Ray,

Do you have any 189th "Avenger" or 173rd "Crossbow" gunship shots?? (with a good shot of the nose markings). i have 2 B&W "Avenger" photos showing the nose and no "Crossbow" shots.

Andy

Andy, I did a little digging. Here's your 189th birds:

First, a Ghost Rider slick from 1969:

Next up, some pictures of "Crystal Ship" and Avenger gunship:

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Here's a closeup of Crystal's M21 system:

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Avenger  8:

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Avenger 734 from 1966:

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Avenger 533:

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Avenger gunship in flight:

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Finally, I leave you with a few pics of the creative ways the 189th decorated their rocket pods:

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 Check ou their websit: http://www.189thahc.org/site_directory.html for more on how the Coors can pod came to be.  Was that what you were looking for?

      Ray
 

Ray,

That's the "Crystal Ship".  The markings will be available with the new release of the MRC Charlie model kit!

 Jon
 

Ray,

Thanks for digging those pics out for me mate

Andy

Marko,

  137 also has "candy cane" cyclics!

             Ray

Hey that was my ship I was flying gunner that day because Ward out ranked me. As far as I Know that was the last day it flew. I heard theycouldn't get it out and blew it then had to go back and get what was left of the smoke system it was the Spartans SMOKE. ItBrings back lots of memories I was in Sigon for a week after that then evacted to Japan for another week them back to the WORLD Fort Ordfpr a couple of months. We came out of the LZ it was hot as hell we pulled torque to see if we had enough power and if it would bleed off every thing checked out. the LZ was cut for us to land in I rember it was about 30 or 40 feet deep. After we came up thru the trees we gained forward airspeed and started to climb and then a big bang then silence. Kiwi was busy and I hit the mike on the intercom and he told me to get off he was tring to get out a MAYDAY. We ended up about a click away from the LZ it took the RVNs about 30 or 40 minetes to get to us where could I get these pictures you refered to. WO1 Dansecs was new I don't remember that much abouthim but I flew a lot with Kiwi and pulled A lot of flight line time with Ward I haven't heard from or talked to any of them sience. thanks for posting

Just when did Army aviation go to an all OD nose from the standard two color black drab and OD and whether this was an incountry decision based on unit SOP or a DOA mandate. Thanks.

Guys,

Sorry I've "ignored" this post previously, had good intentions of digging out some pic's of our 174th birds but have been busy with house remodeling then the hard drive crashed on the home computer.  Hope to get back "online" and post some nose art and Shark "side panel" art.

In regard to the all OD noses, it appears that happened on the 1968 model Hueys when they were painted in the almost flat "brown" OD.  There just wasn't a glare as on the previous higher gloss paint jobs.  I crewed 69-16650 and it was all OD.  There are pictures of the previous Maint. Bird, Witch Doctor 68-16340 and it had an all OD nose but sported the nose compartment door with Witch Doctor art of 67-17410 and it had a black anti-glare panel.  I'll try and produce those pictures when I get back home. 

I just had a couple Joe Kline prints customized to Witch Doctor 650 and Shark 242 "Easy Rider".  I had him put both types of Witch Doctor nose art as "postage stamp" art in the left corner as well as the side panel art not visible in the Shark print as "postage stamp" art also.  They look great hanging under the tips of a set of Huey tail rotor blades!  I got my son's old bedroom for my "stuff" after putting down 1300 sq. ft. of wood flooring!    

Mel,

  There is a reason I said "don't quote me" in that post of mine. thanks for setting me straight on this one.  After doing a little digging, I have found that many if not most units did adopt the OD nose during the 68-69 timeframe, but a few did not.  Here are some examples of what I found for several different units where I knew the approximate date of the photos.  

First, 101st AB. These pictures were all taken between 69-70:

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Looks like the one above just got a new tailboom and the OD is definitely different from the rest of the bird. 

This one is from 1971

So as you can see, even in 69, some had OD noses and some did not.

 

Here's one from the 118th in 69, still has a black nose:

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Here's a 155th bird from 70 showing an all OD nose:

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Here's some 162nd birds.  First pic is 68-69 all others are 70 or 72:

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As you can see the 155th appears to have adopted  OD noses between 68 and 69 just as Mel said.

The 170th AHC appears to have had both black and OD noses in the unit at the same time.  The first pic is supposedly about OCT 69 (black nose) the other July 69 (OD nose) and finally a bird from NOV 69 (another OD nose):

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Here's the 176th Muskets and they had black noses at least into 71 when these pics were taken:

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 Two pics from the 189th from 1969 show both OD and black noses:

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Based on the above photos, I'd say most units were shifting to the oD noeses by 69, but you really need to know the individual unit and aircraft you are interested in to know for sure.  Definitely interesting.  What do you think. Mel?

   Ray
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mel,

  I kinda thought that was a zinc chromate tail boom, but didn't want to embarass myself by saying so.  Thanks for clearing that up.  I totally agree based on conversations with my dad and other Vietnam veterans that you just used what was expedient or, in some cases, changed things to your liking.  Thanks for the input and the photos.  Always good to see more Sharks and Dolphins!

     Ray