I remember Chief Elwood Bryant had classes in the ready room preparing for the first AW test. No one knew what would be on the test. There was enough sonar and crew safety questions that we all passed. The lifers that had been stuck taking the AX exam where happy to change. The crewman of HS-2 hadn't worked in the shops for several years. It caused problems between maintenance and the aircrewman. Maintenance thought aircrewman only worked a few hours a week. It was also a problem that we made more with flight pay.

Also at that time the Navy was very short of helicopter crewman. No first time reenlistment had occurred in several years in the squadron. The previous cruise to westpac had cost 14 men and 14 planes. I remember looking at the few planes they brought back to Imperial Beach....they had lots of patches and parts missing.

I was also happy to see the comments about Rudy Carter. Rudy was the first crewman for my friend Darrell Sparkman. Chief Elwood Bryant was my first crewman. I can remember the Chief and Rudy argueing who had the worst or best second crewman. You didn't want to screw up. The pilot for my crew was CDR R. A. Bruning, the squadron XO. CDR Bruning was one of the really smooth pilots of the squadron and Chief Bryant knew everything behind the pilot seats. I had a very good education.

The accident stories where interesting. My only question is how can you fly for more than one enlistment without going down? I figured I didn't have any luck left. The story about the helo falling backward is sometime I can relate to. After Vietnam, Pat Lawson and I were just getting some flight time for our flight pay. The pilot had a "new" pilot for an instrument training flight. Amber glass panels were placed inside the windshield. The training pilot put on blue goggles. He couldn't see outside, just the gauges. The pilot put the plane in climb and flared a little. He then told the new guy to take the controls and return to level flight. The new guy rolled the plane to the right and we started falling like a rock. I looked out the crew window an could not see anything but water. We started at 5000 ft. and went through 500 ft before the pilot got the nose over and the plane started flying. H-3 don't do well on their sides. I think we got as low as 200 ft before climbing. The only thing said by the pilot was "I got it". He saved our butts that day. Pat and I were playing chess on the center crew console with my magnetic chess set. Never did find all the pieces. I still remember looking at Pat afterward.

I have several more close calls that I vividly remember. It reminds me of what Rudy Carter always used to say, "Stick your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye because you are goin flyin".