Joshua O’Brien
U.S. Army – Captain
U.S. Coast Guard – LT. Commander
Iraq – Afghanistan
New Orleans – Cape Cod
1993 – 2018
U.S. Army – Captain
U.S. Coast Guard – LT. Commander
Iraq – Afghanistan
New Orleans – Cape Cod
1993 – 2018
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of…”
John Magee. High Flight
Josh O’Brien was born in New London, New Hampshire in 1975. His parents wanted to live in the woods and built a log cabin to live their dream. A “pretty ugly divorce” ended that dream when Josh was one and a half. Josh, his brother David and mother all moved to the small coastal suburb of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Josh’s description of growing up in Marshfield was much like the movie Goonies. “Living in Marshfield was pretty awesome because it was the late 70’s, early 80’s”. He recalled living in a “gritty neighborhood” filled with small cottages, no dads, single moms and “tons of kids”. “We’d ride bikes all the way down to Duxbury, six miles away”. Street hockey was an obsession for the neighborhood boys including Josh.
There was very little parental supervision and that was a double edge sword. Kids had a lot of freedom to experience life and be kids, but youthful indiscretion had a way of creeping in. “My brother was the oldest. He was kind of like a gang leader”. David was six years older, so that meant Josh was living and learning life, like a master class in adolescence. “I got brought back to the house three times by the police for different things”. His mother could see the difficulty she would have in keeping Josh on the straight and narrow and she decided to pick up and head back to the woods.
She bought a property in New Hampshire and decided to clear the land herself and build the cabin herself. Initially, he was very excited. “Every single vacation we ever took was to New Hampshire to a campground on the side of mountain somewhere”. But he soon learned that he would be camping every day without any of the added extra activities of a vacation and he was never going back to his friends. At the age of 10, “I went from suburbia and all my friends and all of the activities you have in the suburbs to the middle of the woods in rural New Hampshire”. Josh liked the area and his new friends, but he didn’t like the isolation. His closest friend was three miles away. “The kids laugh at me all the time ‘cause I tell them how hard my life was and how easy they have it”.
In retrospect Josh can see his mother did the right thing. He also learned a lot about building a cabin. His mother hired people to pour the foundation and run the electricity, but she, the boys, friends, and family did everything else. “Looking back, that was such a great experience, ‘cause we were always doing things ourselves” and he learned to be very handy around the house and property. “If something needed to be fixed, we fixed it, whether it was a car, a snowmobile or a house”.
He lived on the furthest edge of the school district and that meant he had to be at the bus stop at 6:10am for the 45-minute ride to school. An unthinkable hour for a middle schooler craving sleep. Josh moved on to Newfound Regional High School and in 1993 graduated with a class of 88 kids from eight different towns.
Josh recalled always wanting to serve in the Army. He comes from a family with a long military history including the French and Indian War, fighting with the colonists against Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War, fighting with the Union Army during the Civil War, a grandfather that earned a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge, his biological dad was a Marine in Vietnam and his step dad served with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam.
When Josh was in first grade, he recalled going to West Point to see a family friend graduate. “I knew then I wanted to go to West Point”. The Corps of Cadets marching in formation, the pomp, the ceremony and two Huey helicopters landing on the parade ground captured Josh’s imagination. “I wanted to be a helicopter pilot from that point on” and he wanted to attend West Point.
Josh applied and although he received a nomination, his grades weren’t strong enough. The admissions office suggested he attend a year of Prep School to boost his grades and SAT scores. Fortuitously, a brochure arrived in the mail from Valley Forge Military Academy and College. Josh initially decided to enroll as a steppingstone to enter West Point, “but they offered me an ROTC scholarship” and it was a great experience. It was a very intensive program. Josh entered school introverted and emerged comfortable giving presentations to classes full of cadets and was much more physically fit. Josh was also able to serve in the Infantry with the National Guard while he was in the ROTC. Every weekend was occupied serving with the Valley Forge Corps of Cadets or his National Guard unit. “Valley Forge really made me mature…I kind of thrived there too”.
At the time Josh thought he wanted to be an infantryman. He was a good shot, and he liked hiking and camping, so it seemed like a good fit. After spending weekends in the freezing rain and mud, and summer months in the sweltering heat of Kentucky and North Carolina Josh realized this wasn’t his calling. “I didn’t’ want to be a guy in a mud hole or sweat to death”.
Valley Forge was a two-year school and Josh graduated and was commissioned in 1995 as a 2nd Lieutenant. He would not be eligible for active duty until he finished his bachelor’s degree. The Army was going to pay for his remaining two years, and Josh chose to attend the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Josh joined the New Hampshire National Guard and was also able to serve as an assistant professor of military science at UNH. Josh’s experience at Valley Forge was great but it wasn’t your typical college experience. At UNH Josh decided to make up for lost time. He pledged a fraternity and joined the rugby team. With some disposable cash from his jobs as assistant professor and bartender, and some spare time his maturity began to back slide. The wheels started to come off, but Josh held it together and he graduated in December of 1997.
In the summer before senior year, the cadets had to choose which branch of the Army they wanted to join. Josh wanted aviation but was somewhat cavalier in completing his application. The form asked why he wanted aviation and his response was, “I want to fly. I need to fly. I desire flight”. Initially he thought it was funny and creative but after talking with a friend he became concerned. His friend asked him what he was thinking and now he might end up as a chemical officer, or worse. During the semester all of the cadets receive their envelopes at the same time revealing their assignment. Josh opened his letter and found he was going to aviation. Someone had a sense of humor.
In March of 1998 Josh reported to Fort Rucker in Alabama, the home of Army Aviation. Unfortunately, his wisdom teeth decided to emerge and that required dental attention and Josh was rolled back one class. That ultimately worked to his advantage when it came time to assign aircraft.
Josh wanted to fly helicopters ever since those Hueys landed at the West Point graduation. In the Army every aviation cadet starts flight school training in a helicopter, which is different from the Navy which starts on fixed wing aircraft. For the next 10 months Josh attended flight school focused on helicopters. At the end of flight school, it came time to choose which aircraft he wanted to fly. Josh wanted to fly medevac helicopters, but his rank worked against him, so he then focused on Scout Helicopters. These aircraft were equipped with high technology cameras, lasers and infrared optics used to identify and designate targets for an airstrike.
Again, his rank worked against him. He would be entering active duty as a 1st lieutenant and soon to be captain. As a captain he would have been relegated to a staff job and Josh really wanted to spend his time flying an aircraft, not a desk. Flying the CH-47, Chinook helicopter would give him the opportunity he was looking for. As a captain he could command a platoon and still get a lot of flying time. Of course, there was the added benefit of lifestyle. “When we went to the field we took everything with us. Air conditioners, generators, big coolers filled with beer and steaks” and a big, comfortable tent.
