Chapter I

Part I

Mount Jefferson

89-26199

Friday, July 29^th, 1994

“No shit—there I was, thought I was going to die,” and on my first rescue mission.  Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Wow, it does sound like a machine gun going off I thought to myself.  The sounds of our number two engine experiencing severe compressor stalls sounded exactly as described by many of my previous instructor pilots.  I remember reaching my right hand up to grab the number two power control lever waiting for the flight engineer to say, “confirmed” and my aircraft commander to give the command to either reduce the power or go into ECU Lockout.  The later action allows the pilot to over ride the automatic control system and take manual control of the engine.  “Co-pilot standby number two throttle for ECU Lockout.”  Throttle, that right!  I had just started flying the Pave Hawk only weeks earlier and I was still not instinctively used to the new Air Force terminology.  I guess old habits die hard.  I was a former Army Aviator or what is otherwise known as a “FAG” which was short for Former Army Guy to all my new Air Force buddies, I am sure they meant it as a term of endearment, right!  I was new not only to the squadron but to the US Air Force having spent the last ten plus years flying various makes and models of US Army helicopters including the AH-1F Cobra Attack Helicopter and OH-58A Kiowa out of Fort Lewis, Washington. I had also recently completed a UH-60L Blackhawk transition course at Fort Rucker, Alabama.  After a lateral transfer from the Army to the Air Force in January I was now beginning my MH/HH-60G Pave Hawk training.  I had just completed the phase one of my flight training in the Pave Hawk when I was lucky enough to be selected to fly this particular mission. Lucky for me I decided to stay late after work on Friday, when the squadron received the 911 call that a climber was missing on Mount Jefferson.  The director of operations immediately announced over the intercom system for all available aircrew to report to the front desk.  There he would count heads and put together crews from all available aircrew members.  It was Friday and it was late and that meant that most of squadron had already departed for the weekend.  Score!, I was in the right place at the right time. For those were not selected because their duty position was already filled they ran around the squadron doing what they could to help. In this case we had more flight engineers than we needed so they immediately ran to the flight line to help get the helicopters ready.  Based on qualifications thus far, training, and previous experience, I was lucky enough to be selected for my first mission. I was the co-pilot of the second aircraft in a flight of two Pave Hawks.  We always deployed as a two ship.  Since I was still learning the rescue mission and was paired up with an instructor pilot.  I could not believe it, I was going on a real mission. I excited to go and learn first hand what combat search and rescue was all about. This was a rare opportunity.

Anyway back to the in flight emergency, in the US Army the throttle is referred to as a power control lever or PCL for short.  It is even labeled “Power Control Lever” on the side of the handle.  This is because the HH-60G Pave Hawk is just another UH-60L Blackhawk, except this one is on steroids.  The Blackhawk which was originally designed to fill many if not all of the shortfalls the UH-1H Huey experienced during the Vietnam War.  The Blackhawk is a success story and truly is a combat survivable aircraft.  It reminds me of the BASF Corporation trademark; “We don’t make a lot of the products you buy.  We make a lot of the products you buy better.”  The United States Air Force did not make the Blackhawk, the Air Force made the Blackhawk better.  The Pave Hawk is very impressive, especially to a former Army aviator who was amazed that unlike the Army an aircraft actually existed where every button, switch, and toggle actually worked!  But, sometimes that is not enough, and today my number two engine is experiencing severe compressor stalls, which are causing it to come apart in flight and eventually fail. 

We were the second aircraft in a formation of two Pave Hawks enroute to Mount Jefferson to look for a climber who was reported over due when we experienced the savage reports of the number two engine that is was coming apart.  “Jolly Two One, Jolly Two Two, is returning to base due to engine problems, we are switching to Portland Approach”  Said Razor over the radio.  Major Brandon B. “Razor” Sharpe was my aircraft commander during this rescue mission.  “Jolly Two Two, do you need us to assist?” Responded Bullet in Jolly Two One. “No continue with the rescue mission.” During our continued un-commanded descent we turned north along the Interstate 5 corridor to return to our home station at Portland International Airport.  Razor kept calling for the engine emergency checklists from the flight engineer.  As I looked over my right shoulder I could see our flight engineer Technical Sergeant Mitchell P. “Tarzan” Collins flipping frantically through his checklist for something that applied based on the instrument readings in the cockpit and the loud sounds coming from the engine.  There are too many engine emergency related checklists for the Pave Hawk to list them all here.  I was amazed at how Tarzan read each and every one of them in a clear and concise voice before settling on the one that the crew thought made the most sense for the emergency.  Tarzan was a call sign he had earned years earlier when he fell out of a helicopter while in flight and dangled below it from his restraint harness.  It was a funny story that he would only relate the actual events to me in detail years later over a cold beer.  The restraint harness is designed to replace the seat belt in the sense that it does not tie you down into the seat rather it allows a person to move around in the cabin while still remaining attached to the inside of the aircraft preventing you from being thrown out during a crash sequence.

