INSTEAD OF LEAVING HIS DOWNED COMRADE BEHIND, THIS PILOT SIMPLY LANDED NEXT TO HIM
On 10 March 1966, Major Bernard Fisher and Dafford Myers were flying a routine mission in their A-1 Skyraider fighter-bombers when they were called in to defend a Special Forces camp. By the time they arrived, some of the more than 2,000 attackers were already climbing over the outer walls and were close to overrunning the South Vietnamese special forces.
After the pilots had flown several strikes to push the enemy back, Myers’ aircraft was caught by heavy anti-aircraft fire and went up in flames. The thick smoke left him unable to see and barely able to breathe, so he called Fisher on the radio, who talked him through the controls from outside. Together they got the burning aircraft lined up on the camp’s makeshift runway. Myers still had several white phosphorus bombs under his wings and made an easy target on the way in, but with Fisher’s calm voice on the radio he managed to belly-land the bomber.
The crash landing set off the reserve tank, so Myers hit the emergency release for the canopy and got clear of the flames with almost no margin. With a minefield in front of him, a burning aircraft behind him and several Viet Cong only 200 meters away, he was already certain he would be captured.
After the pilots had flown several strikes to push the enemy back, Myers’ aircraft was caught by heavy anti-aircraft fire and went up in flames. The thick smoke left him unable to see and barely able to breathe, so he called Fisher on the radio, who talked him through the controls from outside. Together they got the burning aircraft lined up on the camp’s makeshift runway. Myers still had several white phosphorus bombs under his wings and made an easy target on the way in, but with Fisher’s calm voice on the radio he managed to belly-land the bomber.
The crash landing set off the reserve tank, so Myers hit the emergency release for the canopy and got clear of the flames with almost no margin. With a minefield in front of him, a burning aircraft behind him and several Viet Cong only 200 meters away, he was already certain he would be captured.
Then an aircraft shot past him, pulled a turn and touched down far too fast on the debris-covered airstrip. The landing was so wild that Myers thought a second fighter-bomber was going in. But it was Fisher, looking for the comrade who had just gone down. As Fisher was about to jump out of the cockpit, Myers was already on the wing and climbing in with him. Under heavy enemy fire they barely got airborne and flew safely back to base. Witnesses from the camp confirmed the reckless run later, and Bernard Fisher was awarded the Medal of Honor on 19 January 1967.
A brotherhood nobody else understands.
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