The Long Blue Line (Summer 2020)

Coast Guard aviation pioneers, CDR William
Kossler and CDR Frank Erickson, visited the
Sikorsky factory. Erickson asked if the young
mechanic would like to come work with the Coast
Guard when he was drafted.
“I told him I wanted very much to join the Coast
Guard. When I was eventually drafted, I applied
for the Coast Guard and pointed out my previous
mechanic experience with helicopters.”
Basic training brought some surprises to the young
son of industry. “I survived basic training or boot
camp at Manhattan Beach,” Sikorsky remembers,
“It was pretty rough for a fairly spoiled 18-year old
to come against the realities of boot camp.” Like it
was yesterday instead of decades ago, memories
fl ood back of Seamen First Class and Boatswain
Mates First Class who were making a name for
themselves as “very tough drill instructors.”
From 1943 to 1946, he served as a mechanic in a
helicopter test and development squadron at Floyd
Bennett Field in New York. There, he participated
in the test and demonstration of the earliest
helicopter rescue hoists, rescue baskets and
litters. He fl ew in some of the earliest helicopter
search and rescue missions near the end of World
War II.
“We received the first three HNS-1 helicopters with
British markings.” The fi rst maintenance school at
Floyd Bennett Field included Royal Navy and Royal
Air Force mechanics. Sikorsky describes it as “a
“The Coast Guard obviously has been one of the great pioneering forces
in helicopters. Started under Frank Erickson and Stu Graham they proved
the concept of the rescue hoist. The Coast Guard played a crucial role in
the development of the helicopter and pioneered many of its uses.”
Sergei joined the family business as an apprentice
mechanic on the VS-300 team, which played a
pivotal role in him joining the U.S. Coast Guard.
“At the beginning of the United States entry into
World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor,”
Sergei explains, “I was 18 months away from draft
eligible age. After watching the fi rst Sikorsky
helicopter being developed, I became a grease
monkey on that aircraft.”
goulash of American, British, Irish and Scotch guys
aged 18-20 learning the mysteries of maintaining
these new aircraft.”
Coast Guard and aviation history are clearly his
passion as displayed in this explanation of how the
helicopter hoist came to be invented.
“The hoist’s origins came from the China-Burma-
India front. The U.S. Air Force was expanding
airlift operations across the Himalayas into China.
THE LONG BLUE LINE SUMMER 2020
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