Naval Helicopter Association Scholarship Fund

Grease Doesn't Lie

Life in the Mail Room of Naval Aviation

By CAPT Arne Nelson, USN (Ret.), President NHASF NHA LTM #4 / RW#13762

Last year, I embarked on a mission to swim 100 miles and win a commemorative tee shirt or watch cap. Four to five times a week, I braved the elements to swim my daily mile, and then take satisfaction in capturing my mileage on a plexiglass status board, containing name, daily distance covered, and gross total.

Name Daily Yards etc etc etc

But working the grease board at the pool brought back forgotten memories of life in the Mail Room of Naval Aviation.

Adding up the swim board took me back to my first job out of flight school at HM12...I was assigned as the Logs and Records Officer for a 95-pilot squadron. I was responsible for manually logging yellow sheet flight info to logbooks and maintaining the flight info on a large grease board. The scheduler used my info to prepare the daily flight schedule and truthfully, there are only five or so top JO jobs in a squadron, so speed of posting the past-day yellow sheets and accuracy were key components in the daily routine.

HM-12 in 1976 was a place where:

• CNO’s mission capable rate was 35% and we struggled to meet that standard.

• We had no call signs yet; we had 95 pilots, and 35-40 of them were named Dave. As a new guy, if you wanted to hail a fellow officer, you’d call out “Hey Dave” and have a good chance of connecting.

• Ops (schedules and logs and records) became the quasi-ready room after the wardroom closed at 0800. Pilots got on the flight schedule by being seen at the scheduler’s desk, as verified by your strip on the grease board, and take care if the entry was late or worse, inaccurate.

Now the grease board contained all the information you’d need to schedule flights, mission and fam/instrument type training, night flights, instrument hops, check rides, cross counties (RONs and ROLs) much of it based on the numbers of an accurate grease board.

One entry though was the block for quals –the board’s legend showed various coded quals: A (AMCM Mission Commander), B (HAC), C (Copilot), and D (Pilot under Instruction). We did not have an H-53 RAG until 1978. There were other codes for functional quals including: FCP, NATOPS/Asst NATOPS and Instrument Check Instructor.

One morning preceding the end of the fiscal year when instructor pilots were scrambling to use up our quarterly fuel allowance, one of the surlier “Senior LTs” of the squadron entered the Ops Office and told the schedules writer to put him on for a trainer as his monthly flight time was low. As he scanned the board, he looked at his strip and added the numbers and then looked at the quals sheet – he had quals as a Mission Commander, FCF Pilot, Asst NATOPS and Standardization and then he noted that his quals had been erased and replaced by one letter. The letter “J.” He scrolled eyes down to the legend and read the notation: J = A**H***.

Bingo, in an instant, J-Codes were born and earning a “J-Qual” or becoming “J” Qualified, from some egregious faux pas was not a good thing. At best, J-qualified became an unofficial censure quickly taken up by a group of LTJGs known as the Gang of Four. That's a story for another time.

"Lesson Learned. I once asked a JO to lay out the most important JO jobs in the squadron. ”Skeds… no, ACFT Division… no, QA… no, First LT… no, Legal… no.” The most important job in the squadron is your job…make it so!"

Apply and Donate!

Shipmates, greetings from the Scholarship Fund. We are in our 31st year…founded in 1993, over five hundred scholarships and over $500,000 have been awarded to eligible active-duty officer and enlisted personnel, and their family members - spouses, children, and grandchildren. Annually, a minimum of fifteen scholarships are awarded. The number is set in the Bylaws by the Board of Directors, usually from a pool of 60-75 eligible applicants.

My goal coming to the NHA Scholarship Fund back in 2020 was to set conditions for NHASF sustained growth. Together, the NHASF Committee wrote a vision statement and added a mission statement to guide a five-year plan:

Vision: Provide a sound, growing fund base to incrementally increase the dollar value of the fifteen annual awards total to reach $75k ($5,000 each) in 5 years (2025) and for our members, be a premier scholarship choice in Naval Aviation in 5 years (2025)

Mission Statement: To award college scholarships to eligible members of the Naval Helicopter Community and their families (USN, USMC, and USCG) to pursue their educational goals. Quite simply, to increase the amount of each scholarship to $5,000 and then sustain that growth.

