On November 29, 1945, a Sikorsky R-5 hovers over a grounded oil barge in Long Island Sound off Fairfield, CT, to perform the first helicopter hoist rescues in aviation history. The rescue site was a short flight from the Sikorsky factory in Connecticut. Joseph Pawlik, captain of the barge aground on Penfield Reef, off Fairfield, CT, is lowered to safety from a Sikorsky R-5 helicopter piloted by Jimmy Viner, the company chief pilot, assisted by Capt. Jack Beighle of the Army Air Force. The Nov. 29, 1945 hoist rescue was the precursor to many thousands of missions to come.