Attention in the HSC84 spaces, Seawolves arriving

Helicopter Assault [Light] 3 - HA[L]3
Our legacy. This took a while to go write up, but its still a great story, and I had to make sure that I posted it. On July 18th we had a visit from members of the HA[L]3, Vietnam War veterans who were frankly amazing gentlemen to speak with. I need to backtrack here just a bit to how they came to visit us. I was walking through my hotel lobby (yes, I have to stay in a hotel because barracks on base are completely full), and I noticed that there was a Vietnam Veterans reunion going on. Their name was called the "Game Wardens of Vietnam", essentially there were a few different groups there, but there were a lot of helicopter guys, ground pounders and small boat craft veterans. As I was walking through I saw a few gentlemen with the logo posted above, the logo for the HA[L] 3 Seawolves, so I stopped and chatted with them for about 5 minutes. I explained I was a member of HSC 84, and that our legacy was the Seawolves (we are now called the Redwolves).

When I mentioned this to Senior Chief Danner the next day at work, all he could say was "Cool, you invited them to the hangar right?". Oops, rookie mistake, I let members of our legacy, those that had served before us in essentially the same unit go by without offering them our hospitality. Needless to say that night the reunion was still going on in my hotel, and I spent about an hour hunting down the same guys - and I made sure to invite them to our hangar the next day. I exchanged phone numbers, and eventually it was decided that at 1500 they would come by and visit.

The next day around 1500, I saw them in the parking lot and went back into the maintenance desk to let everyone know they were coming in. Next thing I heard was over the 1 MC "Attention in the HSC 84 Spaces, Seawolves now arriving". One of the pilots that knew a lot more about our history than I did, had met them in the parking lot and walked them into the hangar. We had a big poster board out that had pictures of the squadron throughout the years, from the Bin Thuy flightline that they used to work out of, to our current day hangar and the HH-60H helos that we fly today. These guys seemed to be very impressed with that, and were taking a look over the board quite intently.

Next we brought them out to into the hangar and started to show them the birds that we currently fly. Some of the pilots and aircrewman seemed pretty amazed at how the helos looked now compared to what they had flown back in the day.

A little sidebar history here on HA[L] 3. I'm going to recount what I remember both hearing, and what I've remembered reading - as my wife likes to tell me, my memory can be shaky, and this may not 100% accurate. I apologize in advance if I'm wrong here... HA[L] 3 was originally stood up using Army huey's. The Army Huey, or Bell UH-1, looks like this:

These Hueys were essentially left over birds, ones that could be spared for the Navy. Both the Army and Marine Corps had great necessity for these helicopters due to their nature of combat, so the Navy had to make due with what it could get at the time. One of the main reasons HA[L] 3 was stood up was out of necessity. During the Vietnam war there were small light attack craft patrolling the water ways of Vietnam - you know the ones that John Kerry served on. These craft needed air cover during most of their missions, and so the Army was originally tasked with providing it. This did not work out as well as either branch had hoped, and so the Navy stood up its own helicopter assault force, which was HA[L] 3.

From what I can gather the primary mission for HA[L] 3 was to do insertion and extraction of SEALs (sound familiar? our mission today!) and to cover the PBR boats that were patrolling the water ways of Vietnam. It was a dangerous mission, and unfortunately HA[L] 3 suffered many KIAs and WIAs during the Vietnam War - but they were most certainly heroes to almost everyone they served with. One Veteran that I spoke with at my hotel said this when I told him I was looking for HA[L] 3 members: "HA[L] 3, those guys were crazy! They would fly into places I didn't think a helicopter could fly, but man, they'd fly in there. I swore half of them were nuts. I thank God they did though, they saved our lives quite a few times." I remember this gentleman because he was a veteran of a PBR boat, or a River Patrol Boat, and I could tell he had great respect for the men of HA[L] 3.

In the hangar we showed them around a bit, and the men were looking at the aircraft, comparing what weapons we had on them now to the weapons they flew. Of course we now have Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR), radar, and a host of counter measure systems. Our armament is a little more up to date as well, but it was amazing listening to the men of HA[L] 3 and some of the missions that they accomplished. During their visit we took this photo in the hangar bay -

Yep - there's me in the front row on the right, surrounded by real heroes and warriors - I was proud to be there.