After several compressor stalls Tarzan recommend a checklist that involved taking manual control of the engine by disengaging the Electrical Control Unit or ECU and Razor agreed. While I kept my eyes on the engine and transmission instruments looking for abnormal fluctuations in rpm, temperatures, pressures, and any associated caution lights.  I pulled the number two throttle out of the “FLY” position and reduced the demands on the engine as Razor reduced the severity of our turn in order to stop the series of compressor stalls.  Razor then gave the command; “Co-pilot take the number two engine to ECU Lockout.”  I pulled down on the throttle and advanced it full forward to the ECU Lockout position and then back quickly to the six o’clock position or pointing straight down to the floor.  I now had manual control of the number two engine and immediately began to reduce the demands we were placing on the engine just by our sheer weight in excess of 22,000 pounds alone if nothing else.  My job now was to keep my eyes inside on the gauges and advise the pilot on the condition of both engines so that the he could keep his eyes outside and concentrate on flying the aircraft to a safe landing.  I took note of the engine instruments on my knee board to check for any trends.  From time to time I would peek outside and point out a few suitable landing areas.  I said “Razor look there is a road at one o’clock we can land on.”  “No” he responded immediately.  “I don’t land on roads!”  What? I thought to myself.  “Look Razor there is a football field we can land on.”  “No” he responded again immediately.  “I don’t land on fields!”  What?  I thought to myself again, great we are going to die, at this rate of descent we are not going to make it back to Portland.  “Co-pilot get ready to lose some weight!” Razor said.  “We need to get rid of a lot of weight!”  Ah, yes I thought to myself that will help!  That will help a lot.  As I looked over my right shoulder I said, “Wow, we are going throw everything out of the cabin?”  In the back of the aircraft were three pararescue men with enough gear to climb Mt. Everest.  

The aircraft commander (Razor) sits in the right seat and directly behind him sits the flight engineer (Tarzan).  The co-pilot (me) sits in the left seat and directly behind him sits the gunner.  This particular mission took place prior to the formal introduction of the Aerial Gunner position in the HH-60G at the 304^th Rescue Squadron.  While other rescue units on active duty had just introduced them, we in the reserve were still waiting for the positions to be funded and authorized.  The gunner position was normally filled by a pararescue man or a second flight engineer during tactical training flights or operational flights that required flight below 500 feet such as a real rescue mission.  Behind both the flight engineer and the gunner positions on the floor sat two or three pararescue men otherwise known as PJs which is short for Para Jumper and all of the required equipment to insert them or extract them from the landing zone such as rappel ropes, rope ladder, and fast rope.  This along with all of their weapons, ammunition, and medical equipment to include stokes litters and any other specialty gear that may be required for a particular type mission.  This can range from mountain climbing gear to SCUBA for a water rescue and everything in between.  I am sure the PJs would take the kitchen sink if they felt it added value to their mission.

I was just about to question the pilot on how he intended to dump all the gear overboard when the pilot said; “Standby to dump fuel.” Dump fuel?  Oh yeah, unlike the Blackhawk this aircraft can actually dump fuel overboard at the rate of 800 pounds a minute.  I remember reading about it in the operator’s manual.  Dump fuel? Humm?  Now where is that switch?  Not counting circuit breakers there are over 528 switches in the cockpit of the HH-60G that must be physically flipped, rotated, pushed-in or pulled-out.  I know this because I counted them all during a long cross country flight just to keep myself awake.  As we were in a descending turn towards the earth, I could see through the broken clouds the tops of buildings and houses below, still not finding the red  cover guarded switch which was safe tied to the closed position with a breakable copper wire.  I divided my attention between looking outside at the ground for a safe place to land and inside monitoring the engine gauges, and that damn switch that I still could not find!  Dumping fuel was not something you practice everyday.  Being new to the Pave Hawk I did not instinctively know its exact location, other than it was located on the auxiliary fuel panel.  Even if I had found the damn switch, it is just not a natural act to just send the life sustaining liquid over board.  The Pave Hawk can dump 800 pounds of fuel a minute.  At that rate you could easily put yourself in precarious situation.  There is a series of steps required in the dump fuel checklist which should prevent you from just dumping all your gas overboard, or so I have read.  Razor kept asking me; “Have you found it?”  “No, I can’t find it!”  Especially with me sitting in the left seat and my right hand on the throttle!  Good grief Razor must have thought.  I remember looking through the chin bubble which is a small window placed just below the foot pedals and seeing the roof tops getting bigger!   Razor do we really want to dump hundreds of pounds of fuel over these civilians?  Air Force Regulations allow us to only dump fuel during life and death rescue missions, high priority operational missions, and during emergencies only, but not below 3,000 feet or over agricultural or populated areas.  Now how did I remember that and not the location of that damn switch!

