For USAF F-4 crew members who ejected a second time from a Phantom II, there was a very special punishment.
In military aircraft, an ejection seat is a system created to save the pilot or any other crew member during emergencies. Typically, the aircraft canopy is jettisoned, and the seat—with the occupant still in it—is forcefully propelled out of the plane by a rocket motor or explosive charge. Once the seat is clear of the aircraft, a parachute is automatically deployed. For two-seat planes, each seat ejects at a different angle to prevent mid-air collisions between crew members.
Before the introduction of ejection seats, pilots had to manually remove the canopy of their aircraft in order to climb out and jump to safety. Ejection seats have significantly improved pilot survival rates. Some may wonder if military pilots face any form of penalty for ejecting from their aircraft. According to David Ecale, a former U.S. Air Force member who posted on Quora, there is a specific protocol:
‘For F-4 pilots who eject a second time from an F-4, there is a very special punishment:
‘THEY ARE GROUNDED AND WILL NEVER FLY AN F4 AGAIN!
‘Who gives them this punishment? Their boss? Nope! The Board of Inquiry? Nope! The Flight Surgeon? Yup!
‘You see, ejection from an F-4 permanently compresses your spine. Two times & you’re done! (Note the profile of the WSO [the photo depicts a US Navy Phantom II, hence the backseater was called RIO] in this picture. That’s some serious acceleration. You can actually see the compression in action.)
‘WSOs get grounded, too!
‘I was at Luke AFB when the Base Commander ejected. I watched him get wheeled into the Hospital ER on a gurney.… It was his second F-4 bailout.’
By contrast, there was no two-ejection limit for US Navy Phantom II crews, as explained by John Chesire, a former F-4 and F-14 Tomcat pilot.
‘While the two-ejection limit was true for the Air Force, it was not true for the US Navy. I once knew and flew with a Navy RIO who had five ejections. Only the first four were successful. (Lt. David J. “Goose” Lortscher. His callsign, Goose, later became the RIO character’s callsign in the movie, Top Gun.)’
Photo by U.S. Navy
