Here is my old post.
But long story short. Loss of tail rotor control due to TGB oil filler cap getting jammed in tail rotor servo… I’m not making that up.
Everyone lived, everyone was hurt pretty bad. 🇺🇸
Time for some real talk with Cory... as I was hinting to a couple times on here, I had a pretty serious mishap in Jan 2005. I even have a video of me walking away, pretty pissed off, filmed by CNN. But that's not what I want to talk about. First, I would like to say that if you were in Banda Aceh in Dec 2004/Jan 2005 for the earthquake and tsunami. Thank you for your service. I would like to especially think ALL the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln during this time. We did something never done before. We dedicated all the recourses on the ship to sun up, sun down helicopter flight operations. This was a big deal. We had CO's of fighter squadrons walking in our ready room saying we will take all your extra work so you guys can keep going. That actually makes me more emotional than the mishap... So anyway, thanks to everyone. Second, my squadron in particular flew every crew we had, sun up to sun down, no crew swap, for 30 days! You read that correct. My entire squadron had to get CNAF flight hour waivers, I want you to think about that. So then I crash, and I walk away. Nine days later I went back out. Nine days after a catastrophic class a mishap, I got back out there. There was no question in my mind, people needed help and that was my job. So i got it done. I didn't even know what PTSD was yet, but I wouldn't have cared. Looking back now, I have no regrets, none. We do the things we do because we raised our hand to do it. That being said, once the job is done and you are home these things need to be addressed. I say none of this to brag, I say this to help. Take the time you need to heal and maybe more importantly, leaders recognize when your people need that time. Thanks for making it all the way to the end!🤘🇺🇸🚁