There is one gentleman that you need to try and locate now - He has a large white beard an is in the back row. His head is turned to the left hand side of the photo.. find him? Now here's his story, and I'm going to do my very best to recount it.

How to Win A Navy Cross 101
The gentleman in the picture above is the recipient of the US Navy Cross. To put how amazing that is the Navy Cross is ranked in order of precedence, one behind the Medal of Honor. That is purely in the Navy order of precedence, but it is the highest ranking medal you can receive in the Navy - other than the Medal of Honor. That should sink in a moment because most of these medals are given posthumously, because the acts of bravery are so selfless that most have died to accomplish them.

While we were chatting in the squadron hangar bay, we could all see that he had earned that medal - he was wearing a small replica of all his medals. So we asked him to recount the story, and I'm going to try my best to both paraphrase and recount the story accurately. I hope I can get across the magnitude of the actions this man took, without losing any of the facts.

From what he recounted to me, the story went like this:

There was a ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam), or the South Vietnamese Army, battalion that was doing a patrol in the jungle. In that battalion there was an embedded Master Sargeant and Major from the US Army, acting as consultants. What the ARVN battalion command did not know was that there were traitors in their midst, and they had given away the entire planned patrol route to the North Vietnamese. Thus this battalion was walking directly into an ambush.

When the firefight broke out, the Army Major on the ground called for air support and an extraction. The words that I remember the gentleman telling me were that they were "getting killed down here". Thus HA[L] 3 went into action. They got into their Huey's and took off to the area where the firefight had broken out, and the distress call was being sent from.

As they arrived the second Huey took fire, and the pilot was injured and some hydraulics had been hit - so he was in pretty bad shape. It turns out that as the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) had known where the battalion would be patrolling, they also knew there would be gunship support - so they armed themselves with anti-air caliber guns. At this point with his wing man hit, and injured, and the men on the ground in dire straits - he ordered his wingman home, and continued on.

He went down and continued to fire from the air, even though the Army Major had insisted that they were "done for" and they couldn't be saved. The situation was so bad on the ground that the command had almost been overrun and they were calling off support.

Instead of heading home, he decided to continue in and rescue those that were left. As he radioed in he asked for them to pop smoke to identify the LZ (landing zone) where the friendly troops were. Part of the information the NVA spies had managed to gather was the color of the smoke they would pop in the event an extraction was necessary. So the NVA also popped the same smoke, and he unfortunately landed near the NVA instead of the ARVN unit. He took large amounts of small arm fire, but managed to take off again, and relocate the ARVN unit on the ground.

The second landing didn't go much better - even though he was closer to the friendly unit on the ground, the NVA was all around and the Huey was taking a large amount of small arms fire again. The Army Major and Master Sergeant, as well as the ARVN Battalion commander, managed to get on board the Huey, even though they were injured. Due to the weight of the additional men on board, plus the Huey being hit from small arms fire, taking off did not go well. Instead of climbing and gaining altitude as helicopters usually do, the Huey just bounced along the ground. The clearing they were in was not large, and so as they bounced along the ground trees were quickly approaching and endangering the Huey. The solution was to use all the rockets loaded on the Huey and blow the trees down, giving them enough 'runway' to take off successfully.

So to summarize, this man managed to risk his (and his crew's life) to save 3 other men, and in the face of unbelievable odds thought clearly enough to clear a 'runway' so they could take off. The end of the story goes well enough, all the men survived, but a lot were injured. The twist here is that when the Army Major woke up there was a JAG Lieutenant (Judge Advocate General - yes lawyers) standing in front of him. He started asking strange questions, and when the Major asked why he was asking those questions the JAG LT said "well we're trying to determine whether to charge the pilot with a court martial". The Major apparently replied something like "Court martial? I'm alive because of that man, and he should have the medal of honor" - and wouldn't say anything else.

