The Co-pilot assisted the Aircraft Commander in the air and flew the aircraft as needed. The Aircraft Commander, as his name implied, was in command of the aircraft at all times while on a mission. In Vietnam the UH-1 had a crew of four: Aircraft Commander (A/C), Co-pilot or “Peter Pilot,” Crewchief (C/E) and Doorgunner. If a Crewchief or Doorgunner chose not to wear it, the chicken plate was often stowed under his seat for protection from enemy weapons fire from below. Body ArmorĪll aircrew were issued body armor, jokingly referred to as “chicken plates”. These were used to mark targets for the Gunships when receiving hostile fire or to mark landing zones (LZ’s). Crewchiefs and Doorgunners always carried colored smoke grenades, often as you see them here on the seat posts. Because pilots were not issued M-16’s, they often carried other unauthorized weapons slung over their armored seats for personal protection. Secondary Armament:Įach Crewchief and Doorgunner also carried a secondary weapon, usually an M-16 rifle but sometimes more exotic types. The large cans below the M-60’s held roughly 2,000 rounds of linked 7.62mm ammunition and were a typical field modification replacing the authorized can which held 500 rounds. The M-60D is a 7.62mm NATO caliber weapon with a cyclic rate of fire of 600 to 700 rounds per minute. Typical armament included two M-60D machine guns on fixed door mounts manned by the Crewchief on the left and a Doorgunner on the right. Approximately 5,000 helicopters were destroyed there, of which all but 500 were U.S. A total of 11,800 helicopters of all types served in Vietnam. In addition to the human cost, the helicopter “casualties” of the war were staggering. Over 10% of all combat and combat support deaths in Vietnam occurred in helicopter operations, a combined total of 6,175 (2,202 pilots, 2,704 aircrew and 1,269 passengers). The utilization of helicopters dramatically increased warfare survival rates. During the Korean and World War II wars this time was measured primarily in days, not hours. The average time between field wound to hospitalization was less than one hour. Over 90,000 patients were airlifted (over half of them Americans). Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association records show that 7,013 Hueys survived in the Vietnam War, totalling 7,531,955 flight hours. Many Vietnam Veterans describe the UH-1 “Huey” helicopter as the “sound of our war”. It was returned to service in 2011 to operate as a “Thank You” to Vietnam War Veterans and has completed over 180 missions since then. Based at Cu Chi, it survived multiple small arms attacks and one RPG strike. This Huey served in the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam, performing troop insertions and extractions, medical evacuations, helicopter crew recoveries, smoke, sniffer psyops, and firefly missions. These aircraft operated in the hostile environment of Vietnam for almost a decade. It is not fitted with external weapons to save weight and is only armed with the M60s used by the door gunners. This particular helicopter is a “Slick”, used for troop carrying. The “Huey” nickname stuck thanks to her early “HU-1″ designation (it was later redesignated to UH-1 with the normalization of 1962). Warning: Illegal string offset 'output_key' in /nfs/c04/h04/mnt/63581/domains//html/wordpress/wp-includes/nav-menu.php on line 604įrom 1965 to 1973, the Bell UH-1, officially named “Iroquois” was the most common utility helicopter used in Vietnam.
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