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<\/a><\/p>\nWhether coming back from earth or lunar orbit, U. S. Air Force and Navy units were ready and able to recover the Nation’s Apollo astronauts after their missions. This diorama depicts the recovery of the Apollo 9 crew, Colonel Jim McDivitt (USAF), Colonel Dave Scott (USAF) and Rusty Schweickart on March 13, 1969 by the prime recovery ship, the USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7), 160 Nautical miles east of the Bahamas. Primary assets involved consisted of Underwater Demolition Team 22 (UDT-22) and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 3 (HS-3 \u201cTridents\u201d). Beginning with Scott Carpenter\u2019s Project Mercury mission (MA-7), this was the Tridents fifth and last manned spaceflight mission recovery operation.<\/p>\n
Apollo 9 was the third manned Apollo flight and the first to rehearse all three Apollo spacecraft elements (the Command and Service Modules and the Lunar Module) that would be used later that year to land the first men on the moon. On this Earth-orbital mission, the Command Module splashed down in calm seas in the western Atlantic. After splash-down the astronauts removed their pressure suits and were recovered in their in-flight coveralls. These lightweight garments were worn during the mission when the crew members did not need their pressure suits. The pilot of “Swim 1” the call sign for the prime recovery helicopter was Commander G. M. Rankin, Commanding Officer of HS-3, a co-pilot, two crew members and a NASA doctor filled out the crew. Initially three swim team members from UDT-22 were also on-board.<\/p>\n
The Hasegawa SH-3H kit was backdated to a SH-3D. This conversion included shortening the horizontal tail, removal of the left-side forward cargo area window and replacement of the H models\u2019 elongated sponsons with resin short sponsons made by Belcher Bits. Other modifications included unloading all three landing gear struts, removing the dipping sonar, opening the cargo door and scratch-building some of the details in the cargo bay interior. The front half of the pilot and co-pilot\u2019s side windows were also modified so they could be shown in the open position. The main rotor blades were re-shaped into an in-flight lifting configuration and photo-etch prop blur blades were used on the tail rotor. Specific additions, required by NASA included the two SARA\/Yagi antenna installations on the sponson supports, the \u201cBilly Pugh\u201d recovery net and the camera suite installed to the rear of the cargo door. With the exception of the tail rotor blades and the sponsons, all added details were scratch-built. Tamiya Flat White and Gunze Aqueous Light Gull Gray (H51) was applied after the helo was pre-shaded with Tamiya German Gray (XF-63). The helicopter\u2019s markings were created in Adobe Illustrator, and then printed on an Alps printer. Insignia and rescue arrows were scrounged from various after-market decal sheets.<\/p>\n