Unfortunately he had violated two major Rules of Engagement at the time:
1) Never leave your wingman - yes, all you Top Gun fans, it's true.
2) Never go against overwhelming enemy fire.

As you can see the net outcome is that the Navy came to its senses and honored a man who risked all to save a few men. My most unfortunate side of this whole story is that I can not remember his name - if I can, then I will surely post it.

Overall it was a great day with the HA[L] 3 Seawolves, and its one of those experiences I don't want to ever forget!

What to expect.. when you're...

Well this will be a bit more of a personal post today as there's a lot going on at work, and I need a 'happy thought'. Much like Peter Pan I wish I could fly away at the moment, but alas Captain Hook is not after me lucky charms.... yeah, it's been that kinda day.

The most important thing here is that Jen and I are expecting! Yes, its true, at some point the big man upstairs went against all logic and has allowed me to procreate.. to some of my older friends: Stop shaking your head in disbelief!

How I found out is a funny story, and so I shall regale you with my tale.

A few weeks into mobilization I came home for a weekend, and thought that I would be a good husband and take care of my wife by cooking dinner. So I went got some burgers (nice good ones), threw them on the grill and had some nice toppings for them. Well Jen likes her burgers rare to medium rare, and she thought it looked great. Within about 5-10 minutes of the first bite, she's running to the bathroom... my grill master ego was shot. Fast forward to the next morning, and I take some asagio cheese bread and make a killer french toast. At least this time she made it through the meal, but then ended up rather ill for the next hour or so.

I had to leave the next morning for work, and didn't think much of it. During the next week Jen was rather terse, or quick on the phone, and I thought she was rather angry at me. So again, thinking I would be a good husband I planned a little dinner for that Friday when I got back home again. The night before she had mentioned she had a little surprise for me when I got home, but threatened to hang up the phone if I pressed the issue. One of the questions that I (honestly here) innocently asked was "I know you're running a little late..." to which the answer was "G-D D-it!!". That reaction had me a bit perplexed, but moving on to the next day.

When I finally got home I told Jen I had a little surprise... there were steaks ready to be cooked, some nice side items, and a bottle of nice wine ready for dinner. She wanted to give me her surprise first. She handed me a little package all wrapped up, and when I opened it I pulled out a little onesy that said "My Daddy Rocks". This is when I do my best Keanu Reeves impression... complete deer in the headlights look going on, I had no clue why she had just handed this to me. Based on this reaction, and my astute question of "what's this for" she yelled out "Put it together stupid - I'm pregnant!" Right so there's the story, at least how I remember it, and its written down - so over the next few months while my mind starts to slowly grip this whole "I'm going to be a Dada" thing I won't forget.

At this point Jen is approximately 14 weeks in, just outside of her first trimester, and I'm learning a whole lot. Here are some things that I have learned over the last few weeks, and mind you, I've been a geo-bachelor and not home every day, so I'm sure there's more I could learn:

- Pregnant women require a vast amount of rest. Yes, she managed over 30 hours of sleep one weekend. Yes, she slept for over 50% of the weekend. Jen sleeps a lot, but good lord!
- One of the most amazing events of my short life thus far is when I went to the second ultra sound appointment. I couldn't make the first one due to work, but I'm more than glad I made the second. I could see the head, the tiny little arms, and it started to look like a baby = wow!
- Movies about pregnant women like "Knocked Up" become infinitely more funny, and you start to understand these little nuances that never made any sense. Yeah, it happens... and I'm definitely reading the 'baby books'.

So that's it, January 16th (or 25th depending on the doctor Jen visits) is the due date. We've already painted the nursery, and its going to be Winnie the Pooh whether boy or girl. Thank the good lord I didn't have to go to Iraq for this whole time!

So I shed my butterbar

Now introducing... LTJG!!
Been too long since my last post, but some things have happened since then... some personal, which I will address in a later blog entry, and some professional. Professionally I've now been in the Active Duty Navy for about 2 months now and I'm fully engrossed in the Navy Aviation Supply Systems. One thing that did happen to me was a promotion!

