photo #9446202

Judy Gilford on October 19, 2026

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March 10, 1967. Two F-4 Phantoms came off a bombing run near Hanoi, both hit by anti-aircraft fire.

Bob Pardo was flying one of them. His wingman, Capt. Earl Aman, was in the other, and his jet was in far worse shape. A fuel tank had been hit. The fuel was pouring out.

Aman and his backseater, 1st Lt. Robert Houghton, did the math. They would never reach the tanker waiting over Laos. They were going to come down over North Vietnam.

Pardo could have flown home. He didn’t.

First he tried to push Aman’s jet from behind, his nose against its drag chute compartment. The turbulence was too strong. It didn’t work.

So he tried something nobody had ever planned for. He told Aman to drop his tailhook, the hook made for catching cables on an aircraft carrier. Then Pardo eased in behind him until the hook rested against his own windscreen. Aman shut down both engines.

And Pardo pushed.

The hook kept slipping off the glass. Every time it did, Pardo had to line it up again. Then one of his own engines caught fire. He shut it down and kept going on the other one.

One engine. Two jets. Almost 88 miles.

When they finally crossed into Laos, they were at 6,000 feet with about 2 minutes of flying left. All 4 men ejected. All 4 were picked up by rescue helicopters.

Then came the part almost nobody talks about.

The Air Force reprimanded Pardo. Not for the push, but for losing his own airplane. It took 22 years, until 1989, for anyone to look at the case again. Only then did Pardo and his backseater, 1st Lt. Steve Wayne, receive the Silver Star.

And that wasn’t the last time Pardo came back for Earl Aman.

Years after the war, Aman got ALS. He lost his voice. Then he lost the use of his body. Pardo set up a foundation in his name. It bought him a voice synthesizer. A motorized wheelchair. A computer. Later, a van. Aman used it until he passed away in 1998.

Bob Pardo passed away in December 2023. The move he made that day still carries his name.

Pardo’s Push.

He saved his wingman once with his airplane. Then he did it again with everything else he had.