Photo via
Ninh Pham
The U.S. Army has never been a particularly agile beast when it came
to bold new technologies. Horse cavalrymen were dragged kicking and
screaming into tanks during World War II, and the grunts and tankers of
the ’50s viewed the helicopter with a tolerant skepticism at best. In
1963 the 11
th Air Assault Division was testing the practical aspects of air mobility at Fort Benning, Georgia. Two years later the 1
st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) went to war.
The war in Vietnam saw the introduction of a
wide array of new technologies. From smart bombs to night vision and
lightweight assault rifles, Vietnam was a proving ground for countless
new weapons and the tactics that drove their employment. As a result,
flight crews operating Army rotary-wing combat aircraft frequently made
up the rules as they went along.
There really was no precedent for
what those guys were doing. UH1 Hueys and CH47 Chinooks carried troops,
ammunition, equipment, and supplies into places that would have
otherwise been inaccessible. The use of massed helicopter assets allowed
Army commanders unparalleled mobility around and above a non-linear
battlefield. Light and agile aeroscout aircraft like the OH6 provided
responsive intelligence gathering. Armed versions of the UH1 and later
dedicated AH1 Cobra gunships offered responsive and overwhelming aerial
fire support. Throughout it, all Army flight crews operated in the
treetops engaging the enemy face to face in a pitiless close range fight
to the death.
