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Vietnam Helicopters


Rotorwash
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Guys,

I am new to the forum. This appears to be a great place to get in contact with some of the Vietnam vets out there. First, to all the vets' thanks for your service! My father served in the 190th AHC at Bien Hoa from 68-69. I became interested in Vietnam helicopters while researching to build scale model of dad's primary gunship, Gladiator 36. In so doing I have become absolutely immersed in all things Huey. At any rate, I finally built a model of dad's bird and gave it to him for Father's Day.

I have been collecting any and all images associated with helicopter aviation in Vietnam for the last two years. I was wondering would anyone have pictures they are willing to share? I would like to have permission to use them on some of the scale modeling sites as refs (with appropriate credit to the author's, of course). Any and all photos are welcome, but pictures of nose art, armament systems and inside of helos would be very useful. Also, any info you have on them that you'd be willing to share. As an incentive, I will post a photo for every one posted here by another member. These will mostly be from the Army Aviation Museum archives and WILL NOT be posted pics from a unit website. As such they are all public access and may be freely distributed. Here are some examples of the kind of stuff I was hoping to get.

Thanks,

Ray

 

117th AHC UH-1B:

 

UH-1422_1280x857.jpg

 

M21 armament system:

 

7200.jpg

 

190th AHC Gladiator nose art on UH-1B 1969:

 

vietnam93.jpg

 

334th Playboys AH-1G 1968:

 

334thcobra3.jpg

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Chris,

Wow, that was fast! Thank you sir. I love that early high vis scheme. Here's a model of a M-3 armed UH-1B called "Big Train" from 1965 I just finished:

 

PICT4503.jpg

 

alright, a deal's a deal:

 

Here's a couple of 2/20th ARA birds from 1965:

 

firefly ship:

 

4-77tharagriffons4.jpg

 

nose art:

 

4-77tharagriffons5.jpg

 

Keep em coming!

 

Ray

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Charlie Flick

Hello Ray:

 

First, welcome to the Forum. You will like it here.

 

Second, I thought that you might like this one since you also asked for pics of aerial ordnance. This helicopter crewman is seen at Bien Hoa in 1967 carrying linked 40mm grenades. He is wearing a western style holster rig for his .45, a common practice at the time since "fast-draw" techniques had been popularized by western/cowboy TV shows. Many of these rigs were locally made and purchased.

 

Regards,

Charlie Flick

 

BienHoaVietnam1967ChopperGunnerWest.jpg

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The holster rigs were called cheap charlie and my dad had one he used for his model 39 he carried there in 64-65. Unfortunatly my mom did have the affinity for military goodies I had and was tossed when I was a child!

 

Chris

 

Hello Ray:

 

First, welcome to the Forum. You will like it here.

 

Second, I thought that you might like this one since you also asked for pics of aerial ordnance. This helicopter crewman is seen at Bien Hoa in 1967 carrying linked 40mm grenades. He is wearing a western style holster rig for his .45, a common practice at the time since "fast-draw" techniques had been popularized by western/cowboy TV shows. Many of these rigs were locally made and purchased.

 

Regards,

Charlie Flick

 

BienHoaVietnam1967ChopperGunnerWest.jpg

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Hello Ray:

 

First, welcome to the Forum. You will like it here.

 

Second, I thought that you might like this one since you also asked for pics of aerial ordnance. This helicopter crewman is seen at Bien Hoa in 1967 carrying linked 40mm grenades. He is wearing a western style holster rig for his .45, a common practice at the time since "fast-draw" techniques had been popularized by western/cowboy TV shows. Many of these rigs were locally made and purchased.

 

Regards,

Charlie Flick

 

BienHoaVietnam1967ChopperGunnerWest.jpg

 

YIKES!!! Dragging HE rounds on metal PSP! Not very conducive to long life.

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Cobrahistorian

Nah... They've gotta go a certain distance ans spin a certain number of times before they go boom... Honest... ;)

 

Great to see ya on here Ray! Guys, if you have any question about the history of the Huey, Ray's your man!

 

Jon

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Nah... They've gotta go a certain distance ans spin a certain number of times before they go boom... Honest... ;)

 

Great to see ya on here Ray! Guys, if you have any question about the history of the Huey, Ray's your man!

 

Jon

 

Ya, the warhead, but the other end doesn't

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Charlie,

Thanks for the photo and to everyone else for the welcome and info. Ok here's one to compliment that pic. as Paul Harvey might say "the rest of the story":

 

Random0149.jpg

 

Please keep em coming. I always enjoy seeing new Vietnam photos. Thanks again for sharing.

Ray

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Charlie,

UH-1B slick. I love those early shots. Thanks! Here's a UTTHCO (Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company) UH-1B with interesting cammo and very unusual weapons loadout. You can tell it's an early photo by the white rocket pods. Most were painted OD. I can only imagine what it would be like to try and take off with four 19 shot pods full of rockets and a full crew! I bet this one didn't see a lot of action or at least not with a full load of rockets.

Ray

 

doublehog.jpg

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Charlie Flick

Ray:

 

Cool rocket pod shot.

 

I figure that any UH-1 in SEA is of interest to you, so how about this one? I like the paint job.

