CH-46 Sea Knight Illustrated

I served in the 82nd Airborne Division from 1956 to 1958, during which time I made 41 Parachute jumps and graduated from the Division Jumpmaster School. I was a firm believer in the vertical envelopment concept of infantry combat……via mass drops of paratroops.Army planners were also believers, but in a different method of insertion. My first experience of this new method was when my platoon was loaded aboard an Army H-21 for a demonstration. I don’t remember the date, since that very short flight was not logged in my Jump Log, but I do remember being apprehensive, since the ride was very loud and included serious vibrations…..and it was my first flight in a military aircraft in which I was not wearing a parachute. It did not impress me as the future of vertical envelopment, but I was in the minority. The Army had already committed to the helicopter, and were joined by all of the other services in commitment to helicopters.The H-46 Sea Knight was the direct descendant of the H-21, and it would prove itself over and over during a career that spanned over a half century, serving the Navy, Marine Corps, and several other nations. Its appearance wasn’t especially notable……except for one thing: That nose- high ground stance and those protruding sponsons coupled to make it look like a squatting frog to at least one Marine, who quickly modified “frog” into “Phrog” and, as everyone knows, official names are seldom used by the troops, so “Sea Knight” was quickly forgotten on most flight lines. That “Ph” in place of “f”? If the mighty F-4 Phantom was first among equals in the Corps, then the Sea Knight would surely be first among vertical equals in the Corps, so in a nod to the F-4, the CH-46 became the “Phrog”.In its 50+ year career, the CH-46 would carry a variety of markings and sprout some interesting additions to its fuselage. This ”Illustrated” includes all of those markings and details external and internal, as well as many photos of the combat operations of the “Phrog” from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. Read more