Post by corsair67 on May 18, 2009 14:24:43 GMT 12
From The USAF Times -
www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/05/airforce_kolligian_051709/
How to land an F-16 with a spinal injury
Pilot won Kolligian Trophy for his final flight
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 17, 2009 9:32:19 EDT
Flying above the Gulf of Mexico in the early afternoon, Maj. Booth Johnston steered his F-16 Fighting Falcon upward at better than 500 mph.
The 9-G turn pushed Johnston, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 200 pounds, into the fighter’s seat, a sensation not much different from hundreds of other times during his 2,500 hours in F-16s.
Then something snapped.
Near the top of Johnston’s spine, the disk between the fifth and sixth vertebra suddenly popped out of place, pinching the nerves that connect his brain with his feet and hands.
And just as suddenly, Johnston was fighting for his life. Barely conscious and in excruciating pain, he struggled to maintain control of the plane. Today, he can only guess at how to piece it all together.
“I don’t remember that day much,” recalled Johnston, then assigned to the Texas Air National Guard’s 147th Fighter Wing at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base near Houston.
Johnston suspects the disk blew out as he turned his head to spot his wingman, Maj. Steve Sambell.
Sambell didn’t realize anything was wrong with Johnston.
“All I could tell was that he was flying the airplane,” said Sambell, also assigned to the 147th.
Then, Sambell heard Johnston declare, “Knock it off!” — the radio call to halt the mock dogfight.
Johnston sounded as if he was in too much pain to explain what happened, Sambell said. When he asked Johnston a question, Johnston grunted back with a “yes” or “no.”
The pilots turned toward Ellington, about 20 minutes away.
Despite the pain and the loss of feeling in both his arms and legs, Johnston kept the F-16 on course.
With Sambell helping guide him and others on the ground communicating with him over the radio, Johnston touched down at Ellington and brought the plane to a safe stop.
The Air Force is recognizing Johnston’s extraordinary efforts on that day, Oct. 16, 2007, with the Koren Kolligian Jr. Trophy, given annually to an aircrew member for outstanding feats of skill, alertness, ingenuity or proficiency that avert an accident or minimize the severity of the mishap.
Named for Lt. Col. Koren Kolligian Jr., who was declared missing in the line of duty when his T-33 aircraft disappeared off the California coast Sept. 14, 1955, the trophy is the service’s only individual safety award personally presented by the Air Force chief of staff. A date for the presentation at the Pentagon hasn’t been set.
The pain from his injury and then three days under heavy sedation have left Johnston without a clear memory of how he landed the plane. Those who heard Johnston’s strained radio calls and watched him land the F-16 believe they know what happened.
“His experience kicked in,” Sambell said. “His second nature kicked in.”
Twenty minutes after calling “Knock it off!” Johnston was being lifted out of the cockpit by emergency crews.
“I remember a snippet of a guy in a silver suit pulling at me,” Johnston said.
Johnston was loaded into an ambulance and taken first to the base medical clinic, then to Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, about four miles from the base.
Johnston was injected with morphine, Valium and Vicodin. He was out cold.
“On the third day, I started to realize I was in the hospital,” Johnston said.
“How did I get here?” Johnston recalled thinking.
It took four more days before Johnston could walk a few feet and was allowed to go home, where his parents took care of him. But his treatment was far from over. Civilian doctors struggled for two months to figure out what exactly was wrong.
By Johnston’s count, there were 20 X-rays, two CAT scans, three MRIs and a sampling of spinal fluid.
Looking back, Johnston sees now that the doctors were confused because they had no experience with the effects of high-performance flying.
“It was like a puzzle to them,” he said
Finally, an Air Force flight surgeon advised the doctors that a high-G turn could have the same impact as a sudden blow. That did it: Doctors soon discovered the damage to Johnston’s upper spine.
“They found I blew out a disk, causing a pinched nerve at cervical 5-6,” the pilot said.
An operation to relieve pressure on the nerves was an option. Neurosurgeons warned, though, that he risked paralysis if the nerves were accidentally damaged during the procedure.
He decided against surgery.
Today, without surgery, Johnston has full use of his hands and feet. He’s even back working out.
“When I go to the gym, I can lift about half of what I used to,” he said.
Piercing headaches continue, however, and Johnston can’t sit long without back pain.
Because of his medical problems, Johnston, now a lieutenant colonel, can’t pass a fighter pilot’s rigorous flight physical.
While Johnston recovered, the 147th wing switched from flying F-16s to flying remote-controlled MQ-1 Predators. Even operating an unmanned aerial vehicle from the ground would be too taxing for Johnston because he can’t stay seated for long periods.
Instead, Johnston works as the wing’s special security and anti-terrorism officer. He expects to be medically retired someday because of lingering headaches and back pain.
Johnston can’t even take a final retirement flight in the back seat of an F-16D because he could re-injure his back.
He misses the experience of flight.
“Every time I see an airplane, I miss it,” he said.
