Early in the morning of January 3, 1944 the USS Turner, anchored in Ambrose Channel between New York and New Jersey, suffered a series of shattering magazine explosions after escorting a convoy from Gibraltar, Spain. The destroyer later sank with a loss of many lives.  More than 150 men were picked up by Coast Guard craft and rushed to Sandy Hook Hospital in New Jersey.  Due to the numerous casualties, the hospital quickly exhausted its supply of blood plasma. With many men’s lives at stake, LCDR Erickson lashed two cases of plasma to the floats of a HNS-1 helicopter and took off from the Battery in New York in sleet-driven 20- to 25-knot winds.  He left his Copilot ENS Bolton behind to save weight The weather had deteriorated to such an extent that all the air fields in the New York area had closed.  Erickson delivered the plasma in 14 minutes, weaving among the confines of high buildings and landing directly on the hospital grounds. Delivery by car would have taken hours.