One of my Tributes that I never gave to anyone

[OldGuy]

I guess I must have lost the location where I had this one saved. Got a lot of hard drives with a heck of a lot of stuff and none is really organized.

 

[LimaCharles]

What's the story going on here with this picture of air support? AH1 and OH6 Cayuse when it was nicknamed Loach and not Little Bird back then. right?

 

[OldGuy]

What's the story going on here with this picture of air support? AH1 and OH6 Cayuse when it was nicknamed Loach and not Little Bird back then. right?

The first year the Cobra came on scene it was planned that it would take over all UH1- gunship duties as a replacement. They lost just about all that first came in country due to the cockpit not designed to see but in a limited front view, the VC were tearing them up. They brought in the LOCH to be the eyes and the Cobras were restricted to 1000 feet and it worked out very well. The little LOCH was armed with one mini or rockets, usually a gunner in the back seat. It spotted and marked targets for the Cobras. The Cobra is really an airborne artillery platform, not a true gunship. A true gunship was one that had mud splatters on the windshields. A few years ago I pissed off an Apache pilot when he bragged about being close air support, I posted a photo of one of our ships with the windshield covered with mud from the rocket impacts. I told him this is close air support, ;0) he never replied back. 5 miles is a bit far to be called close air support.

 

[LimaCharles]

I am going to respectfully disagree about the Apaches. A lot of guy's are still around because of those Apaches. Like myself for instance. Some of the most aggressive pilots if unhampered by a commander's orders to stay at a certain height or distance away, would use their aircraft as a munition and crashing it into through kinetic force as the final means if it meant that they could be saving more lives, if they knew that they could get away with it. OH58 pilots were the same way when they were given armaments. They'd prefer if winchester to go in using their M4's and then the helicopter itself if allowed to do so.

But thank you for the backstory. And again another thanks for your service back then.