Call Sign

Back in my career I had a callsign of "Cargo One." aka Air Cargo Terminal Supervisor. I still have the magnetic CARGO ONE signage from my pickup, they were retired and given to me when I did.

Otherwise my unofficial callsign was "Hawkeye"...even our Wing Commander used it...most of the brass never even knew my real name.

The last active aviation unit I was with was 2/6 in Germany where the company call signs were Triangle XX (A Troop), Circle XX (C Troop) and Box XX (Bravo Troop).  This way the 06 and other callsigns could easily be designated by the Company designation. The maintenace troop did not have any aircraft so they would not really have a call sign used in the air mission and probably resorted to using what ever the COIE had. The three and four first number were probably abolished when we converted from the old H series with a battalion size company to a Battalion that now has compaies the size of our old platoons. If my memory serves me well I also remember doing battion missions where we just used Aplha 06, Charlie 06 or Bravo 06, but also remember a battalion mission in Isreal where we were all Saber something.This leads me to believe that they probably are mostly unit Adhoc names with CEOI Call Numbers.

Charlie

Retired Gunpilot wrote:

Back in those days we had companies the size of what we now call a battalion. When I was with 4/7 CAV if my memory serves me well you had four platoons, one which was a maintenance platoon.  The normal way a callsign worked was the CO CDR was Saber 06, the first platoon leader was Saber 16, 2nd platoon platoon leader was Saber 26 and so on. The maintenance platoon leader would have been Saber 46. The individual test pilots would have had other number like Saber 42, 44 and so on. When we broke companies into battalions I forgot how they allocated the numbering system. The CEOI would have given a number for each person in the TO&E. The maintenance platoon is now a full company with a commander so I would assume if they now use the same process the maintenance company would be the fourth company in the battalion and would still be the 46 as the company commander. Not sure how accurate I am but I asked a bunch of active duty guys today and they have no idea. The Army of today doesn't make you know how things work anymore. Hope this helps Charlie

Still pretty much the same from my experience.  I've got C Company's 1st Platoon in my unit, so I'm Reaper 16.  Company commanders, however are all 06, to include maintenance companies, etc.  Seldom see 4x or even 3x callsigns anymore.  Most Aviation companies are only 2 platoons and a headquarters section.

 Jon

Mel

I was in the 2/20 from June, 1967 to June 1968. Served the first two months as the HQ Battery MO then transferred to a line battery(C). First as a Helicopter Repair Tech, then when I made CWO2 I was given the battery MO job where I finished out my tour. We received our first Cobra about two weeks before my tour ended. Got one flight in one.

Jim

I also noticed the transmission leans too forward. the push pull tubes are right up against the roof. If nothing else i learned a lot on this model.

charlie

Forget about me and work on your Huey!   Sorry, it was a while since I dry fitted my interior, never glued the sides together, or I would have warned you about having to file down one top side of the bulkhead and another spot somewhere?  I actually have two I started on. 

Good luck!  Catch you later!  Day 2 in the Gulf!  I'm going in Fri and won't come back until Dec. 30th! 

I'm at a very percarious point right now. I'm gluing the cabin to one side of the fuselage right now and typing with one hand while holding the cabin tight against the back door wall until it dries. The cabin does not line up very good in this model. I may end up ruinin everthing tonight!!!!

charlie

Your buddy needs to get "connected" with the 174th AHC again!  There are a few guys in the Ft. Rucker area and it's only two hours from FT. Walton Beach!  One is Bernie Cobb the first Shark 6 who was there in 1966 and lives in New Brockton.

Anxious to see your "Charlie" model when you get it done! 

I'm sure he does, he showed me the website a while back when I was asking about PSP colors. We went to the site to see if we could find any images that showed good coloring on PSP. I plan on using a PSP base for my C model I'm building and needed to refresh my memory on the color and whether that stuff actually rusted much. His name is Jerry Sweitzer. Not sure of the last name spelling, I always mess up his last name.

Charlie

Hi Mel, I was talking to a friend that served as the maintenance plt leader in the 174th. He thinks he was Dolphin 48. Witch Doctor may have been a call name added after he was there. I believe he was with the unit in 66. I will have to ask him tomorrow. He sits next to my cubical at work.

Charlie

2/20 Bluemax,

 When were you in the Unit.  A buddy of mine did two tours.  First one in Charlie Models and the second in Cobras, has picture of a "camo" Snake in OD and Sand.  C.A "Al" Smith is his name.

Our Maint Officer in the 174th was Witch Doctor 5.   The CO was Dolphin 6.   I'm pretty sure the Shark Plat. Leader was Shark 6.

Back in those days we had companies the size of what we now call a battalion. When I was with 4/7 CAV if my memory serves me well you had four platoons, one which was a maintenance platoon.  The normal way a callsign worked was the CO CDR was Saber 06, the first platoon leader was Saber 16, 2nd platoon platoon leader was Saber 26 and so on. The maintenance platoon leader would have been Saber 46. The individual test pilots would have had other number like Saber 42, 44 and so on. When we broke companies into battalions I forgot how they allocated the numbering system. The CEOI would have given a number for each person in the TO&E. The maintenance platoon is now a full company with a commander so I would assume if they now use the same process the maintenance company would be the fourth company in the battalion and would still be the 46 as the company commander. Not sure how accurate I am but I asked a bunch of active duty guys today and they have no idea. The Army of today doesn't make you know how things work anymore.

Hope this helps

Charlie

What you're saying makes a lot of sense. The numeric probably did change daily according to the CEOI, however, we always used Blue Max, if I recall correctly. I think I should drop this-it's not chopper related anyway. I'm going to stay with 2/20 Bluemax.

Jim

Ok... I get it.  We used Hollywood call-signs in training when CEOIs weren't available.  When they were, it was back to alpha-numerics, and callsigns and freqs were changed every 24 hours... When we went to digital commo back in the late 90s, we were able to go back to the Hollywood callsigns, and the numbers changed every day, but the prefix remained the same.  The FO's, for instance, would talk to our FDC as, "Shooter two-five, this is Thunder one one" kinda stuff... Everyone with a callsign in the SOI (new name for CEOI) had the same number that day that reflect who they were, but the prefix was battery-specific, like Alpha Battery was "Shooter", Bravo, "Cold Steel", and Charlie was, "Boomer", so on and so forth... The BMO from the arty could call the infantry BMO, and it would sound sometthing like, "Banger two two, this is Boomer two two, over", "two-two" being the number for all the BMOs in the brigade that day.

Clear as mud, right?

I wanna say 07, but I'm not 100% sure.  I'll have to look it up and get back to you.

Jon

I joined later than VN, 76 as a matter of fact, but at battery level, the BMO was an additional duty for the XO or FDO, since there's only three O's...

The Battalion Maintnence Officer had an alpha-numeric call-sign like everyone else in the CEOI that changed every 24 hours... That what you're talking about, or is it the "Hollywood" call-signs? Like "Ratchet 25",  or something like that?

The battalion motor sergeant had the same prefix as the BMO, but a different number...