Sailors assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 3 “Merlins” celebrated reaching 300,000 Class A Mishap-free hours, October 25.

A Class A mishap is classified as an accident with a destroyed aircraft, damages that exceeds $2 million, loss of life, or permanent total disability.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the Merlin team in accomplishing 300,000 Class A mishap-free flight hours. This accomplishment is truly a testament of the outstanding teamwork and contribution of every Merlin and would not have been possible without a complete all-hands dedicated effort,” said Cmdr. Sean Rocheleau, commanding officer HSC-3.  “From all rates and paygrades, our culture of safety first and by-the-book procedures was vital to the success of the HSC-3 team and there is not one Merlin who was not a contributor to this milestone. I look forward to the continued success of the Mighty Merlins!”

Lt. David Murphy, N7 at HSC-3 mentioned 44 years of flying without a Class A mishap is an outstanding accomplishment.

Helicopter Combat Squadron (HC) 3 was established in 1967. The squadron originally flew the H-46 Sea Knight. The squadron celebrated 50,000 Class A Mishap-free hours in 1981. They started flying the MH-60S Sea Hawk in 2002 and transitioned into HSC-3 in 2005. HSC-3 is currently the largest helicopter Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) in the Navy, training pilots to fly the MH-60S, SH-60F, and the HH-60H.

In 2012, Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 10 decommissioned and most of the Sailors from the command transferred to HSC-3 along with many of the helicopters. This increased the number of Sailors stationed at HSC-3 from 625 to more than 800, and the number of helicopters from 22 to 32.

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