Can you describe what it was like to ride on an Army Huey helicopter during the Vietnam War?


 I served as a combat infantryman with the Americal Division in Vietnam. Our area of operations was an approximately 100 square kilometer mountainous tropical jungle area not far from Danang. When I arrived in Vietnam we were given a few day orientation then transported to our units via Huey helicopters. 
To avoid ground fire, helicopters either flew very high to make them a very small target or treetop level to minimize the time the enemy would have to identify the helicopter’s location. By the time you heard the chopper coming and lined up your shot, it would be gone. Flying at high altitude was pretty smooth, flying at treetop level was like riding a roller coaster with the chopper rising and dropping to follow the terrain. Extremely scary, but fun. After arriving to our “in the bush” unit, we walked almost everywhere. The exceptions would be if you needed to be medivaced due to injury or needed to go back to base for R&R or some administrative reason.


There were a few instances when we were needed at a trouble spot in a big hurry and helicopters would be brought in to transport us. While we were happy that we didn’t have to walk, the unhappy part was that we were about to be dropped into some bad shit.


To make it easy to load personnel and supplies into the choppers, the doors were removed. To make room for lots of supplies and equipment, the seats were removed. The only ones who had seats were the pilots and door gunners. When we did ride, we were treated like supplies and equipment so we sat on the floor. Often times we would sit on the door edge and let our feet hang out. If your boots and pants were wet, they dried quickly.



I took all the photos below with my Kodak 126 point and shoot camera. One is the view as I sat near the door gunner looking out at another Huey. Then a couple shots of a typical re supply mission and lastly waiting on the helicopter pad to be transported to a trouble spot... Read more 

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