NHA Scholarship Fund

From the Annals of the Mail Room of Naval Aviation: The Message or the Messenger

By CAPT Arne Nelson, USN (Ret.), President, NHASF (LTM #4 / RW # 13762)

In 1990, as CO of HC-4, then the Navy’s premier heavy lift logistics helicopter squadron, I led my squadron’s deployment for Desert Shield. Saddam moved across the border on August 2nd and we arrived at Royal Saudi NAS in southern Jedda on August 10th. Along with VR-24, the Mediterranean Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) and Vertical Onboard Delivery (VOD) Force commenced flight ops with daily (and nightly) flights from Jeddah to the two Carrier Battle Groups in the Northern Red Sea; a daily 400 - 450 nm trek (one way) often at night for a first light overhead. We had a problem - we could not clear the beach of Passengers, Mail, and Cargo (PMC), and our transfers of PMC seemed to center on the carrier to sort out who goes where and how, adding days to the destination timetable.

We gave ourselves a goal: (1) Clear the beach daily and (2) deliver aircraft carrier (CV) cargo to the CV only - all other PMC to the 2 Combat Logistics Force (CLF) ships. This would streamline logistics ops by getting high priority PMC to the right ship and minimize intermediate touches.

I talked this concept over with my flight crews and we laid out the basic idea…using one CV overhead around noon with two aircraft separated by 15 minutes. The first helo would be in and out with passengers (pax) only. Then, the second loaded for CV-only mail and cargo - requiring the bulk of the time to unload engines, afterburners, ammo, and mail bags.

Armed with our concept, I took the next flight to the CV to pitch it to the Air Boss. On landing, I unstrapped and made my way to Air Ops, the plan in my hip pocket. I found the Air Boss taking a breather while our angry palm tree clobbered spot 5 while refueling and unloading a CH-53E worth of mail and cargo. In total, it was about 15,000 lbs. of mostly mail bags piled in a neat pyramid aft of the tail rotor. I introduced myself, and briefed our proposal - “one overhead, two 53s one pax only, the other mail and cargo only.”

The brief did not go well. He looked at me, then around the room, then started laughing.

“No way will I risk one or two 53s going down on my flight deck.”

That settled it, I left, back to the drawing board.

The flight back to Jeddah was uneventful though my mood was grim and, adding injury to insult, our box lunches were no prize - stale white bread, greenish baloney (no condiments), and a half gallon can of hot tomato juice to slake our thirst. All that and a long flight home in a hot helicopter.

Not dismayed, I had to figure out another way to skin the cat. Hours later, back at our Jeddah American compound the flight crews circled the wagons, and I went over the brief. We decided to give it another go, so I asked one of our junior pilots, an Ensign fresh out of the Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS), to fly out to the ship with me and redeliver the concept. She agreed. We flew out to the ship, taking the four-hour transit to bone up on the change in delivery of service. After landing, she unstrapped, gave me a thumbs up, and headed to Air Ops armed with the new knowledge.

30 minutes later she approached the aircraft, head down, and jumped up into the seat and strapped herself in next to me. She sat there quietly laughing. I started to ask the result of the meeting and she interrupted saying, “Skipper, they loved the idea and said we could start tomorrow!”

And, thanks to her, we did. We began our new concept the next day, hitting the CV with CV-only PMC, and it opened up the CLF decks; a move that cut days of transit time particularly for personnel travel.

But should I have been angry that as the CO of the squadron I was turned away and that a young H2P got the concept approved? Or should I be glad that we got what I wanted? I decided to be content with the way it worked, not worrying about who got the credit. The proof is in the pudding: through the Red Sea logistics hub, letter mail and cargo was reaching the Red Sea CVBG from Norfolk in six days, and we cleaned the beach daily.

About the Author

During the Gulf War, while in command of HC-4, Captain Nelson was the 1991 recipient of the Navy League of the United States Stephen F. Decatur Award for Operational Competence recognizing his superior excellence and competence in logistics operations.

I