Helicopter combat support

Wings of Gold Cover Feature

To all points of the compass around the globe every day of the year, they transport everything from bombs to butter and people to parts. They fly search and rescue missions. They execute Naval Special Warfare with SEALs. They conduct mine warfare. As Naval Aviation's Helo Master Plan takes shape, more missions will be added to their inventory of responsibilities. They are the men and women of Helicopter Combat Support. While it might appear their mission is tedious and without drama, just the opposite is true. Ask anyone in HC and they'll tell you they love what they do and would rather have this mission than any other.

Following are remarks by CAPT Ric Weyrick, Commander Helicopter Tactical Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet, followed by summaries of HC squadrons in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets.

Commander of Helicopter Tactical Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet, CAPT Ric Weyrick, earned his wings in May of 1978. He first flew Fleet helicopters in HC-16 and HC-6 followed in 1981 by NROTC instructor duty at his alma mater, the University of Washington. He was subsequently Air Boss on USS Cleveland (LPD-7) for work ups and a WESTPAC, and then coordinated a nine month major overhaul of the ship. He was next assigned to HC-11 where he was OpsO and Detachment OinC of the Navy's first operational deployment of the upgraded SR&M (Survivability, Reliability & Maintainability) H-- 46D Sea Knight. Study at the Naval War College and the international Naval Staff College as a U.S. representative followed. He graduated from the latter with honors in 1990. He was a J3/SpecOps Political-- Military Planner in JCS during Desert Shield and Desert Storm after which he assumed his first command as CO of HC-- 11. Subsequently, he was Ops Officer and XO of USS New Orleans

(LPH-11), N3/5 for Commander, Amphibious Group Three, and then commanded Fleet Activities, Okinawa beginning in 1997, achieving many firsts in the region and earning numerous awards including four from Japan's Prime Minister. He assumed his current command in October 1999. Following are his remarks based on an interview with Wings of Gold in May 2001.

I've often been asked what it is that separates the HC community from others. One part of the answer is we are among the last Naval Aviators still engaging in "seat of the pants" flying. Albeit reliable, the H-46 Sea Knight, our primary aircraft, is aging and technologically unsophisticated. It doesn't f network of computers to assist the flight crews. But flying the Sea Knight is a heck of a lot of fun. Aircraft in our Pacific Wing, which also include the H-3 and H-1, are some of the oldest in the fleet and certainly older than most of the aviators who operate H-46s are nearing 35 years old and some have already passed their 15,000 airframe hour limit. Even though we love flying them, we're definitely looking forward to getting the new MH-60S Knighthawk on our flight lines.

VERTREP has traditionally been a key mission for the HC community. Lifting pallets of ordnance or supplies and delivering them safely and with accuracy on various sized flight decks, especially at night, summons every bit of skill and concentration a pilot can muster. You don't do a lot of precise calculations before executing a VERTREP approach to pick up or deliver a load, and you're virtually always flying "below the curve." You may come down the side of ship, fly a button-- hook pattern to a landing or to a hover over a load, all the while feeling your way through the vicissitudes of wind, aircraft and ship movement. You develop a kind of sixth sense to complete these maneuvers.

VERTREP flying comprises a lot of physical work and 12-hour flying days are not uncommon. At the end of these, flying half a dozen "hot seats" a day, you might wind up having "Fruit of Loom" stenciled on your back-- side. But it's an aeronautically fun mission and we derive tremendous satisfaction from the knowledge that we're serving the fleet every time we launch.

While VERTREP used to be the `bread and butter of the HC community, today our community has evolved into one executing several primary mission areas, and a few fairly significant secondary ones as well. Today, HC units range all over the world not only delivering cargo and people but conducting Amphibious Ready Group Search and Rescue, mine warfare, Naval Special Warfare support, Vertical Onboard Delivery, drone recovery operations, designated Fleet Commander/VIP passenger and logistics support, and a variety of other Combat Support missions.

