Coast Guard celebrates 40 years of service with H-65 helicopter

Upgrades throughout the 40-year history of the H-65 were strategically completed to allow for expanding missions and operations in the most challenging maritime conditions, such as cliff rescues. Here an MH-65 crew conducts vertical surface training off the coast of Humboldt Bay, California, to hone critical skills to ensure precise and efficient hoisting techniques in this rugged, coastal environment. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

It’s 2007. Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, Washington, receives a call about an injured mountain climber at the summit of The Brothers, a pair of prominent mountain peaks in Olympic National Park near Seattle. The elevation: 6,866 feet. And it’s snowing.

A search and rescue mission was deployed using the HH-65C short range recovery helicopter. “We were right up against that line where it was clear. If we had gone much further toward the peak, we would have been in blizzard conditions. We had to dump fuel at altitude to get light enough,” recalled Cmdr. Christian Polyak, co-pilot on the rescue mission and now commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station Detroit. “We were able to reach the summit, pluck the injured mountain climber off the peak and get back to the airport in about 15 minutes.”

Unknown to the mountain climber, the Coast Guard H-65 Conversion/Sustainment Program had been working for years – and would continue working in subsequent years – to update the H-65 fleet and support missions like the one that brought the mountain climber to safety. “The rescue couldn’t have been done without the HH-65 and the engine upgrade from Bravo to Charlie,” Polyak explained.

In November 2024, the Coast Guard marked the 40th anniversary of the initial H-65 operation, but the tenure of this critical asset in supporting Coast Guard missions is slowly coming to an end. The service has completed the transition from the MH-65D to the MH-65E, the final upgrade of this airframe. Obsolescence challenges with the MH-65 will lead to the sundowning of aircraft as they reach the end of their service lives.

Since their introduction more than 40 years ago, Coast Guard H-65s have been credited with rescuing approximately 26,000 people. For nearly two decades, the Coast Guard has planned and executed targeted improvements to enhance reliability and performance of the operational fleet. Across each iteration, starting with the initial designation of the HH-65A (Alpha) to the current MH-65E (Echo), every upgrade enhanced the airframe’s capabilities, enabling crews to complete lifesaving, law enforcement and national security missions more efficiently and effectively.

Retired Capt. Keith Overstreet has flown every model of the H-65, starting with the Alpha in 1995 at Air Station Savannah, Georgia. “I started flying the 65 when it was relatively new … when we purchased the H-65 it was really an advanced aircraft with advanced avionics. It allowed us to fly coupled approaches down to the water with a fairly precise position. It could control not only the lateral, the guiding left to right, but vertically down to the water as well.”

As modern as it was for its time, regular upgrades kept it relevant.

“The Alpha had a small navigation screen where you could create a flight plan. It had a forward-looking radar that would map out vessels and terrain,” said retired Cmdr. Kevin Barres, who flew 65s throughout his entire 25 years in the Coast Guard. “Then Bravo came up and you had a color display that differentiated some terrain,” which helped in developing flight plans.

“Charlie meant changes to the engine, and the engine control. It went from mechanical control using air and linkages to digital control. Echo replaced analog avionics components with a digital cockpit that has significant commonality with the H-60 fleet. There were enhancements to the automatic flight control system and there was a complete rewire of the aircraft. Its modern glass cockpit is standard across the board,” Overstreet said.

LEFT: A glass or digital cockpit replaced analog instruments in the MH-65E. RIGHT: The updates for missions requiring airborne use of force capability got underway in August 2006. The Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron specializes in those missions, often used for drug-interdiction, and moved to the MH-65 from the Agusta MH-68A Stingray in 2008. U.S. Coast Guard photos.

“Every upgrade was significant and addressed a specific problem or modernization to accommodate how the mission, aviation and airspace were changing,” Barres said.

Cumulatively, these three pilots have flown nearly 16,000 hours in the H-65 and remember missions completed with fondness and pride.

Barres remembers when a bear-watching float plane split in half in the water, stranding six tourists, the bear guide and the pilot in Haro Bay, Alaska. It was 2006, and he was on his first deployment in Kodiak.

