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The 162 Aviation Company [Assault Helicopter]

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The 162 Aviation Company [Assault Helicopter] nd THE 162 AVIATION COMPANY [ASSAULT HELICOPTER] by Stan Gause 1965-1972 Introduction The 162nd Aviation Company (AML), later the 162nd Assault Helicopter Company, was one of the earlier aviation companies to arrive in Vietnam after the ground troop build up began in 1965. The company subsequently built a sterling record as an assault helicopter unit. This history is dedicated to the men of the 162nd who gave their lives in the service of their country. But for the hand of fate, anyone of us could have easily been in their place. We still wonder after all these years why some were chosen and others not. Only God knows the answer. As those who survived, we owe a tremendous debt to those who did not come back. Everything we do, every breath we take, and every memory we have, we owe in some part to those who are not here. It is up to us to conduct our lives so as to make their sacrifice worthwhile, honor their memory and make sure they are not forgotten. Also not to be forgotten are the men who made everything possible—the maintenance crews. Much has been said about the pilots who flew the aircraft but not much about the people who kept them in the air. Theirs was often an unappreciated task. However, they did a magnificent job. The performance of the crew chiefs and maintenance people was summed up by one general this way: “The super performance did not stop with the pilots. The maintainers achieved the miraculous…crew chiefs flew all day and worked on their birds all night. The scene round any company maintenance detachment when the birds staggered home in the evenings was a sight to behold. The maintenance crews rolled out, turned on the lights, worked with flashlights, worked by feel, worked any way, in the rain, in high winds and dust storms, all night long if necessary to patch their aircraft, pull the required inspections, correct deficiencies and get them back on the line by next morning. Night test fights, prohibited in peacetime, were the rule rather than the exception.” Finally, it is important to realize that an assault helicopter unit was a team in which everyone had a vital role to play. Everyone was important, right down to the cooks and mail clerk—maybe especially the cooks and mail clerk! The Beginning The 162nd Aviation Company (Air Mobile Light) was constituted on 31 August 1965 in the regular army and activated on 1 September 1965 at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The unit formed up, received its men after a rather difficult time rounding up a full complement of pilots and maintenance personnel and began training in early December with the 10th Aviation Group using their aircraft (B model Hueys) and equipment. Small groups of men were sent to Ft. Rucker and Ft. Bragg for additional specialized training. Most pilots received only 20 or so hours of training with the unit prior to shipping out to Vietnam. However, virtually all of them had significant prior experience with an average of 2100 hours each. Many were dual rated and had over 3,000 hours of flight time so they didn’t need a great deal of training. After completion of training in B models each pilot had a one hour D (or C) model transition and they were ready to go. Many of the enlisted men and even some of the officers were new to the army. Cpt Ronald Crown, the flight surgeon, had only recently been drafted and on one of his first days at Ft. Benning he “borrowed” a jeep parked near the 162nd area to go to the PX. However, the jeep belonged to another unit and was reported stolen. The MP’s quickly located the jeep, apprehended “Doc” Crown and brought him back to the 162nd compound for disciplinary action. Of course, “Doc” Crown, being just drafted, knew nothing of military life and assumed all army vehicles were communal property to be used by anyone in the army. By his reasoning, since he was in the army, he was entitled to use an army jeep. Organization The 162nd had an initial authorized strength of 170 men (including 41 warrant officers and 14 officers). Equipment consisted of 39 vehicles and 25 aircraft—later increased to 31, including eight gunships. The company also had three attached direct support units. These were the 407th Transportation Detachment for direct support maintenance with an authorized strength of 2 officers and 70 men, the 450th Signal Detachment for avionics support with an authorized strength of one officer and 8 men, and the 758th Medical Detachment with a flight surgeon and 7 other medical personnel. Roughly, 80% of