SEATTLE — Retired from Air Station Port Angeles in 1982 and left forgotten in a restoration yard, Coast Guard HH-52A Sea Guard helicopter No. 1415 is now back in a place of glory, thanks to the dedication of Port Angeles Coast Guardsmen from past and present.
On Saturday, the restored No. 1415 — one of a fleet of “workhorse” helicopters that served the Coast Guard from 1963 to 1989 — was welcomed to the Museum of Flight in Seattle in a formal ceremony.
“She looks like she just came in from a flight,” said Lt. Mark Haines of Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles, leader of more than a dozen volunteers — including Cmdr. Richard Hahn, commanding officer of the Ediz Hook base — who worked more than 1,000 hours to restore the helicopter.
The exhibit featuring the “flying lifeboat” also “pays tribute to the men and women of the Coast Guard Air Station at Port Angeles, who were the last to fly the museum’s Sea Guard,” the museum at 9404 E. Marginal Way S. in Seattle said on its website at http://tinyurl.com/44gzf23.
The old bird would have been lost to time if not for a chance meeting with a venerable pilot.
After an illustrious career starting in 1966 at air stations in Detroit, Mobile, Ala., Elizabeth City, N.C., Cape May, N.J., and finally Port Angeles, No. 1415 was retired from the fleet almost 20 years ago.
It had been sitting outside of the Everett restoration facility at Paine Field until Rear Adm. Gary T. Blore found the aircraft in 2010 during a routine visit to the Everett yard.
Blore, the most senior pilot in the Coast Guard and commander of the 13th Coast Guard District, flew Seaguard helicopters early in his career.
The Coast Guard’s combined fleet of HH-52A helicopters is credited with saving more than 15,000 lives.
With an amphibious hull that could float like a boat, turbine power and a large cabin that could transport up to 10 passengers, the 1415 was uniquely designed to land on water, on ships, in cold and in the mountains, and had a rich history, including its service in Port Angeles.
Blore put out a request for volunteers.
A group of active duty and retired Coast Guardsmen who meet monthly to swap stories decided to come to its rescue.
Haines, an active-duty Dolphin helicopter pilot, got his first look at No. 1415 — the 61st of its kind delivered to the Coast Guard — last September.
“She had aged,” Haines said.
Coast Guard helicopters are constantly maintained, cleaned, polished and cared for so that even older helicopters look good, but the 1415 had been donated to the Museum of Flight in 1988, after which it sat outside in the sun and rain for many years.
It looked old and dull but was otherwise in good shape, Haines said
“There was a lot of work to be done,” he said.
Haines led a cadre of volunteers from the Port Angeles and Everett areas, including retired 1st Class Petty Officer Warren Ligon of Port Angeles, who served in the Navy and the Coast Guard as an aviation machinist’s mate from 1959-1979, and worked on Seaguard helicopters while on active duty.
Ligon immediately started crawling over No. 1415 as if he were 23 again, Haines said.
Along with two other retired Coast Guard aircraft mechanics and a half-dozen young active duty assistants, Ligon and Haines got to work.
The engines were too far gone, Ligon said.
Of the 17 remaining Seaguard helicopters, only one remains in flight condition, he said.
So the volunteers concentrated on restoring the 1415 to museum condition.
To the volunteer crew, “museum condition” meant making it look as if it was still an active-duty helicopter from the outside.
They had to make an effort not to make the 1415 look like it was brand new, Haines said.
The crew left a few scratches and some of the wear to show that it had been a working helicopter, he said.
The museum’s restoration center had not only kept the Seaguard’s spare parts but also its maintenance manuals.
Once he was working on No. 1415, most of it came back to Ligon, but the manuals also came in handy for what the veteran aviation mechanic forgot.
The active duty Coast Guardsmen who helped had not yet been born when the 1415 began service in 1963.
For a few, their parents might not have been born.
The long trips from Port Angeles to Everett meant the new and old generations had a chance to get to know each other.
“They’re the best young group of people I’ve ever been around,” Ligon said.
“They did a really nice job.”
When No. 1415 was unveiled at the American Heroes Air Show on Saturday, introduced by Blore, Haines flew his Dolphin helicopter to the ceremony so that the public could see both the old and the new.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be this big,” Ligon said.
Ligon attended the ceremony, along with many of the other volunteers who assisted in the restoration efforts.
Since Blore once flew in similar helicopters, the admiral was the natural choice to preside over the ceremony, Ligon said.
Ot volunteers who worked on the project included Chief Petty Officer Scott Steinbrink, Petty Officer 2nd Class Brad Laxton and Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew Wilson.
The Coast Guard purchased 99 of the Sikorsky HH-52A Sea Guard helicopters beginning in July 1962 and retired the last one in service Sept. 12, 1989, replaced by the HH-65A Dolphin.
During its long service, the HH-52A Sea Guard was the Coast Guard’s primary short-range search and rescue helicopter.
The HH-52A was the military version of the Sikorsky Model S-62, the first turbine-powered helicopter to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The HH-52A had a watertight boat-hull fuselage, making it capable of water landings and takeoffs, a key factor for the Coast Guard in selecting the aircraft.
For more information on the Museum of Flight, visit www.museumofflight.org.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
