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White & Red 222nd Aviation Battalion Huey Alaska 1982.


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Here one of my photos I've been able to get scaned and posted finally. A 222nd Avn Bn Huey, bringing in our Company A 4/9 Inf's Rucks on a sling load, more were coming in as I snaped this bird. Photo taken in late September 1982 at Eielson Air Force Base's maneuver area.

post-34986-0-75644900-1371542750.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
  • 11 months later...

I love those old Arctic Paint Schemes--- Brings back memories, as I flew with the 222nd from 75-78 and 83-86.

No kidding, were you a pilot or aircrewman?

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Pics bring back memories from my days with USARAL and the 172nd Artic Light Infantry Brigade in 1971 and 72. I was stationed at both Ft. Wainwright and Ft. Richardson and remember a B-17 painted red and white at Eielson Air Force Base used for forest fire fighting. They also had the navy version of a B-24 with the single tail, I forget it's official designation, but I don't recall it being painted red and white. I also remember being on winter war games called "Ace Card Bethel" and "Ace Card V" where we were transported by train and then vehicles. When we went to Bethel, Alaska we were flown in by C-130s from Elmendorf Air Force Base. The 172nd was sent to Portage Glacier by those Hueys when we were searching for US Senator Hal Boggs and another US Senator that went missing in a plane crash. Nixon even sent a SR-71 to Elmendorf to help search for the missing Senators. Alaska was really a great assignment, especially after Vietnam.

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Flight Surgeon.

You were the Battalion Flight Surgeon? Fascinating. Not being familar with the overall TOE of a 60s-early 80s Avn Bn, did you have a counterpart in the Battalion who was the regular Battalion Medical Officer? In the 4/9thin 81-82 we had one who was a either a CWO3 or a CWO 4.

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You were the Battalion Flight Surgeon? Fascinating. Not being familar with the overall TOE of a 60s-early 80s Avn Bn, did you have a counterpart in the Battalion who was the regular Battalion Medical Officer? In the 4/9thin 81-82 we had one who was a either a CWO3 or a CWO 4.

Nope, normally only one doc in the aviation battalion 75-78. The Flight Surgeon was the Battalion Surgeon. For a period, we had a small aviation section at Ft. Richardson, so they had a Flight Surgeon as well, since they were 350 miles south of the Battalion HQ at Ft. Wainwright. The Ft. Wainwright Flight Surgeon also supported Flight Operations out of Fort Greely at Delta Junction. The most interesting missions were water bucket fire-fighting missions (UH-1 and CH-47), and the High Altitude Rescue Team which rescued people off the top of Mount McKinley with a CH-47 (I think our highest actual pickup was about 17,000 feet-- not bad, since the aircraft was only rated to about 14,000 feet).

 

83-86 I ran the base hospital, and kept flying with the 222nd occasionally, though they had their own Flight Surgeon at the Battalion.

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Nope, normally only one doc in the aviation battalion 75-78. The Flight Surgeon was the Battalion Surgeon. For a period, we had a small aviation section at Ft. Richardson, so they had a Flight Surgeon as well, since they were 350 miles south of the Battalion HQ at Ft. Wainwright. The Ft. Wainwright Flight Surgeon also supported Flight Operations out of Fort Greely at Delta Junction. The most interesting missions were water bucket fire-fighting missions (UH-1 and CH-47), and the High Altitude Rescue Team which rescued people off the top of Mount McKinley with a CH-47 (I think our highest actual pickup was about 17,000 feet-- not bad, since the aircraft was only rated to about 14,000 feet).

 

83-86 I ran the base hospital, and kept flying with the 222nd occasionally, though they had their own Flight Surgeon at the Battalion.

hospital.jpg

You were in command of Bassett? That's a Full Colonel slot right?

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hospital.jpg

You were in command of Bassett? That's a Full Colonel slot right?

Yep, though I took it over on "Direction of the President" orders as a LTC and got promoted to Colonel later. The DP orders were necessary as there were Colonels on the Staff who outranked me, but the Army cut me orders authorizing me to command more senior people. A great assignment!

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1-222nd Aviation is the training battalion at Ft. Eustis now and has been for quite some time (I was with them when I went through AIT in 1995). Each company was a different airframe. I was in B Co and we had all Apache and OH-58D related MOSs there. A Co might have been Blackhawks with C Co being Chinooks but don't quote me on that. I do know it is totally different today.

 

Mike

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Yep, though I took it over on "Direction of the President" orders as a LTC and got promoted to Colonel later. The DP orders were necessary as there were Colonels on the Staff who outranked me, but the Army cut me orders authorizing me to command more senior people. A great assignment!

You must be the member who has held the highest rank, I wonder if you are, any members who were are Generals? :D

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The 222nd Aviation Battalion at Wainwright in the 70s and 80s was the most diverse and largest aviation battalion in the Army. It had almost every aircraft in the normal Army inventory except training helicopters. I don't remember all the units, and my stuff is in storage, but I do remember the 242nd ASH (Sugar Bears), which flew Chinooks (and flew the High Altitude Rescue Team which rescued people off of Mt. McKinley/Denali), The HQ Company with its Hueys, the 568th Transportation Company (Aviation Maintenance), The 120th Attack Helicopter Company (a Cobra Company with OH-58s as well), and a Fixed Wing Section (Command Flight Detachment) with first U-8s and then C-12s. The 353rd had Flying Cranes (CH-54). As I remember, at least in the 70s, the CH-47s, The UH-1s, the OH-58s, and the AH-1s were all painted in the Arctic (Red and White) Paint Scheme.

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I remember the Flying Cranes in the 70s would carry big containers of water underneath for fire fighting duties. And the Cobras were painted red and white and had yellow shark mouths painted on the front. The Chinooks were OD green. And the fixed wing aircraft were also painted red and white. And you are right, they had a very diverse collection of aircraft.

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In the early 80s there was a UH1 painted a very unique Camo color, Dark Green base with light OD mottle if I can recall correctly, it was seen flying around on one FX in 1982, an NCO in my Platoon said it was the personel C&C of the CO of 172nd LIB, the BG in Command of units in Alaska, or the 172nd LIB Brigade CO, the Colonel, can't rembember which it was.

 

 

See posts #9 and #10 on the command muddle of the old U.S.Army Alaska.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/144792-172nd-infantry-brigade-beret-display/

It's also an excellent topic on the OD Beret, if one has not seen it yet.

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  • 8 months later...

Now able to post the Chinooks, they too had the same White and Red paint jobs, though I did see on occasion one or two OD Chinooks, can't say I ever seen an OD Huey up there. Both fotos taken in Late May 82.

 

post-34986-0-07065000-1430934946.jpgpost-34986-0-41733900-1430935000.jpg

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Was it red, or the color known as "International Orange", similar to that used in the Antarctic?

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Here's one I completely forgot I had, one that my ex girl friend enlarged and redid in Black and White back in the early 90s (She was a photography buff :D)

 

Facing forward towards the pilots, a FTX, late September 1981.

post-34986-0-23308000-1431220116.jpg

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  • 6 months later...

Found this one. Not from the old Alaska based 222nd Avn, but from the U.S. Air Force's 5040th Helicopter Squadron, Elmendorf, photo from around 1969, interesting that this one, an old Piasecki H-21 is painted Silver and Red rather than White and Red.

 

post-34986-0-64111500-1448556458.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

post-34986-0-57215200-1451618060.jpgpost-34986-0-63603600-1451618070.jpg

 

These from the same Air Force flying unit at Elemendorf from around the same time, here the quality of these online finds make them seem white rather then Silver, I guess there still Silver.

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