The ceremony brought local and state elected officials, volunteer fire and EMS folks from Hollywood, the St. Mary’s County Advanced Life Support Unit, Naval Air State Patuxent River and officials from the Southern Maryland Firemen’s Association and the Maryland State Firemen’s Association.
Lieutenant Walter Kerr, commander of Helicopter Operations for the Maryland State Police Aviation Command opened the ceremony and noted the ribbon cutting was “long time in the making, with literally thousands of hours of planning, the training and practice” so the Trooper 7 crew can continue their mission.
Superintendent, Maryland State Police Colonel Marcus Brown noted that “today is an exciting day for the citizens of Southern Maryland” because this helicopter represents an incredible improvement in public safety capabilities in Maryland. He added that more than “140,000 people have been flown to life saving medical care since the first medevac in 1970.”
He drew everyone’s attention to the star above the Maryland State Police badge on the tail of the helicopter. “Unfortunately, some of our members have given their lives while serving our state, including the nine members of the Aviation Command who died in the line of duty. That star has been placed there in memory of all the members of Maryland’s Emergency Medical Services team who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Each time these helicopters fly we will remember those who are no longer with us.”
Delegate John Bohanan recounted the early struggles of the new helicopter program in terms of the politics for and against the helicopter procurement. For example, some members of the Maryland State Senate believed the Medevac helicopter should have been privatized.
Bohanan spoke of the House Emergency Medical Services workgroup that dealt “with the issue of replacing the current fleet.” He added the workgroup was supposed “to be in business for one session only” however we went beyond that because we felt it was important to add all the necessary pieces to support “the best emergency medical system in the world.”
Rear Admiral Steve Eastburg, USN (ret.) recalled when he was commander of Naval Air Warfare Center – Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) when John Bohanan invited NAWCAD to become involved with the Maryland helicopter procurement.
He added that Ed Greer, then the NAWCAD Executive Director, and Doug Dawson, a NAVAIR senior systems engineer and others were involved in this unique opportunity to share the rotary wing expertise offered by Pax River.
Eastburg went on to add that NAVAIR and the State of Maryland signed an agreement a year later that allowed NAVAIR to help the Maryland Department of Transportation with the procurement of the AW-139 helicopters.
Eastburg then recounted his family experience with the MSP Aviation Command. His oldest son was injured in a snowboarding accident at their Wildewood home. They called local first responders who took him to Trooper 7 at St. Mary’s airport for the flight to PG county trauma center. He commented that in aviation circles, “quality flight time is strictly referred to going out, pulling a lot g’s, having a lot fun, etc…” His 35-minute flight aboard Trooper 7 with his son was not quality flight time! However, he had great confidence in the crew that day.
He then told the audience about his own Trooper 4 flight on April 29, 1992. Eastburg, then a Lieutenant Commander and recent graduate of the Navy Test Pilot School class 100 was in the right seat while his pilot and fellow TPS alumni Lieutenant Sean Brennan was in the left seat flying in a twin engine S-3 Viking assigned to VX-20. Their call sign was Waterbug 736.
The purpose of the flight was to put the heavily instrumented Viking through two sets of maneuvers to help Pax engineers make the S-3 simulator more realistic in any flight conditions. These maneuvers involved pitching the nose up, then down, rolling the airplane left and right then slide or yaw the airplane left and right. The first series would begin at 10,000 feet at 305 knots or about 351 mph over the Chesapeake Bay and the second set at 5,000.feet at 365 knots or about 420 mph.
They had finished the first set and proceeded to perform the same maneuvers at 5,000 feet. While in the midst of the slide or yaws, the vertical tail and one of the horizontel elevators snapped off the airplane causing it to violently lose control. Eastburg ejected both himself and Brennan from the failing S-3 two and a half seconds into the mishap.
Eastburg added that a couple of Department of Natural Resources Police in the bay saw the events unfolding in the sky and thought “wow, no one could survive that!”
Eastburg was fished out of the water by DNR police then he transferred to Trooper 4 with his badly burned pilot.
He noted the Trooper 4 flight medics worked hard to keep Brennan alive for the short flight to Francis Scott Key Medical Center in Baltimore.
Eastburg closed his remarks saying that he and Brennan call each other on April 29th and express their gratitude to those who save their lives that day.
The remainder of the ceremony involved awarding wings to pilots who just completed transition training, length of service awards and the United States Park Police presenting certificates to the crews of Troopers 2, 3 and 7 for their work at the Washington Navy Yard during the active shooter incident September 16, 2013.
Story and photo gallery: http://www.thebaynet.com
