More detail on this person: Retired Air Force
Lt. Col. Earl Aman, a San Antonian involved in the
famed "Pardo's push" over the flak-strewn sky of
North Vietnam 31 years ago, died here Thursday.
He was 60.
Aman, who had been confined to his bed and
wheelchair the past four years as he slowly
succumbed to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, fell
into a coma Sunday after suffering a stroke or
heart attack.
The illness, known as Lou Gehrig's disease, left
Aman able to move only his right thumb during the
last nine months of his life.
Services are scheduled Monday at the Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
A memorial will be conducted later at Randolph
AFB.
"He could still smile and move his eyes, and even
though he couldn't speak (he) still had
personality and a sense of humor," said retired
Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Brame of San Antonio,
an airline pilot.
"It never ceased to amaze me that a guy in his
position could have a personality and a sense of
humor, but he kept it up until the end," Brame
said.
Aman was sending jokes to friends via computer
voice synthesizer from his bed at a nursing home
only hours before suffering the seizure, his wife,
Lucy, said.
But he talked little of the desperate, daredevil
flying feat that fellow F-4 "Phantom" crewman Bob
Houghton said now is a legend.
Houghton vividly recalled a fateful decision by
retired Lt. Col. Bob Pardo to save him and Aman
after their F-4 was hit by enemy flak over a
Hanoi-area steel mill March 10, 1967.
Pardo and weapons control officer Steve Wayne
nudged their flak- ravaged F-4 under the tailhook
of Aman and Houghton's powerless plane, then
"pushed" the crippled craft 58 miles into Laos.
Tailhooks were common on F-4s, which were used
by the Air Force and Navy.
Aman and Houghton bailed out over an
enemy-infested village, eluded capture and later
were rescued, as were Pardo and Wayne.
The pilots were accused of "mismanaging" fuel by
superiors, but eventually received Silver Stars
for their aerial exploits.
The "push" of a plane had been done only once
before, during the Korean War, Houghton said.
Brame called Aman "a genuine American hero,"
while Lucy Aman said "he answered the call" to
fight an unpopular war, leaving his family behind
in order to do his duty.
San Antonio Express-News (TX) - Friday, October
16, 1998
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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