When I entered the Navy I was a DCO (Direct Commission Officer) and there's a whole process behind that. In a nutshell I spent over 2 years putting together letters of recommendation, interviewing with senior active duty officers, going through medical checks and taking tests. When all that was said and done my 'package' went before a board of Supply Corps Officers. I don't know what happens at these boards, and unless you are selected as a member of them you probably never will, but someone there thought me worthy of being an officer. Here's where two very important dates come into play: Date of Rank and Oath of Office.

Date of Rank: When the board selects you, there are other steps along the way before you can be commissioned into the Navy. First your approved package goes onto a 'roll list' where congress then has to approve you as well. Next you are approved by the President, or so they tell me, I don't think that he actually ever saw my name, but hey - if he did then I find that rather cool. Anyway there's probably nitty gritty that I'm missing, but that's the high level process that you go through. Mind you this is different than Active Duty and really only applies to the Navy Reserve DCO program, so other officers out there may have a completely different experience than mine.

From this point I received a phone call telling me that I was approved and that I was going to commissioned in the Navy Reserve - here's where the Date of Rank comes into play. I'm not 100% sure, but pretty close that once approved by the Executive level for a commission that becomes your Date of Rank. This date is very important on multiple levels since it determines who is senior and who is junior among similar pay grades. It also dictates when you are promoted, which for those interested in pay raises becomes very important! :) More on this later...

Commissioning Date
This, AKA the date on your Oath of Office, kinda confused me at first since I thought it was the date that I was officially in the Navy. Well it was, and it wasn't, and there's differences between the day you take your Oath of Office and the day you may be promoted. My Date of Rank is 30 JUN 06, and the day I took my Oath of Office was 25 JUL 06. Yeah, it takes about a month for the papers to go from the approval stage, to the recruiter so he can swear you in - and the strange thing is that I was one of the faster ones.

The gist here is that while I wasn't sworn into the Navy until 25 JUL 06, I still get promoted on the 30th of JUNE. So on the 30th of JUNE I went from ENS to LTJG.

From ENS to JG
There are some massive differences between enlisted sailors and officers in the Navy when it comes to promotion. E-3 (Seaman or Airman) to E-7 (Chief Petty Officer) have to take an exam, pass it, then go before a board and be selected for promotion. That is a bit different in the officer ranks - 01 (ENS) to 03 (LT) are automatic, at 04 (LCDR) you then have to be boarded in order to be promoted. The rule of thumb is, and this is really over simplifying it, just don't screw up and you'll make LT. Does this minimize the rank of LT as an officer? Some people have told me so, but then again its a very difficult to be selected as an officer to begin with. Making CPO, now that's a different story, lots of respect to those who make CPO in the Navy!

Now I am a LTJG, or ENS (Upper Half), as some may like to call it. What this means is I get a little more pay. Essentially I'm out of that nice cushy situation where everyone knows I've been in the Navy a while, I'm by no means a seasoned veteran, but I'm definitely not brand new... so some of the naive excuses I could have used for the last 2 years don't carry as much weight now!

Look for some more posts to come about work, and also some personal stuff :)

A bunch of mutts!

One of the things that makes our unit different than most is how it is comprised. To lay it out a little bit one needs to know how personnel can be classified in the Navy and the Navy Reserve Component. This is something that I've had to learn a lot about over the last few weeks, so here goes my best explanation:

Active Duty - Active Duty is the easiest to explain because its pretty self evident: a sailor who's day to day job is in the Navy, full time. Depending on if this is an enlisted sailor or a warrant/commissioned officer can change a great number of things of course. Enlisted Sailors have enlistments, which they are legally obligated to fulfill, and once their time is up they can leave the service. Commissioned officers are a bit different in that they may have a 4 year obligation, and then they too can leave the service - but they can be subjected to recall in the event of war etc. At least that's what I've been told, and anyone who's been in the service can tell you there can be bad gouge all around.

Full Time Support (FTS) - This guys used to be called 'TAR's or Training and Administration of Reserves, but now they are FTS. They are a seperate community within the Navy that allows a sailor to essentially be on Active Duty, but their jobs are specifically tailored to supporting the reserves. So you may have people with administration jobs that are in the FTS community, and they help with a lot of the paperwork, pay issues and things of that nature for reservists. If you're a reservist in the Navy, these guys really do an important job of supporting you and making sure things are taken care of.