“No,” Razor replied.  “Do not dump fuel.”  Great, now I am going to burn up in the crash with almost 4,000 pounds of jet fuel.  Why did I open my big mouth?  My worry was not the more than 2,500 pounds of fuel in the crash worthy main tanks; it was the almost 1,800 pounds of fuel remaining in the auxiliary tanks that are located inside the aircraft cabin.  Who was the smart guy who invented that?  As we continued our descending turn towards Portland International Airport we managed to level out about 2,500 feet above the Interstate 5 corridor on one engine.  Wow what a great feeling having two engines!  That is why Razor did not intend to land on a road or open field, in his mind we still had enough power and altitude to possibly make it home on one engine.  After ten years of flying single engine helicopters my mind was already set to instinctively land immediately or as soon as possible if there was any question that my single engine would quit in flight.  You got to love multi-engine aircraft it is the only way to fly.

Razor gave us a quick autorotation brief; “Gentlemen this will be a straight ahead autorotation from this altitude to runway two eight left, airspeed will be slightly above a 100 knots, at 150 feet we will have the rotor in the green, wings level, FE call out the rotor.”  As we made our final turn to line ourselves up with the runway, I heard one of the three PJs, in the back say; “PJ to Pilot”  followed by silence.  “PJ to Pilot” again there was no response from Razor.  “PJ to Pilot” I looked to my right and I could see Razor was too busy talking to the tower and asking for crash rescue to answer the PJ.  As Razor  continued to set up for the autorotation.  I responded;  “PJ this is the co-pilot go ahead.” The PJ team leader asked;“Sir, should we be like in the crash position or something?”  At the time I found it the funniest thing, because the PJ’s question caused me to immediately turn my head back to the cabin over my right arm which was still on the number two throttle to say; “Does this mean you are not?” And the sight of three grown men spontaneously dance in the cabin, jumping and moving equipment all around, it was assholes and elbows everywhere!  I still laugh every time I think about it.  I was laughing so hard in the cockpit that I had to lower my visor just to hide my in appropriate and uncontrollable hysterics and remind myself that we were about to enter an autorotation.

Now an autorotation is a complex phenomenon where the lift generated by the rotor system on a helicopter is purely accomplished by aerodynamic forces under certain conditions.  It involves the delicate balance of opposing aerodynamic forces along the rotor blades.  I will not bore you with mach numbers and angles of attack, transverse motion, and complexities of aerodynamic analysis and how they present difficult problems in fluid dynamics.  Rather just know that it is a bad thing.  When the engine quits on an airplane it becomes a glider.  That is if you do not have an ejection seat or parachute your only option is to glide the airplane to a safe landing.  The same is true in a helicopter.  Because helicopters are not designed with ejection seats and the crews do not wear parachutes departing the aircraft is certainly out of the question if the engine or engines quit.  Besides with four rotor blades the diameter of over 53 feet spinning over your head on a descent, where do you want to go?  Certainly not outside of the aircraft.

Believe it or not a helicopter can become a glider.  A very poor glider at best, a rock glides better than a helicopter.  An autorotation provides you with enough inertia in the rotor system, provided you catch it in time to glide to a suitable landing site within your immediate surroundings.  Now if we were flying an auto gyro this would be fine because an autogyro uses autorotation as its primary lifting mechanism.  In a helicopter autorotation is purely an emergency procedure that is used when failure of the power plant or transmission occurs.  The most important part of the autorotation is to have just the right amount of inertia at the bottom, or what we call the flare.

