The Misty Pilots
For an elite group of Vietnam War fliers, the risky work was made a bit easier by knowing that a lot of people were looking out for them
Once Brian was on board, the chopper commander said, "Let's go look for your copilot." It was an agonizing search. At some point after Brian had been hauled up, the rescue aircraft started picking up a strong parachute beeper signal that they figured could only be coming from Howie's chute, since no other aircraft were down in the area. But they were unable to make voice contact, which was the only way to determine where he was and get him out. There was some sporadic groundfire, and the chopper Brian was on took a couple more hits. The rescuers scoured the area for another hour, looking fruitlessly. Finally, with nothing more than the tantalizing beeper to guide them, the rescuers turned south and left the crash site. The incident was over. The search for Howie would continue, however--and take a number of startling turns that nobody anticipated.
This story continues online at www.usnews.com/misty
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