Listening to every transmission from 35,000 feet

Episode 15.

Firebird 5 is now ordered into the fight.  Capt Ted Lowry (EWO) knows Maj Don Kilgus (his pilot) as a man with an extremely aggressive heart.  Having flown about 300 hours together, Lowry trusts him implicitly—Lowry says it works best that way, since Lowry is, by definition, 39 inches in trail at all times. Within seconds of entering the fight, Firebird 5 lines up on one of a number of SAM sites that were beginning to become very active.

The scope tells Lowry the location of a SAM site.  Smart F-4 crews overhead know to put that on their 6 o’clock.  Kilgus and Lowry turn to put it at their 12, straight ahead.  At about 13 miles out, with the F-105’s state-of-the-art avionics system for their Shrike missile, Lowry acquires the target emitter.  Get within the parameters.  Raise the nose 25 degrees for optimal launch.  Bleed the speed to 350 knots.   Ready to fire.

The Shrike launches from under the right wing of the F-105.  Kilgus executes an evasive 180 degree turn.

The electronic warfare suite gives the F-105’s crew a rattlesnake sound to let you know the SAM site is tracking you.  When it changes, adding a steady tone, you know they’ve launched on you. 

At that very moment, a rattlesnake and steady tone comes over the headphones: one of the SAMs has launched.  Kilgus scans for it, spots it, and lets the SAM develop its flight algorithm.  He verifies that it is trailing them.  He dives abruptly.  The SAM dives with them.  Timing the pull for a moment when he knows the SAM will not turn well, Firebird 5 pulls up with four Gs.  The SAM fails to make the turn.  By this time, a second SAM from the same site is already airborne.  Firebird 5, now with less speed, pulls aggressively within the arc of the second SAM.  PULL…IT…AROUND.  The M-1 “grunt” keeps the blood in your head from draining.  The second SAM swings wide, impotent.  A third SAM is in the air—it’s getting hairy—and yes, it too is coming at them, and somehow they avoid it as well.

At that same moment, the other flight members were all dodging SAMs and keeping situationally aware of each other as well.  A fourth SAM is airborne in the melee and homing in on Firebird 5. You look out your canopy at 4 o’clock low.  Not moving.  Not good.  The Gs strain your craned neck, but you can’t stop looking.  A desperate hard turn is not enough.

POWW!!  You’ve never heard such a vicious concussion.  It explodes about 100 meters away.  Its shrapnel hits the fuselage just aft of Lowry’s seat primarily.   That bomb flash off your right side totally stuns you.  The aircraft is slammed toward the left.     …it is 2:46am.

2:46am.  Firebird 5 is hit by a SAM!  Extremely excited voices in the SAM van declare something like, “Tiêu diệt mục tiêu rồi!” (Target destroyed!!)  

Aboard the F-105, the crew assesses their aircraft: The damage is aft of you, where the P2 hydraulic system and fuel tanks are.  Kilgus says to Lowry, “The Stab Aug is inop.”  Horizontal Stabilizer Augmenter is an electro-hydraulic function that helps the jet fly smoother.  As an indication of how unruly this jet can be, the F-105G is known by crews as the “Thud.”  With Stab Aug now inoperative, it’s going to take more work the rest of the flight.  Other than that, this Thud is still functional, as far as the crew can tell.  They still have one Shrike left.  (Their load was 2 Shrikes and 3 external fuel tanks.)  Kilgus says to Lowry, “The airplane is still flyable and we have people down there.  We need to stay.”

See more photos and stories on this website and in Who Will Go, which is just as much to honor the wives and family as the men themselves.

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