World: That Others May Live

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Transceiver & Beeper. Pilots who are hit head for open water if they can. "Our chances of rescuing a pilot who falls in the Gulf of Tonkin are 99%," says the Third's commander, Colonel Arthur W. Beall, 50, of Orlando, Fla. Even over North Viet Nam itself, the Third estimates that it pulls out 60% of downed airmen, excluding those who fall directly into populous or heavily garrisoned zones. Rescues are effected by a combination of coordination, technology and guts. Each airman is equipped with a $2,400 survival kit containing, among other things, 400 ft. of nylon rope, a tracer pistol, flares, food, water, a raft and a desalting kit. The key gadget is a small mercury-battery radio that is both a voice transceiver and a beeper providing a radio fix for search and rescue planes to home in on.

A recovery mission is a formidable task force, often dedicated to finding and retrieving just one man. High overhead circles the "Crown," a C-130 command plane that coordinates the rescue. Then come four A-l fighters to bomb and strafe any North Vietnamese on the ground around the pilot. Two helicopters, either twin-jet HH-3 "Jolly Greens" or HH-43 "Pedros," move in for the pickup. Each chopper carries a crew of four: pilot, copilot, crew chief (who acts as hoist operator, gunner and mechanical expert), and a para-rescue man expert at parachuting, scuba diving, jungle survival and medical care.

Petal-like Penetrator. It's a rare mis sion that is not shot at, and a still rarer one in which the helicopter can actually land to bring an airman aboard. If the downed man is seriously disabled, the pararescue man goes down and stays with him until they can get out—which can mean as long as a day or more in enemy territory. Most often an airman is lifted out of difficult terrain by hoist. Each rescue copter has a 240-ft. cable tipped by a "forest penetrator": a 25-lb. sinker that can plunge through heavy foliage, then, petal-like, open up to form three seats. Rescue squadrons stand on alert for every sortie northward, and some even nest for a period within North Viet Nam, waiting for a mayday call.

"We have terrific morale," says one U.S. fighter-bomber pilot, "and half of it is knowing that these guys will come and get us out. They will try and try and try." To a remarkable extent, they succeed.