MAN OVERBOARD!

Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, for advanced training.

Every two years NASA selects as many as 25 new candidates for the space program. In August 2000, 17 new mission specialists were chosen to begin the rigorous training required for space travel. Eight will be trained as shuttle pilots.

Kelly also said, "Of the 17 selected candidates, the four being trained at NAS Pensacola have the least amount of flight experience. The pilot program will enhance and accelerate this stage of their training." Kelly added that the program will be evaluated "when the candidates are near completion of the T-38 stage. Their time at VT-4 will be an indicator of how far ahead they will be in the program versus someone with little or no flight experience."

NASA receives over 4,000 astronaut applications each year. Currently, there are 175 astronaut candidates in the program, all of whom will eventually pilot or work on a space shuttle mission or be assigned to the international space station within the next five years. Once an astronaut pilot or mission specialist completes training, he or she will participate in an average of four space missions.

Records

VP-46 marked 37 years and 260,000 safe-flight hours on 30 January.

On 18 December, Cdr. Jim Winkler surpassed 2,000 flight hours in the DC-9. Cdr. Winkler is a Selected Reserve pilot with VR-46, NAS Atlanta, Ga., and has accumulated more than 4,000 Navy flight hours.

Anniversaries

Kitty Hawk (CV 63) celebrated its 40th anniversary on 29 April.

VP-46 celebrated its 37th anniversary on 30 January.

Rescues

After a commercial aircraft spotted the wreckage of a chartered plane on a heavily wooded bluff in Northern Lake, Mich., three children and their mother were airlifted by a Coast Guard helicopter to an area hospital, where they were evaluated and later released. Two other passengers were found dead in the aircraft, which was reported missing on 8 February after failing to arrive at the Beaver Island airport.

On 8 February a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules sighted Haitian migrants stranded in a 40-foot vessel. Coast Guard cutter Tampa from Integrated Support Command Portsmouth, Va., rescued the 120 survivors, who were 60 miles northwest of Great Inagua Island. The Haitians had been at sea for four days without life jackets, in 4 to 6 foot seas. They had no navigational or safety equipment on board. This was Tampa's second migrant interdiction in less than a month.

On 2 February Coast Guard helicopter crews out of New Orleans, La., rescued a man crushed in a winch on a shrimp boat and another man who was having seizures. The man in the winch was so badly hurt that a flight surgeon was flown to the scene. Both men were transported to area hospitals for further treatment.

On 9 January Capt. Jim Adams, an AH-1W Super Cobra instructor at MAWTS-1, Camp Pendleton, Calif., saved the life of a Marine during a training exercise. After taking his copilot, Capt. David Ratzel of HMLA-367, on a night certification flight, Adams was headed back to the helipad when he spotted lights in the woods and decided to land and investigate. The helo crew turned on searchlights and found two Navy corpsmen and three Marines, one of whom had an intravenous tube in his arm due to heat stroke. The Super Cobra was running low on fuel but the crew was unable to make radio contact requesting another helo to assist, so Adams decided to fly the victim to the hospital.

On 15 December 2000, while a search and rescue team from MCB Beaufort, S.C., was conducting training exercises, they were called to help paramedics transport a fallen construction worker 50 miles away in Hilton Head. The CH-46 Sea Knight arrived on scene and transported the back-injury victim to a hospital in Savannah, Ga.

On 26 December 2000 a VP-1 P-3C Orion from Kadena, Japan, responded to a call for assistance in locating a missing father and son. After their 19-foot skiff was reported missing about 300 miles south of Guam, a 10-hour search covered 200 square miles without success. The crew covered a 500-mile area the next day, again with no luck. The search was called off after a third day. Miraculously, seven days later, father and son safely washed ashore.