Another Close Call



Phantom Area Ubon RTAFB

It was another day just like the others on the flight line. This time I was with my buddy John Smith and we were eating our usual fried egg and cheese sandwich at the flight line snack bar. 

Looking straight down the taxiway between the 2 sets of revetments we saw a very strange sight. A 25th Phantom was taxiing in with the front half of the centerline tank missing as well as the outboard halves of the stabilators.  There were also a few missing leading edges. Reckon she pulled some pretty heavy “Gs”.

This wasn’t the airplane that took the barrier and bent the tail hook although I saw that one too. I don’t remember a lot about what happened because it was a B flight plane and I was in A flight and we had to go recover our airplanes which were on their way in also.

Maybe someone reading this will have a better recollection. It is possible that this was the same day that LtCol. French, the 25th CO, got shot in the helmet.