USMC UH-1N, Operation Urgent Fury, Grenada 1983

AUSTanker

PS I've been in touch with the Museum of the USMC, who speculated that these choppers might have used door mounted .50 cals, but there is a color photo online. I zoomed in like crazy and they sure like like the old M60 "PIG..." those of you who have fired one know why we called it that!

You may already have seen this...and I know it's not exactly an authoritative source...but Wikipedia identifies them as M60Ds, in addition to giving a credit for the photo:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UH-1N_Operation_Urgent_Fury_Grenada_1983.JPEG

Looks a lot like this one:

http://www.sturmgewehr.com/forums/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FLIm8WoV.jpg&key=05bb9bbcabb067ff2ff1a336029d964f9e61f7d96f5731053e6087b8da26809d

Also found this, which might be of interest:

https://www.ebay.com/p/2308706738

Cheers (and good luck with your project!)

This is a USMC UH-1N in Greneda.  It is armed with standard M23 doorgun mounts w/M60Ds on them.  The .50 cal on one side and M134 minigun on the other is a later set-up.

Here's a source for the ALQ-144.

https://spruebrothers.com/ordfl488008-1-48-flying-leathernecks-an-alq-144

You'll probably have to sculpt your own fairing for it with some epoxy putty.

Hello!

Nice project. The photo Greg found on wikipedia has it all - disco light, pinball and pigs :-)

Now if all else fails you can give me some sketches and I'll draw up the parts you need in 3D and you can have them printed on Shapeways. Once I made an M60 in 1:48 for a guy building a Chinook:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/NL5CC82AX/1-48-m41-weapons-system-4x?optionId=140166949&li=shops

Now that I think about it there's a Polish two-part write up on the Huey, the Author's name is Patryk Janda and it's published by AJ Press. The Part two of it (it's Volume 109) has a large sheet of scale plans in 1:48 and one of the drawings has a Marine UH-1N with a disco light and a flare/chaff dispenser, so you could take basic dimensions off of that drawing.

And here's a HH-1N I built from the Italeri kit as a Christmas gift for my little brother:

You may want to look for some of these

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10684072

AUSTanker

PS I've been in touch with the Museum of the USMC, who speculated that these choppers might have used door mounted .50 cals, but there is a color photo online. I zoomed in like crazy and they sure like like the old M60 "PIG..." those of you who have fired one know why we called it that!

I've never fired an M60, although in Vietnam I saw them fired to deadly effect. But I didn't know they were called "Pigs". Perhaps that terminology was used later in the war; I was there for just a few weeks in early 1966. So, why were they called Pigs?

Bob

Hi, Bob!

I'm a later (Bosnia) veteran of the U.S. CAV, but I was always told by Vietnam veterans that the M60 was not so affectionately called the "Pig" for 2 reasons: not only because it was heavy and bulky like a pig, but because of its' greedy, insatiable appetite for ammo- it went through belts and belts at a crazy rate...a grunt might lug those heavy belts for days through the bush, only to see them shot up in seconds at some unseen enemy.

I did train and fire on the M60 in Basic Training in 1999, and liked it...but the second I picked it up I uderstood why it was called the "Pig-" it's heavy.

Not the the M249 SAW I soemtimes carried in Bosnia was much better!

Funny we met a guy on our honeymoon in Santorini. George and Merrideth were on theirs too. Might have been second for each.

Flat top, aviators, fit body.

"Top Gun", I say.

"How did you know?"

Been friends since, he flew F-14 in that one.

Bill

Bobstamp

've never fired an M60, although in Vietnam I saw them fired to deadly effect. But I didn't know they were called "Pigs". Perhaps that terminology was used later in the war; I was there for just a few weeks in early 1966. So, why were called Pigs?

As AUS Tanker explained they were heavy for a so-called light infantry support machine gun. That is another reason why the majority of machine gunners I met while in the Corps were big guys.