
6:05 am 160 miles inside Iraq, 30 miles from Baghdad: Lts. Devon Jones and Larry Slade bail out of their US Navy F-14 Tomcat when it is struck by an Iraqi SA-2 missile. 8:00 am Arar Airfield, Saudi Arabia: USAF 20th Special Operations Squadron Capt. Tom Trask, Maj. Mike Homan and crew take off in dense fog in an MH-53J Pave Low helicopter en route to the crash site. 8:15 am Iraqi border: Capt. Trask and Maj. Homan drop their helicopter to a flight altitude of 15 feet to avoid enemy radar and proceed to the crash site. 8:50 am Crash site vicinity, Iraq: An enemy fighter appears, then retreats when two USAF F-15 Eagles pick the fighter up on their radar. Capt. Trask, Maj. Homan and crew join the search and rescue team and begin their search for Lts. Jones and Slade. 10:30 am Unknown to the team, Lt. Slade is captured. (He is not released until March 4, 1991.) Arar Airfield, Saudi Arabia: The MH-53J crew is unable to locate the downed F-14 crew and return to refuel; they fly back to the crash site and resume their search. 1:55 pm Crash site vicinity, Iraq: The helicopter crew makes radio contact with Lt. Jones; one of the door gunners spots an enemy truck heading toward Lt. Jones. Two USAF A-10A Thunderbolt IIs, components of the search and rescue team, remain despite critically low fuel and destroy the vehicle. 2:15 pm Capt. Trask lands the MH-53J less than 150 yards from the smoldering truck, and a crewman, Sgt. Ben Pennington, helps an exhausted but grateful Lt. Jones <b>...</b>
MH-53J
Pave
Low
III
Sikorsky
USAF
AFSOC
special
operations
helicopters
rescue
combat
search
CSAR
Super
Jolly
Green
Giant
Capt
Tom
Trask
Arar
Airfield
Saudi
Arabia
Operation
Desert
Storm
LT
Devon
Jones
Larry
Slade
MAJ
Mike
Homan
msgt
Tim
Hadrych