CH-53E Super Stallion put to bed after flights
Shhhhhhh….. She’s sleeping…….
Posts tagged ‘marines’
Born 60 years too late
Dash-1 banks right over the Delaware River near Philadelphia
Lead change over Roxborough
Still in the night
Pilots waiting
CH-53 Delta photos pt.1, Deltas in Hawaii
Pictures of actual CH-53 Deltas, like the name of my website suggests would be found here, were specifically asked for. I chose using 53 Delta in the title because it was unique and had meaning to me. But after more than one person saying: “There’s not really any pictures of Deltas on there,” I decided to deliver.
2008
2009
2011
A Pair of Gold Oak Leaves for Maese
New Years Day.
Just couldn’t turn down Capt Maese’s invitation to attend his promotion in Quantico. I had to see the guy get promoted who I first flew with when we were both in training before the fleet, and one of only two pilots who did the three deployments with me.
LtCol Volkert working the crowd like a seasoned late-night host
Museum promotion
Let’s hear what the man has to say…
Five former Red Lions, including Maj Elseroad, LtCol Volkert, Maj Maese, Myself, Sgt Valencia
Giving Maese an old Red Lions shoulder patch I found in Okinawa
Me and Gus Gus
Sayonara Okinawa
…And so after 6 short months I bid adieu to the island of Okinawa…
Farewell Futenma flightline,
Bye bye beautiful beaches, and the snorkeling that went with them,
So long seaside sunsets, with your rich dusk colors,
Goodbye drink vending machines that I could find on every street corner,
Au revoir Orion beer, which is only found on Okinawa,
Adios vodka tonics from Panic Bar (and the associated hangovers the next morning),
Have a nice life Habu Trail, for the countless miles I trampled over you have finished,
Until we meet again, endless open Ocean.
Parting Shots
As we prepare to depart Okinawa to return home, these final glimpses appeared before my camera lens.
A (mostly Flightline) Thanksgiving dinner in one of the barracks
Mission to H-60 Crash Site
A U.S. Air Force HH-60 helicopter crashed while landing at night on Monday, August 5 in the Central Training Area of Okinawa. Unfortunately, one crew member perished and the other three survived as the wreck — partially made up of magnesium — burned up and caught some of the surrounding jungle on fire.
There was very little left of anything resembling a helicopter, but the tiny pieces of melted metal and few larger components totaled thousands of pounds. No military trucks could reach the crash site; it was 1/2 mile from the LZ through thick triple canopy jungle and roughly sloped terrain. The Air Force’s own HH-60’s and the local USMC CH-46’s and MV-22 Ospreys were not capable of performing the external pick-up of the parts. A CH-53E was required.
The exact area was on the 45-degree slope of a hill, so to provide the necessary clearance for the helicopter to be able to hover over the cargo, a nearly football field-sized area of trees had to be cut down. An extra long cargo pendant, also for rotor blade clearance for the trees at the top of the hill, had to be used and was obtained from the Japanese military. All of these complications led to a lengthy delay of the retrieval of the helicopter wreckage, while cultural friction built as some Okinawan civilians voiced their desire to have the debris removed from the jungle on their island.
HMH-772 finally sent a Super Stallion to recover the Air Force HH-60 wreckage on October 12, making over a half dozen externals to successfully bring the metal remains to an LZ with trucks waiting.
Inside the Refurbished Hangar and Shop Photo
We have a hangar, technically, but we aren’t allowed to move into it or perform maintenance in it. The only purpose of the hangar so far has been to shelter the CH-53’s and Cobras inside when the base is at risk from a typhoon. When we stuffed the hangar with all our planes recently, I slowly walked through the quiet open space, taking pictures.
Traditionally, there usually is a squadron and/or shop photo associated with a deployment. Instead of making a mundane shop photo wearing our cammies after the squadron picture, we did ours several days later dressed in our usual working wear of oil-stained coveralls and flight suits. A driving idea behind these shop photos is the aircraft we used had no rotor blades yet, sort of a summary of the difficult battle we’ve had with the helicopters the entire deployment.
Also one trend I’ve noticed over the years is to take one serious-looking picture as well as one with any manner of ridiculous poses. We did both styles for the two different setups.