“I’m not anxious to get back into an F-16,” Johnston said. “I really want to walk.”
www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/05/airforce_kolligian_051709/
How to land an F-16 with a spinal injury
Pilot won Kolligian Trophy for his final flight
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 17, 2009 9:32:19 EDT
Flying above the Gulf of Mexico in the early afternoon, Maj. Booth Johnston steered his F-16 Fighting Falcon upward at better than 500 mph.
The 9-G turn pushed Johnston, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 200 pounds, into the fighter’s seat, a sensation not much different from hundreds of other times during his 2,500 hours in F-16s.
Then something snapped.
Near the top of Johnston’s spine, the disk between the fifth and sixth vertebra suddenly popped out of place, pinching the nerves that connect his brain with his feet and hands.
And just as suddenly, Johnston was fighting for his life. Barely conscious and in excruciating pain, he struggled to maintain control of the plane. Today, he can only guess at how to piece it all together.
“I don’t remember that day much,” recalled Johnston, then assigned to the Texas Air National Guard’s 147th Fighter Wing at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base near Houston.
Johnston suspects the disk blew out as he turned his head to spot his wingman, Maj. Steve Sambell.
Sambell didn’t realize anything was wrong with Johnston.
“All I could tell was that he was flying the airplane,” said Sambell, also assigned to the 147th.
Then, Sambell heard Johnston declare, “Knock it off!” — the radio call to halt the mock dogfight.
Johnston sounded as if he was in too much pain to explain what happened, Sambell said. When he asked Johnston a question, Johnston grunted back with a “yes” or “no.”
The pilots turned toward Ellington, about 20 minutes away.
Despite the pain and the loss of feeling in both his arms and legs, Johnston kept the F-16 on course.
With Sambell helping guide him and others on the ground communicating with him over the radio, Johnston touched down at Ellington and brought the plane to a safe stop.
The Air Force is recognizing Johnston’s extraordinary efforts on that day, Oct. 16, 2007, with the Koren Kolligian Jr. Trophy, given annually to an aircrew member for outstanding feats of skill, alertness, ingenuity or proficiency that avert an accident or minimize the severity of the mishap.
Named for Lt. Col. Koren Kolligian Jr., who was declared missing in the line of duty when his T-33 aircraft disappeared off the California coast Sept. 14, 1955, the trophy is the service’s only individual safety award personally presented by the Air Force chief of staff. A date for the presentation at the Pentagon hasn’t been set.
The pain from his injury and then three days under heavy sedation have left Johnston without a clear memory of how he landed the plane. Those who heard Johnston’s strained radio calls and watched him land the F-16 believe they know what happened.
“His experience kicked in,” Sambell said. “His second nature kicked in.”
Twenty minutes after calling “Knock it off!” Johnston was being lifted out of the cockpit by emergency crews.
“I remember a snippet of a guy in a silver suit pulling at me,” Johnston said.
Johnston was loaded into an ambulance and taken first to the base medical clinic, then to Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, about four miles from the base.
Johnston was injected with morphine, Valium and Vicodin. He was out cold.
“On the third day, I started to realize I was in the hospital,” Johnston said.
“How did I get here?” Johnston recalled thinking.
It took four more days before Johnston could walk a few feet and was allowed to go home, where his parents took care of him. But his treatment was far from over. Civilian doctors struggled for two months to figure out what exactly was wrong.
By Johnston’s count, there were 20 X-rays, two CAT scans, three MRIs and a sampling of spinal fluid.
Looking back, Johnston sees now that the doctors were confused because they had no experience with the effects of high-performance flying.
“It was like a puzzle to them,” he said
Finally, an Air Force flight surgeon advised the doctors that a high-G turn could have the same impact as a sudden blow. That did it: Doctors soon discovered the damage to Johnston’s upper spine.
“They found I blew out a disk, causing a pinched nerve at cervical 5-6,” the pilot said.
An operation to relieve pressure on the nerves was an option. Neurosurgeons warned, though, that he risked paralysis if the nerves were accidentally damaged during the procedure.
He decided against surgery.
Today, without surgery, Johnston has full use of his hands and feet. He’s even back working out.
“When I go to the gym, I can lift about half of what I used to,” he said.
Piercing headaches continue, however, and Johnston can’t sit long without back pain.
Because of his medical problems, Johnston, now a lieutenant colonel, can’t pass a fighter pilot’s rigorous flight physical.
While Johnston recovered, the 147th wing switched from flying F-16s to flying remote-controlled MQ-1 Predators. Even operating an unmanned aerial vehicle from the ground would be too taxing for Johnston because he can’t stay seated for long periods.
Instead, Johnston works as the wing’s special security and anti-terrorism officer. He expects to be medically retired someday because of lingering headaches and back pain.
Johnston can’t even take a final retirement flight in the back seat of an F-16D because he could re-injure his back.
He misses the experience of flight.
“Every time I see an airplane, I miss it,” he said.
“I’m not anxious to get back into an F-16,” Johnston said. “I really want to walk.”