After a long stint at Webb Air Force Base, Steven Bennett had finally gotten his wings. He immediately enlisted in the U.S. Air force to fly military aircraft, a life long dream of his. He was trained to fly B-52’s in 1970 at Castle Air Force Base, and then went on to train as a flight controller at Cannon Air Force Base.
The minute he graduated from flight school in 1972 he was hungry for action and enlisted for active duty in Vietnam. He was assigned as a pilot for the OV-10 aircraft while serving his tour in the East. Many pilots had dubbed this craft the “Death Trap” because it was nearly impossible to eject out of it the case of emergency.
While flying a routine combat mission that involved marking Viet Cong targets of opportunity, Bennett was informed that a platoon of South Vietnamese were trapped and may be completely overrun by hundreds of advancing VC. Since help was still hours away, Bennett knew that the troops were doomed.
He immediately sprung into action and maneuvered his craft to flank the advancing VC and push them back. It worked and he was able to save the platoon, however in doing this the VC were also able to target his OV-10 with a SAM. Resulting in much damage to the left engine and a fire onboard. Realizing time was of the essence Bennett quickly flew over a body of water and dumped most of the planes remaining fuel.
When he went to eject and realized his ejection function had been compromised by the damaged sustained in battle. Knowing that he was doomed he crashed the plane into the water head first, flipping it on its underside as he did. He died immediately on impact, however, his navigator was able to crawl out and lived. Bennett was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor a few years later. The navy even named a ship after him to remember his heroics.
Labels: Captain Steven Logan Bennett, Castle Air Force Base, Congressional Medal of Honor, Webb Air Force Base
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