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This U.S. Army film shows American pilots flying missions in support of the South Vietnamese Army and profiles helicopters in use in Vietnam: the H-21 troop carrier and the UH-1A and UH-1B Armed Helicopters -- equipped with machine guns, rockets and even (as the film shows) carbines. The film shows tactics and operations, field repair, and even some crashed helicopters being destroyed in the field to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. The film ends with a full-scale heliborne strike being described.
The Piasecki H-21 Workhorse/Shawnee is an American helicopter, the fourth of a line of tandem rotor helicopters designed and built by Piasecki Helicopter (later Boeing Vertol). Commonly called the "flying banana", it was a multi-mission helicopter, utilizing wheels, skis, or floats.
The H-21C saw extensive service with the U.S. Army, primarily for use in transporting troops and supplies.Various experiments were made by the Army in arming the H-21C as a gunship; some Shawnees were armed with flex guns under the nose, while others were fitted with door guns. One experimental version was tested stateside with a Boeing B-29 Superfortress .50 cal. remote turret mounted beneath the nose. The H-21C (later designated CH-21C) was first deployed to Vietnam in December 1961 with the Army's 8th and 57th Transportation Companies, in support of Army of the Republic of Vietnam troops. In Army service, the CH-21C Shawnee could be armed with 7.62 mm (.308 in) or 12.7 mm (.50 in) flexible door guns. Relatively slow, the CH-21's unprotected control cables and fuel lines proved vulnerable to the enhanced threat posed by North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong ground forces, which were increasingly well supplied with automatic small arms and heavy (12.7 mm) AA machine guns. The H-21, which was designed for cold weather operations, performed poorly in the hot weather of Vietnam. Despite being capable of carrying 20 passengers, it carried only nine when operating in Vietnam. The shooting down of a CH-21 Shawnee near the Laotian-Vietnamese border with the death of four aviators in July 1962 were some of the U.S. Army's earliest Vietnam casualties. Despite these events, the Shawnee continued in service as the U.S. Army's helicopter workhorse in Vietnam until 1964 when it was replaced with the Bell UH-1 Huey. In 1965, the Boeing CH-47 Chinook was deployed to Vietnam, and later that year, most CH-21 helicopters were withdrawn from active inventory in the U.S. Army and Air Force.
The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (unofficially Huey) is a military helicopter powered by a single turboshaft engine, with two-bladed main and tail rotors. The helicopter was developed by Bell Helicopter to meet the United States Army's requirement for a medical evacuation and utility helicopter in 1952, and it first flew on 20 October 1956. Ordered into production in March 1960, the UH-1 was the first turbine-powered helicopter to enter production for the United States military, and more than 16,000 have been built.
The first combat operation of the UH-1 was in the service of the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. The original designation of HU-1 led to the helicopter's nickname of Hue. In September 1962, the designation was changed to UH-1, but "Huey" remained in common use. Approximately 7,000 UH-1 aircraft saw service in Vietnam .
The UH-1 has long been a symbol of US involvement in Southeast Asia in general and Vietnam in particular, and as a result of that conflict, has become one of the world's most recognized helicopters. In Vietnam primary missions included general support, air assault, cargo transport, aeromedical evacuation, search and rescue, electronic warfare, and later, ground attack. During the conflict, the craft was upgraded, notably to a larger version based on the Model 205. This version was initially designated the UH-1D and flew operationally from 1963.
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