During the Vietnam conflict some 250 American airmen have been rescued from the Tonkin Gulf and South China Sea. A key factor in the success of this effort is the training received by the Navy’s search and rescue helicopter crews, as depicted on the following pages.
The Navy’s emphasis on pilot-recorery operations in Vietnam is reflected in the training of its search and rescue helicopter personnel. A limited number of pilots reporting to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron One (HC-1) are selected for assignment to the squadron’s six combat detachments operating from ships in the Tonkin Gulf. Based at Ream Field, California, HC-1 trains combat pilots in the armored L H-2 Sea Sprite, pictured here. A major portion of the 16 weeks of search and rescue helicopter pilot training is devoted to aircraft system ground schooling and to flight instruction.
Because search and rescue pilots may themselves be forced down, about five weeks are spent in survival, evasion, resistance, and escape training. At the Counterinsurgency School at Camp Pendleton, California, squadron personnel learn to use a variety of weapons, ranging from 12-gauge shotguns and 81-mm. mortars to hand grenades (opposite.) Demonstrations and lectures stress the threat of booby traps, including the claymore mine (above left). Several days are spent on the small arms range developing proficiency with the standard 38-caliber revolver (above center). During a week of Survival School, the pilots and crewmen learn to live in hostile territory with a minimum of food and water and gain first-hand knowledge of what to expect if captured.
To develop the close co-ordination required, many hours are spent practicing pickups with the helicopter’s electro-hydraulic winch. The “fishpole” boom seen above is sometimes employed, permitting the pilot to keep in view the man being rescued. Usually, however, the pilot cannot see the man on the ground, and must maneuver the helicopter in response to verbal directions or hand pressures on his shoulder from the crew chief.
Navy UH-2 helicopter detachments in Vietnam operate mainly from the decks of guided missile frigates and cruisers. Here an HC-1 crew conducts practice shipboard operations with the USS Mahan (DLG-11), off the coast of California. The pilots find these operations more difficult than over-land pickups because of the relative motion of the water and the air turbulence caused by the ship’s superstructure.