Military Officer - June 2006 - (Page 66)

CHOPPERS and Coast Guard members. It was ﬁrst ﬂown Aug. 18, 1944. In 1948, then-Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (DTexas), campaigning for reelection, hired a civilian version to haul him around his Texas district. In real life and in the ﬁlm adaptation of James Michener’s The Bridges at Toko-ri, an HO3S-1 took off from an aircraft carrier to attempt to rescue a downed pilot ﬁghting in a Korean paddy ﬁeld — William Holden in the celluloid version. A bigger, beeﬁer Sikorsky product, known as the H-19 to soldiers and airmen, the HRS to Marines, and the HO4S to sailors and Coasties, was 2 1 the ﬁrst rotorcraft to transport battleﬁeld supplies and troops during the Korean War. An HRS unit led by Lt. Col. George Herring launched Operation Windmill I Sept. 13, 1951, ﬂying 28 sorties and hauling 19,000 pounds of supplies to a Marine battalion holding a hilltop in the embattled ridge area, called the Punchbowl. By the end of the Korean War, larger helicopters pulled rescue, transport, and antisubmarine duty. In Korea, the Army was embarrassed when it introduced the H-19 two years after the Marine Corps. Post-Korea, seeing nuclear war with the Soviet Union on the horizon, Army ofﬁcers vowed 66 MILITARY OFFICER JUNE 2006 never again to be in second place. They launched a period of experimentation that advanced aviation technology and warﬁghting tactics. A board led by Gen. Hamilton Howze explored using helicopters the way the cavalry used horses. Among Cold War ideas that didn’t really work was an Army vehicle meant to whisk an infantryman into battle like a comic book superhero, on a platform above whirling rotors. It was too much for the draft-era buck private and was quickly overtaken by a seminal event: On Oct. 22, 1956, the Army completed the ﬁrst ﬂight of what became the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, alias the Huey, using the ﬁrst practical helicopter gas turbine engine, developed by Anselm Franz. The public recognizes no other helicopter so readily. “The design behind the Huey was sheer genius,” says CWO4 Michael J. Novosel, who ﬂew casualty evacuation missions in Vietnam. Of 19 aviation Medals of Honor in the Vietnam war, 10 went to helicopter crewmembers; eight of those, PHOTOS: THIS SPREAD AND PREVIOUS SPREAD, COURTESY ROBERT F. DORR

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Military Officer - June 2006 Contents From the Editor President’s Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities MOAA Member Services Living Well 5 Foods for Life The Kindest Cut Winning the Battle Cover Story: Choppers Pages of History Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Scholarship Donors Member Books MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2006

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