Just moments after I lowered my visor Razor announced to the crew; “Crew call ready?” I answered “Co is ready,” the flight engineer answered “FE is ready, and the PJ team leader in the back called “PJs are ready.”  Upon hearing confirmation that the crew was ready to enter the autorotation Razor immediately dropped the collective in his left hand and I pulled the number two throttle back to idle as instructed and we began our rapid descent to runway two eight left.  You could tell were still very heavy certainly well above 20,000 pounds.  The sudden sensation of falling butt first down the world’s fastest runaway elevator was enough to confirm our total weight.  That and the loud sounds coming from the transmission as is spooled up.  In training this is a lot of fun, during a real emergency not so much.  I could hear Tarzan say “high rotor, high rotor, high rotor” and Razor would gently pull up on the collective to make the correction.  Followed by "low rotor!, low rotor!" in a higher pitched voice.  Razor would then lower the collective to regain the loss of inertia.

During the autorotation descent the pilot divides his focus outside on the intended point of touch down, in our case runway two eight left and inside the cockpit on his altitude, airspeed, rotor rpm, wings level, alignment, torque, engine rpm, and sink rate, all while listening to the sounds of the transmission over his head for clues.  The "ground rush" while distracting, is interrupted by Tarzan continuing to make the high and low rotor calls.  High rotor you have too much inertia, low rotor not enough inertia.  High rotor you can recover from fairly easily by pulling up on the collective in your left hand thus increasing the drag or friction on the main rotor blades to slow them down into the normal range.  Low rotor is bad.  Let may say this again low rotor is very bad!  You wait too long to correct it and you may slow the main rotor blades down to a point where you will not recover the lost inertia.  Mishaps have occurred where the pilot waited too long and thus stopped the blades in mid-air at which point they are no longer in aerospace vehicle, but rather something that resembles a call falling off a cliff.  The end result of course catastrophic.  By lowering the collective you decrease the angle of attack on the main rotor blades thus decreasing the drag or friction.  Less drag the easier it is to fly through the air.  Do you remember as a child sticking your hand outside the window of a moving car and feeling the air run quickly past your hand when it was palm down and how much resistance you felt when you slightly tilted your hand up thumb first?  Dramatically your hand would fill with air and cause your arm to move up and back.  The same with the main rotor blades by lowering the collective you move the position of the blades to a level position just like your hand.  This decreases the profile and friction across the surface of the blades and increases the speed of the entire rotor system.  With enough altitude at least 500 feet and above during an autorotation the more time you have to make these corrections and the greater your chances of having enough inertia to make a safe landing.  There is a series of charts in our flight manual labeled high velocity diagrams which we often referred to them as the “boob of death” chart because the red zone on the graph resembles the profile of a female breast.  It depicts altitude on the left side of the chart and airspeed along the bottom of the chart and curved lines from the upper left corner to the lower right corner represents temperature and aircraft weight.  The red zone or boob of death is the area in the chart where based on your aircraft weight and temperature along with your altitude and airspeed is mathematically insufficient to allow you to achieve enough inertia to recover the aircraft in time.  The white area of the chart which is the remainder of the chart depicts altitudes and airspeed that when matched will give you the best chances for survival.  These charts are particularly important when you are conducting operations that require a lot of hovering above ground effect or the diameter of one rotor.  Today our airspeed of 130 knots which equals 149.8 mph and an entry altitude over 1,500 feet above the ground we are in the white area of the chart and have plenty of inertia to make a safe landing, if we do not screw it up.

Now the most self-critiquing part of the autorotation is the flare.  There is a tremendous amount of energy stored during the descent.  The flare is most effective in the last 100 feet of the approach which translates to last five to six seconds.  You are basically taking this giant fan over your head and turning it sideways by pulling back on the cyclic or which is often referred to as the “stick” with your right hand to slow the aircraft down just above your selected landing site.  At the same time you decrease or increase slightly the collective depending on your rotor spinning faster or slower during your flare.  As you are doing this with both of your arms you are also using both of legs by moving the foot pedals to maintain your alignment with the runway.  The foot pedals perform the same function for the 11 foot diameter tail rotor as the collective does for the main rotor.  Most helicopters are designed with a three to one or six to one ratio.  You basically have a smaller rotor on the tail which spinning three to six times faster than the main rotor and this makes it very sensitive. 

