Vietnam Training

This is off the top of my head, but- I joined HMM 161 in July67, right out of PNS, as it was stabilizing for deployment in April68. We "flew" trainers in trailers for a few weeks & had some orientation/ground school in the 46-D model (later upgraded to "Super D") prior to first fam flights in the aircraft. From there it was the normal progression to beig rated as H2P, HAC & carrier qual, cruizing around New River. A group of junior Lts. was sent to the Carib wih HMM 365 for 2mos. for more experience with shipboard & tropical ops. Made for a pretty busy 10 mos. & I felt ready. Getting shot at tempered that sense a tad. Can try to locate & check my logbook for more precise dates if that is helpful.

Chuck Songer

Vietnam Training

After getting my wings I went to HMMT 302 Santa Ana CA.(Dec.,Jan.,Feb.'67). The CO, I can't remember his name said that all us new guys had to get at least 75 hrs. in type(CH46D) before he would let us go on leave after we got our overseas orders. I got 78.4 hrs. in two months (Jan & Feb) my first flight in Nam was 30 March '67.
At HMMT 302 we did formation, high altitude single zone landings, external loads, navigation, instrument flt., gun runs & my last flight was a paradrop. It just happened to be my platoon commander from basic school, he told me that the platoon had lost 3 guys already in Nam.(Guess who I also ran into at Dong Ha?)
Unfortunately by the end of my tour in Nam some of the guys that we got in the Squadron had 10 hrs. loged in 46s'.
I think you are going to find a large divergence of pre Nam training.

Art (FAT CAT) Ross

CH-46 Training in Vietnam transition pilots

I checked-in to HMT-302 (LtCol. Walt Ledbetter) in August of '67 after getting my wings in July....and spent 3 months getting less than 50 hours in Ds....they had just had a crash with a "D" and were slowing things down....I don't think my first in-country Squadron appreciated it too much....I was pretty green.....but, as I recall, the learning curve was very steep!!!!!!! HMM-262 was flying "A"s and that was really pay-attention-time.

Semper Fi,

Mike Mullen

RVN Training

From a Crew Chief's pespective, I believe we always were training new H2P's. The thing that never failed to scare the hell out of me was night Carrier Quals! I lived though them in with CH-46A's in HMM-165 on the Valley Forge in early '68 and on the Tripoli in late summer, although I wonder how, sometimes! LOL!. You only forgot to call for Hover Aft once! LOL!! I loved flying left seat and got a ton of stick time, since we had a couple of CC's that didn't like the front seat. Hard to get it when they were doing a lot of training, but I took it when I could get it.

RVN Training

I checked in to HMM 264 in New River in February 1969. I had made it through Pensacola in 11 months.

I checked in to HMM 161 in Phu Bai in November 1969 as a fully qualified HAC, after roughly nine months of H46 training.

At New River, I was given a complete syllabus, mountain training in Georgia, and a few weeks on the USS Guam for shipboard operations. The CO let me fly just as much as I could handle which was almost every day! They only regret I have about my training is that I never learned how to fire and maintain an M16. To this day I could not clean or fire one. I did not take any leave before my overseas tour.

After just a few weeks at HMM 161, I was a section leader, PMIP and all that. Never knew flying could be so much fun. The HMM 161 Maintenance Chief, I believe it was Top Dunnels (spelling), flew with me and taught me how to do a full card check.

As soon as I made HAC at New River, I would take anyone anywhere they wanted to go on a cross country. Then, often during the RON, just the crew chief and I would fly. I learned a lot that way. The Ops O called me on doing that once. I showed him the MAG 26 directive that allowed it and nothing was ever said.

I give a lot of credit to the crew chiefs who taught me not only how to fly but the ins and outs of how the helicopter was maintained. I also give credit to my CO who never held me back.

And yes, the H46 can exceed ninety degrees angle of bank no sweat. Just keep the ball in the middle and do not pull too many G's!