“It was a very windy day. The seas in the bay had built a little bit. When the aircraft tried to take off, the tube that goes across the front that connects the two floats failed and split. The aircraft did a nosedive into the wave and was swamped. They were all able to get out and were standing on the wing while it floated for a little while.”

The Coast Guard responded with an HC-130, an MH-60 and an MH-65. Barres was in the office and volunteered to pilot the MH-65.

“The C-130 got on scene and dropped two survival rafts to them. The bear guide was able to climb up on the capsized life raft and hang on. All the other people were hanging on to the float plane. The plane sunk, and they all ended up in the water for about 10 to 20 minutes.”

They were able to float due to their safety devices, but they all were hypothermic. The two helicopters were able to retrieve everyone, and all survived.

Another “miraculous” search and rescue mission Barres recalls was when he was stationed in Barbers Point, Hawaii. He was involved in rescuing a family that was stranded on a very small skiff in ocean waters for just short of two weeks, surviving on sea water and flying fish, after their small outboard motor malfunctioned. When the family was taken back to their home in Kiribati aboard an H-65, they were met with ecstatic school children and an elected official showered them with gifts of bananas and coconuts. 

H-65 does more than search and rescue

“The H-65 has been heavily relied upon for all our aviation special missions,” said Polyak, who currently ranks as the most senior active-duty H-65 aviator.

During a deployment to Japan from Kodiak on a mission to enforce an international fisheries treaty, Polyak was grateful for the enhancements of the satellite communications on the MH-65C.

“Without that upgrade, we wouldn’t have been able to maintain radio communications with the cutter at the distances we were operating the helicopter,” he said. “As a pilot I always want to be able to talk to the ship if I’m 100 miles away from it. When you're thousands of miles away from land and there’s nowhere else to go, you need to be able to talk to the ship so you can find out where they are and get back to them.”

The stories of the missions are endless. But without the behind-the-scenes mechanics that keep the aircraft operational, none of this would be possible.

“It takes 21 maintenance labor hours for every flight hour,” said Polyak, who served as the branch chief for the H-65 Echo conversion at the Aviation Logistics Center (ALC) in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, leading a team of 36 to deliver MH-65 Echoes to the fleet from 2017 to 2020. “There’s a lot of work happening on the hangar deck. Our enlisted mechanics work very hard to allow this aircraft to continue to operate and do lifesaving missions. There’s an equally important component at the ALC where the overhaul for the aircraft occurs. And there are hundreds of active-duty members, civilians and contractors that only support the H-65 fleet. These quiet professionals are supporting frontline operations. Along that same vein, the Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama, has continued to provide excellent standardization and training support so that pilots and air crews can work together and execute these challenging missions.”

Looking forward, pilots are grateful they had the opportunity to fly the H-65s.

“It’s amazing the way we in the Coast Guard were able to bring it online,” Barres said. “Basically, going from 1960s helicopters to the most modern helicopters in the world at that time and then over 40 years keeping the aircraft upgraded and relevant.”

“At one point we had nearly 100 airframes in the fleet,” he continued. “The 65 never let me down on a mission or my crew or the folks that we were out there trying to help, whether it was law enforcement, or a fisheries patrol or a search and rescue case.”

 All three pilots find immense career fulfillment in completing search and rescue missions made possible by the capabilities of the H-65.

“That day when you look somebody in the eye,” Overstreet said. “And you know, and they know that they would not be on this earth alive if you hadn’t been there. That makes it easy to put your all into your work every day.”

An airman from Air Station New Orleans, who was on the first helicopter that returned following the Hurricane Katrina, recounted, “The second that everyone heard us on Channel 16, Channel 16 just blew up with mayday calls.” Flying on waivers, he did rescues for five days and nights straight. At the time, this was considered the biggest search and rescue event in U.S. history. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

Related:

40 years in service!

Genesis of the Coast Guard HH-65 Helicopter

For more information: MH-65 Short Range Recovery Helicopter Program page