This Korean War aviator was the first helicopter pilot to receive MOH

First used by the 1st Air Commando in World War II, the Sikorsky R-4 often fell short of its role in rescuing airmen downed in the mountains and rainforests of the China-Burma-India front but as the first helicopter designed to perform such tasks it set the precedent for a new generation of rotary aircraft. A vastly improved design, the Sikorsky S-61 first took off in February 1946 and got its baptism of fire just four years later when North Korea invaded the South. Among the pioneers who demonstrated what it could do was John Koelsch.

Born on Dec. 22, 1923, in London, England, to American parents, Koelsch and his family returned to the U.S. just one year later, settling in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Koelsch enrolled in Princeton University on Sept. 1, 1941, but when the United States en