Late in 1950, as the numbers of HO3Ss were shrinking due to losses, VMO-6 started transitioning to Bell HTL-4s, the helicopters made famous by the M*A*S*H TV show’s opening scene. The Bells could carry two casualties in litters strapped on each side, twice the load that could be carried by HO3Ss.

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Navy helicopters were in the war zone shortly before the Marines, when U.S. Seventh Fleet units, including the aircraft carriers Valley Forge and Philippine Sea, arrived offshore to support the retreating U.S. and ROK troops. Each carrier had a helicopter detachment from HU-1 serving as plane guard or “angel” to recover pilots from the water. Retired Navy Commander Harold R. Gardiner, then a lieutenant, led the HU-1 detachment on Valley Forge at the end of 1950, with Chief Aviation Pilot Dan Fridley as the other pilot.

Gardinier described the HO3S as “a pretty primitive” aircraft, but noted, “at that time, it was all we had.” The men who flew them said those early helicopters were unstable aircraft that required a pilot’s full-time use of both hands and both feet on the stick, the collective and the rudder pedals. “If you let go of the stick, it wanted to follow the [rotor] blades around in a circle and would bang your knees,” recalled retired Commander Charles C. Jones, a HU-1 veteran. The choppers’ center of gravity was so sensitive that pilots sometimes took along iron bars, heavy rocks or life rafts to adjust the balance when they did not have passengers in the back.

During rescues, pilots normally flew with an enlisted crewman who operated the rescue hoist and frequently had to jump into frigid water to assist pilots into the “horse collar” sling. Raymond Swanecamp, who flew with an HU-1 detachment on Valley Forge as a radioman 3rd class, explained that the crewmen were trained in water rescues at the Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) school at Coronado, Calif.

Helicopters also were assigned to some cruisers and battleships, and their pilots soon began experimenting with adjusting fire for the big guns. Retired Lt. Cmdr. Earl Bergsma, who flew off USS St. Paul, recalled a number of missions when he tried to direct the heavy cruiser’s 8-inch guns against trains and railroad tunnels along the North Korean coast while being shot at by enemy troops.

Jones, who flew from several cruisers in 1950-51, said chopper crews received a very short course in gun spotting at Coronado before deploying. But mainly, he recalled, “we learned as we went.” The results were often remarkable. A 1950 Navy report found that “a ship using its own helo and carrying its own spotting officer possessed one of the best assets to accurate marksmanship that a ship could have.”

Navy helicopters debuted as part of the mine-clearing forces during the attempted amphibious landing at Wonsan in September 1950. Their capability was demonstrated unintentionally when the cruiser Helena’s helo pilot, Lieutenant Harry W. Swineborne, photographed two moored mines while searching for survivors of a sunken minesweeper in Wonsan Harbor. Flying from the cruiser Worchester, Chief Aviation Pilot B.D. Pennington spotted more mines a few days later, and soon the helicopters were a key part of mine-clearing operations in Wonsan and other Korean ports. Some helicopter crewmen tried to destroy floating mines with rifle fire, but that was discouraged after exploding mines nearly knocked a helicopter out of the sky, Bergsma recalled.

Helicopters saved several mine-sweeping ships by spotting mines in their path or directing them out of a surrounding minefield. “The helicopters had many friends in the minesweeps,” said Lt. Cmdr. I.M. Laird, skipper of the minesweeper Dextrous, who was among those guided to safety. While mine-clearing operations at Wosan dragged on, Navy helicopters were based on LSTs that had been fitted with a landing platform. “As time went on, our copters got more and more into the role of rescue,” said Lieutenant T.E. Houston, a captain of LST-799. Air Force helicopters also began operating in Korea in July 1950, when the 3rd Air Rescue Squadron deployed a detachment of H-5s from Japan to conduct what an Air Force history referred to as an “ill-defined combat search and rescue mission.” One historian wrote, “By using a combination of sheer guts, good luck and learn-as-you-go mentality, the ARS logged hundreds of combat saves and was responsible for the evacuation of 9,898 personnel by the end of the war.”

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