Commodore's Corner Welcome to the First Commodore’s Corner! By CAPT Shawn “OPIE” Bailey, USN
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s my time as Commodore of HSCWINGLANT winds down, I have been reflecting on the concept of community. Communities are groups of people who share common attributes and goals. The strength of the community is directly proportional to the strength of connection among its members. Many things bind us together in our rotary wing / tiltrotor community: service, sacrifice, devotion to country, our defense of the constitution, our distinctive missions across the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, and the unique cross connections among our sea services as we operate, fight, and win together. I have been blessed to operate with Marines and Coast Guardsmen at home and aboard in my time in the Navy. The relationships we forged were key to mission success and those people remain a part of my life to this day. NHA is one of the primary CAPT Bailey's last flight in an MH-53E taken by LCDR Joe Moffit of HM-15. connectors in our community that propagates knowledge, understanding of who we are as warriors, and leadership as a professional group that fosters camaraderie and brings us together despite distance, time, and challenge. As an esprit de corps, and provides a voice to junior officers, naval example, consider the recent success of our first Virtual Gulf aircrew, maintainers, and senior Navy leadership and industry Coast Fleet Fly-In that brought the Fleet together with partners. Student Naval Aviators of all the sea services despite COVID-19, allowing them to get up close with their future Our annual symposium provides you with unique access platform and the squadrons, pilots, and aircrewmen who fly to every level of leadership in our community. The naval them. It was another great event put on by TRAWING 5, a rotary wing / tiltrotor community is distributed across host of uniform volunteers, and the Naval Helicopter services, several platforms, and deployment modes that span Association (NHA). the gamut of warfare. Between the Flag Panel, O-6 Panels, Captains of Industry Panel, and access to Industry Leaders From time to time, I get the question: “Why join NHA?” from every company which support naval rotary wing on The short answer is that NHA is more than a magazine the exhibition floor, NHA connects you personally to people subscription or a social group. It is your professional across the entire community. The symposium brings in organization that connects you with your brothers and sisters briefers from all over Naval Aviation to cover procurement, around the world, no matter where you are, or which sea design and construction, operations and implementation, service you belong. It connects us to the legacy left to us by future platforms, weapon systems and simulator modeling, those who have gone before. This is far more than any other career information, transition assistance, and higher education “subscription” will do for you. opportunities. Topping it off are several social events that bring old friends together and offer opportunities to network NHA was founded on November 2, 1971 to be an advocate with mentors and leaders. If you are wondering what is going for the naval vertical flight community – Navy, Marine Corps, on in the community, or in the minds of our top leaders, you and Coast Guard. Its mission is to support and showcase will find answers at symposium. rotary wing aviation and you. NHA seeks to promote the accomplishments, attributes, and utilization of vertical lift When you graduated from flight school and earned your aircraft across our sea services, while providing recognition wings, you received your first set from NHA. I still have and enhancing the prestige of our community. It also seeks to mine, pinned on by my wife in June 1997 – inscribed with inform, educate, and connect its members, as well as provide “Compliments of NHA.” a forum for discussion of the advancement of the rotary wing / tiltrotor community. NHA is recognized by senior naval
Rotor Review #151 Winter '21
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