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End nears for CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter

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By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Aug 23, 2008 7:43:17 EDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — On any given day, dozens of helicopters and jets take off from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station — some for local training flights, others for assignments overseas or other stateside bases.

But the quiet departure in late July of two CH-46E helicopters, affectionately known around the Corps as “Phrogs” for their frog-like silhouette, marked yet another retirement of the Vietnam-era helo. Aircrews with the “Grayhawks” of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 161 flew these Sea Knights to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, outside Tucson, Ariz., home to the military’s enormous aircraft complex known as “The Boneyard.”

The helicopters landed with no fanfare, no ceremony, “no general there to say, ‘Hey, these airplanes have flown a good life,’ ” said Capt. William Murphy. “The ceremony is us getting to fly it there.”

Murphy has logged some 1,500 hours in the Sea Knight during his 10 years in the Corps, many during multiple tours in Iraq. His squadron, which received its first CH-46A in 1966, will eventually transition to the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

These two Phrogs join a dozen other CH-46Es already in the base’s famous collection of 4,400 military jets, bombers, reconnaissance planes and helicopters, including two other Grayhawk Sea Knights delivered in June.

“It’s not every day we see the CH-46E,” said Terry Vanden-Heuvel, business affairs liaison with Davis-Monthan’s Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, which runs the famous storage facility and maintains the aircraft there.

The first CH-46E Sea Knight to be retired and stored in the Boneyard, a Sea Knight from HMM-365, arrived Nov. 2, 2005, 41 years after the first CH-46 — the “A” model — entered the fleet. Six others followed in 2006. Two arrived last year. So far in 2008, the Boneyard has welcomed five Sea Knights.
The collection grows

All told, the collection at Davis-Monthan includes two-dozen CH-46Es along with 14 of the Marine Corps’ earlier ”D” model. Several more Sea Knights are expected to arrive before year’s end.

“It’s pretty steady right now. We are not getting rid of any of them,” said Tim Horn, who directs the Naval Inventory Control Point team that oversees the 1,750 naval aircraft parked in the desert.

The Corps is transitioning two Sea Knight squadrons annually to the Osprey, said Maj. Eric Dent, a headquarters spokesman at the Pentagon. That’s about two dozen helicopters a year. While many are redistributed to other units, the number of retired airframes is slowly growing.

So far, 27 “E” models have been retired or stricken from service, according to Naval Air Systems Command. They include a handful of Sea Knights at Fleet Readiness Center-East, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.

The retired helicopters are owned by Naval Inventory Control Point, and “a number of parts are removed for continued support of the remaining aircraft,” said Rob Koon, a NavAir spokesman at Patuxent River, Md. The preserved helicopters are stored for future needs, if required.

Five retired helicopters are still serving the military in a way, Dent said.

Two are being used as trainers: one at the Navy’s Fire Fighting School in Pensacola, Fla., the other for fire suppression at China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, Calif. A third was sent to General Electric to help test infrared suppression. Two others are on display in North Carolina: one at New River Marine Corps Air Station’s front gate, the other at Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte.
Bittersweet delivery

For the Phrog community, these days are a mix of operational highs — flying combat missions and supporting ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan — and the bittersweet task of taking a helicopter to what might be its final resting place.

“They’ve been a workhorse,” Horn said.

And saying goodbye can be personal.

“You taxi in, and you can’t believe you’re dropping it off,” Murphy said. “You’re never going to pick it up again.”

At the Boneyard, aircrews hand over the helicopter along with its maintenance cards and logbook, which is kept in a depository at Davis-Monthan.

All but one of the Sea Knights there are in “type 2000” storage, a category of aircraft prepared for storage relatively intact, “unless authorized to pull parts,” Vanden-Heuvel said. In other words, the helicopters can be cannibalized if necessary.

“We’re reusing all the critical parts of it to support the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Horn said. That means engines, transmissions, rotor heads and blades. It takes several days to strip one of these birds. Each part is noted on component cards to make it easier to track should the need arise later. The fuselage then is sealed, though parts could be removed for priority requests.

