Historical Society

They Earned Their Numbers

By CAPT Bill Personius, USN (Ret.) LTM-#46, R-16213 President

Well…we have endured another 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. What do they say…"they can make it harder, however they can’t make it longer.” Well it appears that isn’t true… and somehow things related to the virus are getting harder and lasting longer than we all ever anticipated now that we are in the winter months. Being locked down over the Christmas and New Years Holiday Season really put a damper on a lot of things however I think everyone is trying to stay positive and looking forward to the time when this problem goes away.

Hopefully, the vaccination process will start to make a difference here quickly in the New Year. Yes…we are all looking forward to getting back to some semblance of normal in 2021. NHAHS has been working a few projects and we are very excited about a opportunity, with a request from HT-8 to display some of the many helicopter heroes from our past in some form in the squadron spaces for new SNAs to view and learn about our rotary wing history. This is a project right up our alley so we have created a power point slide show (complete with music) that can be displayed on a smart tv. The project is “Earn Your Number” and plays off the fact that each helicopter pilot gets a helicopter designation number upon earning their wings of gold. We have included in the presentation Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard medal recipients, active duty and retired Flag Officers, TW-5 leadership, Commodores, Deputies, FRS COs, and other Pilots who have achieved great things in the rotary wing community as determined by NHAHS. This slide show has also been modified and is currently now part of the NHAHS Website and listed in two places as the “Helicopter Hall of Heroes.” Please check it out and let us know what you think and if there are other people who should be considered and who should be added to the list. If you have a nominee to be considered, please send us a picture, biography, and a short explanation concerning your nomination and we will consider adding that person to the presentation. Packages can be submitted electronically to president@nhahistoricalsociety. org. To go along with the slideshow, we have created a website that includes the Earn Your Number presentation and also provides SNAs the ability to do more research concerning the rotary wing community. This website includes:

WHAT IS MY NUMBER – a place where you can look up your helicopter designation number or those of other pilots SLIDE SHOW – watch the presentation as described above NHA AWARDS – a listing of NHA Awards - Life Long Service to NHA, Service to NHA Award, NHA 2020 Annual Awards, CAPT Mark Starr Pioneer Award, NHA Golden Helix and Oldest Helix MEDALS – a collection of award citations for Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross Recipients FLAG OFFICER LIST – Active Duty, Retired and Reserve Officers are included with links to their biographies NAVY CO HISTORY – a list of all the COs that have commanded Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard helicopter squadrons USN COMMAND ORGANIZATION – a list of all Navy Helicopter Squadron Websites, Facebook and Wikipedia pages NAVAL HELICOPTER HISTORY – book written by CAPT Vince Secades, USN (Ret.) about our helicopter history ROTARY WING BIOs – a list of biographies people have submitted, so submit yours today to be included NHA LIFETIME MEMBERS – a list of all NHA Lifetime Members

2020 has definitely been a different year for everyone for a lot of reasons and the helicopter community has felt the effects of COVID-19 in many ways. We look forward to a more productive year free of restrictions and hope to gather again as a community to share more professional and social events to include another Symposium. Keep your turns up!

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