The Chinook was the logistical workhorse on the battlefield. While it was not equipped with weapons, it could transport almost an entire platoon, 33 soldiers, to conduct and assault. It was also perfect for transporting cargo, heavy equipment and artillery. The CH-47 had cargo hooks attached to its underside, and it was capable of lifting and transporting another Chinook. It also provided artillery batteries with the ability to quickly relocate to avoid enemy counterbattery and reset elsewhere on the battlefield to acquire other targets. “Theirs is a unique mission that allows them to move to unique locations like mountain tops, deep valleys or places where vehicles couldn’t go”. The Special Forces use Chinooks extensively and the Army has a Special Forces team, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. This unit known as the Night Stalkers, provides aviation support for different Special Forces teams.
In January of ’99 before he graduated from flight school Josh decided to visit New Orleans. He was walking on Bourbon Street and ran into Melissa Mayeaux, a native of River Ridge, Louisiana. Melissa and her friends, and Josh and his friends had a great time talking as they walked along Bourbon Street. At the end of the evening Melissa gave Josh her phone number and said, “call me”. Josh didn’t call but he did go back to New Orleans the next weekend. Walking along a very crowded Bourbon Street, the highly improbable happened and Josh and Melissa ran into each other in the doorway of Pat O’Briens. She said, “you didn’t call me”. He said, “I was going to”. They started dating.
Upon graduating from flight school and the Aviation Officer Basic Course in June ‘99, Josh was able to choose his first duty station. “None of the wars were happening yet and I went into the military wanting the adventure and wanting to see the world”. There were two places he could go as a Chinook pilot outside the U.S., and he chose South Korea over Germany. He was to report in July. He told Melissa and she said, “I wanna go with you”. Josh headed to South Korea and found an off-base apartment big enough for he and Melissa. “I picked her up at the airport one weekend and she showed up with a lot of luggage ready to move in”. 27 years later they are happily married and have a family.
Josh had signed up for a one-year tour as a platoon leader but soon learned that he would be the Executive Officer making him second in command. “My job was to know how to fly and occasionally fly, but really do all of the administrative stuff” which he had been trying to avoid. Josh was responsible for 210 people, 16 Chinooks and a $33 million budget. Despite not flying as much as he would have liked, he and Melissa enjoyed the tour and extended for another year. Josh planned and participated in numerous missions, some were secret. “It was still a hot zone; North Korea was and is still a threat”.
At the end of the second year Josh returned to the states and attended the Captains Career Course. This course was designed to increase your knowledge as an officer and help you think strategically at the division level where situations are viewed through a larger aperture. “The big army way of thinking”.
Josh really wanted to see the world, and he really wanted to go through Airborne School. He put in a call to his detailer and negotiated a deal where he would do the detailer a favor in return for getting assigned to Airborne School and a billet in Germany. Josh offered to attend a training program he knew not many people wanted to attend and the detailer had a problem filling, Artillery School. The detailer agreed and Josh and Melissa packed their belongings and headed to attend a training class in Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The 8-month class began in August of 2001 and had a heavy concentration of soldiers from different NATO countries. Josh was the only aviator in a class of field artillery soldiers. The first two weeks of the class was designed to help non-field artillery students to come up to speed in the basics of artillery. The second phase of the school focused on manual gunnery. Josh was astounded by the amount of math that went into firing artillery, and the students did it without computers. The arch of the shell, the hang time, the rotation of the earth, the weather, the amount of the charge required for the distance and more.
On September 11, 2001, Josh was in a classroom when someone came into the room and announced a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The reaction, which was not uncommon was, ‘well that was a bad pilot’. Then the second plane hit the other tower, and everyone knew the United States was under attack. “A guy rolled in a big tv (television)…and we’re watching the news from that point on…” Josh recalled the other students from various NATO countries were trying to absorb the severity of the situation. He recalled they were very sympathetic and voiced that they were all in it together.
Josh recalled lines of vehicles driven by U.S. veterans forming outside of military bases as they tried to offer their help in the war they knew was coming. Josh called his detailer and offered to leave the class and report anywhere he could be of any help. His detailer told him to finish the class, and the army would get back to him. Josh completed the class and then went on to a six week, highly bureaucratic training program he would like to forget.
Now Josh was scheduled to go to Airborne school followed by a tour of duty in Germany but, for Josh to have Melissa added to his orders they would need to be married. They had been planning on getting married, but this moved up their timetable and the couple drove to Wichita Falls, Texas and eloped. Josh went to Airborne school at Fort Benning in Georgia and fulfilled a goal he had since he was a young boy. Three weeks later he graduated with jump wings ready to head to Germany. Before they left for Germany, the couple had a proper wedding in the Florida Keys in May of 2002.
In July of 2002, the couple arrived in the Bavarian region of Germany and reported to the American airfield in Giebelstadt as part of Fox Company of the 159th Aviation Regiment. This was the only Chinook company in Europe, and they were responsible for moving people and supplies throughout Europe. Josh was the Operations Officer and was responsible for planning missions, assigning flight crews and training. During this time the U.S. was preparing to enter Iraq, and it was a busy time preparing for the invasion. In February of ’03 his company was moved to Doha, Kuwait where they unloaded the equipment, prepared the helicopters and conducted training throughout the skies of Kuwait. “Because of that I got to see the buildup as unit after unit was moving in. By the end, the last flight I did right before we crossed the berm (into Iraq) it looked like what I imagine Omaha Beach looked like. Endless people, equipment, supplies. What used to be desert was now just people and supplies”.
The pace of the advancing U.S. troops put pressure on the logistics to keep pace. Josh and his company moved five times in the 12 months they were deployed. From Doha they moved to Arifjan, also in Kuwait and then to a spot in the Desert named 25 Mech. After entering Iraq, they established a base in Tallil and then moved again to Balad. When it was time to move to Balad Josh was part of an advance party to identify where they would set up camp. This was the only time he was ever in a convoy during combat. “…over the course of three days I got to see a lot of Iraq from the ground…”. The infantry was pushing forward and as the convoy followed behind “we could see all of the smoking tanks, wreckage of the battles that had happened a day or two before”.
Josh described Iraq as a beautiful country if it weren’t for a major war taking place. The areas where Josh was located were between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, also known as Mesopotamia. “It’s beautiful, it’s tropical in certain places”. “Northern Iraq near Iran has beautiful mountains like Colorado and near the Syrian border, there is nothing but desert”. Initially the Iraqi’s welcomed the Americans, but as time passed their support faded.
