Norwin students intrigued by Black Hawk helicopter

It’s not every school that gets a visit by an Army Black Hawk helicopter in conjunction with its homecoming festivities.

That was the case at Norwin High School on Friday, when a Pennsylvania Army National Guard Black Hawk choppered into a high school parking lot.

“It’s something different for the kids to see. They’ve never got to see this up close,” said Lt. Col. David Sandala, a high school senior aerospace instructor and commander of the Norwin Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Seeing such a piece of military hardware “gives them a different experience,” Sandala said.

Students took seats inside the plane and teachers sat in the pilot’s seat for photos, marveling at the myriad buttons and switches on the control panel.

The Black Hawk helicopter that made the 170-mile trip from Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville to North Huntingdon did not carry any armaments that the students, teachers and school staff could see because it is at a stateside base and not outfitted for combat, said Pennsylvania National Guard Maj. Michael Bertsch, one of two pilots on the helicopter. With a cruising speed of about 120 knots — roughly 140 miles an hour — the helicopter made it to the high school in about 80 minutes, Bertsch said.

The 25-year-old helicopter, which has seating for 11 soldiers, two crew chiefs and two pilots, made the flight as a part of a recruiting mission, complete with a placard telling students how they could get information about the National Guard.

Black Hawk pilots receive a year of flight school training and 130 hours of piloting, then additional training, said Chief Warrant Officer Jason Russell.

The pilots said people think maneuvering is a matter of moving the stick — known as the cyclic — in the cockpit.

“It’s counterintuitive. It’s not like driving a car. It’s like trying to ride a bull on ice skates,” Bertsch said.

“Hovering is the hardest part,” Russell said.

Among those intrigued by the helicopter was David Bullen of North Huntingdon, who brought his daughter, Claire, a kindergarten student. Bullen said he had seen similar helicopters while serving in the Navy.

The UH-60 Black Hawk’s arrival at Norwin came just over 29 years after the helicopter’s name became part of military legend — albeit a tragic one — when two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenades Oct. 3, 1993, during a mission in the Somalia capital of Mogadishu to capture the country’s notorious military dictator, Gen. Mohamed Farah Aideed.

Sgt. 1st Class Earl Fillmore Jr., 28, of Derry, a member of the Army’s Special Forces, was killed during a valiant attempt to rescue the downed American soldiers from Somalia militiamen who had attacked the helicopters’ crews. Fillmore was awarded the Silver Star posthumously for distinguished gallantry.

The battle of Mogadishu and the tragedy that befell the U.S. soldiers was the focus of a book, “Black Hawk Down,” and later a movie of the same name, in 2001.