Rocks & Ridgetops

The Korean War: A Testing Ground for Navy/USMC Helicopters

By OTTO KREISHER

Otto Kreisher is a reporter for Copley News Service.

Vietnam often is called "the helicopter war" because of the major role rotary-wing aircraft played in that war. But nearly everything that helicopters did in Vietnam had been tested in combat more than a decade earlier--in Korea.

"There could be no doubt that the helicopter was the war's foremost tactical innovation," concluded Lynn Montross, an historian who wrote extensively about Korea.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps led that innovation, introducing helicopters into the war virtually from the day they entered the conflict in 1950.

The best known duties of the "pinwheels" or "whirlybirds," as some bemused observers named them, were the medical evacuation of wounded troops and the rescue of downed fliers, often in enemy territory. The two services together conducted at least 11,000 such life-saving missions during the three-year war.

Helicopters also premiered in Korea the vital command-and-control and logistical roles they later would play in Vietnam, and helped to direct long-range artillery and naval gunfire. The Navy used them in mine-clearing operations, and the Marines employed them increasingly as troop carriers as the war dragged on.

All of these operations were carried out in rugged terrain and frequently harsh weather, with machines that were underpowered and extremely challenging to fly. "You wished you had an extra arm and leg," recalls retired Lt. Cdr. Earl Bergsma, who flew Navy helos in Korea.

A Long, Slow Gestation

Although helicopters are considered a late aviation development, the first rotary-wing aircraft flew in 1907, just four years after the Wright brothers' historic first flight. Functional helicopters evolved in the 1930s and some saw service in the U.S. and German armies late in World War II.

A year after that war ended, the Navy established a helicopter development squadron, VX-3, at Lakehurst, N.J. It was disestablished on 1 April 1948 and formed into two operational units: Helicopter Utility Squadrons (HUs) One and Two.

Marine officers, concerned that the threat posed by atomic weapons could preclude conventional amphibious operations, began to study the use of the helicopter as an alternate way of getting ashore. The Marines created their helicopter training and testing squadron, HMX-1, at Quantico, Va., on 1 December 1947, and began working on the concept now known as "vertical envelopment."

The three Navy and Marine Corps squadrons, with fewer than 250 qualified helicopter pilots and several dozen choppers, were available on 25 June 1950, when war erupted in Korea.

Most of the early helicopter pilots were veteran WWII fixed-wing fliers. Some had volunteered to fly the strange new aircraft, but many had not and had no idea what they were getting into. Retired Cdr. Harold R. Gordinier said that switching to helicopters "was not my idea. ... I didn't know there was such a thing.''

Primitive Better Than None

Within a month of North Korea's invasion of the south, units of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, including the aircraft carriers USS Valley Forge and USS Philippine Sea, were off the peninsula, providing support for the retreating U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) ground troops. Each of the carriers had assigned to it a helicopter detachment from HU-1, serving as plane guard or "angel" to recover pilots who ended up in the water.

Gordinier led the HU-1 detachment on the Valley Forge at the end of 1950; Chief Aviation Pilot Dan Fridley was the other pilot. They flew the Sikorsky HO3S-1, "which was a pretty primitive version," Gordinier said. "But at that time, it was all we had."

The pioneer helo pilots said that the HO3Ss--and the Bell HTLs, also flown in Korea--were unstable craft that required a pilot's full-time use of both hands and both feet on the stick, the collective, and the rudder pedals. "If you let go of the stick, it wanted to follow the [rotor] blades around in a circle and would bang your knees," recalled retired Cdr. Charles C. Jones, an HU-1 veteran of the war.

The center of gravity on those early choppers was so delicately balanced that pilots carried steel bars, heavy rocks, or life rafts to adjust the balance when there were no passengers in the back. The pilots normally flew with an enlisted crewman, who operated the rescue hoist and, frequently, had to jump into the frigid water to assist pilots into the "horse collar" sling.

Raymond Swanecamp, who flew with an HU-1 detachment on the Valley Forge as a radioman third class, said the crewmen were trained in water rescues at the Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) school in Coronado, Calif. The crewmen also helped the detachment's maintenance men care for the helicopters, he said.

The carrier-based helos often would be dispatched from their plane guard duties to recover downed fliers miles away.

Gordinier, who served on the British carrier HMS Theseus after Valley Forge returned to CONUS (the Continental United States), recalled one rescue of two British fliers "behind the lines in the Yellow Sea."

Because of the HO3S's center-of-gravity problem, he had to pick them up one at a time and take them to the beach, then stow the life rafts in the cargo hold so he could carry both men back to the carrier.

Spotting, Dripping, and Clearing

Helicopters also were assigned to some cruisers and battleships and were used to spot for the big guns. Bergsma served on USS St. Paul and remembered a number of missions trying to direct the heavy cruiser's eight-inch guns against trains and railroad tunnels along the North Korean coast, and being shot at by North Korean soldiers.

Jones, who flew from several cruisers in the 1950-51 time frame, said the pilots received a very short course in gun spotting at Coronado before deploying. But mainly "we learned as we went," he said.

A 1950 Navy report found that a ship "using its own helo and carrying its own spotting officer possessed one of the best assets to accurate marksmanship that ... [it] could have."

The small helo detachments were close-knit teams, but often had trouble fitting in on the surface warships. "We really were kind of a pain in the rear on the ships," Jones said. "They didn't like us. ... We would drip oil on their deck. But when we started doing rescues, they liked us a lot better."

Swanecamp has fond memories of his time with the HU-1 detachment. When a small detachment of men "lives and works together like we did," he said, "it makes for a great relationship."

Navy helicopters debuted as part of the mine-clearing forces during the attempted amphibious landing at Wonsan, in September and October 1950. Their capability was demonstrated unintentionally when the cruiser USS Helena's helo pilot, Lt. Harry W. Swineborne, photographed two moored mines while searching for survivors of a sunken minehunter in Wonsan harbor.

Lt. B.D. Pennington, the cruiser USS Worcester's helicopter pilot, spotted more mines a few days later and soon thereafter the helos played a key role in the recurrent mine-clearing duties in Wonsan and other Korean ports. Some helicopter crewmen tried to destroy floating mines with rifle fire. But that was discouraged after mine explosions nearly knocked one helo out of the sky.

Helicopters saved several minesweeping ships by spotting mines in their path or by directing them out of a mine field. "The helicopters had many friends in the minesweeps," said Lt. Cdr. I.M. Laird, skipper of the minehunter Dextrous, one of the ships guided to safety.

Angels to the Rescue

Navy helicopters operating in Wonsan harbor frequently flew from old tank landing ships, including LST 799, which had been fitted with a helo landing platform. Although the helos were assigned to the ship primarily for minespotting duties, they "got more and more into the role of rescue ... as time went on," said Lt. T.E. Houston, a former commanding officer of LST 799.

Helicopters flying from 799 saved 22 fliers, and choppers from the Japanese-manned LST Q-007 took part in other heroic rescues.

On 3 July 1950, Lt. (j.g). John K. Koelsch and his crewman, Aviation Structural Mechanic Third Class George M. Neal, flew off Q-007 and were shot down while trying to recover a Marine pilot in the mountains. After evading enemy soldiers for nine days, the helicopter crew and the Marine pilot were captured. Koelsch died in captivity but was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his rescue attempt and for "inspiring his fellow prisoners by his fortitude and consideration for others."

Bergsma and then-Lt. (j.g). John W. Thornton were involved in another heroic effort, flying from Wonsan on 31 March 1951 to recover four Army Rangers and 20 South Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines. Thornton's helicopter crashed when he attempted a pickup on a mountaintop in heavy turbulence while under intense enemy fire. Nonetheless, he still was able to help Bergsma and another chopper pilot pick up three of the Rangers, but was then captured and spent more than two years as a POW. He received the Navy Cross for his actions.

Many other Navy helicopter pilots and crewmen were decorated for bravery during the war.

From Pusan to Chosin

The first Marine helos in the war were four HO3Ss; their crews and mechanics had transferred from HMX-1 to Marine Observation Squadron (VMO) Six when the latter unit deployed to Korea in July 1950.

The squadron flew into the besieged Pusan Perimeter on 2 August at about the same time that the "grunts" of the First Provisional Marine Brigade were disembarking there. The next day, the brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Edward Craig, flew by helicopter to give orders to his battalion commanders on the march, to pick a site for his command post, and to confer with his Army superiors.

That flight, Montross wrote, "marked the dawn of a new era in command and control."

If the Marines had not had helicopters available, Craig said, "I do not believe we would have had the success we did."

A VMO-6 helicopter rescued a downed Marine flier the following day, the first of scores they would save. The Marine helos also evacuated casualties and carried water and light supplies of all kinds to ridgetop positions--crucial service in the hilly terrain and intense heat. The VMO-6 helos also laid telephone wires between units, unreeling the wire at a mile a minute from makeshift rigs carried beneath the aircraft. In minutes they could put down lines over rugged terrain that would have taken men on foot several days to cross.

Because a stretcher would not fit in the HO3S's small cabin, the glass was removed from the rear windows and the litter was more or less "stuffed" in, with the casualty's legs usually protruding into the wind. By early 1951, the HO3Ss were being replaced by the small bubble-canopy HTLs, which could carry a shielded stretcher on each of their two skids.

Many of the fragile helicopters were shot down during their lifesaving missions.

The choppers played a major role during the First Marine Division's advance to--and later fighting withdrawal from--the Chosin Reservoir, helping to link the widely separated regiments.

The VMO-6 helos did not restrict their services to their fellow Marines; they also rescued a number of Air Force and Navy pilots.

The Marines also flew liaison missions for Maj. Gen. Edward Almond, the Army's X Corps commander, and evacuated numerous Army casualties. The Army soon became convinced of the helicopters' value and started the process that brought their own helos into the war.

Although the helicopters flown in Korea had few instruments and were not certified for night flying, the Marines conducted more than 1,000 night-medevac missions during the war.

Craig had recommended early in the war that the Marines bring in larger helicopters with greater airlift capacity. That goal was accomplished when Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron (HMR) 161 flew its 15 HRS-1s into Pusan on 2 September 1951.

A Healthy Blend of Power and Character

Each of the Sikorsky-made choppers could carry a load of 1,500 pounds with a crew of two. "They were a cut above the original helos. They were good choppers," said retired Col. John Carey, who flew with HMR-161 in 1952-53. "They could carry ... about eight fully equipped Marines."

Retired Col. Virgil Olson, who was in the squadron about the same time, said that the big helicopters "didn't have the power we would have liked to have had. ... Sometimes it took a little more character to stay in the air."

The squadron quickly proved its capability, conducting the first-ever mass helicopter resupply mission on 13 September. In 28 flights, HMR-161 transported 18,848 pounds of gear and 74 Marines into a ridgeline position. One week later, it conducted the first major combat troop movement by helicopter, hauling 224 Marines of the Recon Company and 17,772 pounds of supplies to a remote hilltop. Still later, on 11 October, the squadron flew a battalion of the 7th Marines to the mountainous battle line and lifted out a battalion of the 5th Marines.

Even bigger movements of troops and supplies would follow, including one lift--on 23-27 February 1953--of 1.6 million pounds of cargo to resupply two regiments for five days.

Less than a month after arriving in-theater, HMR-161 tried a nighttime resupply mission. The devices used to mark the landing zone were not effective, however, and there was no second attempt of that mission during the war. But the squadron did join VMO-6 in evacuating casualties at night. "We felt appreciated, and needed, and pretty much used up to our capability," Olson said. "Talk to some of the guys who were night-medevaced to hospital ships. I think they appreciated us."

Carey said he led the first mission that used helicopters to relocate a battery of rocket launchers to avoid enemy counterfire. The launchers "kicked up an awful lot of dust when they fired," he said. "We had to get them out of there, and we did." His unit actually moved the battery twice, Carey said, carrying the crews inside and the four launchers and extra rockets slung beneath their choppers.

Although mentioned only infrequently in the histories of the Korean War, the Navy and Marine choppers performed a number of vital missions, paving the way for the much more important role helicopters would play in the next Asian conflict in which U.S. troops would be involved. *

The editors express their appreciation to Presidio Press Inc. (www.presidiopress.com) for permission to reproduce the photographs appearing on pages 54 and 55 from Korea 1950-1953, A Pictorial History, by D.M. Giangreco. This comprehensive pictorial history of the Korean War was republished in 2000.