The Day Martin-Baker Saved My Life

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>On a sunny day in April 1965 Lt JG Bryson Thompson and his RIO Ensign Walls Walthall were heading toward the NAS Yuma practice bombing range in their new F-4 Phantom. Suddenly they heard a loud thump behind them in the engine compartment. Thompson decided to return to Miramar Naval Air Station to have the plane checked out. Everything seemed fine ... until it didn't! Suddenly smoke began filling the cockpits the engine fire warning lights began flashing flames were coming out of the intakes and the controls froze. Thompson made the decision to eject. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This is the true account of the author's nightmare of being trapped in the back seat of a burning F-4 Phantom unable to eject and about to join expensive debris in a remote alfalfa field. And all of it was forewarned in a dream.</span></p>