ALONE IN A BURNING B-52

On January 3, 1973, USAF Lt. Col. Myles McTernan’s (Ret.) aircraft was hit by a SAM just as they released their weapons over

Vinh, North Vietnam. The aircraft flew south to friendly territory where the air crew ejected over the South China Sea, 20 miles east of Da Nang, all except McTernan, whose hatch failed. He couldn’t reach his mic button when the aircraft commander asked if anyone was left on board. “When I heard the last ejection seat leave the aircraft,” said McTernan, “My heart jumped into my throat. I was alone in the aircraft, which was on fire and hurtling toward the South China Sea 10,000 feet below. My ejection hatch had failed. My only hope was a manual bailout, and I knew I had only seconds to do it.”

McTernan rolled into a ball and dropped through the radar navigator’s escape hatch without a life raft, which was still attached to his ejection seat. He floated down into 10-foot ocean swells with only a life preserver, learning later that the waters there were infested with sharks. He was miles from the rest of crew, all of whom were rescued.

“For four-and-a-half hours, I attempted to use the survival equipment. Nothing worked. I lost two radios, couldn’t ignite the flare and smoke canisters, and had somehow punctured my life preserver,” which he had to continually inflate with his mouth. The right side of his face was smashed in. Bleeding profusely and burned by jet fuel, he had cuts on all of his fingers, and had swallowed huge amounts of saltwater. “I knew I was near death,” he said.

But one alert pilot in one, small, single-engine rescue plane spotted McTernan as he rose to the top of an ocean swell just as the pilot was turning back to Da Nang to refuel.

“If that rescue plane had run out of fuel a few seconds later or earlier, or if the pilot had made a right turn instead of left, or if I hadn’t been at the top of the wave at the right instant, I never would have been found.” McTernan fully recovered from his injuries, as did the rest of the crew.