Hurricane Katrina Helicopter Rescues

LCDR Connie Avery
Thursday, September 14 - 7:30 pm

Lieutenant Commander Connie Avery flies the Navy’s advanced SH 60B Seahawk helicopter with the HSL-49 "Scorpions." A graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, she enlisted in the Navy in 1990 and has been flying helicopters for the past thirteen years.

As part of Task Force Katrina, LCDR Avery saved more than 60 victims from the flood waters of New Orleans, receiving an Air Medal for her work. In January of this year, LCDR Avery and her crew performed an at-sea rescue, using new techniques to rescue mariners in the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Lieutenant Commander Avery will discuss contemporary helicopter rescue, and will share her first-hand experiences flying Hurricane Katrina relief operations.

Secret and Dangerous: the Son Tay P.O.W. Raid

William "Bill" Guenon - Raider Pilot
Thursday, October 19 - 7:30 pm

November 21, 1970, in the shadows of Hanoi: after three months of intense planning, 56 "Green Beret" raiders, and 116 planes all came down to this moment. The daring night raid on Son Tay P.O.W. camp was the largest covert operation in Southeast Asia – an intricate operation still taught in military schools today.

Bill Guenon was a pilot of the C-130E(I), flying on the edge of a stall while leading the formation of six helicopters. He will share a first-hand account of the raid "from training to takeoff and back through touchdown" including the glitches that made this raid to rescue American prisoners a bittersweet success.

Guenon served in the U.S. Air Force as a Command Pilot, and Senior Air Traffic Controller. He has written the only personal account of the raid, and provided technical expertise for the History Channel's recent documentary on the raid. His book, SECRET and DANGEROUS: Night of the Son TayPOWRaid, will be available for purchase; a book signing will follow the lecture.

C-130 Ski Operations at the Poles

Colonel Graham Pritchard
Thursday November 9 - 7:30 pm

Colonel Graham Pritchard, Jr. is a former Commander of the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard. The Wing maintains the nation's only fleet of ski equipped C-130 cargo aircraft supporting military and scientific operations in the polar regions. During his command, they also took over airlift responsibility for the U.S. Antarctic Program from the Navy.

In that first season of responsibility, the Wing made international news with a very high profile rescue – recovering South Pole Station Doctor Jerri Nielsen due to rapidly progressing illness. The South Pole's extreme conditions mean a limited window of opportunity; the urgency of this mission made it the earliest landing in history. Colonel Pritchard served as Mission Commander for that challenging – and successful – mission. He will share this and many other exciting stories of operating at the ends of the world.