A mounted helicopter, as of Saturday, stands at the main entrance of Naval Air Station North Island. It’s hard to miss.
The H-60, coated with fresh blue and gold paint, honors Cmdr. Clyde Lassen, a Naval Aviator and Medal of Honor recipient.
Lassen, before joining the Navy in 1961, was briefly a student at San Diego City College, according to the Department of Defense.
The Vietnam veteran was awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing two fellow aviators after their fighter jet had been shot down, keeping his helicopter airborne while taking artillery fire on their way back to a waiting ship. He landed the aircraft with five minutes of fuel to spare.
The story holds a special place in the heart of Bill Personius, CEO of the Naval Helicopter Association Historical Society. The retired naval commander, assigned to a helicopter squadron in his service days, said that it’s second nature for him to revere the late Lassen, the first of only three naval aviators from the Vietnam War to receive a Medal of Honor.
When Navy Rear Adm. Mac McLaughlin, recently retired as founding president and CEO of the USS Midway Museum, asked Personius if he could obtain a helicopter to display at the front of North Island, as a self-described “do-er,” Personius said he hit the ground running.
Personius couldn’t get the original aircraft on account of it crashing at sea, but he knew he wanted to honor Lassen with the correct helicopter model, so he searched elsewhere.
The hunt lead him to reach out to a boneyard in Tucson. Staff there initially turned him down, but then offered something far more serendipitous.
“So they said, we do have one here that was used for the 100th year celebration of naval aviation back in 2011 and that was painted up with the Clyde Lassen Medal of Honor on the tail fin of it. I said, ‘Hey, that might, that might work,'” Personius said.
After lying unused for over a decade, the helicopter needed to be repainted.
“I mean the aircraft, while it is well preserved, the paint job was not, because it sat outside in the burning heat of the desert and it was blistered,” he said.
In order to freshen it up, they had to sand down the old paint, but when it came to choosing what will go over the newly blank canvas they decided to restore the 2011 tribute. Personius recruited Shayne Meder, the original artist for the job.
Paint project aside, he said, the most time consuming part of the process was to secure the permits approving the statue. But finally, after four years the historical society and the Midway Museum were able to donate the restored H-60 to the U.S. Navy for display.
“[North Island] has helicopters at flag circle, which is a quarter of a mile down the road, but there isn’t one at the front gate,” Personius said. “I thought that was important to have one there that will be able to pay tribute to all our helicopter pilots. That’s kind of my, yeah, I think, my driving force and trying to get this done.”
Nearly three decades after his passing, Lassen continues to be recognized for his moments of bravery. On Sunday, one day after the helicopter memorializing him was unveiled, a plaque was dedicated to the commander at the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial. For Personius, the praise is warranted, even years later.
“I just felt like I had to get this done for our community, the helicopter community as well, and it’s something I wanted to do personally to help,” he said. “You know, honor Clyde and his crew that made the rescue.”