Some go to the Boneyard’s “flush farm,” where fluids are replaced with preservation oils, said Horn, a retired Air Force KC-135 mechanic. Workers cover the aircraft with a removable silicone-based sealant.

“By sealing up the aircraft, it keeps the inside temperatures of the cockpits within 20 degrees of the ambient temperature,” he noted. “Without it, cockpit temperatures would soar up to 400 degrees and cook the avionics inside the aircraft.”

Aircraft in the war-reserve section “can’t be touched,” Horn said.

The lone Phrog in “type 4000” storage, retired by HMM-164 two years ago, has one more mission remaining: museum duty.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/08/marine_seaknight_082308w/

 
Posted : 2008-08-23 09:06
JoeReed
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Phrogs are leaving us.....

🙁 Never thought I'd see this, or have to deal with it...Now I know how the '34 crews felt.....Lots of emotion at the thought, but more since it's actually happening.
Maybe we could get Sully Sullenberger to honor us with another one of his great poems on this subject.....How 'bout it Sully??

 
Posted : 2008-08-23 12:51
Anonymous
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Understand Joe

Another old warrior joins the ranks of the past parade of faithfull steeds. Ones I watched retire was from 1950 HTL, HO3S, HO5S, HRS, HUS using their original Marine designation before the Air Force standard oo the numeral designations. Those of us that still survive will never forget them. SF PM

 
Posted : 2008-08-23 19:33
JoeReed
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Old Birds

You've seen it all and then some, Paul. I was a only a 4 year guy and the CH-46 was all I ever worked on, and flew, as a crew member. Guess I'm too sentimental. It wasn't long ago when you couldn't find a Phrog that would hold still long enough to place anywhere as a monument to those that crewed them, but we have a few in deserving locations, now, for just that purpose! I'll miss seeing them fly by, and always remember them in newsreels when RVN was in the news, or in the movies, when Marines needed to fly. Whenever anyone spoke of Vietnam, Grenada, or Iraq, they are my second thought, after those that I served with. We even externalled cattle with them at LTA in 1969, after the Santa Ana floods...Cattle were stuck in the mud and would have died of starvation, but we pulled them out of the mud in Riverside county, near Corona! (Remember Brook, Jack ??) Externalled junk cars with them to drop in the Santa Ana river to keep it from washing away the homes that were nearby....All great moments of good men and a great aircraft....Who'd a thunk it back when the "A" models were coming apart in flight?? Many were scared to fly 'em, but they earned their trust, many times over!!!
Ready App!!! "Ready App, Sir"!!

 
Posted : 2008-08-23 22:21
jejacobs
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A sad, sad day.....

Unfortunately, we have all seen it coming. I still get chills down my spine when I hear one fly over, whether Marine or Navy. I know I'm not the only one to feel the retirement of the Phrog as almost the same as losing a very close friend, and that she is, truly an old "Friend". Really sad for those of us who had the privilege starting out on the "A-Models".

Why is the Chinook is still around.....because the Dept. of the Army has more money??? I have nothing against the Chinook, just wondering why.

 
Posted : 2008-08-24 11:37
JoeReed
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Chinook

Jake,
The Chinook still fills a vital role and is stilll being up graded. They will be there for years to come! I still firmly belive that if the CH-47 would fit aboard our LPH's that you and I would have been Chinook raggies!! You and I, and many others here, still have those "good" CH-46A memories to tell our grandchildren!:cool:

 
Posted : 2008-08-24 12:47
Anonymous
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Moving On

It was the end of 1968 when HMM-363 went home and left a gaggle of H-34s and crews with H&MS-36. We continued to fly combat missions with them until late April or so of 1969 and then it was over. HMM-362 had a fews months left and then they gave up the Dog. It was April when I moved over to HMM-265 and acquired my CH-46 shaped head. When HMM-265 went aboard the Iwo, that was the last time I saw an H-34 on a Vietnam flight line. It hurt leaving the H-34 and the same for the CH-46.

Attached files

 
Posted : 2008-08-24 14:21
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