Among this Wing's units, for example, is HC-5 based in Guam. It recently won ANA's outstanding achievement award for Special Mission and Fleet Support for 2000. It's a very unique squadron. It has one of the highest OPTEMPOs in the community. Its detachments deploy an average of over 200 days out of the year. It has its own barracks (which just won the coveted Zumwalt 5 Star Award) and its own AIMD. It conducts SAR for the entire island of Guam. Another of our premier squadrons, HC-11, with a PAA of 23 aircraft, is almost a Wing by itself. Boasting nearly 100 officers and over 500 people, it is the Navy's largest active operational helicopter squadron. As the H-46 is referred to as the Navy's "workhorse of the Fleet," so HC-11 is known as the "911 squadron" for COMNAVAIRPAC. If something needs doing, you can count on HC-11 getting the call.

But as good as we are, our future's going to be even better, You may have heard of the "Helicopter Master Plan" (HMP), which is an acquisition strategy to neck down all Navy rotary wing type/model/series from its current 7 to 2. The MH-60S Knighthawk, now undergoing final tests at Patuxent River, Maryland, will replace the H-- 46, H-3 and H-1 for their present logistic, SAR and other support missions as well as the MH-53E for organic mine warfare. But as the "Sierra" matures, it will also pick up numerous additional missions, such as Combat SAR, SUW, and others. The new SH-60R will similarly eventually replace the SH-60B and SH-60F. The H-46 is scheduled to be retired by mid 2004. We expect the H-3 and H-1 to be completely retired in about 10 years.

The MH-60S Knighthawk will appear on our flight line here at HC-3 in August of this year - perhaps by the time this article is being read by the Fleet. Cadre training will begin shortly after, and we expect to have our first Category I FRS flight students to begin flying it in December. The first operational "Sierras" will go to HC5 and HC-6. After a six to nine months of transition, they will be operating and deploying the new aircraft in their respective theaters of responsibility, both before the end of CY 2002.

The state of the art Knighthawk, actually a 'marinized' version of the Army's Blackhawk, features a glass cockpit. While much of today's "seat of the pants flying" will be upgraded through technology, the HC community will be adding significant new missions to its already impressive portfolio. In the relatively near future these missions will include Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR), made possible by installation of armed helo kits; organic AMCM (Airborne Mine Counter-- Measures) and Surface Warfare (SUW) in defense of the Battle Group. The added excitement and professional reward of these missions will easily compensate for the loss of our venerable legacy aircraft.

In addition to and in conjunction with Navy's necking down to two rotary wing aircraft types, a complete Naval Rotary wing re-organization will ultimately merge the HC, HM, HS and HSL communities into two. Twelve to fifteen years from now, the Navy will have two helicopter wings and FRSs, one Sierra and one Romeo, on each coast.

Eventually, there will be at least one SH-60R squad ron and an MH-60S squadron deploying on and detaching from each aircraft carrier. This union will bring a vital new mission synergy (ultimately with the SH-60R and MH-60S as a hunter-killer team) to the CVBG with two dozen, tactically capable helicopters included as an integral part of the Battle Group and its defense.

In short, our community, and Naval helicopter aviation as a whole, is growing. In a few years, when all is said and done, this re-organization will provide 70 more (and more capable) helicopters to the Fleet, with the commensurate additional squadrons and personnel. HC will be an integral part of the future battle group with its exciting new MH-60S capability.

With respect to manning, we have challenges like everyone else. In fact, for a time, our community's single site H-46 FRS at HC-3 was the lowest manned FRS in AIRPAC. Due to aging facilities, their hangar (so old it's actually an Historic Site) was recently condemned for 6 months while it underwent emergency repair. In spite of that, and their currently unresourced transition to the MH-60S aircraft, the squadron nevertheless won the prestigious CNO Ellyson Award two years running for pilot production and training excellence, a remarkable achievement under the circumstances.

One of my biggest challenges right now is to manage resource and mission alignment and to help my folks maintain proper perspective on our tremendously bright future in spite of all the day to day challenges they face. Our people are incredible. They work their butts off. Their reward will soon be an honorable and respectful retirement of the legacy aircraft we love so well and work so hard to maintain, and the chance to work on and operate the Navy's newest tactical aircraft in the form of the MH-60s Knighthawk. Still, despite those challenges, retention in HC is among the best in Naval Aviation. I think that goes back to the fun and camaraderie of the community and our mission. What we do isn't sexy. We aren't glamorous. But we do our job for the Fleet every day and what we do is important. We have a great time doing it and we're a very close knit community.

