First Lieutenant John J. Najarian

[Subdeacon Joe]

A FB find

 

On the evening of June 11, 1951, one of the most daring air rescues of the Korean War unfolded on the Taedong River near Kyomipo, just southwest of Pyongyang, North Korea. First Lieutenant John J. Najarian (pictured right), a veteran pilot with the U.S. Air Force’s 3rd Air Rescue Squadron, flew a Grumman SA-16 Albatross amphibious aircraft into the heart of enemy territory to rescue Captain Kenneth Stewart (pictured left), an F-51 Mustang pilot who had been shot down during a strike mission.

Captain Stewart, a fighter pilot with the 67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, had just released his bomb load and was searching for a target to launch his rockets when his aircraft was struck by a sudden burst of heavy anti-aircraft fire. With his engine out, he managed to glide his Mustang away from the gun positions before bailing out at approximately 900 feet. He steered his parachute toward the river to avoid capture, splashing down just before 8:15 p.m. In total darkness and under fire from both banks, he remained in the water to avoid drifting toward enemy forces. Though he had inflated his life raft, he feared it would make him a more visible target and chose instead to stay in the water and swim constantly against the current while floating in his Mae West life jacket.

The rescue operation began almost immediately. An SA-16 was dispatched and reached the river by 8:30 p.m., guided in part by fellow Mustang pilots who circled overhead, engaging enemy gun positions with over 35 rockets, thousands of rounds of .50 caliber ammunition, and tanks of napalm. One of the Mustangs flew low over the river, flashing its landing lights to help identify Stewart’s position in the darkness. The crew of the SA-16 later described the fighters’ performance as the finest example of flak suppression they had ever witnessed.

Lieutenant Najarian executed what many airmen would later call an “impossible” maneuver. Flying directly beneath the line of anti-aircraft guns and between the high riverbanks, he landed the bulky amphibious aircraft without lights and with no visual reference points. The Taedong River’s depth ranged unpredictably from six to twenty feet at that location, and the Albatross displaced five and a half feet of water, leaving almost no margin for error.

Once on the water, the crew struggled to find Stewart in the enveloping darkness until a tiny flicker of light appeared from his flashlight. They taxied toward it and found him still afloat and uninjured. The rescue team (pilot 1Lt Najarian, copilot 2Lt James Fall, navigator Capt. Morris Elias, radar operator S/Sgt. Howard Walsborn, and flight engineer T/Sgt. Harry Fitzgibbon) then took off under the same perilous conditions in which they had landed.

Captain Stewart and Lieutenant Najarian were photographed the next day examining the CO2 cartridge from Stewart's Mae West.

Najarian was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the rescue.

Have you ever heard of this rescue?  Don't you think it should be a movie?!

 

 

 

[Eyesa Horg]

I'd watch a movie of that rescue.