There is no quick and easy way to tell you what he does; there is no simple description that will apply to every pilot. Airmobile warfare requires a wide variety of flying jobs to be done by many different organizations working together as a team. Some of these tasks are "old hat" to army aviators. Others represent entirely new ideas, never before tested in combat. All are essential to this Divisions continuing success in battle.
In the best tradition of the Cavalry are the far ranging scouts. In helicopters armed with machine guns and rockets, these tree top flying pilots seek out the enemy and fix him in position.
Other pilots fly the assault helicopter, unarmed but each carrying nine fully equipped combat troops into selected landing. zones ready for immediate action.
Supporting the assault landings are the gun ships, each bristling with rapid fire machine guns pouring thousands of rounds per minute into the area surrounding the landing zones.
Circling overhead are the Aerial Rocket Artillery helicopters, carrying enough explosive power to devastate any target appearing on the battlefield. Their pilots are trained to place their tremendous firepower on target within seconds after receiving a call for fire support.
Always ready for instant response are the Medical Evacuation helicopters flying ambulance whose pilots regularly risk enemy fire and hazardous weather to remove battle casualties and speed them to aid stations and hospitals.
Furnishing the vast amount of ammunition and supplies needed to sustain combat is the work of the assault support helicopter, the workhorse of the Cavalry. These huge cargo ships are capable of hauling trucks, artillery pieces, troops, or supplies, lifting up to ten tons at a time.
The Division also uses several flying cranes, mammoth machines built to carry the heaviest loads requiring airlift. Their most important job is the recovery and return of downed aircraft, including the heavy cargo ships.
There is no simple description for the work of the helicopter pilot in the 1st Cav. There are many jobs to be done by many pilots working together as members of a highly successful combat team.
I would like to tell you more about one of these jobs that of the Aerial Rocket Artillery pilot.
The battles being fought by the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) represent a new kind of warfare, carried out through the use of new concepts, new equipment, and new techniques. One of the newest concepts is that of Aerial Rocket Artillery, a means of providing the infantry with close fire support from the air when it is not possible to obtain close fire support from cannon artillery on the ground.
To give you an idea of the rocket artillery ;pilot's work, let me take you with me on a firing mission.
You're sitting in the cockpit of your helicopter at a Special Forces camp near the Cambodian border. Because the camp is in Viet Cong infested territory you ere wearing your armored vest and you have your pistol, your ammunition pouch, and your steel helmet near you ready for use. Your first and endless task is to be always prepared to defend yourself and your aircraft and crew.
You're sitting in the cockpit because your platoon of four rocket helicopters is on "hot" status, ready to react instantly in support of our troops fighting both Viet Cong an North Vietnamese Regular Army forces less than 15 miles away. Your chopper is a "Huey", one of the new jet helicopters, and you are armed with 48 rockets and carrying two door gunners with automatic rifles and machine guns.
Nearby is the Operations Section with its many radios and a situation map showing the progress of the battle. A radio operator monitors the Fire Control frequencies, ever on the alert for the call which will send a rocket platoon into action.
Suddenly a voice thunders in over the loudspeaker, Everyone stops breathing, listening for the words which will stir the hornet's nest.
Fire Mission!
Crew chiefs race to untie the main rotor blades and standby to check the turbines for fires during the start. Pilots strap themselves to the seats, adjust their armor, and tighten their flight helmets and face shields. Machine gunners speed to their stations, unlimbering their guns and checking ammunition feed belts.
Within seconds the pilot has fired the igniters which start the jet engine whining and roaring into life. The flight leader spreads his maps, sets his radios and prepares to copy the fire mission data. In less that two minutes the rocket ships are off the ground and speeding toward the battle area in attack formation.
After your are airborne the call comes in from operations: Your target is a company of Viet Conga about 100 men, surrounding an infantry platoon in a clearing. Map coordinates are 398425. Radio contact with the ground force is on Channel 9.
There is no time to think about it; the VC are firing on friendly troops from covered positions in the jungle and your rockets are needed right now. There is no room for mistakes. The flight leader must find the right spot in the jungle where every stream and every clearing and every hill look just like every other one. He must got the ships into firing positions and make sure that every pilot knows exactly where to fire and how many rockets to send down on the enemy.
The flight leader is talking to the ground force on one radio and to the other aircraft on the second set. There isn't time to talk to you, his pilot, so he depends on your skill in following hand signals to get you to the target. You listen closely to the flight leader's instructions to the other ships. You are the lead pilot and the others will be taking their cues from you.
There is the target! You can see the smoke and flame and dust of the battle down below; you can see the infantry pinned down in the open area and you can see the muzzle flashes of the enemy weapons firing from the jungle all around them.
Your job is to place your rocket warheads into the trees on the edge of the clearing. Each pilot is given a section of the treeline as his individual target and he knows that the success or failure of the entire plan depends on his ability to clear that piece of jungle. Your part of the target is just beyond the clearing. You will have to fire over the heads of the friendly troops and only fifty meters away. You cannot miss there is no room for error.
