A video recording of a presentation by COL Kirby Lawson and LTC Joe Shaffer.
This video is an overview of Army Aviation operations in Vietnam and the development of the air mobile concept. The later part of this video has voice recordings from the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion Assault into Cambodia, May 1970. Captions have been added that go along with the audio of the combat assault flight into Cambodia.
The assault flight was made up of 42 UH-1H “Huey” helicopters and 18 AH-1 “Cobra” gun ships.
LTC Johnson flew above vectoring us into and out of the landing zones, from an altitude
3000 to 5,000 feet to stay out of anti-aircraft fire. The flights went in at tree top level to
avoid exposure.
CALL Signs:
11th Group Commander: Terror 29 – Colonel Mertel
227th Battalion Commander: Anchor 29 – Lt. Colonel Johnson
C/227th Company Commander: Hang 29 – (Yellow One) Major Lawson
B/227th Company Commander: Desire 29 – Major Knudson
A/227th Company Commander: Owner 29 – Major Sundstrom
D/227th Company Commander: Welder 29 – Captain Matocha
Our website is beginning the process to shut down over the next few years.
Please use the following link to view this video which is now hosted on our 227th AHB Video Archive on Archive-It.org
Air Mobility in Vietnam, presentation by COL Kirby Lawson and LTC Joe Shaffer
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click the small blue play buttonat the end of the line of text. After clicking that blue play button all the video controls on this video page will work in normal fashion.
The video is provided by COL Kirby Lawson. COL Lawson served as Company Commander for C/227 (Ghostrider 6) and also as the Executive Officer for the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion during his tour (July 1969 – June 1970).
That was a great presentation