Col Evans and his wife Vicki had been enjoying watching helicopter training drills at the fireside of their camping spot on Wednesday and had no idea something had gone wrong until Thursday morning.
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Vicki had gone for a morning walk around 7am when she saw the wreck on the shoreline of Greenpatch Beach.
"My wife discovered it this morning at about 7am ... and came back and said come down the beach! come down the beach, there is a chopper in the water!" Mr Evans said.
Mr Evans, who is a former Bomaderry High School teacher said the couple had been camping just minutes from the water for three days and seen regular helicopter drills.
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"We were sitting around the campfire last night and a couple of choppers came over dangling guys from lines from the choppers in the tree tops which was quite incredible."
They have raised four kids in the area with the family home just 10 minutes from the beach where they said helicopter drills had been pretty frequent for about three weeks.
However, the couple said there was little they could hear to indicate a helicopter was in trouble on Wednesday night.
"We left the fire just before 9 o'clock to go back to the van and apparently that's when they had to ditch the chopper," Mr Evans said.
"There wasn't any noise different to the other operations that had been going on.
"They come down really close so they're pretty loud - there wasn't any differential in terms of noise that we could pick up."
The MRH-90 Taipan multi-role helicopter had 10 crew members on board who were all pulled from the water with two crew members treated for minor injuries on Wednesday night.
"Defence can confirm a helicopter incident occurred near Jervis Bay, New South Wales on the evening of 22 March 2023," a statement read.
"All Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel on board have been safely recovered from the water.
"At this time Defence's priority is supporting the ADF members involved in the incident and their families."
Paramedics attended College Rd around 9pm to assess the crew.
Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart said quick responses from ADF personnel and emergency services and well-drilled teams prevented a potential tragedy.
"We will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident to determine the cause and ensure the platform remains safe to operate," he said.