Josh was able to do what he loved best and that was fly helicopters. “I was the Operations Officer so I got to participate in a lot of the missions we did…we were moving equipment forward and hauling bodies out a lot unfortunately…back to Doha to the mortuary where the mortuary teams prepare them and fly them to Germany”. Initially much of the flying was done in the day until they began to lose medevac helicopters. After that the flying was done at night. Eventually he became the platoon leader of eight Chinooks and their crews, which put him in a position to fly full time. Josh’s next step in his career progression was to take a staff job as Battle Captain at the Brigade level. In that role he would be part of the Operations Center that was tracking of all of the missions going on at any point in time in his theater of operation. Josh’s career was moving along but he was drawn to flying and being where the action was.
“Iraq in general was a fascinating experience…it was the first time I got to use the skills that I had trained for…as a soldier. We were getting to do our jobs as war fighters”. Unfortunately, that meant there was a war going on. Josh joined the military to help people and be part of the good guys like in World War II. Despite the heroics and achievements of the men and women in uniform, it is not likely Iraq will be remembered in the same manner as the liberation of Europe in WWII.
In February of ’04 it was time for Josh and his company to rotate back to Germany. When he returned, he was offered a company command which is a significant recognition of leadership ability and progression along his career track. He took over Charlie Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 58th Aviation Regiment.
Josh took over his company and was able to run a very squared away outfit while keeping morale high. Despite this, Josh missed flying and politics of the Army had a way of rearing its ugly head. He began contemplating his career alternatives. He had always been attracted to the Coast Guard and he knew their primary mission was helping people through their search and rescue operations. Soon there was little time to think about alternatives and Josh learned that 30 of his soldiers would be going to Afghanistan as part of a task force. In addition to running two airfields and managing his company, now he had to prepare for the task force to go to war. Although it wasn’t required, Josh decided he would accompany the task force to Afghanistan and ensure his soldiers were supported and their operation was stood up. For the next 10 months they trained to go to war.
What is often overlooked by civilians is the psychological aspect of being a soldier. There is significant amount of mental preparation as well as physical preparation to prepare to deploy to a combat zone. Returning home involves trying to decompress and fit back into daily life where 99.94% of the population has no idea what you have experienced and endured. There is also the reintegration with a spouse and children which can be a difficult adjustment. In this case, to then be told you have ten months of preparation to redeploy into combat after just arriving home, creates a type of mental whiplash and a certain level of constant anxiety. Everyone handles this differently.
Despite this, the task force went about their training. Melissa gave birth to their daughter and three months later Josh deployed to Afghanistan in February 2003. The task force split into two teams. Each team would serve as tactical air traffic control teams. If a big mission was planned, their job would be able to set up an airfield anywhere necessary, move in and set up all of the necessary equipment, erect a tower, establish communications, establish a landing zone or an airfield and direct air traffic in and out of the air field. One team operated out of Bagram in Afghanistan and the other was located in a hot zone near the Pakistani border.
“Iraq and Afghanistan, same war timeframe but completely different experiences for me. Iraq was spread out and there was more traditional warfare. Afghanistan was…pockets of troops all over the country going out on patrols and trying to wrangle cats”.
Josh remembers the base near Pakistan coming under rocket attacks continually. The enemy would lob rockets over the border and then the U.S. would return counter battery fire. “They were good at it. You could see them waking the rounds toward the target. The anticipation of that was nerve-wracking”. The U.S. would often send quick reaction forces out to locate and eliminate the enemy. In Iraq the enemy would sporadically fire rockets, but they were not particularly accurate, and it was not sustained.
In 2005 Josh was inducted into the Order of St. Michael which recognizes aviators who have made significant contributions to the promotion of Army Aviation in ways that standout to subordinates, peers and superiors.
After three months Josh returned to Germany in May of 2005. He knew his next promotion would make him a Major and those promotions come with staff assignments, moving him away from what he really wanted to do, which was fly. He continued to research transferring to the Coast Guard, applied and was accepted. “I feel fortunate they did (accept him); it’s a pretty competitive process”.
The Coast Guard gave Josh the opportunity to choose where he would like to be stationed and what type of helicopter he wanted to fly. Josh wanted to fly the Dolphin helicopter, and he and Melissa wanted to be near family now that they had a new daughter. New Orleans was one of the stations where Dolphin helicopters were used and was also where Melissa’s family was located. Choosing New Orleans was a win-win decision. Their flight into New Orleans was scheduled to land one day after the devastating hurricane, Katrina, rampaged through New Orleans. Katrina was immediately followed by Hurricane Rita. Their flight was diverted to Houston, and it was a few days before they were able to head to New Orleans. They immediately headed to Lafayette, Louisiana and dry ground. Melissa’s family had evacuated there to live with an aunt and uncle.
The Coast Guard gave Josh some time to settle in and decompress from Afghanistan before he had to report for duty. When he did report he found New Orleans looked like Afghanistan. “I left one war zone for another”. He reported to FEMA headquarters and found himself coordinating all of the different contractor aircraft and Homeland Security aircraft similar to his role as Battle Captain in Iraq. FEMA had contracted with several cruise lines to provide temporary housing and Josh and the other workers slept on these cruise ships while working in the city. After a month, life at Air Station New Orleans started to return to normal. Josh missed out on flying the search and rescue missions for Katrina and Rita however, his over his eight-year Coast Guard career Josh would fly numerous search and rescue missions.
“New Orleans is an amazing search and rescue laboratory…because it is by far the busiest air station in the Coast Guard”. The oil industry and its thousands of oil rigs, the fishing industry and the recreational water activities create many opportunities for search and rescue. The bad weather will keep lesser experienced civilian rescue crews from taking off but “we flew in the worst weather out to the oil rigs or ships” for medical emergencies, locating lost or missing hunters and fisherman on the rivers and bayous and other types of rescues.
Flying in bad weather often requires flying using instruments. Pilots can practice flying with instruments but it’s not possible to practice flying into the side of a hurricane or flying in thick fog or high winds. “You only learn by doing it…”. “You’re paired with an aircraft commander that’s been around a while…hopefully they’re good and teach you as you go”. The Dolphin carried a rescue swimmer who was also trained as an EMT. “They’re incredibly comfortable in the water and amazing athletes”.
Oil rigs can be located very far from shore. On one rescue mission Josh recalled his helicopter had to refuel on two different oil rigs before reach the rig where the medical emergency was. Then they had to repeat the refueling on the way back and make it safely to the hospital.
