A Memorable MARS Mission

I was assigned working MARS at DaNang in 68. I Flew 59 missions 1/2 of them were in NVN. Yes there are plenty of stories to share. One quick one. The Bug aborted early, went into the chutes just off of Tiger Island NVN. It became a race to try and get it before it went into the water. We were at orbit 10K feet and many miles away. We went into a high speed decent with our poles deployed (scary) , max speed should be 50kts. We did get up over 70. The catch was done with the bug about 20 ft from the water. Then with it half way to stow position the winch stopped. We flew for the next hour with the bug over 100 feet below us. What I never can forget was the radio on guard calling "Bandits" heading south from Squid and Oyster, the 2 biggest MIG bases. But we made it back and delivered the Bug intact. We always flew twice a day on these. Sometimes they went clean and neat.
(Harvey Metzler)