I was a Knox class pit snipe during my Canoe Club days, but having come from the oil fields (212s and 412s) my first love was always aviation - I didn't start flying helos until after I removed the uniform. That said, the quirkiness of the H-2 appealed to me for a number of reasons and I always had a stack of request chits on the CHENG's desk prior to getting underway with an air det aboard.
Along the way I formed close friendships with a number of AWs and drivers, and was always amazed by the list of names any one of those guys could rattle off, drunk or sober, lost in H-2s and -3s during the late 80s and early 90s.
Of course, now I'm the head of an organization trying to retrieve a Knox hull from our friends overseas, and a SeaSprite to park on her flight deck. Nobody ever accused me of being very smart, either
