds of airplanes from Air Force, Navy, Marine, Army, Vietnamese Air Force, CIA, and God only knows how many handfuls of government this and that. To say Da Nang is a big, busy base is like saying a hurricane is a nice breeze. Two long runways and everybody has to use them. Morning , noon and night.
Strange things could happen fling in combat in Vietnam. Weather does it’s best, Pilots get shot at everywhere they fly. Some make it back, but not all. Flying through heavy cloud cover can damage airplanes. Big mountains often hide in clouds and some poor souls find out the hard way.
And sad to say, some pilots break commonsense rules.
A young pilot by the name of Roy Bland, and his last name suited him, was on his third or fourth sortie over northern Laos, on a night mission. His backseater, Harry Smiths, had flown together six or eight sorties in Vietnam. Hard to remember exactly how many. Schedulers put names on the chalk board where they could squeeze them in.
Harry was busy studying the radar scope and ignoring a few dozen antiaircraft explosions, mostly too far away. Then they weren’t. Lighting up the moon. One came close enough to rattle the aircraft. “Damn close!”
Roy said nothing.
“Roy, did you feel that? Man, what a blast! Worried the little friend in my pants!” Still nothing from the pilot, but everything seemed ok. Instruments in the back cockpit were smooth, then another close one, then a blast tried to turn the jet on its side! “Damn Roy, I know you heard that one! Christ! Another! Zeus damn near lost his Sandals!”
Roy mumbled something, soft, then louder, almost screaming, “We’re gonna die!”
“What are you talking about?”
The jet dropped the nose for no reason. Harry grabbed the stick. Shouldn’t be falling out of the night sky!
The voice spewed out, “We’re going to die. We’re both going to die.”
Harry tightened his hand on the stick, pulled it back, getting the plane to what seemed level. “Let’s not die now. That’s for later, after breakfast.”
“We’re going to die!” It sounded like Roy. Harry still had the stick, still had the plane steady and level. But the hell! Maybe Roy had gotten pieces of shrapnel that had gone through the front cockpit. Maybe they really would be dying.
“You ok?”
“Oh, my God! Dead! That’s what we are!” The word ‘we’ finally scratched the surface.
Roy’s voice was normal, except what was coming out wasn’t. Roy wasn’t crying. In fact, he was calm, as if death wasn’t nearly as bad as not getting laid.
“Take it easy! I got the stick! I’m not dying and neither are you!”
The engines sounded perfect. Then the stick was jerked from hand to hand and the nose of the aircraft went down fast. Real down. Ready to kiss the ground down! Even in scraps of moonlight, Harry saw nothing outside but black. No more antiaircraft guns following them.
Hey, Roy, how ‘bout you let me fly the plane.” Harry grabbed the stick. Roy didn’t fight him.
“Why don’t you just play with God’s gift to man, while I have the stick. We can just wait until we get to home plate and grab a beer.”
No answer, but must have his mind somewhere, if he still had a mind. Anyway, there was another problem. Hard enough to land a Phantom from the back seat in daylight. Even with runway lights and other lights around, it was still hard to put a Phantom on the ground at night.
Harry checked the fuel gage and the distance home. Looked ok. Both.
The stick pushed down twice more. He managed to talk him down.
Finally, the base was in sight. But landing was still a big problem. Harry contacted the tower. “We’ve got a problem.”
“Roger, Bongo One. Say your problem.”
Roy spoke up, “What problem?”
“You feeling better?” Christ! Harry was not sure which Roy he was talking to! The one who was trying to kill him or the bastard who suddenly was once again a pilot.
Time to take a wildly hopeful chance. “No problem, Roy. Put us on the ground! Tower, problem solved”
“Rodger, you’re cleared.”
Then the damn stick went straight down! Harry pulled.
“Quit that shit! We’re going to get on th ground!” There wasn’t much leeway. Christ! Maybe two thousand feet. Maybe a bit more. “Tower we got that Problem again!”
“Bong one, stay your problem!”
“We’re close to the ground!”
