Almost as soon as I turned 18, I enlisted in the Marine Corps reserves. My recruiter recommended the reserves so I could do delayed entry, since I was still in high school. So my plan was to go active duty once I was in. Well as life happens, I ended up staying in the reserves. I rather enjoyed the part about not having to be on the crappiest details as a non-rate for 2 or 3 years. Ranks E1-E3 are considered non-rates, while E4 and above are Non-Commissioned Officers. After boot camp – more on that later, and my technical training, I ended up on the flight line, attached to HMH – 772 (MAG – 41) at the Naval Air Station in Grand Prairie, TX. My MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was 6123 – Jet Engine Mechanic, but no way they were going to let some non-rate, fresh out of school, do much real work on the engines of our very expensive CH-53 helicopters.

These aircraft have been around since the Vietnam War, carrying troops, supplies, fuel, heavy artillery, and even other helicopters. Our unit HMH-772 stands for Heavy Marine Helicopter, and it was just that. Capable of in-flight refueling, this beast was really versatile. Not the prettiest, or most graceful flyer mind you, but they were big, and could carry tons.
So… I worked on the flight line. A weekend every month and 2 weeks during the summer. Meager tasks – mainly cleaning up the hanger and other odd jobs the “Regulars” there didn’t want to do. Once I made enough rank and proven myself worthy, ha!, I was allowed to actually do my job – engine maintenance such as certain component inspection or real, hands-on engine repair – usually with the engine still on the aircraft. In engine school, I had only worked on them mounted on a stand. Finally. My time in service began to pay off. My work became meaningful. But that kind of maintenance wasn’t needed every month. So instead of being a jet engine mechanic, I was allowed the position of First Mate. It took 4 people to fly those big helicopters – Pilot, Co-Pilot, Crew Chief & First Mate.
So my motivation to get out of every crap detail they could find had paid off. Now I was “allowed” to carry 75 pound toolboxes 200 yards out to the helos in the morning, before anyone else was even finished with their cigarettes. It was now my responsibility to untie them, unfold them (the main rotor blades and tail boom were folded when they were going to sit for more than a day), do whatever pre-flight checks needed to be done, etc. I was happy to do it…for a while. It was exciting to get to actually fly – leaving them poor saps on the ground to go clean the hanger or wash those dirty birds (they were called Super Stallions, but it isn’t what WE called them – Super Sh**ers. Ha!). But you know how it is at that age – early 20’s – work just becomes work. Flying was fun, but the labor involved finally became too much to offset the reward. So as my ETS date (End of Time in Service – military acronyms – get used to it) approached, I started weighing my options. I enjoyed flying IN the helos, and had the notion of going into a program called Warrant Officer – Flight. As the name suggests, it was a program for someone already on the flight line to get commissioned as a Warrant Officer and go to flight school. Alas, the day of my flight physical I was suffering terrible hay fever. My eyes (normally 20/20) were so swollen from incessant clawing at them, so my vision test was suspect. Not bad enough for them to completely dismiss me, but enough to take the wind out of my sails. I knew that was only one thing among dozens that could potentially derail me from that dream. And I couldn’t stomach failing to make it all the way through, only to serve out another enlistment in the flight line. Since my specialty was considered a shortage MOS, the only options for me were – reenlist and keep my same job, or get out. If I had reenlisted, there was no possibility of going into any other job. No doubt having a bit of rank would have meant more years of doing respectable work, but still… I was tired of it. I’m sure more about my time in the Marine Corps Reserve will be told here. But for now….