Warbird Information Exchange

This happened in Sept of 1998 aboard the “USS Bonhomer Richard”, pronounced with a french dialect. My squadron was HMM-164 and I was a CH-46 Helo Mech. We were supporting Operation Urban Warrior off the Monterey coast in California. This bird was taking media crews back and forth from land to the carrier all day and at this moment they were leaving to go back to shore. I was in the chow hall aboard the Bonhomer “Dick” when this happened. CH-46 crewchief Sgt. Beyers received smoke inhalation while saving these people and was treated at the scene. For his actions “under fire”, no
pun intended, he received a Certificate of comendation and a “NAM”. After investigating, it was found that a pinhole in one
of the aft transmission lines was atomizing(spraying) fluid and the spray was being sucked into the aft generator and this caused the
fire. Transmission fluid is not flammable in large quantities but when atomized it is very flammable. The aft portion of this bird was completely
destroyed and had to be removed and replaced. After 9 months of rebuilding this bird was put back into the fleet and renumbered. Before the fire it was #07 and after we got it back it was #15.

Cpl Petree USMC 97-02

"We had a swim call in the Gulf of Thailand on deployment and an F-18 from the Abe Lincoln flew right over us."