New London — A retired MH-60T Jayhawk U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was lifted into the under-construction Coast Guard Museum on Wednesday. The multi-mission recovery helicopter, which was active from 1990 to December 2023 and saved over 333 lives, arrived Monday from Elizabeth City, N.C., according to retired Coast Guard Capt. Wes Pulver, president of the National Coast Guard Museum Association. The helicopter is white and red and has a 54-foot wingspan. It can reach a maximum speed of 205 mph and accumulated 18,855 flight hours during its time. The future director of the museum, retired Coast Guard captain Carl Riedlin, flew the helicopter while serving in Astoria, Ore., and doing search and rescue missions. It just happened by chance that the helicopter he flew ended up in the museum. “It is really neat that it is here. It’s amazing. One of the goals of the museum is that people who served, when they walk through the museum, they see something that they did and the contributions they made. So it’s really neat to see that,” Riedlin said. The helicopter’s career began in Clearwater, Fla., flying drug interdiction missions and responding to the Haitian boat lifts in the ’90s. Some of its other notable stations were Air Station Astoria in Oregon, Air Station Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and Air Station Kodiak in Alaska.Wednesday morning the helicopter was placed on a sled, which was hooked into the side of the building and then lifted and rolled into the building. In a few months, it will hang from the ceiling in the atrium of the museum. The final display with have replicas of a real crew from Elizabeth City, N.C., that flew the helicopter. The display will reenact the crew rescuing a swimmer.
Major milestone: Coast Guard Museum hoists rescue helicopter into building