Josh and Melissa loved New Orleans but after four years it was time for another assignment and that meant moving on to Savannah, Georgia. Their son was born one month before they packed up and reported to Coast Guard Air Station Savannah. “That became a really rewarding tour for me as a senior aviator”. Josh was experienced in every mission the Coast Guard could undertake. He became the lead instructor pilot “and I had to teach the missions to all the junior people coming in. I couldn’t choose the nights we flew, but if bad weather was there, I wasn’t cancelling a flight. This is a good training opportunity for us and there is always training to be had”.
Josh talked about the very difficult maneuvers a Coast Guard aviator must be able to execute. One in particular was hovering over open water. There was always the danger of becoming disoriented. “Over land you can triangulate your vision and keep the helicopter steady by comparing where you are and where you should be. When the water is moving underneath you and constantly moving… it’s a special skill and it takes a lot of practice…it’s extremely disorienting”.
Josh left the Army feeling confident in his abilities as a pilot, but the Coast Guard experience made him much better. “The Army is incredibly good at making some of the best helicopter pilots in the world...for the mission they do, flying in and out of tight landing zones, flying low at night, time on target…but not good instrument flyers. Bad weather kills Army aviators…it’s called Inadvertent IMC (Instrument Meteorologic Conditions). IMC is when a pilot must fly using instruments and suffers spacial disorientation because of a lack of visual landmarks. This can lead to a loss of control of the aircraft or cause the pilot to fly into the surrounding terrain. “The Coast Guard is specifically very good at taking pilots and making them into very good, bad weather pilots”.
Josh recalled a rescue mission to an oil rig to pick up a worker that had suffered a severe back injury and was suffering internal bleeding. “A few occasions I was nervous. I landed on an oil rig in the middle of the night in solid fog and high winds. We barely crept our way onto the pad. I could barely see anything”. The oil rig landing pad was 200 feet above the ocean and the helicopter needed to be 50 feet above the deck to begin its decent. “Using the GPS and our altitude and our air speed, we coordinate a reduction in altitude with a reduction in air speed to creep our way down…”. The return flight back was difficult. The city was covered in a fog thick as pea soup and the only recognizable landmark was the upmost portion of the Superdome. The fog prevented landing at any of the area hospitals. The backup plan was to land at the Coast Guard station where they would be met by an ambulance. They eventually found the runway and landed, but not where they expected. The crew had to call the tower and advise they would light flares to mark the perimeter of the aircraft.
The Coast Guard pilots also had to be able to land on the back of Coast Guard cutters, the smallest of which is 210 feet with a landing area of 60 feet. A Dolphin is roughly 45 feet long including the rotor blades. Josh recalled roughly 10 feet between the end of the rotor blades and the bulkhead, leaving little margin for error. “There’s not a lot of space and coming down from a height it looks like you’re landing on a cell phone”. This happens regularly in the Bearing Sea for rescues and off the Florida coast near Cuba and in the waters near Jamacia looking for migrants or drug smugglers.
Other unique missions the Coast Guard have include air intercept responsibility for low flying Cessnas and other ultra-light aircraft in the Washington, DC air space and for events of national significance. At any given time, there are always two Coast Guard crews on duty at Reagan National Airport ready to fly such missions. When a call comes in the crews have no idea what awaits them, but they have to be in the helicopter and airborne in a matter of minutes. Josh recalled providing protection to the Space Shuttle launch pad during a launch. “I got to see the shuttle launch from 1,200 feet (in the air), four miles away”.
Josh was looking ahead and he could see his retirement looming. He decided he wanted to learn to fly fixed wing aircraft and the place to do that was at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Josh qualified to fly fixed wing aircraft and went on to become an instructor for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard students there.
The O’Brien family moved one more time for Josh’s last tour of duty. Josh was finally coming home to New England and was stationed at Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. In this duty station Josh would be flying fixed wing aircraft doing search and rescue. Josh would be recognized again for being part of a heroic mission. In December of 2016 in the middle of a Nor’easter Josh was the co-pilot in a crew that answered a call for assistance on Martha’s Vineyard. A premature baby had been born on the island and wasn’t going to make it without a NICU team. The crew flew from Cape Cod to Logan (Airport) where a team from Tufts met the plane and jumped on board with an incubator. Through the blinding snowstorm they fought their way to the island and landed safely. The NICU team jumped into a waiting ambulance and headed to the hospital. A short while later the team returned with the infant and mother. Everyone was loaded on to the plane, the baby was placed in the incubator, and they took off into the blinding storm again. Another complicating factor was the incubator’s generator which had a six-hour life. The crew safely landed the aircraft at Logan Airport and were met by an ambulance. With a break in the weather the crew returned to the Coast Guard Station on Cape Cod nearly five hours after they had initially gone wheels up. For that mission Josh and the aircrew received the Coast Guard Elmer Stone Fixed Wing Rescue Award for exceptional performance in search and rescue operations. Each year the Coast Guard reviews all of the search and rescue missions and chooses one to receive the Elmer Stone award.
In December of 2018 Josh retired from the Coast Guard and was hired by a major airline flying internationally. He is enjoying his job although it lacks the excitement and adventure the military provided. He is based at Logan Airport, and he has the flexibility to be part of the hockey family that supports his son, a goalie, and gives him time to volunteer and participate in various sports, hobbies, and interests. Although his military career is behind him, he continues to participate in commemorative jumps with a paratrooper organization he belongs to. Josh has jumped into the landing zones used for Operation Overload (D-Day) and Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.
Josh, who is something of a ‘Renaissance Man’ is also an accomplished drummer, a skill he picked up as a child in the isolation of New Hampshire. “I had nothing to do so I begged my mother for a drum set”. While he was on active duty, Josh played the snare drum with the Coast Guard Bagpipe Band. These days, Josh can be found playing with a band at local establishments in the Falmouth area of Cape Cod or with the Falmouth Orchestra playing 12 summer concerts. He furthered his musical talents during COVID when he took up the guitar.
As Josh looked back over his career, he considered himself fortunate to have been able to serve others and eventually find his true calling. “I got way more job satisfaction in the Coast Guard than I ever did in the Army. I really loved flying search and rescue for the Coast Guard”. “I’d much rather save a life than take a life”.
Josh, you have served the citizens of the United States in ways that they will never know. You put yourself in harm’s way and your family has sacrificed so you could serve others. And because they may have met you in possibly their darkest hour, they may never have been able to express their gratitude for what you have done and what was involved. On behalf of every one of the citizens of the United States, we thank you and your family for your service and sacrifices. Keep on working on those rudiments, Bonzo would be proud.
“Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew —And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space,– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
John Magee, High Flight
John Magee. High Flight
Josh O’Brien was born in New London, New Hampshire in 1975. His parents wanted to live in the woods and built a log cabin to live their dream. A “pretty ugly divorce” ended that dream when Josh was one and a half. Josh, his brother David and mother all moved to the small coastal suburb of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Josh’s description of growing up in Marshfield was much like the movie Goonies. “Living in Marshfield was pretty awesome because it was the late 70’s, early 80’s”. He recalled living in a “gritty neighborhood” filled with small cottages, no dads, single moms and “tons of kids”. “We’d ride bikes all the way down to Duxbury, six miles away”. Street hockey was an obsession for the neighborhood boys including Josh.
There was very little parental supervision and that was a double edge sword. Kids had a lot of freedom to experience life and be kids, but youthful indiscretion had a way of creeping in. “My brother was the oldest. He was kind of like a gang leader”. David was six years older, so that meant Josh was living and learning life, like a master class in adolescence. “I got brought back to the house three times by the police for different things”. His mother could see the difficulty she would have in keeping Josh on the straight and narrow and she decided to pick up and head back to the woods.
She bought a property in New Hampshire and decided to clear the land herself and build the cabin herself. Initially, he was very excited. “Every single vacation we ever took was to New Hampshire to a campground on the side of mountain somewhere”. But he soon learned that he would be camping every day without any of the added extra activities of a vacation and he was never going back to his friends. At the age of 10, “I went from suburbia and all my friends and all of the activities you have in the suburbs to the middle of the woods in rural New Hampshire”. Josh liked the area and his new friends, but he didn’t like the isolation. His closest friend was three miles away. “The kids laugh at me all the time ‘cause I tell them how hard my life was and how easy they have it”.
In retrospect Josh can see his mother did the right thing. He also learned a lot about building a cabin. His mother hired people to pour the foundation and run the electricity, but she, the boys, friends, and family did everything else. “Looking back, that was such a great experience, ‘cause we were always doing things ourselves” and he learned to be very handy around the house and property. “If something needed to be fixed, we fixed it, whether it was a car, a snowmobile or a house”.
He lived on the furthest edge of the school district and that meant he had to be at the bus stop at 6:10am for the 45-minute ride to school. An unthinkable hour for a middle schooler craving sleep. Josh moved on to Newfound Regional High School and in 1993 graduated with a class of 88 kids from eight different towns.
Josh recalled always wanting to serve in the Army. He comes from a family with a long military history including the French and Indian War, fighting with the colonists against Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War, fighting with the Union Army during the Civil War, a grandfather that earned a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge, his biological dad was a Marine in Vietnam and his step dad served with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam.
When Josh was in first grade, he recalled going to West Point to see a family friend graduate. “I knew then I wanted to go to West Point”. The Corps of Cadets marching in formation, the pomp, the ceremony and two Huey helicopters landing on the parade ground captured Josh’s imagination. “I wanted to be a helicopter pilot from that point on” and he wanted to attend West Point.
Josh applied and although he received a nomination, his grades weren’t strong enough. The admissions office suggested he attend a year of Prep School to boost his grades and SAT scores. Fortuitously, a brochure arrived in the mail from Valley Forge Military Academy and College. Josh initially decided to enroll as a steppingstone to enter West Point, “but they offered me an ROTC scholarship” and it was a great experience. It was a very intensive program. Josh entered school introverted and emerged comfortable giving presentations to classes full of cadets and was much more physically fit. Josh was also able to serve in the Infantry with the National Guard while he was in the ROTC. Every weekend was occupied serving with the Valley Forge Corps of Cadets or his National Guard unit. “Valley Forge really made me mature…I kind of thrived there too”.
At the time Josh thought he wanted to be an infantryman. He was a good shot, and he liked hiking and camping, so it seemed like a good fit. After spending weekends in the freezing rain and mud, and summer months in the sweltering heat of Kentucky and North Carolina Josh realized this wasn’t his calling. “I didn’t’ want to be a guy in a mud hole or sweat to death”.
Valley Forge was a two-year school and Josh graduated and was commissioned in 1995 as a 2nd Lieutenant. He would not be eligible for active duty until he finished his bachelor’s degree. The Army was going to pay for his remaining two years, and Josh chose to attend the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Josh joined the New Hampshire National Guard and was also able to serve as an assistant professor of military science at UNH. Josh’s experience at Valley Forge was great but it wasn’t your typical college experience. At UNH Josh decided to make up for lost time. He pledged a fraternity and joined the rugby team. With some disposable cash from his jobs as assistant professor and bartender, and some spare time his maturity began to back slide. The wheels started to come off, but Josh held it together and he graduated in December of 1997.
In the summer before senior year, the cadets had to choose which branch of the Army they wanted to join. Josh wanted aviation but was somewhat cavalier in completing his application. The form asked why he wanted aviation and his response was, “I want to fly. I need to fly. I desire flight”. Initially he thought it was funny and creative but after talking with a friend he became concerned. His friend asked him what he was thinking and now he might end up as a chemical officer, or worse. During the semester all of the cadets receive their envelopes at the same time revealing their assignment. Josh opened his letter and found he was going to aviation. Someone had a sense of humor.
In March of 1998 Josh reported to Fort Rucker in Alabama, the home of Army Aviation. Unfortunately, his wisdom teeth decided to emerge and that required dental attention and Josh was rolled back one class. That ultimately worked to his advantage when it came time to assign aircraft.
Josh wanted to fly helicopters ever since those Hueys landed at the West Point graduation. In the Army every aviation cadet starts flight school training in a helicopter, which is different from the Navy which starts on fixed wing aircraft. For the next 10 months Josh attended flight school focused on helicopters. At the end of flight school, it came time to choose which aircraft he wanted to fly. Josh wanted to fly medevac helicopters, but his rank worked against him, so he then focused on Scout Helicopters. These aircraft were equipped with high technology cameras, lasers and infrared optics used to identify and designate targets for an airstrike.
Again, his rank worked against him. He would be entering active duty as a 1st lieutenant and soon to be captain. As a captain he would have been relegated to a staff job and Josh really wanted to spend his time flying an aircraft, not a desk. Flying the CH-47, Chinook helicopter would give him the opportunity he was looking for. As a captain he could command a platoon and still get a lot of flying time. Of course, there was the added benefit of lifestyle. “When we went to the field we took everything with us. Air conditioners, generators, big coolers filled with beer and steaks” and a big, comfortable tent.
