End nears for CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter

End nears for CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Aug 26, 2008 5:53:51 EDT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — On any given day, dozens of helicopters and jets take off from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station — some for local training flights, others for assignments overseas or other stateside bases.

But the quiet departure in late July of two CH-46E helicopters, affectionately known around the Corps as “Phrogs” for their frog-like silhouette, marked yet another retirement of the Vietnam-era helo. Aircrews with the “Grayhawks” of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 161 flew these Sea Knights to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, outside Tucson, Ariz., home to the military’s enormous aircraft complex known as “The Boneyard.”

The helicopters landed with no fanfare, no ceremony, “no general there to say, ‘Hey, these airplanes have flown a good life,’ ” said Capt. William Murphy. “The ceremony is us getting to fly it there.”

Murphy has logged some 1,500 hours in the Sea Knight during his 10 years in the Corps, many during multiple tours in Iraq. His squadron, which received its first CH-46A in 1966, will eventually transition to the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

These two Phrogs join a dozen other CH-46Es already in the base’s famous collection of 4,400 military jets, bombers, reconnaissance planes and helicopters, including two other Grayhawk Sea Knights delivered in June.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/08/marine_seaknight_082408w/%2e

thanks

A very dear friend of mine has a son who is a full bird Colonel in the Marine Corps stationed at the Pentagon. He doesn't have a lot of good things to say about the Osprey. At one time he was even offered a job by Bell to become a test pilot with some major bucks behind the offer and he turned it down. Time will tell. It may eventually become functional but you can bet that there will be more huge amounts of money thrown at it.