Once as a squadron CO and twice as the Commodore of the Wing, I have been asked by the incumbent COMNAVAIRPAC, "What is it about the HC community? You don't have any Flag officers, your 0-5 selection rate is traditionally low, operational command opportunity is 25 percent, you almost never get funding priority for facilities upkeep, you have some of the oldest aircraft in the fleet which require a hefty sum of manhours per flight hour to maintain... and yet your esprit, camaraderie and retention are outstanding. What is it? Why do your people like who they are and what they do so much?"

I explain that our strength is our knowledge that we are essential to the Fleet - we do our job every day of the year, not just train for it. And whether it's a MEDEVAC, SAR, delivery of PAX, mail, ammo or other supplies, training with the SEALs, taking civilian Leaders to sea, pulling people or horses out of floods, putting out fires on Guam or what have you, we accomplish an awful lot in a day. We may get home late but we know we're serving the Fleet in a very real way, and that's a very satisfying feeling. The finest kind there is. It's our job and we truly love it.

Squadron Summaries

HC-3, the H-46 FRS, was established in 1967 at NAS Imperial Beach, California as the sole west coast VERTREP squadron. It moved to its current base at NAS North Island in 1973. Operating from Combat Logistic Force (CLF) ships, HC-3 detachments transferred combat stores, ammunition, personnel and other needed supplies via helicopter to underway units, providing the fleet with an exceptionally rapid and safe means of replenishment. A major portion of this critical function was conducted by VERTREP, providing the final link in the supply chain to ships in distant waters.

In 1982 HC-3 became the single-site training unit for Sea Knight flyers. The training includes day/night shipboard landings, day/night ship board VERTREP, instrument flight, SAR tactics and emergency procedures. HC-3 has accumulated over 168,000 accident-free flight hours since 1974, making HC-3 the safest operational helicopter squadron in the Navy.

Established at NAS Agana, Guam in 1984, the Providers of HC-5 comprise the Navy's first and only forward-- deployed VERTREP squadron, providing forward H-46 logistic support for the Pacific Fleet. The squadron's 80 officers and over 400 Sailors fly and maintain 14 H-46Ds. It supports 7th Fleet units in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, North Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. It also provides Amphibious Search and Rescue (ASAR) support for USS Essex (LHD-2).

HC-5 is a tenant command on board Guam's Andersen AFB and has incorporated itself into "Team Andersen."

HC-5 missions include 24 hours a day SAR/MEDEVAC services for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, airborne fire fighting utilizing externally carried buckets, and training and logistics support for all military activities in the Guam area. No other HC squadron has all these missions. HC-5 won ANA's Outstanding Achievement Award for Fleet Support and Special Mission for 2000.

HC-11 has been the cornerstone for West Coast Fleet Logistics Support since its establishment in 1977 at North Island. HC-11's primary missions are Air Logistics Support and VERTREP at sea for forward deployed battlegroups in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and to units in the west coast operating area. It also supplies SAR support for Pacific Fleet Amphibious Units and VIP logistics support for COMTHIRDFLEET. The squadron maintains 22 H-46s, one H-3, and employs over 70 officers and 325 enlisted personnel, making it the largest operational helo unit Navy.

Unlike most squadrons which deploy as a unit, HC-11 is comprised of nine individual detachments that deploy on board AOEs, AEs, LHAs, LHDs and USS Coronado (AGF-11), flagship for COMTHIRDFLEET. These dets generally consist of two Sea Knights (or one Sea King), seven pilots, one maintenance officer, seven enlisted aircrew personnel, and 15 maintenance personnel. From their inception, the Gunbearers directly enhance the operational readiness and Naval forces from the west coast to the Indian Ocean and around the world.

The Fleet Angels of HC-2 are homeported at NAS Norfolk, Virginia and fly the UH-3H utility version of the Sea King and the executive transport version of the H-3, the VH-3A. HC-2 provides around the clock executive transportation every day of the year, supporting three unified commanders on three continents.

The UH-3H "executive" dets are in Naples, Italy for COMSIXTHFLEET; in Manama, Bahrain (the "Desert Ducks") for COMFIFTHFLEET; and in Norfolk, Virginia on board USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) for COMSECONDFLEET. These helos also provide logistical support to aviation capable ships operating throughout the Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Arabian Gulf areas.

