The Greatness Of SAR

1-26 This is a mixed group of pictures with the common theme of NAS Whidbey Island, WA; Search and Rescue. This was my first tour in the US Navy, but so far I think that it will be my best. I made many great friends and got to do a lot of really fun and exciting things. Not everyone is in here, and some of you may not want to be in here. If you want to send me a picture, I'll throw it in, and just email me at dercas@earthlink.net if you want me to take your picture off. I'm a considerate guy you know.
All pictures are in alphabetical order, and are thumbnailed, so click on them to see the fullsize image!!

1-2. These pics are of Aviation Machinist's Mate Daniel Trudell. He is what we like to call a "Stewardess", since he get's to fly around all the time with generals and admirals. He flies on the UC-12B. It is a small twin engine transport plane and is incapable of carrier landing. I had a lot of great times going rappeling, camping, and driving to Vancouver, B.C. with him. And let's not forget working on our cars!!

3-4. These pictures are of Aviation Machinist's Mate Chief Petty Officer Frank Leets. He was out LCPO for a time, and one of the few people that I would trust to save my life by plucking me out of the freezing cold nothern pacific ocean.

5. This is Aviation Electrician Chief Select Mike Conroy. Hoo-Yah! Good work shipmate. Keep on trucking, but don't ever forget about those you leave behind. Not only do you need to climb the ladder, but you need to help the other people along too. You can't just step on them to raise yourself up.

6. This is a picture of Aviation Structural Mechanic First Class David Dalton. He is a hockey lovin', canadian accent speakin', beer swillin', good ole boy from around the way. *grins* I'm probably scarred for life now, but he was the person that showed me all around the base when I first got there. Thanks Dave!

7-8. This is Aviation Structural Mechanic First Class Marty Crews. He is definately a hardcore Navy guy. I like that about him. "Do what it takes to get the J-O-B D-O-N-E..." Rock and Roll Petty Officer Crews!

9. This is Aviation Structural Mechanic First Class Steven Greeley. Surprisingly, he is probably the most laid back guy that I know, and yet he commands a kind of quiet authority that I've never seen before. Hmmm....perplexing?

10. This is Aviation Structural Mechanic Chief Petty Officer Paul Escalera. He works in Maintenance Control, making sure that all of the proper things get done to the helicopter. I remember being worried for him when he went into surgery. Hope that you're feeling tip-top!

11. This is Aviation Structural Mechanic Life Support Systems First Class Byron Rhyne. He works in the Paraloft, making sure that the Aircrewmen have all of the gear that they could possibly need, and that it is in proper working order. What would we do if they had to do their own flight gear inspections?? hehe...

12. This is a picture of Avionics Technician Third Class Ben Thacker, he and I had numerous fun trips to Ft. Ebey mountain biking and mucking about in the ocean, no matter that it was f*cking freezing.... What a blast eh?

13. This is Aviation Administrationman First Class Delayne "Denny" Gerber. I always enjoyed going to his place to watch the WWF pay-per-views once a month on sunday. Thanks for being so hospitable!

14. This is Chief Petty Officer (Ret.) Desi Gama. He was the one with whom I did my very first short haul! Thanks for getting me to love SAR!!

15. This is Marty and his bunch of rugrats.

16. This is one of the flights that I went on, here we were working with EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal). They would jump out of the helo into the water to practice their operations. We would then pick them up in this rescuenet.

17-18. This is a picture of Hospital Corpsman First Class Mike Stephens. If there is a rescue of a medevac, he or one of his mighty cohorts will be in the helo keeping the patient stable.

19. This is a picture of Hospital Corpsman Senior Chief Petty Officer Bryce Schuldt. He is in command of the Medical Side of SAR.

20. This is a picture that I took of NAS Whidbey Island from one of our UH-3H helicpoters.

21. This is a picture of Aviation Survival Equipmentman First Class Rick Vogt. Prior to his transfer, we was in charge of out paraloft (described above), and his son Levi.

22. This is a picture of Aviation Machinist's Mate Third Class Don Pearson using the hydraulic powered cable hoist mounted on the righthand side of the helo to bring up the EOd guys from the cold Washington water.

23. This is (from left to right) Archie Feagan, Bryan McKinnon, Delayne Gerber, and Aaron Messier at our command picnic in late June of 2001.

24. This is a picture of Marty carvin' up the pig that we ate at the SAR camping trip in the spring of 2000.

25. This is a picture taken of the crew that was on the last flight I went on before I left. Pictured from left to right are: Lieutenant Commander Kent Peckenpaugh, Meeeeee, AT3 Ben Thacker, AD3 Don Pearson, and Lieutenant Reed Bernhard (it was his last flight as well).

26. This is a picture of the biker brothers. If you see one of them and he's got a mountain bike, the others aren't far behind. From left to right is: CTT1 (formerly PR2) Russ Girard, HM2 Rich "mother" Hubbard, and AT2 Jeff Cornelius.

Whew! That's a lot of typing!