Normal
Goofing off
Normal….
…..and Goofing off
Work Spaces
Instead of working in a traditional hangar, our lack thereof forced us to keep our tools and computers in interlinked white containers called vans. There is something about the sterile quality, and the muted, cool-tone walls that reminded me of a ship. I took several photos of the area over the past several months. The truth is, though, we are hardly ever in them except for a few minutes in the morning, and the last few minutes of the workday before we leave in the evening.
SNCO Van. The Gunny at work
Intersection
Medlicott
Flightline shop Van
Barnes posing
Stanley in the corner
H-60 Wreckage External
Work Randomness #5
Turning the camera diagonally was the only way to fit the C-130’s wingspan into the picture
Passengers out the side; cargo out with a forklift
I’ll be damned, one of the few photos of me
What bored Marines do when we couldn’t find our computer… make one out of a wooden box
Wolf and Clinger replacing a tail disconnect component
Tail Pylon detail
Rain on the horizon
Fuel Cells and Sunsets
Venting out the fuel vapor fumes
Fuel Cell maintenance
Wolf, draining out the last drops
Futenma flightline sunset
Super Stallion framed by light
Same as above, but achieved a silhouette effect
Work Randomness #4
Two Cobras and a Super Stallion
Thanks Gunny. Not everybody loves the camera
I felt like a wildlife photographer taking this picture through the bushes, of a helicopter in the ‘wild’
Portrait of Russell showing off his close-cropped moustache
The AMO showing up for the morning maintenance meeting
FOD walk, while the sun was still low in the sky
After a rain shower
I liked the conflicting angles of this view toward the tail
Rotorheads appearing through the wavy heat rising up from the curve in the flightline
Self-Portrait project
Staring into the past
Once you put it on, does it really ever come off?
Are medals made of cloth and brass, or are built from the actions it resulted from
Fonder memories
Squadron patches
I’itoi, the Native American ‘Man in the Maze’. Spontaneous choices lead to meaningful tattoos
We can’t wait to take the uniform off, but after our duty is finished we yearn to put it back on
Countless hours spent flying and sweating in that helmet
Wonder what’s next
Sentimental Armor
Well-worn chevrons
Hung up for good, or waiting for me to put it back on
Lone warrior
Revocation of Flight Orders
Flying Pictures
We have not been doing much flying, so I’ll put some photos up from several weeks before.
The Kerama Islands
Inside the cockpit
Rocky outcroppings
Small island settlements
Helicopter Maintenance
Rifle Range
From (Red) Lions to Tigers
So, the last remaining CH-46 squadron here, HMM-262, the Flying Tigers, was slated to turn into an Osprey squadron not long after our arrival, and one morning in mid-August a large gaggle of the ungainly-looking helicopters flew in. I expected the Ospreys sooner or later, but what shocked me was the squadron that the aircraft and people came from.
I quickly recognized the lion’s head emblazoned on the tail fins and the “Y Z” tail code, and written on the fuselages was VMM-363. It was kind of like a swift kick in the nuts to my psyche, seeing these aircraft I’m not very fond of with my old unit’s designation. Not that it’s the same as my 363, HMH-363, since it turned into a unit with completely different people and aircraft in a different location, but sucked nonetheless. Of course, I also received the expected jokes from some of the other more senior guys here since they knew I was a Red Lion, and I had recently put a Red Lion patch on the front of my cranial. “I didn’t know you were a V-22 guy” was probably the most common one I heard the first few days, among some others.
Of course they won’t stay as 363 and once the 262 redesignation takes place, these Ospreys will be marked as VMM-262, with all the other Flying Tigers logos and such.
Sucks to see these old aircraft go
A proper Red Lion aircraft (January 2011, ‘Lava Viper’ at PTA, Hawaii)
First Flight
Long delayed (it has been 2 months, not going to get into details) our squadrons first CH-53E flight occurred. I could only help out testing the planes from the ground so this was my first taste of soaring past the island from above. Only a couple photographs were taken since I was preoccupied with getting ‘back in the saddle’ as far as flying was concerned. These were taken not over Okinawa itself, but near one of the small outlying islands.