the entire complement of enlisted men were regular army and 20% were draftees. At this point, the war in Vietnam was rapidly heating up and the need for pilots far exceeded the supply. A decision had recently been made to dramatically increase the number of pilots trained but it required approximately a year to produce new pilots and the pipeline was nowhere near full. Consequently, the 162nd, and other units formed in late 1965 and 1966, had a difficult time obtaining pilots. Anyone with a set of wings, Major and below, was press-ganged into cockpit duty. Initially at Ft. Benning the original aviator staffing was 26 Majors, mostly fixed wing aviators who had gone through the rotary wing transition course, 13 Captains, 2 Lieutenants (Ed Brock and Tom Turner) and not a single Warrant Officer. Some of the pilots were not even checked out in a Huey. However, the shortage of pilots was only part of the problem. Skilled mechanics, crew chiefs, avionics and armament specialists were also in critical demand. Twenty-six Private E-2 crew chiefs (all draftees) were bussed to the 162nd straight out of maintenance school at Ft. Rucker on October 29, 1965. There were only 3 maintenance personnel with any experience—two of them were civilian maintenance technical reps and one was a gunship CE (crew chief). The aviator staffing shortly after arrival in Vietnam consisted of 28 Majors, 18 Captains, 3 Lieutenants and 4 Warrant Officers. There were Majors all over the place—some weren’t even Aircraft Commanders. There were probably enough Majors in the 162nd to fill all the Major slots in the entire First Aviation Brigade at that time! The pilots used to joke that “the last one out of the shower had to be the leader” and “every major gets an airplane”. Of course, they all understood the shortage of pilots and proceeded to have a good time flying while they still had the opportunity. At Ft. Benning the company had chosen the call sign “Dragon” but upon arriving in Vietnam it was learned that some administrative outfit in Saigon was using that call sign. The men of the 162nd then chose the call sign “Vulture” for the two slick platoons and maintenance and “Copperheads” for the gun platoon. The first company patch was square with a flying vulture holding a helicopter. This was simplified in December 1967 when the round Vulture and Copperhead patches were adopted. Later, in 1970, the maintenance platoon came to be known as the “Hangar Rats” and had their own patch. Not to be outdone, the lift platoons also had their own patch—“Executioners” for the 1st and “Easy Riders” for the 2nd platoon. The motto for the company, emblazoned on the later Vulture patch was “STS” for “Set the Standard”, or perhaps as some folks thought more appropriate “Slicker Than S----.” During its tour in Vietnam, the 162nd had a total of 15 commanding officers as shown below: Commanding Officer Dates of Command Major Joseph E. Pfluger Sept 65-Jun 66 Major Albert H. (Rip) Roughen Jun 66-Dec 66 LTC Gerald W. Kirklighter Dec 66-Apr 67 Major Neal C. Petree, Jr. Apr 67-Aug 67 Major Stokely L. Wilson Aug 67-Jan 68 Major James E. Thompson Jan 68-May 68 Major Ronald K. Andreson May 68-Nov 68 Major Robert K. Wright Nov 68-May 69 Major George W. Venti May 69-Oct 69 Major Kenneth D. Loveless Oct 69-May 70 Major Thomas E. Beauchamp May 70-Sept 70 Major Walter B. Moore Sept 70-Mar 71 Major Hudson Schnell Mar 71-Aug 71 Major Ronald A. Brooks Aug 71-Jan 72 Major Ronald L. Grooms Jan 72-Apr 72 The Mission rd nd \Upon arrival in country on February 3 , 1966, the 162 was sent to Phouc Vinh, just north of Saigon, and assigned to the 11th Combat Aviation Battalion (CAB) at Phu Loi which supported the First Infantry Division in the III Corps area. On 1 November 1968, the company was relocated to Dong Tam in the upper Delta region and assigned to the 214th CAB which was the direct support aviation battalion for the 9th Infantry Division. Upon the withdrawal of the 9th Division from Vietnam in August 1969, the 162nd was assigned to the 13th CAB in the Mekong Delta and relocated to Can Tho. The period at Can Tho saw a shift in type of missions flown from the previous emphasis on Combat Assaults and related support to more ash & trash type missions with fewer CAs and a variety of sometimes unusual tasks. After the pullout of the 9th Division (parts of the division did not leave until early 1970) there were no US infantry units left in the Delta, and the Vultures primarily supported ARVN units. This included the 5th ,9th and 21st ARVN Infantry Divisions as well as other Vietnamese units throughout the IV Corps area until the company stood down in April 1972.
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