The flight leader gives the order to attack. You check your sight and begin your dive onto the target. The flight leader calls "Going hot" and arms the rocket pods. Now it's all up to you. Take your time. Be sure. You can't afford to miss, not with ail those lives depending on you. Put that sight ring over the target, dive until you know you can't miss, then press that button.
Whoosh! From both sides of the ship core the crashing roar of the rockets leaving their tubes. Two! Four! Six! Eight! Every half second another pair leaves the tubes. Ten! Twelve! Fourteen! You hold the button down, watching the trails of flame arcing into the trees below. On target! The rockets are exploding on the ground and in the tops of trees, spraying the area with steel.
As long as your rockets are on target and you still have time to fire, hold that button down. Don't be distracted by the rockets fired past you on the right and left by the other ships. Don't be bothered by those tracers coming up at you from the trees. Don't stop firing just because you heard something slam into the helicopter somewhere. Only a lucky shot in a vital spot will hurt the ship. Or the people in it. These infantrymen on the ground are your only concern right now.
You're very close now, boring in on the target, firing steadily into the trees and smoke and flying debris. The flight leader calls "Break" and the ships veer sharply away from the target, two to the right and two to the left. You all know that you will automatically complete a circle, joining up again for another run at the enemy.
The flight leader talks to the ground force commander. Did that stop the enemy from firing on him? "Yes, thank God, and we're moving out of this open area. We've got the VC running, and won't need you any more for now. Please stand by in case we run into trouble".
Roger. Will do. That's part of our job.
You're back in formation now, turning toward home and climbing to an altitude which will keep you out of small arms range. You're just begun to relax and congratulate yourself for a successful mission. Unexpectedly, a call comes in from one of the scout helicopters.
While flying at tree top level and checking tie infantry's route of advance the scout was fired on by a machine gunner well protected in a bunker dug into a hillside. The scout returned the fire but couldn't penetrate the bunker. He is asking for help will the rocket artillery take that bunker out for him?
"Roger. Stand by".
It takes only a minute to locate the target on the map. The flight leader starts the turn back to the target area. The scout is preparing to mark the target with smoke. The flight leader places his ships in single file, well behind the lead and spaced so each aircraft can fire separately. Now he positions the lead helicopter for the start of the long firing run and cells for smoke to mark the hillside.
Now it's up to you, the pilot of the lead ship, to find that tiny puff of white smoke and use it to guide you to the target. When you've found the right hill, start looking for the bunker. 100 miles an hour over the jungle looking for a tiny dugout in a hillside.
But you've got to find it and you've got to fire on it to mark it for the other ships lined up behind you. You have the smoke in sight. Turn in toward the smoke. Set your sights. Check you instruments. Lower the nose to start the long slow dive. The flight leader arms your rocket system for you. It's all yours. You're hot, your going in on a firing pass, everyone is following you, waiting for you to fire and mark the enemy's position.
That enemy machine gunner knows it too! He knew what was planned as soon as he saw that white smoke going up near his bunker. He's waiting for you. Now you are the target! Will you find him before he adjusts his tracers on you? You'll soon know. You're diving on the hillside now, still searching, Don't fire you haven't seen anything yet. Keep flying Straight ahead. You know he's near. Keep searching.
There he is! That stream of tracers, just to the right. Now you've got him. Swing your nose to the right, put the sight ring on that bunker, and fire! Two away. Fire again! Two more. Then break, break to the right and climb and turn and hope to dodge whatever is coming up to meet you. Keep your machine gunner firing out the door of your ship as you turn, keeping the enemy gunner from getting a good aim.
Ship number two is firing now. He saw your rockets hit, and as soon as you turned away from his path of fire he began shooting. He has time to fire a dozen missiles into that target before he breaks away, and while he's firing you won't have to worry about that enemy gunner. He'll be as far down in his hole and he can get.
Number two has completed his run and turned away to the left, Number three begins firing with hardly a pause between rounds. You watch his hits carefully so you don't lose sight of the target. You may get another shot at it.
No, it isn't necessary. When the smoke cleared away from number four's hits there was no target left. The scout flies low over the rubble to confirm the kill. Mission accomplished. Well done!
Back to the old routine. Get back into formation, return to base camp, refuel, reload with rockets, and park next to operations. Fill out reports, inspect the aircraft, check weapons and ammunition, and sit in your cockpit waiting for the next call.
That's over with. End of Mission. You look at your watch and discover that the whole thing took place in less than an hour.
You may not fire again for hours. Or days. But you're ready, and you stay ready because that's your job as an Aerial Rocket Artillery pilot. You grow used to sleeping in your flight gear in or on or under your ship and eating cold "C" rations and getting alternately rained on and sunburned and being dusted off by every other helicopter that comes near you. You get used to it because it's part of the job and a lot of people are counting on you to do it.
If there is a regard, it is in knowing that your work has helped to save the lives of the men who are called upon to do the hard and dangerous work of this war, the real heroes of all campaigns, the infantryman on the ground. For most of us, that is reward enough.