Rescue Story # 1

This section of the website is for you to tell your story about your time with the USAF Air Rescue Service, either as a service member or as a dependent. As I was growing up, I felt sort of like the ARS was one big extended family. In Orlando, and while overseas, seemed like everything we did was with other Rescue people. So please share your memories with the rest of us. I'll start off with my Rescue story....
This story is about my dad, Lt. Col William A. Ryan, Jr., USAF (ret.), who passed away several years ago. This website, to a large degree, is a tribute to him. He spent 20 of his 30 years in the Air Force in the Air Rescue Service, from about 1951 to 1971. He began his association with Air Rescue when he was assigned .....

                 
... to the USAF helicopter training unit at San Marcos AFB, TX. They gave him 25 hours in a OH-13 (Bell 47) and told him he was qualified in helicopters, then gave him 5 more hours and told him he was an instructor. From there he went to Korea for a year, flying R-5's and H-19's. When he came home we were briefly at Hamilton AFB, CA, then went on to McChord AFB, WA. By 1954 we were on our way to ARS HQ. at Orlando AFB, FL, where he was chief of helicopter stan-eval. After 5 years there we went on to Johnson AB and Tachikawa AB, both in Japan, where he was the Ops Officer for the 36th ARS. Following the tour in Japan we went to the Central Air Rescue Center at Richards-Gebaur AFB, MO. Except for a year in Vietnam and about a year that he was assigned to Scott AFB after his Vietnam tour, (and we didn't move - he commuted) we were there at Richards-Gebaur AFB until he retired in 1971.
During WWII he flew as an Aircraft Commander of a B-17 with the 100th BG from Thorpe-Abbotts AB, England. After the war he flew mostly C-47's for a few years. At one time or another he flew all the helicopters that ARS had from 1951 until he retired in 1971. He was checked out as an "SA-16 Special Pilot" in 1954, meaning he could fly only land based ops, not on water. In 1959 he went through the full SA-16 course at West Palm Beach AFB, FL, spending about 56 hours learning the finer points of water operations in the airplane. At Johnson AB, Japan he flew SA-16's, including missions into the Sea of Okhotsk, usually flown at 50 to 100 ft in support of U-2 operations. After the 36th ARS moved to Tachikawa AB, the SA-16's were sent back to AF Res units and he flew SC-54's and H-19s. At Richards-Gebaur AFB his primary aircraft became the HH-43. He flew both HH-43's and Jolly Greens in Vietnam. His last flight in the USAF was flown in the HH-43.
The three pictures above are of him at the USAF helicopter school, San Marcos AFB, in his office; of him in an R-5 cockpit; and of him on completion of his "retirement flight" in the HH-43 in 1971. He retired with over 6000 accident-free flying hours over his Air Force career. He chose to stay in Overland Park, KS, a suburb of Kansas City after retirement, where he lived the last 20 years before his death due to lung cancer.

When I was 8 or 9, in 1957 or 58, and we were living in Orlando, one day my dad brought home a Monogram plastic model of the SA-16. The Monogram people had come to ARS HQ and passed out one to everyone who wanted one in the office. He gave his to me, and a long love affair between that airplane and me began. I probably built 10 of those Monogram models of the SA-16 while growing up. I remember seeing the real airplane in Japan, and later one of the Navy versions in Kansas City where I was taking flying lessons. Then later on, just before the USCG retired theirs, I saw them at Opalocka in Miami. I always thought it was a beautiful airplane. I remember seeing them advertised for sale from Davis-Monthan in the late '80's, but couldn't ever imagine owning one. Then in 1992 I found out that Dennis Buehn of Carson City, NV was giving type ratings in one he had restored. I didn't hesitate for a minute, I had to fly one! So since 1992 I have built up several hundred hours flying them. And after being involved in the restoration and operation of one previously, I began the process of restoration of the one associated with this website a few years ago. It will have a cockpit and interior very close to the appearance of those in the USAF ARS, with the exterior in the ARS paint scheme of about 1957 when it rolled out of Grumman as a "B" model. It will serve as a flying museum on display at Air Force and civilian airshows in the future. It should be completed and ready for the airshow season in 2009. Look for us!

Bob (Some of you know me as Pat) Ryan

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