 

Charlie

 

 

Air_America_Huey_ed.jpg

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I've got some slides my dad took on his 69 tour. It's of a UH-1 outfitted with infrared detection gear, the slide lists it as UH-1 "infant" it was apparently an experimental system for picking up enemy at nite? Don't recall more details. I'm going to get these slides converted over and will upload them

 

Chris

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Charlie,

Thanks for the Air America pic. That's a Bell 204B which had the same lengthened tailboom and 48ft 205 rotor as the Air Force UH-1F, but used the Lycoming T-53 engine.

 

Chris,

The INFANT (Iroquois Night Fighter and Night Tracker) system is definitely of interest to me. Thanks for offering to share those photos! I can't wait to see em. Your dad wouldn't happen to have been in the 191st AHC would he? In the meantime here's the INFANT system installed on a sateside bird.

Ray

 

5274.jpg

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Charlie,

Thanks for the Air America pic. That's a Bell 204B which had the same lengthened tailboom and 48ft 205 rotor as the Air Force UH-1F, but used the Lycoming T-53 engine.

 

Chris,

The INFANT (Iroquois Night Fighter and Night Tracker) system is definitely of interest to me. Thanks for offering to share those photos! I can't wait to see em. Your dad wouldn't happen to have been in the 191st AHC would he? In the meantime here's the INFANT system installed on a sateside bird.

Ray

 

5274.jpg

HI Ray,

Actually he was with ACTIV on his second tour and worked on the field testing of INFANT and other things. Thanks very much for the explanation of the meaning of Infant!

Chris

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HI Ray,

Actually he was with ACTIV on his second tour and worked on the field testing of INFANT and other things. Thanks very much for the explanation of the meaning of Infant!

Chris

 

Chris,

He was with ACTIV! That's the Army Concept Team in Vietnam for those who don't know. I can't wait to see whatever you are willing to post. Awesome stuff!

Thanks

Ray

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Chris,

He was with ACTIV! That's the Army Concept Team in Vietnam for those who don't know. I can't wait to see whatever you are willing to post. Awesome stuff!

Thanks

Ray

 

 

Ray, you're the first guy who even know what they were, amazed. His second tour 69-70 he was with ACTIV, they did a lot of eval on the INFANT, the Air Cushion Vehicles, and something called a silent plane, a single engine small plane. I one time had photos of it but in all the moves, they're gone. But last year I converted a couple hundred slides from his first tour as advisor in 64-65. Now my plan is to do the same for the second tour, I've rounded up some, but am missing a box of the really good stuff.

 

At any rate, here's the plaque he got on the second tour.

 

Chris

post-5036-1234725619.jpg

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Chris,

I take it from your posts that your dad is no longer around. You should be very proud of him and the work he did in Vietnam. I am still fortunate enough to have my father around to help me sort out all his photos and talk about what went on over there.

My guess is that he was working on the YO-3A on his second tour. I'm no expert on this plane, but here are some in country pics (possibly from when your dad was there) from Binh Thuy, Hue Phu Bai, and Long Thanh. Hope they help replace the ones you lost.

Ray

 

yo3a2.jpg

 

Yo3a1.jpg

 

YO3A_0506.jpg

 

YO3A_0505.jpg

 

YO3A_0471.jpg

 

b3stith003eng_run.jpg

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INcredible Ray, that's the plane, thanks for the details. Unfortunately dad died in 97, and never really told me too much about his vn experiences, too late now.

 

Thanks so much for those pics!

 

Chris

 

Chris,

I take it from your posts that your dad is no longer around. You should be very proud of him and the work he did in Vietnam. I am still fortunate enough to have my father around to help me sort out all his photos and talk about what went on over there.

My guess is that he was working on the YO-3A on his second tour. I'm no expert on this plane, but here are some in country pics (possibly from when your dad was there) from Binh Thuy, Hue Phu Bai, and Long Thanh. Hope they help replace the ones you lost.

Ray

 

yo3a2.jpg

 

Yo3a1.jpg

 

YO3A_0506.jpg

 

YO3A_0505.jpg

 

YO3A_0471.jpg

 

b3stith003eng_run.jpg

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Chris,

Sorry for your loss and you are very welcome for the pics. Thank goodness you are keeping his memory and his history alive. We look forward to seeing your photographs.

Ray

 

By the way, the YO-3 photos are from the archives of the Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. They are public access so feel free to copy and distribute them if you want.

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Cobrahistorian
Chris,

Sorry for your loss and you are very welcome for the pics. Thank goodness you are keeping his memory and his history alive. We look forward to seeing your photographs.

Ray

 

By the way, the YO-3 photos are from the archives of the Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. They are public access so feel free to copy and distribute them if you want.

 

Charlie,

 

There is actually a YO-3 in storage at the Army Aviation Museum as well. Really cool airplane! Definitely would love to see some ACTIV stuff! In the meantime, here's a little something:

 

9thavn-1.jpg

 

9th Aviation Battalion, 1969. This one was in my book.

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Here's a few more pics to inspire some others to post theirs. These are a couple 118th Bandits birds sometime around 1964-65.

Ray

 

Psyops bird:

 

008.jpg

 

 

UH-1B slicks. Who can ID the big ugly bird in the background with a Huey under her belly?

 

016.jpg

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