1st Cav. info needed.

Claymore,

Ok, I'll give you what help I can. Firstly, the 1st Cav wasn't in-country after the summer of 71. The 3rd brigade was left in Vietnam, but reorganized as a "mini-cav division", with all the recon, artillery, infantry and aviation assets a division would have, but on a smaller scale.

That being said, the aviation assets remaining in-country after August of 1971 were:

F/79th Aerial Field Artillery (Formerly C Battery, 2/20 Aerial Rocket Artillery "Blue Max")
D/229th Assault helicopter Battalion (which was reorganized into F Troop, 9th Cav)

The "Blue Max" guys were flying the AH-1G Cobra and were the de-facto close air support for the ground forces in III Corps

F/9th Cav was the eyes and ears for III Corps. They were equipped with three platoons, scouts (white), slicks (blue) and guns (red), or OH-6s, UH-1D/Hs and AH-1Gs. The idea was, the scouts would find the bad guys, the guns would waste em, and the slicks would insert the aero-rifle, or Blue platoon to see if anything was left.

The closing months of the Vietnam war are fascinating to study, because so much was done with relatively little. Those US troops still in-country were trying to stay alive while the bad-guys were doing everything they could to disagree with that idea.

New innovations were created out of necessity, including the SA-7 Suppression kits, HEAT rockets and even the TOW missile system (although these didn't appear on the Cobra until after Vietnam), but believe it or not, UH-1Bs flew with TOW systems in 1972 and were VERY effective against the North's tanks.

I actually cover a considerable amount of the last two years of the war in my book on the Cobra from Osprey. It'll be out in stores in 3 weeks.

If I can be of any further help, drop me an email!

The friend I'm doing this for was in the 3rd brigade, 71-72 (don't know the months). Was thinking of a UH-1 unloadin in an LZ with a Cobra overhead for support.

I'll have to get the book.

Derek, you can either have a red team or a pink team with the Blues inserting on a hot LZ. That would be pretty neat. - Ed

I've got the new book released last year called "1st Cavalry Division: A Spur Ride through the 20th Century" by Turner Publishing. It has a few pages on the 3rd Brigade's (Separate) role in the war during this period, including a breakdown of the units that comprised the separate brigade. It's a big book (about the size of a Hunnicutt armor book), marketed towards members of the 1st Cav Division Association and runs $50.

I commanded a company in the 3rd Brigade in the mid-90s.

Claymore,

How about a purple team (Cobra and a Slick) going in to rescue the crew of a downed Loach? Inserting the Blues in 71-72 was pretty much just for BDA or to rescue a downed crew. Or possibly a LRRP insertion? LRRP activity increased significantly in the closing months of the war, and their ability to call in massive amounts of air support, coupled with the massive amount of personal firepower that a 6-man team had was what kept them alive if they were detected. Hmmm.... you've got me thinking now!


Oh, and by the way, the 3rd Airmobile Brigade still wore the 1st Cav patch. The Huey I'm working on (1:1 scale) was with the 3rd AMB from Jan-Nov 71 and was then transferred to A Troop, 2/17th Cav, 101st Airborne until it came home in mid-72. Still has some bullet holes near the a/c's seat. Just filled em in and painted over it!

Good Luck! Keep us informed!

I'm probably just being dense right now but what is BDA?

Adding a downed bird could add some intrest! And maybe shoe part of the treeline on one corner of the dio with some NVA or VC (taking fire from the Cobra). I'll have to draw a couple scetches.

claymore68

BDA is Battle Damage Assement

Good Luck on this

Yep, it was a brain fart!

Here is sketch (not to scale) of what i'm thinking of now. Originally it was just going to be a slick, then the cobra and slick, then cobrahistorian had a good idea.

Now I need to find the proper kits!

Claymore,

Looks great! Can't wait to see it! I'll see if I can dig up any specific incident references for ya! Can't promise anything, but I may be able to find you some info for 71-72 downed birds.