{"id":935,"date":"2022-11-01T14:48:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T19:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/?p=935"},"modified":"2025-12-09T14:48:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:48:22","slug":"coast-guard-jayhawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/coast-guard-jayhawk\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Jayhawk (helicopter) got its name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo: The Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We here at KU Alumni have searched for years\u2014decades, actually\u2014to unearth the story behind how the Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk, the U.S. Coast Guard\u2019s lifesaving search and rescue helicopter, got its name. Crickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until, that is, the recent emergence of an email chain among a handful of alumni, one of whom had reached a Sikorsky vice president who found in the Sikorsky Archives a 1989 newsletter announcing that Janice Silves, a marine science technician 2nd Class stationed in Huntington, West Virginia, had won the Coast Guard\u2019s contest to name the new helicopter that at the time carried the model identifier HH-60J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the new model was based on the Navy\u2019s Seahawk helicopter, Silves played on the \u201cJ\u201d to come up with \u201cJayhawk\u201d for the fleet\u2019s newest medium-range recovery helicopter. The Sikorsky News quotes project manager Capt. Jerald Heinz as noting that Jayhawk \u201cstands for perseverance, dedication and the will to succeed. It also exemplifies the men and women of the Coast Guard today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Aviation Association<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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