The Chinook was the logistical workhorse on the battlefield. While it was not equipped with weapons, it could transport almost an entire platoon, 33 soldiers, to conduct and assault. It was also perfect for transporting cargo, heavy equipment and artillery. The CH-47 had cargo hooks attached to its underside, and it was capable of lifting and transporting another Chinook. It also provided artillery batteries with the ability to quickly relocate to avoid enemy counterbattery and reset elsewhere on the battlefield to acquire other targets. “Theirs is a unique mission that allows them to move to unique locations like mountain tops, deep valleys or places where vehicles couldn’t go”. The Special Forces use Chinooks extensively and the Army has a Special Forces team, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. This unit known as the Night Stalkers, provides aviation support for different Special Forces teams.
In January of ’99 before he graduated from flight school Josh decided to visit New Orleans. He was walking on Bourbon Street and ran into Melissa Mayeaux, a native of River Ridge, Louisiana. Melissa and her friends, and Josh and his friends had a great time talking as they walked along Bourbon Street. At the end of the evening Melissa gave Josh her phone number and said, “call me”. Josh didn’t call but he did go back to New Orleans the next weekend. Walking along a very crowded Bourbon Street, the highly improbable happened and Josh and Melissa ran into each other in the doorway of Pat O’Briens. She said, “you didn’t call me”. He said, “I was going to”. They started dating.
Upon graduating from flight school and the Aviation Officer Basic Course in June ‘99, Josh was able to choose his first duty station. “None of the wars were happening yet and I went into the military wanting the adventure and wanting to see the world”. There were two places he could go as a Chinook pilot outside the U.S., and he chose South Korea over Germany. He was to report in July. He told Melissa and she said, “I wanna go with you”. Josh headed to South Korea and found an off-base apartment big enough for he and Melissa. “I picked her up at the airport one weekend and she showed up with a lot of luggage ready to move in”. 27 years later they are happily married and have a family.
Josh had signed up for a one-year tour as a platoon leader but soon learned that he would be the Executive Officer making him second in command. “My job was to know how to fly and occasionally fly, but really do all of the administrative stuff” which he had been trying to avoid. Josh was responsible for 210 people, 16 Chinooks and a $33 million budget. Despite not flying as much as he would have liked, he and Melissa enjoyed the tour and extended for another year. Josh planned and participated in numerous missions, some were secret. “It was still a hot zone; North Korea was and is still a threat”.
At the end of the second year Josh returned to the states and attended the Captains Career Course. This course was designed to increase your knowledge as an officer and help you think strategically at the division level where situations are viewed through a larger aperture. “The big army way of thinking”.
Josh really wanted to see the world, and he really wanted to go through Airborne School. He put in a call to his detailer and negotiated a deal where he would do the detailer a favor in return for getting assigned to Airborne School and a billet in Germany. Josh offered to attend a training program he knew not many people wanted to attend and the detailer had a problem filling, Artillery School. The detailer agreed and Josh and Melissa packed their belongings and headed to attend a training class in Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The 8-month class began in August of 2001 and had a heavy concentration of soldiers from different NATO countries. Josh was the only aviator in a class of field artillery soldiers. The first two weeks of the class was designed to help non-field artillery students to come up to speed in the basics of artillery. The second phase of the school focused on manual gunnery. Josh was astounded by the amount of math that went into firing artillery, and the students did it without computers. The arch of the shell, the hang time, the rotation of the earth, the weather, the amount of the charge required for the distance and more.
On September 11, 2001, Josh was in a classroom when someone came into the room and announced a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The reaction, which was not uncommon was, ‘well that was a bad pilot’. Then the second plane hit the other tower, and everyone knew the United States was under attack. “A guy rolled in a big tv (television)…and we’re watching the news from that point on…” Josh recalled the other students from various NATO countries were trying to absorb the severity of the situation. He recalled they were very sympathetic and voiced that they were all in it together.
Josh recalled lines of vehicles driven by U.S. veterans forming outside of military bases as they tried to offer their help in the war they knew was coming. Josh called his detailer and offered to leave the class and report anywhere he could be of any help. His detailer told him to finish the class, and the army would get back to him. Josh completed the class and then went on to a six week, highly bureaucratic training program he would like to forget.
Now Josh was scheduled to go to Airborne school followed by a tour of duty in Germany but, for Josh to have Melissa added to his orders they would need to be married. They had been planning on getting married, but this moved up their timetable and the couple drove to Wichita Falls, Texas and eloped. Josh went to Airborne school at Fort Benning in Georgia and fulfilled a goal he had since he was a young boy. Three weeks later he graduated with jump wings ready to head to Germany. Before they left for Germany, the couple had a proper wedding in the Florida Keys in May of 2002.
In July of 2002, the couple arrived in the Bavarian region of Germany and reported to the American airfield in Giebelstadt as part of Fox Company of the 159th Aviation Regiment. This was the only Chinook company in Europe, and they were responsible for moving people and supplies throughout Europe. Josh was the Operations Officer and was responsible for planning missions, assigning flight crews and training. During this time the U.S. was preparing to enter Iraq, and it was a busy time preparing for the invasion. In February of ’03 his company was moved to Doha, Kuwait where they unloaded the equipment, prepared the helicopters and conducted training throughout the skies of Kuwait. “Because of that I got to see the buildup as unit after unit was moving in. By the end, the last flight I did right before we crossed the berm (into Iraq) it looked like what I imagine Omaha Beach looked like. Endless people, equipment, supplies. What used to be desert was now just people and supplies”.
The pace of the advancing U.S. troops put pressure on the logistics to keep pace. Josh and his company moved five times in the 12 months they were deployed. From Doha they moved to Arifjan, also in Kuwait and then to a spot in the Desert named 25 Mech. After entering Iraq, they established a base in Tallil and then moved again to Balad. When it was time to move to Balad Josh was part of an advance party to identify where they would set up camp. This was the only time he was ever in a convoy during combat. “…over the course of three days I got to see a lot of Iraq from the ground…”. The infantry was pushing forward and as the convoy followed behind “we could see all of the smoking tanks, wreckage of the battles that had happened a day or two before”.
Josh described Iraq as a beautiful country if it weren’t for a major war taking place. The areas where Josh was located were between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, also known as Mesopotamia. “It’s beautiful, it’s tropical in certain places”. “Northern Iraq near Iran has beautiful mountains like Colorado and near the Syrian border, there is nothing but desert”. Initially the Iraqi’s welcomed the Americans, but as time passed their support faded.
Josh was able to do what he loved best and that was fly helicopters. “I was the Operations Officer so I got to participate in a lot of the missions we did…we were moving equipment forward and hauling bodies out a lot unfortunately…back to Doha to the mortuary where the mortuary teams prepare them and fly them to Germany”. Initially much of the flying was done in the day until they began to lose medevac helicopters. After that the flying was done at night. Eventually he became the platoon leader of eight Chinooks and their crews, which put him in a position to fly full time. Josh’s next step in his career progression was to take a staff job as Battle Captain at the Brigade level. In that role he would be part of the Operations Center that was tracking of all of the missions going on at any point in time in his theater of operation. Josh’s career was moving along but he was drawn to flying and being where the action was.
“Iraq in general was a fascinating experience…it was the first time I got to use the skills that I had trained for…as a soldier. We were getting to do our jobs as war fighters”. Unfortunately, that meant there was a war going on. Josh joined the military to help people and be part of the good guys like in World War II. Despite the heroics and achievements of the men and women in uniform, it is not likely Iraq will be remembered in the same manner as the liberation of Europe in WWII.
In February of ’04 it was time for Josh and his company to rotate back to Germany. When he returned, he was offered a company command which is a significant recognition of leadership ability and progression along his career track. He took over Charlie Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 58th Aviation Regiment.
Josh took over his company and was able to run a very squared away outfit while keeping morale high. Despite this, Josh missed flying and politics of the Army had a way of rearing its ugly head. He began contemplating his career alternatives. He had always been attracted to the Coast Guard and he knew their primary mission was helping people through their search and rescue operations. Soon there was little time to think about alternatives and Josh learned that 30 of his soldiers would be going to Afghanistan as part of a task force. In addition to running two airfields and managing his company, now he had to prepare for the task force to go to war. Although it wasn’t required, Josh decided he would accompany the task force to Afghanistan and ensure his soldiers were supported and their operation was stood up. For the next 10 months they trained to go to war.
What is often overlooked by civilians is the psychological aspect of being a soldier. There is significant amount of mental preparation as well as physical preparation to prepare to deploy to a combat zone. Returning home involves trying to decompress and fit back into daily life where 99.94% of the population has no idea what you have experienced and endured. There is also the reintegration with a spouse and children which can be a difficult adjustment. In this case, to then be told you have ten months of preparation to redeploy into combat after just arriving home, creates a type of mental whiplash and a certain level of constant anxiety. Everyone handles this differently.
Despite this, the task force went about their training. Melissa gave birth to their daughter and three months later Josh deployed to Afghanistan in February 2003. The task force split into two teams. Each team would serve as tactical air traffic control teams. If a big mission was planned, their job would be able to set up an airfield anywhere necessary, move in and set up all of the necessary equipment, erect a tower, establish communications, establish a landing zone or an airfield and direct air traffic in and out of the air field. One team operated out of Bagram in Afghanistan and the other was located in a hot zone near the Pakistani border.
“Iraq and Afghanistan, same war timeframe but completely different experiences for me. Iraq was spread out and there was more traditional warfare. Afghanistan was…pockets of troops all over the country going out on patrols and trying to wrangle cats”.
Josh remembers the base near Pakistan coming under rocket attacks continually. The enemy would lob rockets over the border and then the U.S. would return counter battery fire. “They were good at it. You could see them waking the rounds toward the target. The anticipation of that was nerve-wracking”. The U.S. would often send quick reaction forces out to locate and eliminate the enemy. In Iraq the enemy would sporadically fire rockets, but they were not particularly accurate, and it was not sustained.
In 2005 Josh was inducted into the Order of St. Michael which recognizes aviators who have made significant contributions to the promotion of Army Aviation in ways that standout to subordinates, peers and superiors.
After three months Josh returned to Germany in May of 2005. He knew his next promotion would make him a Major and those promotions come with staff assignments, moving him away from what he really wanted to do, which was fly. He continued to research transferring to the Coast Guard, applied and was accepted. “I feel fortunate they did (accept him); it’s a pretty competitive process”.
The Coast Guard gave Josh the opportunity to choose where he would like to be stationed and what type of helicopter he wanted to fly. Josh wanted to fly the Dolphin helicopter, and he and Melissa wanted to be near family now that they had a new daughter. New Orleans was one of the stations where Dolphin helicopters were used and was also where Melissa’s family was located. Choosing New Orleans was a win-win decision. Their flight into New Orleans was scheduled to land one day after the devastating hurricane, Katrina, rampaged through New Orleans. Katrina was immediately followed by Hurricane Rita. Their flight was diverted to Houston, and it was a few days before they were able to head to New Orleans. They immediately headed to Lafayette, Louisiana and dry ground. Melissa’s family had evacuated there to live with an aunt and uncle.
The Coast Guard gave Josh some time to settle in and decompress from Afghanistan before he had to report for duty. When he did report he found New Orleans looked like Afghanistan. “I left one war zone for another”. He reported to FEMA headquarters and found himself coordinating all of the different contractor aircraft and Homeland Security aircraft similar to his role as Battle Captain in Iraq. FEMA had contracted with several cruise lines to provide temporary housing and Josh and the other workers slept on these cruise ships while working in the city. After a month, life at Air Station New Orleans started to return to normal. Josh missed out on flying the search and rescue missions for Katrina and Rita however, his over his eight-year Coast Guard career Josh would fly numerous search and rescue missions.
“New Orleans is an amazing search and rescue laboratory…because it is by far the busiest air station in the Coast Guard”. The oil industry and its thousands of oil rigs, the fishing industry and the recreational water activities create many opportunities for search and rescue. The bad weather will keep lesser experienced civilian rescue crews from taking off but “we flew in the worst weather out to the oil rigs or ships” for medical emergencies, locating lost or missing hunters and fisherman on the rivers and bayous and other types of rescues.
Flying in bad weather often requires flying using instruments. Pilots can practice flying with instruments but it’s not possible to practice flying into the side of a hurricane or flying in thick fog or high winds. “You only learn by doing it…”. “You’re paired with an aircraft commander that’s been around a while…hopefully they’re good and teach you as you go”. The Dolphin carried a rescue swimmer who was also trained as an EMT. “They’re incredibly comfortable in the water and amazing athletes”.
Oil rigs can be located very far from shore. On one rescue mission Josh recalled his helicopter had to refuel on two different oil rigs before reach the rig where the medical emergency was. Then they had to repeat the refueling on the way back and make it safely to the hospital.
