On March 10, 1967, two F-4Cs of the 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron launched from Ubon RTAB, Thailand, on a mission to bomb the Thai Nguyen steel mill north of Hanoi. Captain Earl Aman and 1st Lieutenant Robert Houghton led the element; Captain Bob Pardo and 1st Lieutenant Steve Wayne flew wing. Before reaching the target, Aman's F-4 was hit twice by anti-aircraft fire and began losing fuel rapidly. Pardo's aircraft was also hit. After bombing the target, both crews climbed to preserve fuel and glide distance. Aman flamed out over North Vietnam, and he and Houghton prepared to eject into enemy territory. Pardo refused to abandon them. He tried to push Aman's F-4 with his own aircraft's nose, but turbulence made it impossible. Then he spotted the tailhook. He radioed, "Put the hook down," and maneuvered his windscreen against the steel tailhook, pushing the powerless F-4 toward Laos at 250 knots. Every thirty seconds, turbulence broke contact. The tailhook spiderwebbed Pardo's windscreen. Then Pardo's left engine caught fire; he shut it down, restarted it, and it caught fire again. He kept pushing. For nearly twenty minutes the two Phantoms limped on between them. Over Laos, Aman and Houghton ejected at 6,000 feet; Pardo and Wayne followed minutes later. All four were rescued. Pardo was initially reprimanded for losing his aircraft. Twenty-two years later, he and Wayne received Silver Stars. The F-4 was designed to kill. On that day, it was used to save.