Other HC-2 missions, in addition to passenger, mail and cargo transport and delivery, include SAR, recovery of practice torpedoes and aerial drones at sea, plane guard and medevac. Moreover, in 1996 HC-2 became the FRS for the venerable UH-3H aircraft. HC-4 was established as the Navy's first and only dedicated heavy lift, helicopter combat support squadron. Its Detachment One in Norfolk took delivery of five aircraft and embarked on board USS Inchon (LPH-12), the maiden at-sea voyage for the CH-53E Super Stallion. Departing Inchon in the English Channel, the Black Stallions self-lifted across Europe and on August 25, 1983, arrived onboard NAS Sigonella, Italy.

HC4 provides support to fixed bases and ships certified for the H-53E. The Black Stallions operate primarily within European and Arabian Gulf theaters but have worldwide capability. HC-4 provides Vertical Onboard Delivery (VOD), general utility helicopter service, airborne fire fighting, limited SAR and training support. The squadron can provide up to four simultaneous detachments of one or two aircraft. The Black Stallions are the "prime movers" of air delivered cargo to our fleet in the Mediterranean, exceeding all records for fleet air logistics support in theater.

In 1992, HC-4's area of responsibility was expanded with establishment of a permanent two-aircraft detachment in the Arabian Gulf. Working out of Bahrain International Airport since 1999, this det provided over 80% of all airlifted cargo in the Arabian Gulf and surrounding area.

HC-6 traces its proud lineage back to NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey where in 1948 the Navy established its second helicopter squadron, Helicopter Utility Squadron Two (HU-- 2). In 1952, HU-2 Detachment One was established at NAS Norfolk. This det of five officers and 20 enlisted personnel provided local utility and SAR services for the Norfolk area. It is from this detachment that HC-6 evolved. It was established in 1967. In 1984, having grown to over 500 officers and Sailors with 31 aircraft, the Chargers were split to form the HC-8 Dragon Whales as the second Norfolk HC squadron. HC-6 retained a complement of 15 H-- 46s and four UH-3s, continuing to support CINCLANTFLT as well as the Unified Services Commander and his staff. This mission remained under the cognizance of HC-6 until 1987 when it, as well as the remaining UH-3s, were turned over to the newly formed HC-2. For the first time, HC-6 consisted exclusively of H-46 aircraft.

In 1992, HC-6 assumed the addition responsibility of providing SAR for amphibious ready groups. Subsequently, the squadron grew to 10 dets with over 400 personnel. The first amphibious SAR detachment deployed on USS Wasp (LHD-1) in October 1992, launching a new era for HC-6. The first fully night vision device capable SAR det deployed on USS Guam (LPH-9) in 1994, expanding the H46Ds capabilities.

HC-8 was established on 3 December 1984 with only four aircraft and 60 officers and enlisted personnel. It presently consists of 14 aircraft, 50 officers and nearly 300 enlisted personnel.

The Dragon Whales' mission is critical to the US Navy's capability of deploying and remaining on station for months at a time. At sea, HC-8 performs VERTREP; crucial passenger airlift, mail and internal cargo transport; and continuous SAR. Based in Norfolk, the Dragon Whales provide drone recovery, special operations aerial training and basic fleet support to Navy, Army and Air Force units located along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Squadron aircraft and personnel are organized in teams. Each team deploys as a sea-going detachment consisting of six pilots, 22 enlisted members, one maintenance officer, and two H-46 Sea Knight helicopters.

Sea-going detachments deploy on AOE, AOR, T-AFS, LPH, LHA, LHD and MCS ships to the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the Arabian Gulf. HC-8 also operates the Atlantic Fleet Helicopter Operations Schools (HELIOPS) which includes the Helicopter Instrument Ground School for Norfolk-area pilots, and Helicopter Control Officer and Landing Signalman Enlisted Schools for the entire East Coast.

We cherish our legacy in the Helicopter Combat Support mission area. We were the first. In 1948, our predecessor, HU-1, was established. It became HC-1, which was the Navy's oldest helo unit until its disestablishment in the early 1990s. All the other rotary wing communities sprang forth from this. We were there in the beginning, we're going strong today, and our future is brighter than I've ever seen it in my career.

CAPT Ric Weyrich

Copyright Association of Naval Aviation Summer 2001
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved