FM-Whip

I've seen photos of at least 3 different "scoop" devices over the years....

Photo of this accident at GRK that I took and then was used in the Army Aviation Digest, October 1979, page 56:

I was there in the tower at GRK when that happened. I don't remember an autorotation - I remember a series of run-on landings that I had been watching, except for the one in which the accident occured - I had just turned around and was headed for the stairs. It was a Saturday or Sunday (I can't remember which) and the tower crew were playing cards and running traffic from the card table. They were issuing clearances without actually watching the runway, and there was only one bird in the pattern, the Cobra. It was around 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM or so, just at lunchtime. I had seen the fire tr

In the mid-1960s, 45% of Americans smoked. In fact, it's ironic that in Vietnam the US Army had an ongoing anti-smoking campaign, because smoking was "hazardous to your health". Tell that to combat troops..

I heard a rumor many years ago that "Low Level Hell" had been optioned to Hollywood, so some studio may be sitting on that option. Hugh would neither confirm or deny...

When I was at Fort Hood from 1977-79, we still had some AH-1Gs with blue glass. Often it was a mix of blue and clear on the same bird. I saw a dumpster full of blue glass one day.

Sorry to disagree but this information is incorrect. If you look at TM-55-1500-345-23 "Painting and Marking of Army Aircraft", chapter 8 shows examples of the font. The US Army block letters used for aircraft do not conform to any commercial font that I know of. Amarillo USAF is similar but not 100% the same. It's easier to see the differences if you look at the numbers - the 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 differ. In "U.S. ARMY", S and M differ significantly, for example. I researched this years ago and was going to develop a PostScript/TrueType font for the Army helicopter markings but

I'm pretty sure the photo of the OH-6 being loaded into the C-130 was taken on the ramp at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The U-21 in the background probably belongs to the US Army Intelligence Center. John Hairell

Sheesh - can't even spell my name right....:-) John HAIRELL

Here's a photo I found several years ago: https://vietnamwar.govt.nz/photo/hughes-helicopter-chi-lang-1972

Hugh must be getting old. Most photos of 17340 "Miss Clawd IV" in RVN show it with black skids AND skid legs. It also had side exhausts late in the war. John Hairell

Of the last two photos, the bottom one looks like it was taken at Ft. Hood, although the pilots have 101st patches so it may be Campbell. Top one may be Germany. As an aside, I've heard that on MERDC paint on helicopters, painting the tops of the blades was always problematic as the different weights of paint caused imbalances. So the question was to paint or not to paint. The tops of the blades could be used for some interesting non-standard artistic patterns also. I've seen some photos of aircraft from the 101st where much artistic license was used. John Hairell

The top 3 photos were taken at Ft. Hood and were shot as a series for Project MASSTER. The 4th photo also looks like Ft. Hood. This paint scheme used the MERDC paints which were widely used on vehicles. When I was stationed at Hood from 1977 to 1979 there were quite a lot of helicopters still sporting the MERDC camo patterns, which dated from late 1972. Almost all the 2nd Armored Div birds were MERDC, as well as some of the 6th ACCB. There were many, many variations. The most notable variation at Hood were the UH-1Hs of the III Corps Flight Detachment based at Robert Gray AAF, which had

CH-47 unit I rode with at Ft. Hood in 1978 had some people who would be connected with the monkey strap who faced forwards and leaned back, with only their boots on the back edge of the ramp, as in, "Look Ma, no hands". The next step for those brave enough was to step off the ramp backwards and ride the blast behind the aircraft, this being highly illegal, of course. I was offered a trial but declined. On one flight where they did this they had a WAC try it, but after she hooked up they flew over Lake Belton, came to a low hover, and dunked her in the lake. After they pulled her up, we fl

Here's one for the gang: