Rotary Wing Aircraft

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This seems to be an appropriate forum to post this. "Joe" Livingston was a good friend in high school and served in Viet Nam as a helicopter pilot. Here are the details. RIP, Joe.

Final Mission of U.S. Army helicopter UH-1B tail number 63-08663



From After Action Report: 11 November 1966: A battalion quick-reaction lift of the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry was accomplished this date, but not without a tragic loss of three members of the company and a total of three gunships. A Special Forces MIKE force was surrounded approximately 200 meters from the Cambodian border and had suffered 70 casualties. A total of eighteen slicks and six guns were involved in the assault to place the 1st of the 12th in a fire base position. Three guns were lost with a loss of seven lives and five wounded. Aircraft 63-08663 had completed a gun run when it received a hit by 50 cal. automatic weapons fire. The aircraft was seen to slow down, settle in level position toward the ground then disintegrate in the air and crash. The aircraft was burning in the air. Another of the guns crashed on an enemy anti-aircraft emplacement, destroying the machine gun and the three enemy team members. In conjunction with this lift, a company of troops was airlifted to the Special Forces landing zone, without loss or injury, and effected rescue of the remaining force. Following the mission it was found that in the immediate vicinity of the original landing zone, two companies of 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns were located. Crew members lost from 63-08663 included CPT John J. Livingston (KIA), WO1 Terrence M. Rooney (KIA), SGT Maynard J. Humes (KIA), and SP4 Loren S. Reeves (KIA). [Taken from vhpa.org]
 
The Huey will always have a special place in my heart. My dad was Huey guy. I used to go to work with him and sit in the helicopter and pretend I was flying.

Then as a teenager in HS my first flight in a helicopter was in a US Army UH-1H. My JROTC unit went to the Army Airfield and we got a flight.

When I joined the Army I asked for Huey's but they were no longer training for them. Went H-60's instead.
 

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