Although I was in a Naval helicopter squadron I have no war tales to share for Memorial Day.

But I do have true tales:  Once my division officer offered to give me a helicopter ride.   He was always friendly and was sort  of a rebel who resented authority also.  He had to get so many flight hours a month.

We flew a Bell Helicopter (as above).  I thought they were called Belle Helicopters because they looked like little hand-held dinner bells, but actually, they were built by Bell Aircraft Compnay.  When we got way up high in the air and the hangars looked small he looked at me and turned off the engines.  The props stopped.  We started to fall.  The Earth stared rushing up at us.  He looked at me shrugged his shoulders.

As we were almost at the "END" of our fall the propellers started turning then spinning faster and faster.

With the spinning of the props, creating a windmill bowing at the ground, it let us down easy.

The division officer laughed.  He was playing a joke on me.

He said, "You have just experienced auto-rotation."

He said he usually got his flight time in by flying over a nudist colony at Cape May, New Jersey, I should feel special.