In common with CGAS San Diego (which was the subject of a GAR feature last year), CGAS San Francisco falls under the command of the Eleventh Coast Guard District. Like San Diego, the Air Station at San Francisco has a responsibility for covering a large area, including inland waterways as well as offshore. Indeed much of the unit’s work centres on the San Francisco Bay Area, with all manner of maritime activity taking place in the region.
CGAS San Francisco lays claim to being one of the oldest air stations in the Coast Guard, with construction beginning in 1939. The air station opened in 1941, but the early years of operation were overshadowed by the outbreak of WWII, when the Coast Guard was mobilised in support of the US Navy. In these early days, the Air Station was adjacent to a small airfield called Mills Field Municipal Airport – this airfield has since grown to become San Francisco’s main international airport!
Post-war, the Coast Guard inherited a large number of various types of aircraft from surplus Navy and Army Air Force stocks – such types operated from San Francisco included Boeing SB-17Gs and later Grumman HU-16 Albatross amphibians; indeed today the air station still has its ramp for launching amphibious aircraft, even though such aircraft were phased out in the late 1970s.
Later on helicopters arrived, and these included the Sikorsky HH-52A Sea Guard and the HH-3F Pelican. Up until 1978, there was always a fixed wing presence too, with the final residents being HC-130 Hercules. The site at San Francisco is fairly small however and separated from the airport by a service road, so when larger premises became available at Sacramento, the Hercules moved out, leaving the air station as a purely helicopter base.
The HH-3F was initially replaced by the Sikorsky HH-60 Jayhawk, although a reshuffle in the organisation brought a change to the Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin in 1996 and the air station is now equipped with the latest version of this well known type, the MH-65C.
The HH-65 was originally delivered to the Coast Guard in 1984 as a replacement for the HH-52 Sea Guard. A derivative of the Aerospatiale AS365 Dauphin, the HH-65A Dolphin was actually built in the US and differed from French built aircraft in being fitted with Textron Lycoming (later Honeywell) engines.
These engines were later replaced to improve performance and reliability and the aircraft was progressively upgraded to HH-65C standard, with the main visible change being a lengthened nose containing updated avionics. The most recent change to the fleet has been the introduction of the MH-65C upgrade – this features several improvements including a new 10 bladed Fenestron tail rotor and further improved avionics. The MH-65C also introduced an ‘airborne use of force’ package bringing weapons to the aircraft for the first time, a change which is consistent with the Coast Guard’s increased homeland security responsibility.
The Dolphin can carry a crew of four – two pilots, a flight mechanic and a rescue swimmer. The rescue swimmers are an elite group who undergo a gruelling training course involving mental and physical conditioning to prepare them for their job. Rescue swimmers may be called upon to leave the helicopter and enter the water to assist a casualty and also receive emergency medical training to provide first aid to injured persons. Off the aircraft, they are responsible for maintaining the survival equipment carried aboard the helicopter – the Coast Guard is a relatively small service meaning most of its personnel are required to perform several tasks other than their primary role.
Coast Guard pilots undergo the same basic training as US Navy and Marine Corps (and indeed USAF) helicopter pilots, at NAS Pensacola, Florida. The Coast Guard requires a relatively small number of pilots, roughly 100 per year, so it makes sense to use the Navy’s established training program for prospective helicopter pilots. After their initial training, pilots then move on to the Coast Guard base at Mobile, Alabama to convert onto their intended aircraft type before being assigned to one of the Coast Guard Air Stations located throughout the United States.
Although the traditional primary role of Coast Guard helicopters is Search and Rescue (SAR), the passing of the Homeland Security Act in 2002 brought increased emphasis on the maritime security role. The Coast Guard is responsible for conducting security patrols over America’s major maritime infrastructure. For the Air Station at San Francisco, this includes the enormous port facilities at San Francisco and Oakland, along with the waterways which lead inland to Stockton and Sacramento.
The purpose of these patrols is primarily to help ensure the security of the installations, with the presence of the Coast Guard providing a useful deterrent to those seeking to damage or disrupt operations. The Coast Guard is also responsible for spotting and dealing with hazards to navigation and sources of water pollution, such as oil leaks from vessels, and the patrols provide an opportunity to fulfil this role.
The role that the Coast Guard is perhaps best known for is of course SAR. The Air Station at San Francisco receives in the region of 300 calls annually to assist those in distress. Most of these happen in the summer months, when the Bay Area is busiest with smaller pleasure craft and the like. The winter months bring less frequent calls, but those that do occur tend to be more challenging as they often occur on larger vessels off-shore in poor weather.
The MH-65C can be configured with a selection of rescue equipment depending on the emergency situation. The aircraft carries a general survival pack, including a “basket” for winching items into and out of the helicopter. Sometimes a mission requires additional equipment, for example, if the mission requires a medical evacuation, a stretcher can be carried. On occasion a crew may be called upon to assist a vessel which is taking on water – the MH-65 is capable of delivering a pump to help sailors remove water from the ship. All of these items are heavy, so most are only loaded onto the helicopter if specifically required for the mission.
In the past, Coast Guard helicopter crews mainly practiced winching people and equipment to and from the decks of their own vessels. Air Station San Francisco recently pioneered a scheme called Maritime Industry Recurrent Training (MIRT). Under this scheme, air crew have been able to train with a variety of different merchant ships, bringing valuable experience for both sides.
For the helicopter crews, they get the opportunity to hone their skills in a less familiar environment; for the ships’ crews, it is a chance to become familiar with the processes involved in getting people and equipment safely transferred from ship to helicopter and vice versa. This training occurs in a controlled environment, often with one of the air crew on board the ship to assist the sailors. MIRT has been a very successful and popular initiative and looks likely to be adopted more widely within the Coast Guard.
All of these missions add up to a complicated and demanding job and one which requires a wide range of skills and knowledge. This is emphasised by facilities in the mission planning room at the Air Station – alongside VFR and IFR charts for the Bay Area, there are also specialised nautical charts. These include details of the complicated and treacherous Sacramento River Delta, a location for many SAR missions. In order to operate effectively, Coast Guard crews need to not only have knowledge of the complicated and busy airspace in the area, but also the equally complex shipping lanes and waterways! This includes an understanding of the geography as sailors see it, such as names of islands and rocks and other prominent markers.
The US Coast Guard is a relatively small organisation, and this small size means it must rely on a great deal of flexibility from its people to perform its mission. “Coasties” at Air Stations such as San Francisco are on call 24-7 all year round to maintain the safety and security of America’s coastline.
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