Creating a Learning Culture

HC-7 Seadevils and HT-28 Hellions: Creating a Learning Culture

By LT Audrey “PAM!” Petersen, USN HT-28 PAO

In the fall of 2021, CNATRA directed a shift of focus for All Instructor Meetings (AIMs) with emphasis on professional development and safety pauses. To date, the HT-28 “Hellions” have branched outside typical around-the-room style wardroom AIMs in response to CNATRA direction. The “Hellions” Instructor Pilots visited the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and learned about the Navy’s initial helicopter trainer, learned about the history of its namesake (VMF218 “Hellions”) and its WW2 combat actions, and celebrated its birthday with the "Hellion Big Stick” Competition to test leadership, teambuilding, and tactical prowess. Every good aviator has NATOPS procedures, EPs, limits, and tactical considerations Aircrewman Mark Becker, CAPT (ret.) Tom Pruter, and LT Audrey PAM! committed to memory. But, long after forgetting Petersen are photographed in the memorabilia room. Navy Cross those numbers, great aviators continue to tell the awardees, Bill Young and Harry Zinser, are being interviewed by a local “there I was” sea stories that tested them. This past reporter for their night time rescue of a downed A-7 pilot on 7 Aug 1972. April, on the 55 year anniversary of its establishment, the men and women of the Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 7 (HC-7) “Seadevils” and their families gathered for their biennial reunion on Pensacola Beach. The HT-28 IP cadre participated in this year’s reunion, reading tales of heroic rescues under fire and hearing those great sea stories and Vietnam combat experiences which helped develop current Fleet CSAR tactics.

As the Navy’s first and only active duty dedicated CSAR squadron, HC-7 remains one of the highest decorated Navy helicopter squadrons to date. The “Seadevils” dedicated over seven years to CSAR missions during the Vietnam War and logged close to 100 wartime rescues. Every Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard pilot who has received Wings of Gold since January of 2017 has been pinned in the CDR Clyde E. Lassen Memorial Auditorium onboard NAS Whiting Field. CDR (then LTJG) Lassen was awarded the Medal of Honor for the June 19, 1968 rescue of two downed aviators in hostile Vietnamese territory. Lassen, the aircraft commander, executed multiple rescue attempts in the midst of enemy fire well after midnight during low light conditions. Their crew eventually succeeded in the pickup via use of the landing light as the only means of communication (even though it risked exposing their position). His crew successfully rescued the two downed aviators and landed onboard USS Jouett (DLG 29) with an estimated five minutes of fuel remaining.

CDR Lassen’s rescue report was just one of many that laid protected in binders on the reunion tables this year. More than 80 individually numbered stickies were tacked onto corresponding areas of rescues, or attempted rescues, on Vietnam area charts hung on the walls of the hotel reception room. Four of those neon tags told the accomplishments of LT Harry Zinzer, who had four CSAR pickups in a period of two weeks and was later awarded the Navy Cross for his actions. His first was July 24, 1972, when he and his crew took off in Big Mother 71 to rescue the aircrew of an F-4E Phantom that had been shot down by a MiG-21 during a daytime raid. The report was laden with impressive details about Big Mother 71’s HIFR and RESCAP coordination prior to arriving on scene. Statements from AO3 Hilyer (crew chief) detailed how the aircraft, crew, and survivors took enemy fire from all directions while trying to jump AT2 McCann (rescue swimmer) at 10 feet/10 knots for the pickup. In true Navy fashion, he made sure to rag on one of the Air Force aviators he rescued and documented that the pilot entered his horse collar backwards. His biggest takeaway was that he recommended more training for the Air Force pilots in his after action report. Go Navy!

The pilots, rescue swimmers, maintainers, and surviving generations of HC-7 squadron members proudly reunite every couple of years to keep their own sea stories at the forefront. This year, aviators spanning close to three generations sat amongst each other comparing deployment experiences, remembering fallen brothers and sisters, and discussing the impressive commonalities between Vietnam era tactics and common day Fleet CSAR tactics. HT-28 Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard Instructor Pilots shared their own sea stories from 5th Fleet Gulf and Straits of Hormuz transits, 7th Fleet Guam and Japan deployments to the South China Sea, Air Ambulance Iraq exposure, and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) support. Current Fleet trained CSAR tactics can be attributed to the expertise of the “Seadevils” of HC-7 and their sacrifices, expertise, and heroically historical accounts from 1967-1975. The HC-7 commemoration website is filled with over 1,000 publicly accessible documents, pictures, and rescue reports that can be found at: (http://www.hc7seadevils.org/new/index2.html).