New York chapter history of Military Medicine Award: U.S. Army Medical helicopters in the Korean War

Military Medicine, Apr 2001 by Driscoll, Robert S

Mission Vignettes

Medical evacuation missions offered many challenges that tested the capabilities of the helicopters and the pilots, who exhibited phenomenal flying skills in extraordinary environments of fog, heavy rain, and low ceilings during the rainy season. Snow storms and icy conditions forced pilots to land and scrape ice off the bubble so that they could see where they were going during the winter. Often when flying under less than optimal conditions, the pilots were under enemy fire. These pilots exhibited compassion and loyalty to the patients, delivering them to the MASHs so that the surgeons could perform lifesaving procedures. The vignettes that follow describe some of those challenging missions and flying environments.

Vignette 1

Medical air evacuation missions offered difficult challenges to both pilots and machines. One of the main problems faced by pilots was landing sites chosen by ground personnel without due consideration for aircraft landing requirements. Despite the ability to descend almost vertically, the aircraft needed a minimum clearing of a 50-square-foot area for landing, and even more for takeoff, especially in hot weather. This became critical when it was necessary to evacuate two patients, because the helicopter would need 100 to 150 yards of a cleared forward area for takeoff. The typical takeoff for a helicopter is to rise vertically approximately 3 to 20 feet in the air and then turn into the wind and move forward until it reaches the necessary climbing speed (translational lift) of 45 mph.

Captain Homer W. Johnson, of the 8192nd Helicopter Unit, had to overcome this difficulty of an unsuitable landing site on August 14, 1951. Captain Johnson received a message to pick up some wounded men on the high ground east of the "Punch Bowl," the no man's land surrounded by mountains in the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division sector. It took Captain Johnson about 20 minutes to fly from the 8224th MASH at Namban-Ni to where the two wounded men were located. As he circled the landing site, which was marked with a cross, Johnson observed the area to be very small and sloped. After circling several more times to get a better look, he hovered down and decided to set the helicopter skids down to test it. He soon discovered that the area was on a pronounced slope and that if he landed the helicopter would either slip down the slope or topple over. He then noticed an area between two log-covered bunkers; he hovered over to them and touched the rear of the left skid on one bunker and the front of the right skid on the other. To keep the helicopter from toppling over, Captain Johnson kept the power on and tipped the craft slightly forward toward the crest. In other words, he was actually semi-flying the helicopter while the patients were being strapped on the carrying platforms.

As soon as the wounded men were safely strapped in place, Captain Johnson raised the helicopter vertically, scraping the bunker on the right, as he dropped down the reverse slope of the hill until the aircraft reached the necessary 45 mph climbing speed, and then returned to the 8224th MASH.