Wayne Leydsman:  

Life Autobiography: This is a long narrative! Updated Feb 2017 As of September 16th 2016, I am now among the unemployed, being RETIRED! I have served Salt Lake City for over 39 years! Most of that time on the SLC Fire Department. Prior to that I was on active duty in the United States Coast Guard as an officer and aviator (pilot) flying mostly Sikorsky HH52A helicopters. Bev and I married on January 3, 2013. It was a cold day, but the sun shined, and it felt good. Our ceremony was in the morning at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint's Provo Temple. Bev had the flu for a week prior and that morning she felt much better. Many family members and friends came from a far. The ceremony was beautiful. Later that evening we had a reception at the church that is right next door to her home, now our home! (I eventually sold my Salt Lake City home and bought this, her family home, which is now OUR humble home in Provo, Utah.) My work commute in Salt Lake City went from 3 miles to 46! As a result, I usually took the commuter train to avoid all the rush hour traffic. My normal work days started extra early, up at 4 am. This I did for over 3 years prior to my retirement. I worked 4-10 hour days and was on call while I worked out of the city's Fire Marshal office. Since I moved, I was rarely called back unless it was a really big event! Bev is a tall, calm, lovely person, the only girl in a family of four brothers. She was pretty tough as a young girl and enjoyed baseball. We have a great time together. She was a teacher having taught for twenty years at BYU and several years as an elementary teacher both in Utah and California. When she was in college she was on the women softball team playing first base, catcher and right field. She was also a great swimmer, something we both enjoy. We have lots planned for retirement, visiting family and friends, visiting the National Parks, taking flying trips, not to mention gardening, woodworking and doing lots of fun things together like working on the old family home. She is a great copilot! Her dad taught her well. She is a 'miss fix-it' and build it person.' We are soon planning on being 'senior' missionaries for two years for our church, hopefully overseas. But we will go wherever we are sent. Prior adventures in life: A good title would be, " Lots of Ups and Downs" Life is an adventure, We are here to learn and to grow. So, smile, "We don't live in a perfect World..." a quote from my dad, that I pass along. (He had a few other additions to that quote.) While at Franklin High School in NJ, I took flying lessons at Kupper Airport, now Central Jersey Airport. On the days I could, when not swimming on the New Brunswick, Raritan Valley YMCA swim team, I would often work at the airport after school, fueling and washing planes, sweeping up the hanger, cleaning the bathrooms all to earn money for flying lessons. I also spent my summers working at Rutgers University, working at the turf grass research facility for Dr. Reed Funk. I learned a lot about lawns and golf course greens. Most of my earnings went for those flying lessons. I loved to fly, and it grew into a passion. I set a career goal to be an airline pilot. Hence, my interest in math and the physical sciences. I earned my Private Pilot License as I completed my senior year in high school. After FHS graduation, I went to Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho, and then the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Dad retired, sold our home in Somerset, N. J., and my parents moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Ricks College, where I was going when my parents moved, was about 250 miles north of SLC. (My dad, before coming to the USA had a job in aviation, working for an aircraft manufacturer in his native Holland.) My folks were supportive of my aviation goals, but decided that I had to work hard for my goal to be a pilot. So, I had to earn it. When they saw I was serious, they did help with some expenses, which I deeply appreciated. Later my Dad purchased a Cessna 172. I was the primary pilot and had it at Ricks College in Idaho and would fly it to Salt Lake City on many weekends and holidays-when the weather was good. Once it wasn't so good-but that is another story. We did take several family trips and my younger brother and I had the opportunity to fly trips together. They were great adventures. By 19, I had earned my Commercial Pilots Certificate. Ricks College had a great aviation program back then and I took extra classes even though I was not in their aviation program. Later, while at the University of Utah, during the Vietnam War Era, with a low draft number, an opportunity was presented to apply and compete for the Coast Guard Officer