US Navy 1969 -1972
Aerospace Medicine Specialist
Did a stint with the Marines
SAR crewman
I put this in the stories thread:
While stationed at Corpus Christi NAS, I was a SAR (Sea Air Rescue) crew member for 2 years. We often just went flying for no good reason just so the pilots got their hours in. At the time, we flew the H-34 (see below). Once we had a man fly with us carrying a "weird" looking square box. We climbed about a mile up over downtown Corpus. Turns out this chap was a photographer and the box was a camera. He was taking pictures of sailors allegedly smoking dope in the bay front park.
We routinely flew up and down Padre Island. One early morning we found a guy and girl having sex in a car with all the doors open. The pilot just hovered above them. Clothes went everywhere and doors shutting in the car. We were low enough to see she was a well adorned young lady.
It was flying up and down the beach that I saw all sorts of sharks swimming among the swimmers. These were huge sharks and the reason I no longer go out past my thighs in the surf.
We flew over the King Ranch often. There were large herds of deer everywhere. Some of the bucks had huge racks.
Corpus was one of the bases Naval Academy Midshipmen came to during the summers. I worked in the base dispensary as a Corpsman...not Corpse Man--thanks Obama. Anyway, one of our doctors sees two Academy guys walking along the street. I'm in my green flight suit and the doctor gives me his piss cutter hat with Lieutenant bars on it. He tells me to put the hat on and go walk towards the Midshipmen. I did. The promptly threw me salutes and I returned them. Everyone inside was laughing. Then, the phone rings and it's time to go flying. I arrive at the flight line and guess who also was there for a flight? Fortunately, I wore my helmet throughout and the Midshipmen never saw my face.
South down Padre Island was a large area of white sand. The pilot was a UT grad (and arrogant prick) and had a white helmet with double longhorn emblems on each side--just like their football helmets. We flew along and he spotted a rabbit in the sand and said lets go kill a rabbit. Off we flew at about 5-6 foot level chasing the rabbit. When it changed directions he spun the helicopter around and went after the rabbit. Eventually the rabbit got exhausted and the pilot say let's go in for the kill. Here we are in a helicopter like below and the pilot tries to squash the rabbit with one of the wheels. We hit the ground, the strut breaks and the helicopter starts to turn on its side so much that I could look out the door and see the blades within a foot of the ground. Had they hit it would have been curtains for us all. Pilot lifts off the ground and we start flying back to NAS Corpus with a dangling wheel and strut. OK, now we have to land this thing. The pilot call out an emergency and the crash trucks are waiting for us. He hovers about 3 feet above the ground and tells both of us crew members to jump out and run away. He gently puts the copter down on the good wheel and then rolls it over to the broken wheel. When it hits the ground the broken strut shoot through the fuselage just behind the pilots head but he does get it landed. I was never asked to testify at any investigation but also never saw that pilot again. The rabbit got away.
I also flew with the Coast Guard on occasion. I have a story or two from that, too.