Navy Helo MEDEVAC Update 2515th Navy Air Ambulance Deatchment

[ChuckMK23]

Well it's finally rubber meets the road guys. The Navy officially signed the Memorandum of Understanding with CENTCOM officially commiting Navy Helicopter assets to the inland MEDEVAC role in Iraq.

HSC-25 (formerly HC-5 - Guam) and HS-15 are tagged to start deploying dets any week now. They may very well be in country as you read this. The det is called 2515th Navy Air Ambulance Detachment. It will fly between 6 and 12 MH-60S and HH-60H helos. I am hearing this will be a one for one replacement of Army air ambulance assets. All Navy crews. NVG/all-weather operations and all the deviations from SOP and NATOPS to complete combat oriented life saving missions are in place.

Would enjoy getting confirmation from guys/gals actually assigned to the Det and any anecdotes/experience.

Fly safe/Godspeed!

{Edit - I just heard that SecDef himself had to sign off on this. Interesting. I bet the interservice politiking was a nightmare!}

 

[ChuckMK23]

btt

 

[zab1001]

Fvcking-A. This is some cool sh!t. Defintely envious.

 

[Gatordev]

Hot damn. That's awesome. I'll have to ask one of the guys here I know what he knows. He just came from HC-5.

 

[bobbybrock]

Chuck,
This sounds like a great step for the navy helo community. I'm in country now and know our med guys are spent. This will be a great relief to them.
I know our med unit is getting replaced by another army unit. But that still leaves all sort of places these guys could end up.
I'll tell that they will get a chance to do some great flying. The army dustoff guys on a whole have flown a little less then the lift community. I think they probably average about 300 a year over here. The lift guys are leaving with between 500 and 700. Some breaking 800. None the less it should be a great experience.
As far as the politicing. I can't even imagine.

 

[Gatordev]

Wow, only three hundred a year? I know the mission is different, and it's only a point A to B type of flying, but hadn't actually seen a number associated w/ it. Interesting.

Last August, while dodging hurricane(s) Francis and Ivan and trying to find our ship somewhere in FL, we landed at W. Palm Beach for fuel. They had a bunch of assets there to support Francis damage and what may have come from Ivan. A Blackhawk crewchief walked over to our 1986 and 1992 pair of -60s. One had 8500 hours and the other had 9000. When he asked and I told him that, he was floored. I asked him about his, and his 1979 H-60A had 5000 hours. My OIC, chief, and I were amazed, but it made sense w/ the kind of flying. Anyway, thanks for the info bobby.

 

[bobbybrock]

gatordev,
Yea, I was suprised also. I guess it all depends on the op tempo . Plus we have a lot of med birds in country, plus the phrogs out west. As a lift guy your day is planned well in advance. As a med guy it is a moments notice to a grid. Remember this is for a certain region of country so the guys covering down on another region might be flying more or less.
A 1979 with 5000. Sounds like it might have been a guard bird. You'll find most active duty units with Lima models with the exception of Dustoff. There are a few Dustoff units with the HH-60L. I believe it will be their main airframe once the Mike model makes its way into service in a few years.

 

[Gatordev]

Makes sense. Don't know how it "really" is, but it seems like the Army gets new models of Blackhawks for Christmas. It seems like every few years there's a new model. Meanwhile we're struggling to get our one new model online (Romeo). Oh well.

You're right, it was guard unit. But I figure since it was a 1979 model, it may not have always been a guard unit and may have been "active" at some point. Either way, I'm sure it was cherry.

 

[phrogpilot73]

It makes sense that they're throwing the Navy into the mix. With the limited USMC assault support assets in theatre, the dedicated CASEVAC squadron has had to pick up some GS missions. I know the 60's are stretched thin, because they've sent a det down to cover 1900-0700 while the Phrogs are doing GS. It also makes sense that assault support is logging more flight time than CASEVAC. I've covered the CASEVAC mission a couple of times, and with the exception of the milk run, you can sit around all day and do nothing. Even if the call comes, you may only log a 2.0 - GS flying gets you a consistent 5.5-6.0 per night.

There's a Phrog on the line in country that's a '67 model with 11500... Who says the old girl can't hold her own?!?

 

[Gatordev]

And I wonder what the original planned service life was. 8000? "Hmm, we still need to fly her. She looks good enough, let's just take it to 10000." <repeat 3 times>. We're starting to have the same issue w/ the Bravos, although '67...wow. That aircraft may not be as old as salt, but I'm sure it went to high school w/ salt.

 

[isc8672]

Sounds like a very cool mission. Are there any more squadrons involved or is it just HSC 25 and HS 15?

 

[ChunksJR]

I'm proud of my fellow HSC bubbas in the mix, but I'll tell you it's a totally different world than the maritime environment...We just got our 2 helos back from the Himalayan mountains for Pakistan Relief and the mindshift from Naval support to Inland support is something that took our guys a little getting used to.

God Speed my friends...my prayers just became a little more specific...

 

[bobbybrock]

I just got out of Iraq and redeployed to Kuwait. When we arrived in Kuwait we saw a few gray helos on the ramp. We thought they were Army. The army is supposed to adopt the grey color scheme and we thought these might be the first few. Well they were Navy.
I talked to a few of the guys and they are pulling full dust off duty in Kuwait.
I know the guys before them ( Army ) did southern Iraq. They told me that they really didn't ventire that far north.
It is pretty weird seeing seeing the Navy birds with red crosses on them.
I tried to get more info but we left for the port right after that.
I was curious as to see if they were going to move a unit up north anytime soon.

 

[ChuckMK23]

Anybody have recent gouge on how these folks are doing? Any battle damaged aircraft? Is there a lessons learned .doc out there from the dets that anyone can share?

 

[bobbybrock]

Chuck,
I think the guys are only pulling duty in Kuwait. I think the Army is still doing the dust off mission in southern Iraq. This comes from one of the Navy guys down in Kuwait.
It is still pretty dangerous flying. When I took our guys out to do all of our quals I couldn't believe how dark it was.
I would think that most Navy guys were used to the low contrast enviorment. The dust landing might have been a different beast.
I saw they had two different types of models on the ground. I couldn't imagine doing a dust landing without being able to plant my tail wheel.