I spoke to a couple of fellows from Boeing recently who had been working with the squadron at New River. They had billed a press junkett to overcome past negative press releases. Invited everybody up for a flight, they all were anxious to get aboard, flew around for about 30 minutes and began their descent, engines rotated up and landed in a civilian vacant lot.
The press were then told that if they enjoyed BarBQ they could come on into the restaurant for an adhoc buffet. One of the press made a wry comment about southern BarBQ and how N/S Carolina really wasn't known for its BarBQ. That's when the crew chief told him not to worry, because this was West Virginia BarBQ. The reporter responded that they thought this was a dog and pony show, now with catered BarBQ.
The crew chief responded, "No, we're in West Virginia and it happens to be a restaurant beside an open field we can land in.
They had flown in about 20-30 nimutes over several states and had landed up north, whereas the reporters thought they had simply circled the airfield a couple of times. That distance travelled that quickly with such ease helped reinforce the significance of this aircraft as a replacement for the CH-46.