“Say your problem!” This time the tower was getting loud and determined.
“Put the Commander on! Right now!”
“Roger!”
Lest than two minutes, “This is Colonel James! Say it all! Tell me…do it now!”
“Problem is he can’t fly the plane…thinks we’re going to crash!”
Colonel James took a deep breath.
“I can’t land!”
“Is he hurt?”
“Damn! He’s gone crazy. I’m going wet! (Going over the sea)
“Let him talk to me!”
“I’m tell you Colonel, he doesn’t want to talk to me to you to anybody! He says we’re going to DIE! And I’m close to it! Gone wet! Just pasted over Monkey Mountain.”
“I understand! Bale soon when it’s safe! Choppers on the way!”
Now the biggest guess. Bale out by himself, to drop in the water and maybe let him drown! The F word echoed in his helmet! “You hear me?” No sound. “I’m pulling it! We’re going in the water! Choppers are coming.”
“NO! Don’t Pull it!”
Christ the guy was nuts!
“Get ready, lean back now, Roy! We’re going for a dip.”
“Don’t!”
Canopy Jettisoned, seat catapult and rocket boost, a flash and Harry was under a parachute over the ocean, followed by Roy a split second later!
Seats released and Harry found himself, floating in the dark of night. He looked for Roy, saw nothing but the lights of DaNang. No light near him.
As soon as he hit the water, he released his parachute and made sure his vest was solid to keep him afloat. He called Roy on his radio. No answer. The water wasn’t too rough, but maybe just a little too rough to see Roy’s blinker. His was on.
A chopper flew by ten minutes later. Lights washing across the water, and caught sight of Harry, then settled low and a rescue swimmer grabbed Harry and hoisted him up.
Colonel James met him in the hospital. “Glad you made it back, but what was the problem?”
Harry hesitated. “I don’t know how to explant.”
“I understand. You jumped out of a airplane and landed in shark invested water.” The Colonel smiled. “You probably need some sleep.”
“No sir. I’m ok.” His eyes were wide awake. No way he was going to sleep.
“So what happened?”
The Colonel listened for a while. The smile disappeared.
The same helicopter picked up Roy Bland the next morning. He was severely tired and fell asleep on his way to the hospital.
The next morning, Colonel James told him with a smile it was great to have him back. Then came the very strange conversation.
“Sir, I really don’t know what happened. Harry…..my backseater kept saying something about we’re going to die.”
“You didn’t make the call?”
“No sir.”
“You didn’t call the tower for an emergency?”
“No sir.”
Very strange. Very weird. The Colonel knew who he had talked to through the tower, or thought he knew.
“You didn’t say you’re both going to die?”
“WHAT?”
The Colonel went silent, but his mind was churning. Christ! Maybe Captain Smiths….Well damn if he could tell one for the other.
The next day the Colonel spoke to several generals in headquarters, doing his best to explain the unexplainable.
All up in the chain of command decided not to try to explain the unexplainable. But Colonel James knew better.
He sent Captains Bland and Smiths back to the hospital to separate them and let all the smart doctors take a shot at figuring it out.
That didn’t work out well, tossing in and out everything they could cover. Perhaps combat fatigue. Perhaps normal excitement. Perhaps anything…
The aircraft was in deep water. The colonel in charge of aircraft mechanics spoke with those in charge and familiar with the working of control sticks. Without seeing the aircraft, well….They knew the beast was good when it took off.
Eeny-Miny-Moe. Colonel James sat in his office, looking out the window.
His Chief Master Sergeant knocked. “Come in, George.” A pause. “What have you got?”
“Sir, there was something about a crash.”
“Two days ago.”
“Yes Sir. I heard there was a big problem. I might be able to help.”
“Great idea, Chief.”
The next night, two training ships took off. Harry was in one, with a solid pilot in the front seat. In the other plane with Roy as a pilot and a well-known instructor pilot in the back seat.
Things were going well and then…After a two-hour flight, one plane called the tower for an Emergency. The all
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