Valor in Vietnam

PARDO PUSH: This afternoon we had the great fortune of being able to hear Air Force fighter pilot Captain Bob Pardo recount an amazing aeronautical feat.

The year was 1967, and Pardo was one of a squadron looking to take out a steel mill in Thai Nguyen, North Vietnam. They'd made repeated attempts for 9 days straight, but weather and other factors had hampered them. On the tenth day, Pardo thought they had a pretty good chance at hitting the target. However, the North Vietnamese had significantly beefed up the number of guns in the area during the campaign, from a couple hundred to around a thousand.  As Pardo and his fellow flyers neared the target, they came under fire. The plane of pilot Captain Earl Aman (with back-seater 1st Lt Robert Houghton),was hit multiple times, damaging its engines and causing a fuel leak.

Pardo's plane, a F-4 Phantom II,  was also hit, causing him to lose fuel. Neither Pardo nor Aman

had enough gas to make it back to the fueling station, let alone their base. Pardo said ejecting over North Vietnam didn't seem like a very good option, as "it's not a good idea to bail out where you just dropped bombs." 

Pardo's plane was in better shape than Aman's, which was nearly out of fuel and falling fast. Pardo brainstormed different ways he could help his friend reach safety. He first tried pushing the plane using Aman's drag chute compartment  but too much turbulence made that too dangerous. 

He then tried carrying the plane piggyback, but again, turbulence was an issue. Eventually, Pardo struck upon the idea of having Aman lower his plane's tailhook. Pardo then flew under Aman's plane and maneuvered so that the tailhook was on Pardo's windshield. Pardo then used his F-4 to PUSH the fellow fighter pilot 88 miles, out of North Vietnam and into Laos. "You gotta work with what you got," he said of the solution.

Once over Laos, Aman and Houghton ejected, as did Pardo and Wayne. Amazingly, they all survived the harrowing journey. Amazingly (in the bad sense of the word), Pardo was not heralded for his heroics. Rather, he was called on the carpet. Some of the brass was upset that he ditched his plane. Apparently they hadn't heard that both Pardo and Aman had nowhere near enough fuel to make it any farther than they did. 

While the F-4 had a $3 million or so price tag, a new one could be built in 3-4 months, Pardo surmised. "It takes 24 years to build a replacement pilot." The bottom line was, "The general cared more about plans than people," he proclaimed. 

Pardo also told the crowd what high regard he had for the Vietnam POWS. With a catch in his voice, he said, "Their conduct was unbelievable, how they took care of one another." 

There was one gentleman in the crowd who spent 75 months (!) as a POW in Vietnam. Unfathomable. 

Pardo definitely saw Aman home safely that afternoon in 1967, and he never stopped looking out for his friend. When Aman was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease years later, Pardo spearheaded a number of fund raisers to help procure a motorized wheelchair and lift-equipped van for Aman, as well as pay for medical care not covered by the VA.  When talking about the day Aman passed away, and, in fact, the moment of his death, Pardo's words stuck in his throat and there was silence in the theater. At that very moment, a loud plane engine could be heard just outside the theater, revving up and then taking off. I bet I wasn't the only one thinking that might have been Aman's way of saying, 'hello.' 

After the presentation in the theater, Capt. Pardo moved to the lobby for a meet and greet. CJ thanked him for his service and for sharing his stories, and Annabelle shared the 'notes' she'd taken during his presentation.

Capt. Pardo was pretty tickled by them. He spent some time studying them and then started searching the crowd for his wife. He wanted Mrs. Pardo to see them, too.  And the Captain was kind enough to sign the drawing for Annabelle. How cool is that?!

I was glad to see the theater nearly full today for Capt. Pardo's presentation, but I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the audience was Vietnam vets, and I couldn't help but wish that more  people who didn't live that experience were there today to hear about it. 

Here's a recap Annbelle wrote about the afternoon. ... 

Today, at the Museum of Flight, I went and saw Bob Pardo, also known as the man who performed the Pardo Push. It turns out that the reason he had to perform it is because his partner's fuel was enough to get him to the tanker, but the fuel was leaking, so he couldn't make it. They couldn't bail where they had just dropped a bomb in North Vietnman, so they "Pardo Pushed," with Bob Pardo using his plane to push another plane for 88 miles. 

Pardo also ended up running out of fuel, so they had to use parachutes and land by a hill.  The zippers and stuff on their survival kit had corroded in that climate, so they went to the top of the hill and cut open their survival pack (no raft, because when Pardo tried to open it in the air, it got stuck, but the raft inflated anyway and blew up).