2024 Application Season

We opened online applications on 1 September and set our deadline - all required documentation must be received by the January 31st deadline.

As we write this, we are in the middle of our 2024 application process with about 20 eligible applications receive. Historically, the low number of applicants early on is not “good" or "bad” because applications arrive in earnest after the first semester ends (November- December, once transcripts are available). We reckon 2024 will be a big year as we follow our 5-year strategic plan and ratcheted up our scholarship value to $4,500 for each of the 15 scholarship awardees. For guidance, check out the Scholarship Fund website at https://www.nhascholarshipfund.org.

2024 Fundraising Goal: $100,000 target for operating, scholarships, investment growth, IT costs, and admin.

To APPLY or DONATE, go to our website: https://www.nhascholarshipfund.org

In May 2023, we awarded 17 $4,000 Scholarships. This year, we intend to award a minimum of fifteen $4,500 scholarships. Additional numbers and levels of scholarships may be awarded annually depending on fundraising success. On the other hand, donations are coming in slowly. With "Giving Tuesday" rapidly approaching (28 November), I encourage you to make a generous contribution to the Scholarship Fund, whether an individual, memorial or investment gift. See our donation options at https://www.nhascholarshipfund.org.

As you reflect on donating, please consider giving to our General Memorial Fund or establishing a new memorial or legacy fund (ex., NHASF General Memorial Fund, the HS-5 Night Dipper Memorial Fund, or the H-53/Big Iron Fund) to preserve the legacy of our communities and remember the heroes who make up our proud rotary wing heritage.

And finally, before the year draws to a close, I want to remind you of a smart way to give to NHA. Those who are 72 ½ years of age or older can take advantage of a special approach to make a gift that has tax benefits. This popular gift option is called many things, from “IRA Rollover,” “Tax-Free Distribution,” or “QCD,” but know that it is a simple, tax-wise way to make a difference. Contact your IRA Fund Administrator (Vanguard, Fidelity, Ameriprise, etc.) for more information.

A gift to the NHA Scholarship Fund is tax deductible. The NHA Scholarship Fund is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit charitable California corporation: TAX ID # 33-0513766. I look forward to your support in the 2023-24 scholarship rounds and at the next NHA National Symposium in May 2024 at Harrah’s Resort, Southern California.

FROM NHASF OPS MANUAL: SECTION 2.1.02 ELIGIBILITY:

https://www.nhascholarshipfund.org/prescreening/

(A) THE APPLICANT AND/OR SPONSOR MUST BE:

A new NHA lifetime member, living or deceased, (on or after 15 Feb 2020) or a member in good standing for a minimum of three years by January 31st of the year applying for a scholarship.

or A TRACOM or first tour active-duty O-1/O-2, who is a 2 Year "Nugget" Member of NHA, and his / her family are exempt from the three-year eligibility requirement, or Active duty Enlisted (E-6 and below), with a current or past helicopter affiliation (stationed in a helicopter).

or MV-22 squadron, or other helicopter aviation unit) and their family members, are exempt from the NHA membership requirement. A letter from his/her command is required confirming the Sponsor/Applicant is currently serving, or has previously served, in a USN, USMC, or USCG helicopter or MV-22 squadron or other helicopter aviation unit.

(B) THE APPLICANT MUST BE:

Active-Duty or Reserve, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard Rotary Wing Aviator, Aircrewman, or Maintenance/Support Personnel

or Prior Active Duty / Reserve Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard rotary Wing Aviator, Aircrewman, or Maintenance/Support Personnel

or The natural/step/adopted child, grandchild, or spouse of an Active Duty / Reserve / prior / retired; Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard rotary Wing Aviator, Aircrewman, or Maintenance/ Support Personnel

(C) The applicant must be a high school graduate or prospective high school graduate; high school equivalent graduate; or current college undergraduate / graduate student

(D) The applicant must be pursuing a trade certificate, associate degree, bachelor ’s degree, or graduate degree from an accredited institution.

(E) Service Academy: Applicants who have received an appointment to a Service Academy are not eligible to receive an NHA Scholarship.

Applications may be completed online beginning 1 September 2023 and must be completed with all required documents submitted by 31 January 2024. NHA Membership information is available by logging into the NHA website, www. navalhelicopterassn.org and viewing their profile.