Lt. Lippincott sticks his hand through the hole made by an incoming shell that narrowly missed him
Here's that little bugger!!!! Lippincott shows the actual projectile that almost cost him his life
Relative to the F-4 Phantom II, 12 TFW, or Vietnam
(From the Operational Report on McDonnell's Phantom, Vol. 1 No. 4 12/66)
Article and photos by Frank Gabreluk, NCOIC Hq 12th TFW Office of Information, June 1966 - June 1967
Four pieces of shrapnel that cut through the
canopy of his F-4C while on a mission south of Pleiku,
narrowly missed Lt. Joseph C. Lippincott, a pilot with
the 557th TFS.
"We scrambled that day," said Lippincott. "Actually I wasn't supposed to fly but I took the place of
a friend.
"When we got over the target we orbited for
several minutes while other fighters were in the area.
"After about 15 minutes our lead bird went in
and we followed on our bomb run."
Capt. Douglas B. Merz was aircraft commander
of Lippincott's Phantom, and a split second after they
dropped their bombs it happened.
"I heard a big 'thud' and saw a yellow flash in
front of me," explained the lieutenant. "It sounded
like a firecracker had exploded inside the cockpit.
Then I saw the four holes in the canopy above my
left shoulder."
As the F-4C began climbing the crew began to
lose cabin pressure. A close examination of the aircraft on the ground showed that a high explosive shell,
probably a 50-caliber, had blasted into the fuselage,
exploded and sent four pieces whizzing past Lippincott and out through the canopy.
Lt. Lippincott sticks his hand through the hole made by an incoming shell that narrowly missed him
Here's that little bugger!!!! Lippincott shows the actual projectile that almost cost him his life