Selected Reserves (SELRES) - So here's where I fit into this picture, I am a SELRES - more specifically a Mobilized SELRES or MOBSELRES. Essentially I am a reservist, I have a civilian job, and I'm the guy that does one weekend a month / 2 weeks a year. When the need arises, in the event of contingency operations around the world, I can be either voluntarily or involuntarily called to Active Duty. In this case I was involuntarily called to active duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), with a boots on ground (BOG) of no less than 350 days and up to 24 months.

MOBSELRES vs Individual Augmentee (IA) - I had a hard time with this one actually, and the benefits and drawbacks to being one or the other. An IA is someone who has been pulled from their command and placed somewhere else as an individual. They could be an Active Duty sailor that gets orders to be an IA to another command for a year or they could be an FTS that gets IA orders, and in lot of cases in Iraq and Afghanistan they are reservists that are filling individual billets.

Our squadron is unique in that we are a reserve squadron that has been mobilized as a unit since 2004. Since we have been mobilized as a unit since 2004, that means we have a great need of people to fill jobs that are available in our command. We fill them with some FTS, some Active Duty IAs and some MOBSELRES.

Here's where this gets tricky... FTS usually get orders to our squadron for about 2-3 years, meaning that they will be with us for a good duration of time. This will be an FTS's permanent assignment, and they will be around a while. IA's on the other hand are usually on loan to us from another command for a certain duration of time - usually a year. Also MOBSELRES are usually mobilized for 365 days in most cases, and therefore around for a shorter duration.

From a personnel manning perspective this makes managing schedules, and who gets what training one of the biggest nightmares on a day to day basis. Our squadron can look like grand central station on bad days with all the new people checking in. For the most part the first week of each month a new group of people are rolled in from Ft. Jackson IA training and assigned to us. They are then placed in their perspective work centers and told what their job will be on a day to day basis.

DETACHMENTS!!!! - DETS throw another monkey in the wrench where we send a group of people over to Iraq for 3 months, constantly rotating people over and back. There are also DETS that happen for training purposes in the US.

Here's the gist, and the wrap up for this lovely novel - with people coming in every month, people rotating to the desert, and people transferring out or retiring, we spend a lot of time just trying to figure out who we're going to get.

That's it for now... for those who may be interested in what kind of helicopter we fly here's a nice picture. I'm going to really work on trying to get more pictures or video up here soon!

So that's how you do it!

Just saw my CO do a re-enlistment ceremony, and after my bungle I found it rather 'instructive'. He managed to run through it from his memory, and didn't have him run through an entire sentence... of course he pointed that out to me after he finished!

First week as the SUPPO here is over and its been a bit hectic along with a learning experience. We've managed to solve a major hurdle involving a few hundred thou - which is good, and watching the budget on a day to day basis is priority one. The amount that we may spend on repairing a bird is very important, and getting the parts in time is even more important. If we can't order the parts in time, or make sure they are the correct parts, then maintenance can't get them.. and if maintenance can't get the parts, the birds don't fly!

Onto the weekend, some sun, and some sailing with Jen. I'm going to try and get some pictures posted up here soon as there is a lot of (what I think is) really cool things going on here. For one most of the Atlantic Fleet is home ported here, and the helicopters themselves along with a whole host of other things. Its certainly different than waking up every day worrying about customers and if they are going to buy software :)

I hearby solemnly swear..

This morning I finished JASMM (see below) and graduated with honors :) Seriously, there was no graduation, but there was a test and I passed, so I find that honorable. Some of the days were a bit ridiculous as we would muster at 0800, then dismissed around 1100 and come back (maybe) at 1300 to be dismissed again no later than 1500. The course used to be 10 days, but they have shortened it to 8, and I think it could be shortened to 5 in all honesty. The difficulty is that for a person like me who has no previous experience in aviation there is a LOT of information to take in. Some of the more seasoned veterans were a little more bored, and I think they may have learned some things, but they were just happy to be away from work for the most part.

