Joe was in Maine for some training for a few weeks. On the way they had to make a stop at a very small airport in MA. The local paper did a story on their visit which was pretty funny! Joe is the last helicopter in the picture.
Squadron of Marines lands at Beverly Airport on way to Maine
Jonathan Phelps
BEVERLY | Six large, low-flying U.S. Marines helicopters made an unexpected stop at Beverly Airport yesterday afternoon, causing nearby houses to shake and fueling lots of theories about the reason behind their visit.
Some speculated Hillary Clinton was in town. Another guessed Vice President Dick Cheney. Others who rushed to the airport shortly before 4 p.m. were convinced the helicopters were here to perform a flyover at last night's Red Sox playoff game.
"I thought they were landing in my yard," said Richard Shea of Conant Street. "I saw the pilots, and I was waving to them. I thought we were having a little invasion."
In the end, there were no celebrity sightings. The squadron, flying U.S. Marines Sikorsky Super Stallion helicopters, had stopped in Beverly on route from South Carolina to Brunswick, Maine, said Paul Vitale, chairman of the Beverly Airport Commission. There is a U.S. Naval Air Station in Brunswick.
Vitale said they made a "pit stop" after hearing reports of inclement weather ahead. While on the ground, they also investigated refueling but determined they did not need any, he said. They left about two hours later.
Beverly police said they got dozens of calls from residents wondering why the six helicopters were in Beverly.
Bart Oliver, who lives on Dartmouth Street, is accustomed to aircraft noise. But he said he never heard anything as loud as yesterday.
"We thought they were going to land on our house," Oliver said. "It was so loud. The kids wanted to come out to see the helicopters for themselves."
Linda McGraw of Beverly, who saw the helicopters from Route 128 on her way home from work, called the sight "creepy."
Lori Cravatis, also of Beverly, came to the airport with her son Kyle.
"It was so weird. It was the strangest experience," she said. "I've never heard anything like this before. I thought we were going to war."
The three-engine aircraft is the most powerful helicopter in the U.S. military, according to the Sikorsky Web site. The heavy lifter has been used in evacuation missions around the world, including the evacuation of the Somalia embassy in 1990, and to haul heavy equipment in Operation Desert Storm. It can lift aircraft as heavy as itself.
Vitale said he got the chance the greet the squadron commander. He said the Marine told him they would be sent to Africa next.
For his part, Vitale said he could understand why such a large crowd came out to the airport on a rainy Friday afternoon.
"It's not every day you get see six Super Stallions fly by. They're big and they're loud. It's really exciting," Vitale said. "It was like an air show."
Staff writer Ethan Forman contributed to this report.
