25 Sept 2021

USAF / 54th ARRS / HC-130 & HH-3 / Jolly Green Giant

54th Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Squadron
Peace & Loring AFB
Full Colour
1970's
This patch dates from the early 1970's with the Squadron operating HC-130's & HH-3's. Its a bit of a mysterious patch though, as the HC-130's flew the Crown & King missions & wouldn't probably wear the Jolly Green patch as there was normally a healthy rivalry between the
HC-130 crews & the HH-3 crews. However, I've conducted some research & the official history says it operated HH-3's between 1972/1973, but as of yet no ex-crewmen have confirmed that the 54th had helicopters at Pease AFB.
This being said the Squadron operated a detachment at Loring AFB, this being Detachment 2, which was set up with HH-3E's in July 1972 to support the NASA Skylab program. Det 6 of the 39th ARRW operated from Loring from Feb 1973 to Apr 1974, so the Squadron may have a connection with the Wing as the 54th ARRS was assigned to the 39th ARRW, possibly Det 2 was later replaced by Det 6.
If you can help with any of this please get in touch as I'd love to hear from you.
Partly embroidered on twill with a merrowed edge & the Giant in Dexter.

The photographs below are a few from Kelly Schell who has kindly given me permission to use them on the blog. I can't find any pictures of 54th ARRS HH-3E's anywhere, so suspect this is a first. The first three pictures were taken in late July or early August 1972 with the unloading of the HH-3's at Loring from a MAC C-5A Galaxy. A massive thanks to Kelly for his help with some tremendous unique photographs from the 54th history.



This shows the HH-3's in action from Loring.



And finally a chilled out Kelly Schell on a cross country trip in a Jolly Green Giant.

The Squadron also operated HC-130's too.
A 54th ARRS HC-130 taxies in to park after a local sortie. The HC-130 has the capability of picking up crews from the ground using a set of forks on the nose, however these have been removed from this machine.
(USAF photo)

If you have any additional information about this patch please contact me & I´ll get back to you.
Thanks👣

2 comments:

  1. I was assigned to the 54th ARRS from 1966 to 1968, we had one or two helicopters at Goose Bay but none at Pease AFB and no detachments during that time period.

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    1. Thanks for the information, I'll ammend the blog to reflect the new information.

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