Sea Stallion Helicopters Evacuating Americans at US Embassy in Lebanon

Fox News TV | 7/18/2006

[Woodstock]

Fox is reporting live for Beirut. Sea Stallion helicopters are now evacuating women, children and other special cases from via landings at the Beirut embassy.

[longtermmemmory]

the media will be presenting this as the last helicopter out of Hanoi...

QUAGMIRE!!!!!!

(hope the Mediots have their hair cuts all nice and preeety.)

[rahbert]

State Dept didn't list a warning for Lebanon until 7/13.

So, I really can blame people for visiting what for years has been a quiet safe place for Americans.

Now of course, they are a big liability in that they can
be held hostage by terrorists and impair our ability
of act in the region.

They need to be out of there ASAP, at US expense if necessary. People shouldn't be going through Syria because
its "cheaper" or staying through in Beirut. Hez snatch
squads will latch onto them and parade them in front of cameras in no time.

[rahbert]

"can" should have been "can't"

[RodgerD]

Good catch and Post.

Why are we bringing this garbage (Hezbollah supporters) back to America?

They should be thoroughly screened, and any caught lifting a finger for, or contributing one cent in direct or indirect material aid to Hezbollah should be promptly "expatriated" for "actions inconsistent with loyalty to the USA". Tear up their U.S. passports in their face and push them into the street back to their precious terrorist buddies.

[MikeA]

I just don't think anyone can consider any place in the Middle East "safe," State Department warnings or no.

[ThePythonicCow]

U.S. Marines CH-53D Sea Stallion

USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), 8 June 1999 — The first contingent of U.S. Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit load on to a CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter on the deck of the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) as the ship operates in the Adriatic Sea. The Marines are headed to a staging area in Skopje, Macedonia, in support of NATO Operation Allied Force.

DOD photo by Lance Cpl. Richard O'Connor, U.S. Marine Corps.

---

U.S. Marines CH-53 Sea Stallion

Kosovo, 10 September 2001 — Cpl. Nicholas Bearer, CH-53 Sea Stallion Crew Chief, HMM-266, from Detroit, MI, signals his pilots during the preflight operations of a meal and troop transfer of Marines from the 24th () involved in Operation Rapid Cheetah in Kosovo.

USMC photo taken by LCpl. Jeff Sisto.

[A.A. Cunningham]

MH-53Js aren't being used for the NEO. CH-53Es are.

In this photo released by the U.S. Navy, two U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters taxi to the parking ramp at Royal Air Force Base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, Monday, July 17, 2006 following their flight from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. At the request of the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon and at the direction of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, , the United States Central Command and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24 MEU) are assisting with the departure of U.S. citizens from Lebanon. The helicopters are attached to the 'Blue Knights' of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron Three Six Five (HMM-365). (AP Photo, U.S Navy, Michael B.W. Watkins)

HMM-365

[A.A. Cunningham]

A J may be jazzier than a Delta model Sea Stallion but it isn't compared to an Echo model Super Stallion.

[ThePythonicCow]

two U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters

So the title of this entire post is (slightly) wrong -- it's Super Stallions, not Sea Stallions, that are being used for this.

Thanks.

[A.A. Cunningham]

The CH-54 was to be replaced with the H-60.

You're confused as to what a CH-54 is. Most CH-54s are now used as water tankers for fire fighting. H-60s replaced most UH-1s.

[Trueblackman]

I miss them days too....One of my best seastories has to do with my ole Air Bos'n walking up to the Captain eating a sandwich from the Officer's Mess after a fire broke out on the forward fuel farm. The Captain looked at the Bos'n as we were getting the last plane clear, the old man asked the Bos'n what he was going to do? The Bos'n looked at him and said I don't know about you, but watch this, "Hey Martin put the white sh*t on the red sh*t and put that fire out now!" My reply was okay Bos'n and 3 minutes later the fire was out and so was his sandwich!

[ThePythonicCow]

CH-53E / S-80E
SUPER STALLION™ HELICOPTER

 

Image Gallery 

The three-engined CH-53E is the most powerful helicopter in the U.S. military inventory. The SUPER STALLION™ helicopter is cleared to 73,500 lb. with external loads. It's the only helicopter that can lift the 155mm howitzer, its crew and ammunition. It can lift aircraft as heavy as itself.

SUPER STALLION is deployed with U.S. Marine Corps heavy lift helicopter squadrons, and is an essential part of the composite squadrons serving aboard USMC amphibious assault ships.

