April Volunteer Profile – Hank Siegfried

Volunteer Hank Siegfried

Our April volunteer profile is on Hank Siegfried.  He grew up in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from high school in 1957. In November he was invited by his Uncle Sam to enlist in either the US Army or the US Navy, some of his relatives encouraged him to go to sea and so he did…

Hank completed basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Command in February 1958 and then was sent to Norman, Oklahoma (is there Navy in Oklahoma?) for six weeks receiving aviation preparation training. From Norman, he went next to the Naval Aviation Training Command at Memphis, Tennessee, for A school in aviation electricity.

Hank’s first squadron would be the unique airship patrol squadron, ZW-1, at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey. ZW-1 flew the ZPG-2W and ZPG-3W early warning blimp.

ZPG-3 attached to its mooring mast.

Just before getting his next orders in January 1962 , Hank was send to augment HS-7 on the USS Randolph for two months where he worked on the H-34 Seahorse Helicopter.

H-34 helicopter picking up swimmers, HS-7 helo on right.

After HS-7 and his only carrier duty, Hank was sent to B school for Advanced Aviation Electronics school and was kept there as an instructor until 1966. Next came a tour at VP-56 in Brunswick, Maine, flying the P2V Neptune and P-3B Orion antisubmarine aircraft.

P2V Neptune aircraft in the snow.

P-3 Orion antisubmarine aircraft

In 1969 Hank became a TAR (Training and Administration of the Reserve) helping to train reservists at the Naval Air Reserve Training Unit at NAS Lakehurst, NJ.  His next duty station was at NAS Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, with the Reserve ASW (Antisubmarine Warfare) Tactics Training school, where he retired in 1976 as a Senior Chief.

In 1977, he came south to Columbia, South Carolina and completed his masters and doctorate in Education. Hank was hired to oversee the education programs of the South Carolina Department of Corrections and worked for them nineteen years, eventually retiring again and moving to Mount Pleasant, SC. He joined our volunteer staff in 2000 and has been a valuable and consistent docent for Patriots Point with his knowledge of naval aviation and education background.

We salute Hank for his continued service to the nation!

Hank in action with a group of school children in front of the E-1 Tracer early warning aircraft.