As you pass 150 feet above the ground you begin the flare so that your control inputs take place between 125 to 75 feet above your intended point of touchdown.  Your control input should be severe enough that you should lose sight of the runway through your front windshield about 20 to 25 degrees nose up.  At this point you shift part of your attention to your peripheral vision to judge your forward ground speed or what we call ground rushing by the window.  You are also ensuring no lateral drift or movement from side to side.  Lateral drift is bad.  Let me say that again, lateral drift is bad.  It is bad because if you touch the ground on either your left or right side only with any part of the main landing gear and you will create a pivot point upon which you will roll the aircraft and impact the main blades on the ground.  You also do not want any forward movement once you touch the ground on an unimproved surface such as freshly plowed field, wet ground, or any other surface that is not a paved runway, this would allow the main gear of a heavy aircraft to sink into it thus causing a pivot point forward.  Plus anything not tied down inside the cabin may fly forward and hit you on the back of the head.

By the end of the flare you want to get rid of just the right amount of energy to have enough left over to catch your fall.  The end of your flare is obvious; you will feel a sudden stop in forward movement immediately followed by a sinking feeling, not just in your stomach.  You will literally fall out of the sky, which is the point where you want to immediately level the aircraft by inherently pushing the stick forward with your right hand while pulling up on the collective with your left hand to now increase the drag on the blades and get as much lift as they will allow and input left pedal to keep you from spinning to the right.  Execute all of these simultaneously while judging your rate of descent to touchdown as smooth and as light as a feather.  

A slight forward movement of the aircraft on an improved surface such as runway or hard surface road is fine.  And that is what Razor had in mind that day, the instant he gently touched the surface of runway 28 left with the tail wheel and continued our forward roll onto our main wheels the PJs let out a load and sigh relieving cheer – “HURRAH!”  “Great job Razor,” We all said as I proceeded to shut down our number two engine and check for a post engine shutdown fire.  As we continued our roll on the runway looking for taxi-way Charlie 6 back to our parking ramp, I could feel a sudden sense of exhaustion caused by all the adrenaline in my system from this short flight.   As we continued our taxi to parking I noticed what appeared to be the pit crew at Daytona on our ramp getting another aircraft ready to launch.  “Razor do you see that, someone is getting ready to go” I said. “That someone is us, co-pilot you have the controls, continue with the shutdown checklist and turn the aircraft over to maintenance and move our stuff to the spare; PJs move all of your gear to the spare aircraft.  “FE I am going inside to the operations desk to get the latest update on the mission, get us ready to go as soon as you can.” Razor replied.  What? we are going again, after what we just went through? I thought to myself this can’t be.  That was another reason Razor did not intend to land on a road or open field and wait for help, he intended to return to base and continue the mission using the spare aircraft.  Tarzan looked at me with that reddish blonde mustached smile under his visor and said; “Sir, welcome to rescue!”  I was dumb founded, wow we are really going at it again.  The Air Force is awesome!  This did not compare to the training flights of my last ten years where nothing was worth taking this high of a risk.  Then again, this was a real rescue mission and someone’s life hung in the balance.  Somebody in the chain of command had already approved this mission because it was a matter of life and death.  

As I walked up to the spare aircraft tail number 89-26200 after completing the engine shutdown checklist on 89-26199 and from signing it over to maintenance.  Tarzan yelled out to me “Sir, can you please go get some Pubs?”  Pubs, short for flight publications which includes all the local area maps, approach plates, and books required to be onboard the aircraft for the flight.  It is the aircraft commander’s responsibility to make sure they are on board the aircraft but it is the co-pilots additional duty to sign for them from the operations desk and carry them out to the aircraft.  I said yes of course and as I turned to my previous aircraft 199 to recover the Pubs that I had already signed for and brought out, when I noticed that maintenance being the efficient machine that it is, already had 199 half way across the flight line in tow.  Too far to chase after it looking like an idiot, so I did what any lazy co-pilot would do.  I went from aircraft to aircraft on the flight line in the hopes of finding another set instead of taking the time to go inside to the operations desk and sign out another set of pubs.  Score!  I found a set, I grabbed them and jumped into the spare aircraft and started the pre-flight cockpit checks with Tarzan.  The PJs were all smiles packing their gear in the back of the spare aircraft all the while taking the time to say; “Nice job Captain.”  It felt great to hear those words from the PJs and right at that very moment I felt like I was part of a great team.  Maintenance was running around the aircraft ensuring we would have everything we needed and standing by for anything that may fail during our checks.  Other flight engineers were around and on top of the aircraft closing and locking access doors and panels they had opened during their pre-flight inspections in order to expedite our departure.  A process that normally takes an hour or more was being accomplished in minutes, putting any pit crew in Daytona to shame.