Soon, a helicopter came thanks to their radio, which sent a signal to the helicopter, after they had answered questions for security, like "Bob, what's your birthday?" When he said, "March 10th," the radio controller said, "Happy birthday, Bob!"

The first recue helicopter flew right over Pardo. The people in the helicopter said that they were waiting for another one who hadn't done a rescue in a long time, and that chopper needed to make a save, so Pardo had to sit there and hide for another 45 minutes. After that, Pardo and his partner were shipped back to the base.

Once back at the base, they were asked by many fellow air force cadets what happened, and they got told off by the general for wasting a perfectly fine flight (the news of the leak hadn't reached base yet). That is the whole story of the legendary Pardo Push.

CJ's review:

I will write a couple of paragraphs here about the speech Pardo's Push.
In Pardo's Push, Bob Pardo talked about being a soldier in the Vietnam War. I found out that it wasn't very easy being a soldier in the Vietnam War, and that you had to deal with hard challenges. Some of the aircraft featured in the presentation were the F4C, the F84, the FP 653, and many others. Pardo was in the Air Force.

I found out that Pardo spent 17,000 air hours flying. During one mission, Pardo was flying in the air and his plane was shot. He lost fuel and had to eject. When he ejected, his hip was injured,   and to make things worse, it was his birthday. I also found out that per flight, they only had 7,000 (rounded up) worth of fuel to use.

During the war, Vietnam was actually two places, north and south Vietnam, separated by a DMZ. I've heard that most of the war was fought over north Vietnam.
Overall, what his speech taught me is that being in the Air Force (or US Army) isn't very easy, especially when a huge war is going on with hostile territory involved. It also taught me that you must be brave, strong, courageous, and most importantly, patriotic to be in the Air Force, military, or any other defense force. All in all, Pardo's Push taught be a lot about being a person in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

Pardo also ventured into a couple of other topics during his speech, including his thoughts on the war in general. He said in his mind the people of South Vietnam wanted the freedoms associated with living in a democracy, such as free elections, and "it felt only natural to try to help them achieve that goal."  He also shared his opinion that for years, the war was not moving toward a resolution. U.S. troops were "turning the jungles into toothpicks" but no real progress was being made. Despite trying to cut off North Vietnamese supply routes, bicyclists were still able to deliver all sorts of goods and there was "no way to defeat" that kind of supply chain. 

Pardo also opined that during the first part of the Vietnam conflict, "The president was not about to let us win the war" because he "didn't want to upset the Russians or the Chinese."  He predicted that had B-52s been brought in in 1965, "two weeks later the war would be over." Unfortunately, "10 years of war" were suffered through until B-52s were sent into North Vietnam "and shortly after, the war was over." 

Pardo was quick to point out his story was "only one of so many unbelievable stories." 

CROWNING GLORY: After weeks and weeks of trying, inquiring, and monitoring, today was The Day. Tickets for access to the crown of the Statue of Liberty went on sale for mid-September, when we'll be in New York. The tickets are very limited, and they were supposed to go on sale in mid June. We kept checking and checking and checking and asking the purveyors (Statue Cruises) when they'd be on sale. Two days ago a 'helpful' agent told me to check in two weeks. Yesterday a 'helpful' agent told Christian to check back in a week. Glad we didn't take the 'helpful' agents' advice, because they went on sale sometime between bedtime last night and uptime this a.m.

So, we've got ours and now we need to start training in earnest. Why, you ask? Because to get up to her crown, we have to climb 397 steps, or the equivalent of 27 stories. Oh. MyGod. That's a lot of climbing. Fortunately, our very hilly neighborhood will provide a good training ground for the climbing. We've got about 70 days to get in Statue shape!

Tonight (thanks to a top from Gpa.), we watched Ken Burn's documentary "State of Liberty." It was very informative, with lots of vintage footage of the statue being built, delivered and installed. And the PBS page about the documentary has a treasure trove of related resources: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/statueofliberty/

We can't wait to Lady Liberty in person! Here's a great photo of it from 1909, with Wilbur Wright  zooming 'round.

ANCIENTS: During our aerobic and strength training calisthenics today, we listened to music from They Might Be Giants, who have recorded a couple of kids' albums in addition to their stuff for adults.

One of the songs we listened to was "The Mesopotamians.

That, of course, made CJ and Annabelle ask who the heck the Mesopotamians were. So, after we exercised, we popped onto BrainPOP where there was a video about the Sumerians which referenced Mesopotamia. 

After we watched the video, they took the quiz, and got a 10/10, so it would seem they actually learned something. Yay!

GREAT GRAPHIC: Today, thanks to ta post by Washington STEM, I came across a great infographic on "27 Ways To Help Your Students Be Innovative" View it here:
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