In his spare time, he focused on extracurricular activities, such as writing musicals and playing the baritone in the university’s marching band. He worked hard to improve his academic record. In 1953, he was promoted to junior lieutenant, and for the following years, he kept on flying at various naval air stations.Īccording to the Holloway Plan, after his year in the Navy, Neil Armstrong resumed his studies at Purdue University. Upon his return to the United States, he remained an ensign in the U.S. His active duty ended on August 23, 1952, and he was rewarded with several distinguished medals for his achievements. Armstrong would go on to fly 78 missions in the Korean War. This event solidified Armstrong’s trait of coolness under pressure, which would serve him well many times in the future. The famed test pilot Chuck Yeager, the pilot who first broke the sound barrier, called ejecting from a speeding jet “committing suicide to avoid getting killed.” After a successful ejection he was able to parachute safely into friendly territory. Ejection from a crippled aircraft at jet speeds is a tricky proposition under the best of conditions, and serious injury was always a real possibility. A carrier landing was out of the question with an aircraft in such bad shape, leaving only the option to bail out over South Korea. The crippled jet slowly gained altitude, and Armstrong headed for the safety of South Korea.
His Panther was severely damaged, but he was able to gain control at twenty feet above the hard ground while flying at 350 knots. Suddenly, the plane shook violently as his right wing had been severed nearly in half by a heavy metal cable that had been strung across the valley by the North Koreans-for just this purpose. While making a high-speed low altitude strafing run at the bridge, after releasing his 500-pound bomb and destroying the bridge, he started his assent into the blue sky above.
His flight group’s mission was to fly into a hot zone naval intelligence called “Green Six,” which was a valley with gun sites, fright yards and trains, a dam, and a bridge. Armstrong was nearly killed while flying a F9F Phantom during a sortie in North Korea.
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