fiery loss of strobe zero one, The

Flight Journal, Feb 2002 by Rutan, Dick

We've all had experiences in our lives that have had such impact as to render them unforgettable. They leave an indelible imprint. For me, one such experience occurred while flying with a special unit of volunteer pilots known as the Mistys during my tour in Vietnam.

When I first arrived in Vietnam, I was assigned to an F-100 fighter wing at Phu Cat Air Base located about half way between Saigon and Da Nang. The primary mission was to provide close air support for the ground troops. Some of those missions were very rewarding and the results of our efforts were evident. However, the majority of the missions merely entailed dropping bombs in the jungle and busting trees. I figured that as long as I had to be in 'Nam, I might as well be in the middle of the action and that action was on the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" in North Vietnam.

Phu Cat also hosted a special out-country unit called Commando Saber whose call sign was "Misty." The purpose of this unit was to detect the movement of war materiel down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and direct air strikes against it.

The Misty's flew the two-seat trainer version of the F-tI OOF that we affectionately called "The Hun." Each plane was manned with two fighter pilots. The pilot in front would be the mission commander and the one in back would play the role of a Forward Air Controller (FAC). To keep each of us honest, every other flight we would swap roles. We ranged low and fast over the lower panhandle of North Vietnam and Laos. We flew alone and armed with only a few hundred rounds of 20mm cannon and 18 white smoke-marking rockets. To be able to see anything through the camouflage we had to get right down "in amongest 'em" and thus we had a fairly high loss rate. Our first commander, Col. Bud Day, was shot down very early in the operation and spent more than six years as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton. With air refueling support from the KC-135 tankers out over the Gulf of Tonkin, the Misty missions were long (four to six hours) and laced with plenty of action. Owing to the high risk of the missions, the Misty unit was composed of volunteers only and each tour of duty was short-only 120 days. A high percentage of those who extended for more than one tour were shot down, myself included.

Each day we were assigned flights of F-105 Thunder Chiefs or F-4 Phantoms. If we had a real hot target (SAM site or fuel dump) we could scramble the Gun Fighters (F-4s) off the alert pad at Da Nang to come north and work with us. Most high-value targets in the North were well defended with AAA (antiaircraft guns). Once we found a target, we would orbit just out of range of the guns and wait for the fighter/bombers to join us. It took a few minutes in the orbit to get everyone briefed on the target, which provided the gunners plenty of time to pump up the adrenaline and exercise their trigger fingers. Since the Misty had to mark the target with the white smoke rocket, he was the first one down the chute. The gunners knew the drill well. As the Misty rolled inverted, pulling the nose down to the target, every gun would open up. Within seconds, as tracers flashed by the canopy, we lined up to fire the smoke rocket. It was always one hell of a rush-the real E-ticket ride.

It was during the summer of 1968 when I was to experience an event as unforgettable as it was surreal. To this day, it's as though it was a dream I'd had just last night. On this particular day I was in the backseat with Capt. Don Harland up front. We had just competed our in-flight refueling from a KC-135 tanker when we heard a mayday call to the Waterboy, a ground control radar site. The call was from Strobe Zero One, an RF-4C Phantom (photo recon version of the F-4) coming out of North Vietnam, just above the DMZ. He reported he had taken a hit, had smoke in the rear cockpit, that he was losing hydraulic pressure and was heading feet wet out to the Gulf.

Turning on my tape recorder, we listened for a while to the conversation and discovered we were almost flying head-on to the mayday aircraft. I took control and jumped into the conversation. I asked Waterboy to vector us for a rejoin so we could check him over. After a few vectors, I found myself in a tail chase with too much speed and overshot him. Even with Idle power, speed brakes, full left rudder and right aileron, I skidded right on by him. Sheepishly, I slipped back on his left wing. From what Harland and I could initially see, he appeared normal. We didn't spot any gaping holes or see streaming fluid. Strobe Zero One stated they were losing hydraulic pressure and they were getting a lot of heat in the rear cockpit. We directed him to "hold it steady" so we could tuck in close underneath and do a visual battle damage check. We began our inspection just as Strobe Zero One rolled wings level at about 10,000 feet, a few miles feet wet and parallel to the coast. He said he was going to try to make it to Da Nang.

I eased our Hun in close underneath the big Phantom looking for any damage. Harland noticed it first-flames flickering in a small hole up inside the camera bay near the nose. Harland also spotted a small amount of smoke burbling out of the seams in the belly. I crossed back over to the left wing and we forwarded these tidbits of information to Strobe Zero One. During this entire check, we had no idea there was a General Officer in the front seat and that we were not talking to the pilot, but rather to the "Seeing-Eye Major" in the backseat. Up until then, I thought it was just a "Poug" captain and his brown-bar (2nd Lt.) navigator in the back as was common. Because of the risk of capture, generals were prohibited from flying missions into North Vietnam. These recon missions were flown alone at very low altitudes that required a straight flight path to get the photos. Even though they were flown at very high speed, these guys were sitting ducks for the North Vietnamese gunners. I had a lot of respect for them as they flew straight and level in the weeds getting hammered by every gun in sight. That's why I did not expect any high rank on board. As I said, these missions were reserved for the lower ranking (Pougs) in the squadron.