Came back here around 1030 and now I'm officially on the job full time, and working as the Suppo for the squadron. I'm still trying to sort out exactly where I fit in this organization. I'm not a DEPT Head right now, or so some people tell me, but there is a supply department, and I'm the officer for it... so who knows.

Today was a very interesting day as I was the re-enlisting officer for a 1st Class Petty Officer - which was a very rewarding experience and I hope I get to do it again. Essentially I am the signing official that re-enlists this individual, and I'm proud of that. I didn't do the best job as there is a 'repeat after me' section, and I kind of made him try and memorize a very long sentence... that was my whoops. He did an impressive job though and covered my butt as he managed to repeat it almost word for word afterwards - I was impressed!

The heat wave seems to be slowing down a bit as it just reached 88 out today, which was about a 15 degree drop from yesterday. I never thought that I would find 88 comfortable but after the last 4 days here I do. Of course complaining about heat in Virginia when my friends in Baghdad and HOA are consistently above 105 every day seems a bit ridiculous.

This weekend Jen comes down on Friday, and we've got sailing lessons planned for all three days. Jen has already taken some of these lessons in the past, so she'll kick my butt as usual while we try to learn this.

If I don't post before the weekend, to all the father's out there who can't be home with their children because they are serving over seas - thank you!

JASSM and what it means to me

Training!
For the last 4 days I've been in a supply/maintenance course called JASMM (Joint Aviation Supply Maintenance Management). This course is designed to bring together people from two sides of the aviation community that tend to clash from time to time. Sometimes you have maintainers of aircraft looking for parts, and then the supply department gets in the way and doesn't have the part... and that can sometimes lead to interesting conversations over where that particular part is. Anyway, this course starts to give people appreciation of the other side of the fence... and for me, its a complete introduction to both sides of the fence!!

When I joined the Navy I started to learn a whole new bunch of alphabet soup things, otherwise known as DODspeak. You can literally put together a sentence without using a verb or noun, or anything else. I wish I could think of an example right now, but my brain is so fried from absorbing even more of these acronyms... Just to give you an example, in our training guide there are about 6-7 pages of just acronyms and what they mean.

Overall the course has been good though, and I've learned a lot more than what I knew a week ago.

Welcome Home Harry!
Two days ago at Norfolk the USS Harry Truman and her strike group sailed into the base. That meant that over 7,500 sailors who hadn't seen home in over 7 months hit the shores. Unfortunately I was in class (see above), so I didn't actually see the USS Truman pull into port, but I did get to see it all decked out at the pier and experience the 30 minute trip it took to get across base to the hangar. All worth it though as I'm sure all those sailors were glad to be home. If I can remember to bring my darn camera down here I'm going to get some pictures of the ships in port.

It's getting hot
Yesterday was 91, today was 94, and its not supposed to dip below 90 for the next 5 days. Yeah, I'm complaining and my cohorts in Africa and Baghdad are probably ready to slap me right quick as its probably above 110 every day there by now.

Looking forward to the weekend....
Heading home for the second straight weekend, which will be great to see COMHMEFRNT (translated from Navy speak: Commander HomeFront AKA the wife). I've got a bunch of house work to do, including doing a massive trimming on the tree outside our house.

Next Week:
As of lunch time Wednesday I will out of training and I will officially full time as the SUPPO for the squadron, and I think its going to be great. As some may know as the SUPPO I'm essentially in charge of watching the part orders, and the funding etc. I have to review flight hours, fuel charges, and prepare the CO for his wing presentations on budgeting etc. The great thing is that the 1st Class Petty Officer and the Senior Chief Petty Officer that are in the Supply Dept have nothing but impressed me in my first week here. That's going to be very important because over the next few months we're going to have to spend a lot of time closing out the fiscal year, and getting inventories done. One thing I am looking forward to is a 1st Class Petty Officer is re-enlisting on Tuesday and he asked me to swear him in aboard the USS Iwo Jima - actually I think his grandmother is going to read the oath, and I will certify his re-enlistment, but its still going to be a fantastic thing to watch!