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173rd Assault Helicopter Company Photo and Video


Bud
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The first is my unit turning final in a pickup zone in Vietnam in III Corps Vietnam in 1966. You can tell it is a "pickup" zone because most of the door guns fired by the crew chief (right side) or door gunner (left side) are in the down position. The crew chief side was mandated by the location of the fuel tank fill port, right on the "D" and "H" models, left on the "C" models.This is a trail position, the easiest for the pilots to fly and also the easiest for "landing to the chalk", i.e. the 'chalk' is the passengers for each aircraft. These are "D" model Hueys, the under powere earlier version of the UH-1 'slicks' or troop carriers. That meant that, at most, they could only p[ick up six infantry soldiers at a time. I took this picture from my aircraft by climbing out opf the crew well (where the M60D gun mount was located and moving up to shoot the picture between the two pilots.

 

173rd_AHC_003.JPG

 

The second is short video i put on YouTube. When i first arrived in-country in January 1966 (I went over with my unit) I was assigned to the 2nd platoon 'slicks'. After getting the **** shot out of my aircraft in a landing zone near Duc Hoa, I voluntarily extended my tour in the unit to transfer to the 'gun' or 3rd platoon. The gun platoon was the armed Huey Charlie Model gunships. I loved them so much (and my unit) that I stayed in country for another two years, a tot al of 32 months.

 

This video is a snip from about 90 minutes of video that I took spanning the entire time period. They were originally shot in Super 8mm and I later had them changed to digital video.

 

In this clip, I am sitting on the left side of the aircraft with the striped helmet visor and wearing glasses. My buddy Jim, another crew chief is flying as my gunner on this day. Some things to watch for; Jim's gun, a standard M60, is suspended by a bungee cord from the overhead as was mine. But Jim's is mounted, and is fired, upside down. This was so the ejecting brass and belt links wpould fall into the aircraft rathger then outside where the wind would sent them right through the tail rotor.

 

Once over my side, you will see grab a smaoke grenade and then a sudden flash. This is the fuze of the smoke grenade firing. With sm=oke grenades, we normally held on to them with the smoke streaming behind us so our wingman would see it and know that a smoke grenade was going to mark something (which would be relayed to him via the VHF radio). You will also see a couple of 2.75inch aerial rockets launch from below me and also the XM-134 miniguns working out. They were fired by the left seat in the cockpit, usually where the aircraft commander sat:

 

 

You will also notice at the end of the video that the camera appears to go flying (which it does). The pilot in tright cockpit seat knocks it out of Jim's hands when he realizes that we are posing for a movie nstead of firing at the target. This was a real gunfight.

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You will also notice at the end of the video that the camera appears to go flying (which it does). The pilot in tright cockpit seat knocks it out of Jim's hands when he realizes that we are posing for a movie nstead of firing at the target. This was a real gunfight.

Naught Boys !! :devil:

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My Brother, David Perry, ended up in The 187th AHC in '71 - '72 and returned to the states when they disbanded. He died six months later from a fall from a building in Indianapolis while working so I did not get to know much about his service. I was only 14 and did not get to see him after he returned to the States. They have a hold on his records still today at the DOA Human Resources Dept. and will not release them and will not give any reason or reply?! I think they were called the "The Crusaders"/"Blackhawks"!? http://www.187thahc.net/

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My Brother, David Perry, ended up in The 187th AHC in '71 - '72 and returned to the states when they disbanded. He died six months later from a fall from a building in Indianapolis while working so I did not get to know much about his service. I was only 14 and did not get to see him after he returned to the States. They have a hold on his records still today at the DOA Human Resources Dept. and will not release them and will not give any reason or reply?! I think they were called the "The Crusaders"/"Blackhawks"!? http://www.187thahc.net/

 

 

Theye were indeed the Blackhawks (radio call sign) but were forced to change the "Crusaders" when another aviation unit arrived in-country aand already 'dibs" on the name.

 

A very good friend of mine, Major Ron Timberlake flew with them on his first tour and as a Cobra aircraft comander in 1972 when he was 'busting tanks" near Loc Ninh.

 

Aviation artist Joe Kline did this painting of the unit action 11/27/1968:

 

Crusade1%20copy.jpg

 

You can read more about the Crusaders/Blackhawks at their website:

 

187th Assault Helicopter Company

 

In my work as a military history researcher for the US Dept of Veterans Affairs, i collected many original documents incvluding yearly unit histories from the 187th. Unfortunately, I did not get 1971-72. But you can read the others online at

 

www.vietnam.ttu.edu.

 

That's the Virtual Vietnam Archives. Just type "Bud Harton" in the Collection Title block of the search page

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Great post Bud - thanks!

 

I had no idea one could fire an M-60 upside down... I guess I personally never would have thought to try it! Could he hit with it or was it a matter of "fire enough rounds and you're bound to hit something?"

 

MW

 

P.S. That minigun firing so close to you must have meant you REALLY felt that thing going...

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Great post Bud - thanks!

 

I had no idea one could fire an M-60 upside down... I guess I personally never would have thought to try it! Could he hit with it or was it a matter of "fire enough rounds and you're bound to hit something?"

 

MW

 

P.S. That minigun firing so close to you must have meant you REALLY felt that thing going...

 

 

what?

 

Sorry the minigun noise on one side and the main transmission on the other side has destroyed my hearing.

 

It was absolutely amazing how accurate you could get, exspecially when firing 100% tracer.

 

Our 60s were customized. that is, we added a couple of nickels behind the buffer and then added a half of operating rod spring to the existing operating run spring viola! we had a 60 firing well above 1000 rounds per minute. We used to fire a single burst on a gi=un a gun run which often lasted up to 30 seconds. that means the "burst" was upwards of 500 rounds long. You could see the barrel turn red right behind the gas piston, then yellow and finally white at which point the barrel would literally start to droop. When that happened, you flipped the barrel locking lever up, fired a round which would take the barrel "down range" and we would throw another one in and go back to firing.

 

Good times, I still miss them. If I didn't get my a$$ shot off (literally) I would probably still be there.

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