Helicopter Ride

Today I had one of the most exciting experiences of my life. I got to ride in a helicopter over the extremely blue ocean over to the island of Ternate in Indonesia. I suspect I may never have this opportunity again and I cherish every minute of it.

The Navy helicopters fit 12 passengers in the back with 3 rows of 4 each. One of the helo pilots was there to hand out our gear and to prepare us for any crash landings on in the ocean. He was talking about bailing out quick as the helo would sink fast. I'm thinking this is would not be good. Of course he ended the speech with, “don't worry this is not going to happen” That was a good way to end the sinking helo speech. I donned a helmet, goggles, a life jacket (in case of a sinking helo accident) and head phones to protect against the loud noise of the rotating blades. I felt very official. We walked out onto the fight deck and the helicopter was there with the blades running. They told us to keep our heads down as we approached the chopper. - Yes just like the movies. We had to strap in with a 4 point harness. Luckily my harness was not very tight so I was able to lean forward and look out the window and take lots of pictures. I was lucky to have a window seat so I had a great view as we flew.  It was the coolest to take off as I am used to the picking up speed as a plane races down the runway, but instead we gently lifted upward and I felt that floating sensation and we were off. Seeing the Mercy from the air was incredible. It looked so imposing and big and the white contrast against the blue sea was so beautiful. The helo circled the ship twice so we could take pictures and see it – that was extremely nice for those of us who had never been on helos before. It was a bit freaky and exciting to see the ocean racing below us.  We then flew along the coast. I could see the houses along the coast. All the roofs were tin and rusting and the homes were humble and crowded together. There were also some impressive structures also located along the shoreline that were fun to see. Ternate is located on the base of and active volcano which last erupted in 1986. All the city is located along the seashore and then the rest you can see is a green island volcano all the way up. We flew to the airport where the helicopter landed and we disembarked. The whole experience was incredible. I remember flying with my dad as a small child and I would always give his landing a score as far as how smooth it was, he always scored high. It was interesting to feel a helicopter land as I was expecting that little bounce that you feel in an airplane and instead we hovered for a minute and then gently landed with no bounce. My dad would have been proud of that landing. These helicopters have wheels so we did taxi to the spot where the taxi's were waiting for us. The helicopter experience only lasted about 15 minutes, but it was wonderful and I am so grateful that I got that experience. Originally our SurgCap was scheduled to go by Band-aid boat so it was a pleasant and thrilling surprise to be able to go by helicopter instead. The world seems so pure and pristine from the birds eye view of a helicopter – the blemishes are gone. I like to think that perhaps we should look at people this same way – take a step back and don't focus on those small imperfections that we all have, but instead look at the beauty as a whole and appreciate each other for what we can contribute to this great big world – an amazing melting pot of humanity.