Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991 TAG: 9103150176
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Mayday, Mayday! I'm on the ground!" Fox squawked on his radio. "I've ejected! Now heading south!"
"There's a guy coming at me with a gun," he said in a tape recording reported in The Providence (R.I.) Journal-Bulletin.
"I'm not holding out any hope here," he said later when it was clear rescuers would not reach him before Iraqi troops.
The tape was made from cockpit recorders in the planes searching for him and was played for a Journal-Bulletin reporter in Saudi Arabia last week. It chilled family members still rejoicing Fox's freedom.
"It kind of gives you goose bumps," his sister, Nancy Howard, said Thursday. "You can just picture it. You're running in the desert and somebody's coming after you."
Fox, 40, a native of Swansea, Mass., was captured Feb. 19 when his A-10 Warthog tank-killer jet was shot down. He was among the prisoners of war released after allied troops forced Iraq from Kuwait and arrived last weekend at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where he is being treated for his knee injury.
At a news conference Thursday at Andrews with other former POWs, Fox described his attempt to flee to safety.
"I headed in a southerly direction as rapidly as I could go," he said. "It turned out it wasn't fast enough."
Despite his injury, Fox, a marathon runner, tried to jog to the Saudi Arabian border about 10 miles away after he ejected from his plane.
"They're coming for me, dudes," Fox said in the recording.
"I'm heading south."
The pilot of a rescue plane asked Fox if he knew his coordinates, and Fox responded: "No, I sure don't, man. I sure don't."
"Here come some guys to pick me up," Fox said.
"Nail 5-3 [Fox's code name].. . . Talk to us."
"They're coming for me, dudes."
"I'm coming your way," the rescuer said. "I'm across the hardball from you."
"There's a guy coming at me with a gun. I only see one. I don't see anyone else."
"Copy that. I'm coming your way. If you see an A-10 overhead, look for me."
"He's yelling. Telling me to get my hands up."
Moments later, Fox said: "You got my crash site yet?"
"I don't see it. I'm coming to you. Do you see an A-10 overhead?"
"No, I do not. This guy's less than 100 yards away."
"OK. I'm trying to get through to you. I don't know where you are exactly."
"OK. I'm not holding out any hope here."
"Nail 5-5's got a tally on your smoke site. Say [your location] from there."
"I'm a hundred meters to the south."
"Copy that. I'm inbound."
As the rescue plane tried to home in on Fox's location, he said: "Too late, guys. He's here."
by CNB