Aman found himself in a helpless quandary below a slippery cliff. Every time he tried to climb up the rock wall with his slick-soled boots, he would slip down onto his back, which was also injured. He couldn’t get out of that location, but fortunately the armed troops had not spotted him.

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Pardo and Wayne, meanwhile, continued to fly south as fast as their one engine could go for about a minute more. Then they turned northwest toward a U.S. Special Forces camp in Laos to avoid ejecting near a North Vietnamese Army base camp. Their fuel lasted only about two more minutes, after which their engine flamed out. Wayne was first to eject, landing a little northwest of Aman and Houghton. He hid in the brush, holding his pistol and radio, ready in case the enemy got to him but hoping an Air Force rescue helicopter would reach him first.

Houghton radioed to the Sandys and reported that they were being pursued along the hillside by armed troops. As the A-1Es arrived on station, they came in low, driving off the attackers without having to fire a shot. Houghton again signaled the overhead aircraft, and shortly one of the Jolly Greens came in and winched him up by cable. Then they flew up to the cliff and retrieved Aman the same way. A little farther to the northwest they also rescued Wayne.

After Wayne had punched out, Pardo had glided the battered fighter a little farther to the northwest before he, too, ejected. As he landed, he was knocked unconscious and sustained two fractured vertebrae in his neck. When he came to he heard shouting and gunfire coming in his direction. Hurriedly, he grabbed his pistol and radioed to the Sandys to strafe the hillside near his position, as he painfully ran about half a mile up the hill. The A-1Es came roaring in over the mountains, strafing the enemy troops and dispersing them. About 45 minutes later the second helicopter finally located Pardo on the hillside, where he lay badly injured.

The Jolly Green Giant rescued Pardo and then flew northwest to a remote outpost in Laos to refuel. There, Pardo, Wayne, Aman and Houghton were all placed on one helicopter for transfer back to Udon and medical treatment.

Ironically, the U.S. Air Force leadership in Southeast Asia was so sensitive to combat losses during the war that Pardo was actually reprimanded for the loss of his F-4. By 1989, however, the Air Force had re-evaluated the matter, and the four airmen received long overdue recognition. Earl Aman and Robert Houghton received the Silver Star for continuing to press the attack even though their aircraft had sustained severe battle damage. Robert Pardo and Steve Wayne also received Silver Stars for their heroic actions to save their comrades. The courage in the sky demonstrated by these four American airmen, in what became known as Pardo’s Push, had made possible one of the most incredible feats of airmanship during the Vietnam War.

This article was written by William Garth Seegmiller and and was originally published in the December 2003 issue of Vietnam magazine.

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