HH-53C Ferry--Eglin AFB to Udorn Thailand

I can't remember what the tail number was on the Bird that I flew on accross the Pacific in 1970.

There were 3 HH-53C's involved in the trip. They had some very new and secret night rescue equipment installed on them and they wanted them to be operational as soon as they arrived at Udorn.

They elected to fly them accross. We Left Eglin AFB in March (don't remember the exact date) along with two C-130 tankers and flew across the southern U.S. to California. Then we went up the west coast to Sitka, Alaska where we had to stay a couple of days because of weather. We left Sitka and flew to Anchorage and stayed there a couple of days again because of bad weather in the Aleutian Islands.

When the weather cleared, we flew to Shemya AFB in the Aleutians and spent some time there again because of weather. We left Shemya and flew to Misawa, Japan. Boy was my butt tired when we landed in Japan. The trip from Shemya to Misawa was 11 hours and 37 minutes.

From Japan we flew to Okinawa.

About half way between Japan and Okinawa we were asked to investigate an overturned fishing boat to see if there were any suvivors. We hovered over the boat and I lowered the PJ into the water. The PJ's name was Harvey. He swam around in the water for quite a while and then signaled to be brought up. There were no survivors and it was assumed that if they were in the water that long, they either drowned or the Sharks got them. We went on to Okinawa without further ado.

From Okinawa we flew to Clark AB in the Philipines. From there we flew to Danang, RVN. From there we flew to Udorn, Thailand where we joined up with the 40th ARRS.

The whole trip from Eglin to Udorn took us 18 days with a total of 86 flying hours. The other two FE's were Bill Warren and Harry Cash. I think I remember that Maj. Buterra was the AC on the lead Bird. (J. D. Adams)