Sikorsky UH-19D 54-1420 United States Army

These are 1/72 scale decals for the Sikorsky UH-19D Chickasaw, serial 54-1420, assigned to the Ohio Army National Guard — one of the most historically significant helicopters in American medical history, used in the world's first hospital-based medical helicopter rescue program, founded at The Ohio State University in 1967.

The program was the vision of Dr. Stuart S. Roberts, a trauma surgeon and Ohio State College of Medicine professor, who recognized that the battlefield medevac lessons being written in Korea and Vietnam could save lives on American highways and in civilian trauma. As Dr. Roberts put it: "If you take the lessons of battlefield medicine — number one, instant treatment, number two, rapid transport — and apply those to civilian trauma, it would revolutionize survival. And it did." In 1967, he arranged to use Ohio Army National Guard helicopters and pilots to transport patients from accident scenes and remote community hospitals directly to Ohio State University Hospital, coordinating volunteer surgeons and medical personnel who provided in-flight treatment en route. The program was based at The Ohio State University Airport.

On the historic first flight, 54-1420 was piloted by Colonel Bob Orr of the Ohio National Guard, with Army nurse Jean Reid aboard to provide in-flight medical care — the crew that made history by demonstrating that rapid helicopter transport combined with immediate medical treatment could transform civilian trauma survival. The collaboration brought together The Ohio State University, the Ohio Highway Patrol, the Ohio National Guard, and the office of Governor James Rhodes — a pioneering partnership that proved what was possible when aviation and medicine worked together.

Before 1967, seriously injured civilians on U.S. highways had a lower chance of survival than soldiers wounded in the jungles of Vietnam. Dr. Roberts' program began to change that, and the model he established at Ohio State became the foundation for the nationwide network of Life Flight air medical services that saves tens of thousands of lives every year. The UH-19D Chickasaw was the U.S. Army's utility transport variant of the Sikorsky S-55, powered by a nose-mounted Wright R-1300 radial engine with a spacious, unobstructed fuselage cabin — well suited to the urgent medical transport mission it pioneered in civilian hands.

A truly unique airframe at the intersection of military aviation and medical history — the direct ancestor of every hospital helicopter flying today. Please allow some time for decal printing and shipping.