Craig Hooper

When a young American sailor aboard the nuclear cruiser USS California was dying of a bursting appendix far out in the Pacific Ocean, he was hundreds of miles beyond the reach of any U.S. Navy helicopter. Fire Controlman Third Class David Henderson needed surgery fast. A ruptured appendix in rough ocean swells can kill a young sailor long before a warship can steam back to port. The U.S. Seventh Fleet called their allies in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. Within minutes, Japan scrambled four aircraft: a P-3C Orion, an HSS-2B helicopter, and two giant four-engine Shin Meiwa US-1A amphibious flying boats. Standard military transports need a concrete runway. Japan's US-1A flying boat was engineered to land directly on open ocean waves up to ten feet high. While the American nuclear cruiser held position in the swells, the orange-and-white Japanese seaplane dropped out of the sky, landed directly on the open Pacific, and taxied right up beside the USS California. Crews transferred Petty Officer Henderson across the waves by boat into the Japanese seaplane. The Japanese pilots gunned all four turboprop engines, lifted off the water, and rushed him to Atsugi and U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka in time for surgery. It was the first open-ocean seaplane transfer in U.S.-Japan history, all for one young American sailor.