In 1957, the Coast Guard ordered its first HH-3F Pelican medium-range rescue helicopter, a distant relative of the Navy’s SH-3 Sea King. “It had its idiosyncrasies but it was a pleasure to fly,” said former Lt. Cmdr. James Howell. “Once you’re up in the air, it handled like a baby, even in extreme temperatures or rough weather.” The service acquired 40 of the twin-turbine HH-3Fs and later added three similar CH-3E models acquired at no cost from the Air Force. In common with a much later helicopter, the HH-52A Seaguard, the Pelican was much loved by pilots and maintainers and proved especially useful for its ability to operate on water.
A new era
The 1960s were a new time, but for Coast Guard aviation, it was a familiar time. Busy competing with the Soviet Union, the U.S. military establishment had few resources or money left over for Coast Guard aviation and its now mostly humanitarian duties.
Two U.S. Coast Guard HH-52A Seaguards fly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Seaguard holds the record for the most lives saved (some 15,000) of any helicopter. U.S. Coast Guard Historic Photo Gallery photo by OS2 John Bouvia
In 1963, the first Sikorsky HH-52A Seaguard helicopter joined the Coast Guard – like the flying life boat of three decades earlier, one of the few aircraft designed to Coast Guard specifications and not used by any other service branch. A unique design, the single turbine-powered Seaguard was the first amphibious helicopter built with a flying boat-type hull. It was the first gas turbine-powered helicopter used by the service. The Coast Guard says that the HH-52A, with more than 15,000 lives saved in its 25 years of service, has rescued more persons than any other helicopter in the world. “It became the international icon for rescue and proved the worth of the helicopter many times over,” reads a statement from the service.
“A good advance for us,” is what then-Commandant Adm. Edwin J. Roland called the aircraft when he accepted the first four Seaguards at the Sikorsky’s Connecticut factory on Jan. 9, 1963. The first Seaguard went to the air station at Salem, Massachusetts.
The HH-52A was the first aircraft to be operated at the new air station in Houston, Texas, beginning on Dec. 23, 1963.
Coast Guardsmen found the Seaguard to be versatile and easy to use. It helped considerably that its main design used the same main rotor, tail rotor, and transmission system used by the piston-powered Sikorsky S-55 (the Coast Guard’s HO4S-1G). But the HH-52A’s fuselage was entirely new, being designed for fully amphibious operation with a waterproof, flying boat hull and semi-retractable main undercarriage wheels mounted in the two outrigger stabilizing floats.
When Hurricane Betsy struck New Orleans in fall 1965, Coast Guardsmen flew Seaguards around the clock. Although threatened by power lines, trees, and flooding, they rescued 1,200 people who were stranded by the raging storm.
The CGC Reliance was the first Coast Guard vessel to operate in the Gulf of Mexico with a helicopter, where it conducted trials with the Seaguard in October 1964. Deck crews pioneered new methods of taking a helicopter aboard as the HH-52A began operating from the service’s new 210-foot cutters.