Josh and Melissa loved New Orleans but after four years it was time for another assignment and that meant moving on to Savannah, Georgia. Their son was born one month before they packed up and reported to Coast Guard Air Station Savannah. “That became a really rewarding tour for me as a senior aviator”. Josh was experienced in every mission the Coast Guard could undertake. He became the lead instructor pilot “and I had to teach the missions to all the junior people coming in. I couldn’t choose the nights we flew, but if bad weather was there, I wasn’t cancelling a flight. This is a good training opportunity for us and there is always training to be had”.
Josh talked about the very difficult maneuvers a Coast Guard aviator must be able to execute. One in particular was hovering over open water. There was always the danger of becoming disoriented. “Over land you can triangulate your vision and keep the helicopter steady by comparing where you are and where you should be. When the water is moving underneath you and constantly moving… it’s a special skill and it takes a lot of practice…it’s extremely disorienting”.
Josh left the Army feeling confident in his abilities as a pilot, but the Coast Guard experience made him much better. “The Army is incredibly good at making some of the best helicopter pilots in the world...for the mission they do, flying in and out of tight landing zones, flying low at night, time on target…but not good instrument flyers. Bad weather kills Army aviators…it’s called Inadvertent IMC (Instrument Meteorologic Conditions). IMC is when a pilot must fly using instruments and suffers spacial disorientation because of a lack of visual landmarks. This can lead to a loss of control of the aircraft or cause the pilot to fly into the surrounding terrain. “The Coast Guard is specifically very good at taking pilots and making them into very good, bad weather pilots”.
Josh recalled a rescue mission to an oil rig to pick up a worker that had suffered a severe back injury and was suffering internal bleeding. “A few occasions I was nervous. I landed on an oil rig in the middle of the night in solid fog and high winds. We barely crept our way onto the pad. I could barely see anything”. The oil rig landing pad was 200 feet above the ocean and the helicopter needed to be 50 feet above the deck to begin its decent. “Using the GPS and our altitude and our air speed, we coordinate a reduction in altitude with a reduction in air speed to creep our way down…”. The return flight back was difficult. The city was covered in a fog thick as pea soup and the only recognizable landmark was the upmost portion of the Superdome. The fog prevented landing at any of the area hospitals. The backup plan was to land at the Coast Guard station where they would be met by an ambulance. They eventually found the runway and landed, but not where they expected. The crew had to call the tower and advise they would light flares to mark the perimeter of the aircraft.
The Coast Guard pilots also had to be able to land on the back of Coast Guard cutters, the smallest of which is 210 feet with a landing area of 60 feet. A Dolphin is roughly 45 feet long including the rotor blades. Josh recalled roughly 10 feet between the end of the rotor blades and the bulkhead, leaving little margin for error. “There’s not a lot of space and coming down from a height it looks like you’re landing on a cell phone”. This happens regularly in the Bearing Sea for rescues and off the Florida coast near Cuba and in the waters near Jamacia looking for migrants or drug smugglers.
Other unique missions the Coast Guard have include air intercept responsibility for low flying Cessnas and other ultra-light aircraft in the Washington, DC air space and for events of national significance. At any given time, there are always two Coast Guard crews on duty at Reagan National Airport ready to fly such missions. When a call comes in the crews have no idea what awaits them, but they have to be in the helicopter and airborne in a matter of minutes. Josh recalled providing protection to the Space Shuttle launch pad during a launch. “I got to see the shuttle launch from 1,200 feet (in the air), four miles away”.
Josh was looking ahead and he could see his retirement looming. He decided he wanted to learn to fly fixed wing aircraft and the place to do that was at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Josh qualified to fly fixed wing aircraft and went on to become an instructor for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard students there.
The O’Brien family moved one more time for Josh’s last tour of duty. Josh was finally coming home to New England and was stationed at Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. In this duty station Josh would be flying fixed wing aircraft doing search and rescue. Josh would be recognized again for being part of a heroic mission. In December of 2016 in the middle of a Nor’easter Josh was the co-pilot in a crew that answered a call for assistance on Martha’s Vineyard. A premature baby had been born on the island and wasn’t going to make it without a NICU team. The crew flew from Cape Cod to Logan (Airport) where a team from Tufts met the plane and jumped on board with an incubator. Through the blinding snowstorm they fought their way to the island and landed safely. The NICU team jumped into a waiting ambulance and headed to the hospital. A short while later the team returned with the infant and mother. Everyone was loaded on to the plane, the baby was placed in the incubator, and they took off into the blinding storm again. Another complicating factor was the incubator’s generator which had a six-hour life. The crew safely landed the aircraft at Logan Airport and were met by an ambulance. With a break in the weather the crew returned to the Coast Guard Station on Cape Cod nearly five hours after they had initially gone wheels up. For that mission Josh and the aircrew received the Coast Guard Elmer Stone Fixed Wing Rescue Award for exceptional performance in search and rescue operations. Each year the Coast Guard reviews all of the search and rescue missions and chooses one to receive the Elmer Stone award.
In December of 2018 Josh retired from the Coast Guard and was hired by a major airline flying internationally. He is enjoying his job although it lacks the excitement and adventure the military provided. He is based at Logan Airport, and he has the flexibility to be part of the hockey family that supports his son, a goalie, and gives him time to volunteer and participate in various sports, hobbies, and interests. Although his military career is behind him, he continues to participate in commemorative jumps with a paratrooper organization he belongs to. Josh has jumped into the landing zones used for Operation Overload (D-Day) and Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.
Josh, who is something of a ‘Renaissance Man’ is also an accomplished drummer, a skill he picked up as a child in the isolation of New Hampshire. “I had nothing to do so I begged my mother for a drum set”. While he was on active duty, Josh played the snare drum with the Coast Guard Bagpipe Band. These days, Josh can be found playing with a band at local establishments in the Falmouth area of Cape Cod or with the Falmouth Orchestra playing 12 summer concerts. He furthered his musical talents during COVID when he took up the guitar.
As Josh looked back over his career, he considered himself fortunate to have been able to serve others and eventually find his true calling. “I got way more job satisfaction in the Coast Guard than I ever did in the Army. I really loved flying search and rescue for the Coast Guard”. “I’d much rather save a life than take a life”.
Josh, you have served the citizens of the United States in ways that they will never know. You put yourself in harm’s way and your family has sacrificed so you could serve others. And because they may have met you in possibly their darkest hour, they may never have been able to express their gratitude for what you have done and what was involved. On behalf of every one of the citizens of the United States, we thank you and your family for your service and sacrifices. Keep on working on those rudiments, Bonzo would be proud.
“Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew —And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space,– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
John Magee, High Flight