We have been learning about Karl Porisch, a 1963 Jackson High School graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree at Mankato State College in 1968. He signed up for Marine Corps flight training and completed the 12-week, Platoon Leaders Class (PLC), receiving his commission as a second lieutenant of Marines. Completing PLC was only the beginning of his training.

“At that point you went to Basic School, which was to train you further as an officer. You had platoon tactics; company tactics; and you fired every hand-held weapon in the Marine Corps. A demolition class taught you how to use C4 (military-grade plastic explosive). I think they wanted as many platoon commanders as they could get. It made sense because that’s where the attrition was in Vietnam. We had almost a month of map training. We used it in Vietnam where we had a map of the area and you had to know how to read that map.”

Karl’s housing situation changed dramatically from the Spartan barracks of PLC as his then-spouse, Jeri, accompanied him to Basic School.

“We lived in Woodbridge, north of Quantico ten or 15 miles. I car-pooled. I was married so I was a ‘brown bagger.’ If you lived off-post, you could not wear the work uniform to work. You had to change and that’s why we had a locker in the BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters). We started in January and graduated in April.”

Karl completed Basic School and then confronted a flight training decision. The Navy Flight School was at Pensacola Naval Air Station.

“Pensacola could not train enough helicopter pilots to keep up with Vietnam. That should have said something to me, you know? (Karl chuckled) If you went through Pensacola, based on the needs of the Marine Corps, you could either go jets or you could go helicopters. But the Army dangled this carrot in front of you. If you went through Flight School in the Army, they were going to pay you per diem of $16 a day. I thought, ‘That’s not bad money.’ So that’s what I did. It was 16 weeks in Mineral Wells, Texas, west of Dallas/Fort Worth.”

Karl and Jeri made their second Marine Corps move, this time to central Texas. He described Mineral Wells’ initial Flight School training regimen.

“The training facility by Mineral Wells was an Army base. Two weeks was classroom –Ground School. The Army training program hammered into you the weather and the systems of the (aircraft) you were going to fly. You’d sit in class and it was all on a TV. The minute the class was done you took the test. I suppose they hoped we’d all recall what we just did.”

The instructors held a weekly Safety Review for the flight students.

“Every Monday morning they’d have a safety review. Obviously, there were going to be crashes. Most of them, unfortunately, were student pilot error. There were some fatalities. They would be quite detailed about why they felt the accident happened. They would show the aircraft. People sat up and paid attention. It was pretty intense.”

Karl explained how their civilian instructor pilots (IPs) trained them on the helicopter trainer they flew from Dempsey Heliport at Mineral Wells.

“Once you finished the classroom work, they assigned three students for each instructor pilot. Two of you would ride the bus to the stage field. Whoever was on the schedule first would fly out. That was his training period. When he was done, the middle guy would get in the helicopter and fly around, doing his training. Then the third guy would get in and fly with the instructor pilot back to the heliport.”

Karl described the TH-55 trainer they learned to fly and its basic flight controls.

“It was a little, side-by-side, single rotor helicopter. It had no doors. (Karl chuckled) The helicopter had three flight controls. The stick in the middle was the ‘cyclic’ and that would make the helicopter go forward, backward, left, or right. It had anti-torque pedals down in the bubble that controlled the tail rotor. When you added power, the engine torque made the helicopter want to turn, so you’d put in opposite pedal. They would start by giving you just the throttle that was on the other control, the ‘collective.’ You pulled up on that and put a power demand on the engine for you to lift off the ground. That’s where the throttle was. So, as you are pulling up on the collective, you had to add power. They would do each of those until you were coordinated enough. You didn’t have to worry about the pedals or the cyclic — they did that. So, when you were ready with the collective, they’d go to the pedals and after that, they’d give you the cyclic. By fifteen hours they expected you were ready to solo.”

That solo flight was a big deal and Karl remembered his.

“We were going around one day and (his IP) said, ‘Land her on that first pad.’ I started getting out and he said, ‘Where are you going? You are ready to go on your own.’ (Karl laughed) The first time you did that yourself it’s odd because there is nobody next to you. You think, ‘Am I ready for this?’ Once you soloed, when you rode back on the bus they stopped at the Holiday Inn in Mineral Wells; hauled your butt off the bus; and threw you in the pool.”

Karl’s next training stop was at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia.

©2025 William D. Palmer.