Wherever called upon, SUPER STALLION has performed heroically, whether evacuating the U.S. Embassy in Somalia in 1990; hauling heavy loads for coalition forces in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-91; or flying into war-torn Bosnia to rescue a downed American pilot in 1995.

CH-53E heavy-lifters have been instrumental in evacuation missions in Albania, Zaire, and Sierra Leone.

[ConservativeMind]

That helicopter says, "Don't screw with me."

[Kimberly GG]

HA! thank you! I was just beginning to wonder why this thread was reading more and more like one of those Hate Shep threads I keep coming across and could not figure out why the annimosity towards him? And lo and behold, you answered my question......


"I'm sure Anderson Cooper, Shep Smith and Joe Sacrborough will be in Beirut any day now weeping for all the poor American backpackers the administration has so cruely left behind."


Personally, I though Shep did an excellent job covering Katrina and will do so here as well. Of course, that will mean telling it like it is, even if the 'Administration' does end up looking bad. I know, I know, gawd forbid that GWB should be criticized, even when he does a piss poor job.

[conservative in nyc]

State Dept didn't list a warning for Lebanon until 7/13.

That's incorrect. The State Department has issued travel warnings for Lebanon for years. Here is the Lebanon travel warning from September 2000. Here is the travel warning from November 2005. Here is the travel warning from May 2006, which the 7/13 warning superceded.

The State Department has also issued a travel warning for Israel, contrary to the beliefs of many. Last I checked, it hadn't be updated to reflect the current conflict yet.

I don't blame anyone for visiting Lebanon on business, for vacation or to visit family. But people need to understand that logistics take time to work out (and difficulty increases with distance), ships don't magically appear off of the coast of a war zone in a day, and any large group of Americans potentially becomes a target. Unfortunately, because of the 24 hour news cycle, expectations often outpace reality.

[weegee]

The terrorists have ALREADY kidnapped people.

It is a volatile situation and a danger zone.

THIS is what it is to be a refugee. NOT what the people who camped out in Houston nearly a year after the New Orleans flood are doing.

[TET1968]

"Ahh yes, like on the way to the Zoo or Eastern ave before Fells Point. Took a wrong turn coming back from the zoo one day and found myself on a one way street filled up and down with dealers hanging out in the middle of the road. Never prayed so hard in my life."

They have a department of Motor Vehicles in that area, while your inside applying for a tag, your car might be being looted....or stolen. :)
Better to use the one near Bel Air.

[MikeA]

I have no problem criticizing Bush for those things the administration truly mucks up, like overspending and lack of border control. What I have a problem with is a media culture that has become drenched in the need to attack Bush on everything. Can you remember the last time you saw a positive story on anything domestically or abroad the administration had supposedly done well?? I sure don't. Surely the economy is on strong footing and the nation not been attacked for 5 years on its soil out of more than just pure happenstance. Yet during Clinton's presidency, all we heard how the state of the economy was all thanks to him and everything good in the world was because of his Midas touch. I honestly have no seen anything aired or printed giving Bush credit for anything or citing any positive contribution of his presidency in years other than in conservative publications.

No, I have no problem with constructive criticism. What I have a problem with are pretty boy TV talking heads who take themselves way too seriously and use emotion rather than intellect to drive opinion-based journalism. I have no use for vapid schmos who just want to jump on some populist bandwagon of "We all feel so bad about Katrina. We need to blame someone! LET'S BLAME BUSH!!!" just to be popular and make themselves look good. Why not educate the public as to the difficulty associated of moving men, material and transportation equipment into an area about to be hit by a hurricane or an airstrike rather than adopting the Democratic talking points of "It's all because Bush is incompetent?" Is it really too much to ask that they leave their emotions, and opinions, out of things and maybe go 2 inches below the surface of a story to get at the facts?

Anyway, I guess you're part of the "Bush doesn't control the border so he sucks in every other way and I've lost all ability at fairness and objectivity in every other issue" crowd here on Free Republic. Have at it. We've all been bored by you types before. We'll suffer you yet again.

[BwanaNdege]

Both photos are CH-53E. The Echos (Super Stallions) have 7 main rotor blades (each with a 3.5 foot extension between the rotor blade & the rotor head sleeve & spindle) while other -53s have only 6, Echos have a third engine behind the transmission with a sloping cowling back toward the vertical stabiliser. The tail rotor is 20 feet diameter, vs 16 feet for the Ch-53D, so the vertical stabilizer is canted and the Horizontal stabilizer has a dogleg like the Corsair wing. These are the best visual clues. Other structural and equipment differences...