Bill Mill: In 1972 and 1973 there were three cases where people had fallen
overboard in Long Island Sound and rescuers had a difficult time getting to them. In at
least one case, they arrived too late. In another case, a private pilot friend of mine was
circling the area and trying to attract rescue boats to the scene, but his aircraft radio
could not match the frequencies of the marine radios.
About this time, the Connecticut National Guard was taking delivery on a new bunch
of helicopters, and I began pressing General Freund, the State Adjutant General, to have
them equipped with rescue hoists. I even offered to be the first "victim" to be
lifted up into the helicopter. He finally had the hoists installed and called my bluff,
saying he planned the demonstration for the front lawn of the State Capitol. The date was
set, but the pilot was anxious to experiment earlier to determine the best hovering height
for the operation, so the day before I met him at Bradley Airport and we made three hoists
from 50, 100 and 200 feet. Each time he would drop the hook, I would grab it and up we
went. As soon as i was in the chopper, he’d land and let me out and then we’d do
it again.
The next day we carried out the State Capitol demonstration, and I had the unusual
experience of being on the other end of interviews with reporters, including, of course,
our own Larrye DeBear. It wasn’t often that WTIC got on the front page of the
Hartford Times!
Clipping and remembrance thanks to Bill Mill