A little while ago I wrote about some of the missions that we accomplish (see below) and one of them was SAR (Search and Recovery). In our squadron we have 4 groups of people, all of which perform a distinct function:
Pilots: Of course you can't really fly anything without a qualified pilot - well I assume you could, but I'd say the odds are that gravity would take over and calamity would ensue. One of the important groups of people we have are pilots. All in our squadron are commissioned officers - most rank between LT (O3) and CDR (O5) and vary between 5-25 years of experience in the Navy. At some point they have been through various stages of training, most of which I can not name, and they have earned their "Wings of Gold". They are therefore provided the classification of "Naval Aviator". We find them very important when we want the aircraft to go airborne...
AirCrew: These guys are all enlisted Sailors in the Navy, and ages and experiences vary. What I've learned over the last few months is that their paths can vary a good deal. Most seem to have started as maintainers (more on them later) and decided that they wanted to change their job (so to speak) to become an aircrewman. I know even less about their training, except that they are the ones that know how to operate all the gadgets inside the helicopter - the hoist, the guns, the communications equipment - whatever it takes to get the mission done other than fly the aircraft. One of their other jobs is to be a SAR swimmer - where they jump out of aircraft and swim to the rescue of those in need. So not only are these guys tasked with operating the cabin, looking out the door for obstructions, and potentially defending the aircraft by shooting bad-guys - they may also have to jump out and save you.
SIDENOTE: Sometimes these guys can have amazing 'sea stories' and you find yourself somewhat in awe of things they have done. For instance there is a Chief at our squadron who had 39 'saves' during relief missions for Katrina in New Orleans. Yes - he saved 39 people from situations that they could not get themselves out of - that's impressive in my book!
Maintainers: I kinda fall into this category as I do work in the maintenance department, but these guys are 'ground-pounders' or 'wrench turners'. Working in 3 shifts on a 24 hour-a-day basis they inspect, fix and maintain the aircraft - all the way from the frame to the engine to the electronic equipment that is in there. They pretty much know everything about the aircraft, and how to fix it. It really is quite amazing when you think about taking your car into the shop, and you hand it over to the mechanic, and a few days later its fixed. Now there's a pretty good amount of stuff going on in your car - now take that and add communications equipment, weapons systems, and a 100 times more powerful engine. Oh and if that stuff doesn't work, then 5-6 people could die because when failure occurs in a helicopter you really can't pull off into the breakdown lane!
Front Office: As with any smoothly operating office we have our administration department. These people work very hard at getting all the paper that the paper-less Navy seems to generate done. Downstairs in our squadron are the maintainers and upstairs is the front office and administration departments. I find myself climbing a lot of stairs on a daily basis trying to get things that upstairs wants, and trotting down to my office to get it ordered.
Every afternoon at the squadron the OPS department posts the flight schedule for the next day, listing what pilots and what aircrew are going on what mission. I saw that there were going to be SAR jumps going on the next day, and those are not usually on the flight schedule. I figured that I would ask the question "Can I go on that flight and jump?". Most everyone seemed OK with it - but unfortunately the request never made it across the CO's desk, and I was relegated to try another day.
Instead I saw some of the AirCrew heading out in the rescue boat - in the event that something happened and someone needed to be rescued during the exercise. I asked if I could tag along - since my wife isn't here, and all I have is an empty hotel room to come back to, sitting in a boat watching this stuff seemed like a great great alternative. We went out in the boat and waited for the helicopter to take off - at this time I realized how a sense of humor comes in handy in the Navy. As we sat in the inflatable rubber boat the coxswain radioed in to the helicopter, and requested our call sign changed... to 'rubber ducky'... and so it was for the rest of the night. Men who had saved others lifes, run missions through areas unknown in Iraq were being referred to as 'rubber ducky' - humor ensues.
The first two sets of jumps went off well for the most part. It seemed as if the crewman in charge of the hoisting had some issues with the hoist at first, and some of them seemed jerky, but everyone did two jumps and were recovered successfully.
There was a nightime part of this training evolution, and we had to wait about 30 min for the sun to set. During this time the swimmers came over to the boat, and hung on the outside just talking and waiting. One of them asked me "hey LT - you wanna try?". Needless to say I was hesitant as I'm not really sure if I was supposed to be in the boat, but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't supposed to be geared up and getting hoisted up. In all honesty, it didn't take much to convince me, but I was sold on the fact that this was a good training opportunity for the guys - taking someone who didn't know what they were doing and then 'teaching them'.
So I took the mask and snorkle, harness and flippers and jumped into the water. We hung out there for a bit waiting for the helicopter to return. As it did, we all swam into a line in the water, and the first group got ready to be hoisted.
When the helicopter starts to come over, it not only gets reall really loud, but it also starts to spray water everywhere. As I was given the gear I was told to make sure I had my mask on when the helicopter came over and to breathe through the snorkel as it would be almost impossible to breathe and see without them. This I found out was very true. When the helicopter came over the spray from the rotorwash was pelting me in the face, and it didn't really hurt - but it was kinda annoying. Then I watched the first group hook up and get hoisted up, then the helicopter came our way.
We had to go up in tandem simulating the rescuer (not me) and the person being rescued (definitely me). I swam over with the guy that was rescuing me, and tried to find the hoist. It was really difficult to see it - its dark, there is ocean spray everywhere, and there is a hook with an orange flag on it that's sitting under water. Needless to say we got there, we hooked up and off we went! It didn't last long, but it was amazing, we went up in the air just under the helicopter then back into the water and up and down again. There you are at night, being hoistted out of water, and the only thing to identify you is a night stick attached to your harness. Really really cool... I can't believe people are paid to do this stuff :)
When I got back I had to tell Jen, and I don't think that I really got to sleep until late that night. I'm sure for those that do this regularly its not a big deal, but for a Supply Officer, these experiences are not offerred very much - so when they are you have to take them. My hope is to get on a GUNEX soon and I hear they are actually doing jumps again in OCT - I'm going to beg and plead to jump out of the helicopter next time.
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