"Marines Say Goodbye to Sea Knights" Topic

It's perhaps a most fitting tribute: The first active-duty Marine Corps operational squadron to get the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter became the last one to fly it and officially transition to its replacement, the MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor.

That shift happened Thursday during a dual-hatted ceremony at Camp Pendleton, where Marine Medium Helicopter Training Squadron 164 held a change-of-command and redesignation as a tiltrotor, or VMM, squadron. It marked the end of an era, coming 50 years after the first Sea Knight model, the CH-46A, replaced the UH-34 flying combat missions in Vietnam in 1966.

"It's bittersweet," said retired Col. Daniel C. Hahne, who commanded the training squadron from 2002 to 2004. Hanhe was one of 10 former squadron commanders who joined Lt. Col. Gabriel Valdez for the pass-in-review before Valdez handed the squadron's reins to Lt. Col. Eric Aschenbrenner. Aschenbrenner, a former F/A-18 Hornet jet pilot who transitioned to the MV-22 in 2009, will oversee the squadron of Ospreys as a deploying operational unit…

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Phrogs phorever.

Chalfant

I rode on them in the 1970's. The transmission and drive shaft always made a scary sound. We had one accident on a carrier where the rear rotor struck the top of the fuselage shattering and throwing fiberglass shrapnel across the deck damaging more helicopters.

Wolfhag

Just a Young'n compared to the B52 or a Canadian Sea King.

The Sea Knights are old and the MV-22 would do a better job overall. But yes too bad they have to go …

Cool machine, but so glad they are finally retired. They were dang long in the tooth for a helo.
-Kle.

Maintenance on any chopper can be time consuming. And older birds can make it that much worse.

I have a lot of fond memories helocasting out of phrogs. I remember how we could tell when we had an experience helocast pilot and we had a rookie. We typically started at 20 feet and 20 knots. If the pilot (and crew chief) was good, the last man out would still be jumping at 20/20. If it was a rookie flight crew the last Marine out (often times me as I was a team leader) would be jumping at what felt like 35/40 since the pilot wouldn't properly compensate for the weight leaving the chopper causing the speed and altitude to increase. Many a painful impacts especially on the nighttime Helocasts resulted from that.

Bye Bye Phrogs.

Ouch !!!!!

Legion 4 – I remember one nighttime Helocast where when I left the bird I knew I was in trouble because of the wind blast (normally you don't notice it) and instinctively I looked down which is a no no. On a helocast you look straight out to the horizon or what you perceive to be the horizon at night in order to maintain the proper attitude when you impact the water. If you look up you lean back and if you look down you lean forward, neither of which let you hit the water straight up and down. I looked down and hit the water at a bad angle. While I kept my pack and rifle I did lose one fin as well as my watch (which had a compass on the strap). When I tried to swim a realized that breathing hurt like nothing else. I had broken two ribs. If it wasn't for my ATL and radioman coming back for me, I doubt I would made it to shore even if I was able to get myself orientated in the right direction. A couple months later on my next helocast my 1st Sgt handed me a flak jacket and helmet as we lifted off saying I should wear them so I don't hurt myself again. He was joking…at least I think he was…..

I thought I heard some cheering recently…

CH46s were way old for helos. It's one thing to be flying a new build of a design that's 50+ years old (Hueys), but I would not want to be anywhere near a 50 year old helo for combat ops!

The US State Dept bought them.

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The DoS air force is kind of creepy, but there are some nifty aircraft in it.
-Kle.

Private Matter, I can feel your pain ! I never helocasted, but being Airborne and Air Assault, etc. qualified I ended up on my butt, etc., and on occasion very wet, more than a few times exiting a prefectly good aircraft, etc. … !

could land where they shouldn't and do what they couldn't.
back when Sandy hit, i got misty eyed watching the news and seeing seeing that old bird going "just one more time".
if the oldest one could only tell their story.

BILL, "sir". you stand corrected. the CH-34 was still very much doing "its thing" as late as 1968. unless I forgot and you know more than I do.

Just a note of interest; as I was heading home from Jacksonville, NC airport after a business report today around noon, I saw a flight of four CH-46s flying in formation. They seemed to be heading to MCAS New River.