aviation program. I was one of two, of the final ninety six qualifying applicants that were accepted and went to Naval Aviation Schools Command in Pensacola. This was near the end of the Vietnam Conflict and flying slots were tougher to come by, especially in the Coast Guard! Back then the Navy taught you to fly airplanes first with the T-34B, and the T-28's. (The T-28 was, and is my all time favorite flying machine! It had a 1425 HP old time radial engine, and was lots of fun to fly.) As an advanced student at NAS Whiting, outside of Pensacola, I was often the lead solo student on our group/formation cross country training trips perhaps because I already had a commercial pilots license. In any case I had to learn the Navy way to fly! After that, I transitioned to helicopter school flying out of NAS Ellison, flying Bell TH-57 Bell Jet Ranger helicopters and then UH-1's Huey's. While there, I had my first real scare while flying the TH-57 Jet Ranger. Two students would fly out together to do training. That day, I as a senior student, I was assigned the shiny Commanding Officer's helicopter, "Pillowcase 01." It was the nicest one and rarely used, unless all the other machines were in maintenance. This helicopter had a recent newly overhauled small Allison jet (turbine) engine. I was assigned a Marine student to be my spotter, due the the high amount of traffic in the training areas. The flight seemed to go well. The whole flight I kept feeling a very high frequency vibration. It was faint, but made me a bit more nervous and wary. All else seem OK. Instruments were all in the green. While enroute, back to NAS Ellison, there was a momentary squealing sound. It went away, but we were over the high pines of Alabama, just north of the Florida border. I immediately headed for a subdivision of homes. Then, the sound came back, the helicopter jerked, the warning panel lit up like a Christmas tree, including the one at the top, that spelled F-I-R-E! Down we go. I still had control, the engine quit and had gone into an auto-rotation! (A glide in a helicopter.) My glide path was to be into the trees. I cheated and pulled the collective a bit, slowing the main rotor rpm to near critical. (Maple seed effect-is an auto-rotation.) Over and past the high pine trees and into a backyard, a high tight flair to avoid the house. Best landing I ever made! Thanks to great training-and a lot of 'luck.' Not a scratch on the machine, just burn marks from the engine area and green on the rotor blade tips, from brushing some trees. Anyway, the CO was happy to have his shiny helicopter trucked back in one piece, albeit with a melted jet engine. (The small jet engine was found to have had a defective bearing installed during the overhaul. When the bearing began seizing, the fuel control unit kept adding more and more fuel to keep the power up and in a few moments the rear turbine blades had melted!) Hence the fire and stream of flames coming out of the exhaust, which was seen by another helicopter a mile or two behind me. They though we had crashed into the forest of southern pines. Anyway, helicopter training continued without incident. Later we learned several of us Coast Guard aviators were going to be attached to the Air Force to fly 'Jolly Green' deep rescue missions into North Vietnam! Our orders for additional training were cancelled due to our nation's beginning of deescalation from the Vietnam Conflict. (I later spoke to another Coast Guard officer who was attached to the Air Force as a rescue pilot and he was happy to have survived, while several other CG pilots didn't. I was impressed with his chest of ribbons which only a combat rescue pilot could have.) So, here I was a young Coast Guard Officer and Aviator, having gone through basic training under the Navy/Marines at Pensacola, flight training, and basic survival with some escape and evasion training under the Navy. Using some Boy Scout skills, I learned to survive, eating snakes! Cut them up and cooked them on small fires. There were lots of them around, and they, the snakes, weren't safe! I earned the title of 'Snake Charmer.' (I didn't know what it really meant, but that nickname wasn't forgotten for many years!) My actual Navy/CG flying call sign/given nickname was "DUTCH" which I am proud to have to this day. I earned those 'Wings of Gold' in 1973. I went on to serve as an active duty Coast Guard helicopter pilot for a total of 5 years, mostly flying out of Coast Guard Air Station LAX and being 'detached' flying off of CG Cutters off the West Coast. I was involved in many rescues, helping those in distress, doing routine coastal patrols flights, and even had the chance to be in several movies flying our Coast Guard helos around the LA area. I even found my pict...Expand for more