Once again we lifted off in record time with priority from departure control and climbed as fast as we could to reach our sister ship that was now arriving in the vicinity of Mount Jefferson.  I remember taking the time to look at the surrounding area of the City of Portland and marveled at its mid summers beauty during our departure.  Portland is located in the Pacific Northwest where the Columbia and Willamette rivers converge, I thought to myself what a great location, what a great unit, what a great mission!

Mount Jefferson originally named Seekseekqua by native Americans was called Mount Vancouver by the British and later named in honor of US President Thomas Jefferson by Lewis and Clark. Mount Jefferson is an old volcano in the Cascade Range and at 10,497 feet it is the second highest mountain in Oregon.  It is one of the hardest volcanoes to reach and climb because of its summit pinnacle is very steep ice encrusted rock.  As we approached the mountain we could here Jolly Two One on the radio with a local area sheriff’s helicopter.  They had both landed in a meadow half way down the mountain for a face-to-face coordination meeting.  We shot our approach and landed next to our sister ship and pulled the throttles out of 100% back to idle to save fuel and reduce our noise signature.  The aircraft commander and the PJ team leader immediately jumped out and walked over to join the impromptu meeting.  I could see all of them huddled together with the county sheriff, the local mountain rescue team, along with Jolly Two One’s aircraft commander and their PJ team leader.  They were all holding various maps and papers in their hands and occasionally pointing at the mountain.  What are they doing I asked?  Tarzan responded; “they are forming a plan.  We need to know where the climber started his climb, which route he used, who he was with, and anything else that can help us locate him.”  Ah ok, makes sense to me, I was just too excited, some people wait their entire military career in rescue and never get a chance to go on a single rescue mission.  Others seem to be in the right place at the right time and get all the missions.  All I knew is that I was just lucky to be there and to be part of a real life and death search and rescue mission.  I was not even mission qualified yet, and yet I was on my very first rescue mission!  How cool was that!

I could smell the clean cold glacier air filled with the sweet scent of evergreen occasionally interrupted by a strong odor of jet fuel from our engine exhaust as the breeze would change direction on the mountain.  The smell of fuel would make me look at the engine instruments to ensure that everything was operating as it should be.  I was so excited to say the least, and I remember thinking to myself I think I am going to like this new occupation.  “Here they come,” said Tarzan.  I looked up and I could see Razor wave his hand in the air in a circular motion signaling to return the throttles to fly thus spooling the main rotor up to a 100%.  Razor jumped in with a smile on his face, what is there not to smile about we have a mission and we are about to save some one’s life.  What can be better than that?  “We are living the dream” as  the “Bagger” used to say.  The Bagger was a world famous PJ and good friend.

“Ok gentlemen this is the situation.  We have a single male climber trying to summit the mountain on his own.” Razor briefed.  What?  That’s crazy we all thought.  “The Sheriff said a single male climber left Jefferson Park yesterday for a solo climb in an attempt to summit Mt. Jefferson and failed to return today.” Razor continued.   He also told us that Jolly 21 had located what they thought might be the missing climber at the 9,500 foot level during their second pass.  He was located on a boulder in a rock slide area just below the summit to tight for a helicopter to hover near the face of the cliff.   The climber appeared to be unresponsive lying head down in a gully on the east face of the summit ridge.  Lead was going to insert his PJ team as close as we could dare along a ridge line so that they could continue in on foot to verify the victim’s actual condition, was he dead or alive?  Flying in Jolly Two One was Lieutenant Colonel Leon D. “Bullet” Parker a former US Marine helicopter pilot and a local area Sheriff in his civilian job, his co-pilot Captain Nicholas D. “Knuckles” Waller another former US Army helicopter pilot and a man I served with years earlier when we were gun pilots together in an attack helicopter unit.  I had lost track of him over the years until I ran into him in the hallways of the 304^th Rescue Squadron during my interview the year before.  Their flight engineer Technical Sergeant Oscar J.  “Anchors” Pennington from the call sign you can tell he had spent some time in the US Navy.  What an eclectic bunch of guys I thought, but whose total experience together made for a very effective team.

We departed the meadow behind Jolly Two One followed by the local Sheriff department helicopter in trail and circled the mountain in search of the missing climber.  As we circled the mountain we flew near the area where lead thought the victim had landed from the fall. Next step was to search for suitable one wheel landing spot where we could drop off our PJs and return to the meadow and wait for news.  As we were communicating with Bullet what we thought was preferred touchdown spot among the rocks.  What we heard next over the radio would cause a huge controversy in the months that followed... (to be continued)