in action photos, lam son 719 and circa 1970-71

Thanks for posting those. Has you Dad put them online anywhere at all? so we can see more of them.

Cheers,  Rich

point of clarification.......none of these particular photos are my father's although he was in the same location at the same time (as were thousands of other troops obviously)........these are all available online from various places.   He has scanned a few of his pictures, but not all of them, and he has no website.........his old unit has a website but it's pretty much innactive unfortunately.  A lot of these old units it depends on who has gone thru the effort to build and upkeep a good site or not............anyway, the info is fascinating to me.  Quite honestly it is almost a lost history......only the keith william nolan book covers it in any detail, and unfortunately that text has almost no photos.......as a modeller and aviation buff it seems this chapter of aviation history is sorely missing the kind of in depth photo histories that exist for units in other conflicts....currently the best photographic historical information exists online.   As a general overview, wikepedia is as good a place as any to start....

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lam_Son_719

 

The first and last pictures are of 174th AHC "Sharks".  Top picture is "Grim Reaper" and bottom shows, "Madona" aka "Batting female dog", "Grim Reaper", "Surfer", and "Ace of Spades".   All but the "Grim Reaper" were lost during Lam Son 719.  Our web page has some good accounts of some of these losses and more.  http://www.174ahc.org/    I attached a close up picture given to me by Gary Harter, crewmember who painted "Madona".  I joined the Unit several months after the debacle into Laos.  Lucky me!  The "Grim Reaper" was the first Shark I worked on after joining the Unit.  We put a -13 engine in and it went from a UH-1C to a UH-1M. I attached a couple of my pictures of the Grim Reaper. 

yes melgyver, your units website is one of my favorites..........I wish all the units involved had as much information and detail as yours.  First model on my list if I ever start building again is a shark gunship.   Someday I may scan my fathers stuff and start to post it as well or give it someone who's running a good site at the time.......I've seen a lot of pics from khe sahn during the incursion.......including after action pics of the sapper attack on the 4/77 and 2/17th TOCs and flight line..........as well as the pic of the cobra that had an engine failure and landed on top of the truck full of ARVN..........he was there for all of it.