Bob Pardo Views

• General Goods

Captain Bob Pardo (with back-seater 1st Lt Steve Wayne) and wingman Captain Earl Aman (with back-seater 1st Lt Robert Houghton) were assigned to the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. In March 1967, they were trying to attack a steel mill in North Vietnam just north of Hanoi.

In later years, Col Bob Pardo continued to remain concerned for the well-being of his fellow airmen. When he learned that Earl Aman, by then a retired lieutenant colonel, was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease and had lost his voice and mobility, he founded the Earl Aman Foundation, which raised enough money to buy Aman a voice synthesizer, a motorized wheelchair, and a computer. In concert with the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association ( River Rats ), the foundation later worked to buy a van for Lt Col Aman, which Aman used until his death. In peace or war, says Bob Pardo, if one of us gets in trouble, everyone else gets together to help. [6]

On March 10, 1967, as the last element of the 8th TFW, 433rd TFS, was bombing the Thai Nguygen steel mills near Hanoi, North Vietnam, Captain Earl Arman's F-4 was severely damaged by anti-aircraft fire. It was certain the aircraft would run out of fuel and Arman and his backseater would eject over North Vietnam. Squadron buddy, Captain Bob Pardo did not accept that fate, and after critically analyzing their options, he gambled: He would push Arman's damaged Phantom, by its tailhook, into Laos. Pardo's F-4 had also been hit, and it too ran out of fuel, two minutes after watching Arman and his backseater eject. All four airmen parachuted into the jungle and were later rescued.

It was March 10, 1967, in enemy skies over Hanoi. The last of 44 F-4 aircraft were just coming off a bombing raid into North Vietnam when Capt. Bob Pardo and his wingman Capt. Earl Aman were both hit by enemy fire. Aman's aircraft was the worse off. Hit by two damaging blows to the fuel tank, he suddenly was down to 2,000 pounds of fuel instead of the 7,000 pounds he needed to safely return to the refueling tanker.