Customer Reviews

Army Aviation in Vietnam 1961-1963: An Illustrated History of Unit Insignia, Aircraft Camouflage and Markings

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It had to be done! If Ralph Young, aided by Steve Davis, illustrator and Kevin Lyles, figure artist had not produced volume 1 of a proposed ten volume series about Army Aviaton in Vietnam, many of the details and most of the pictures and maps would have been lost forever. However, Ralph Young did produce volume 1, and it is a success. If volume one is any indication of future publishings in the series, you will not want to miss any that are published. I personally know of no other more complete and documented historical journal. This one is gleened from official and personal information gathered from the actual combatants. We all will someday be indebted to Ralph Young for doing the almost impossible task of telling much of our story; the story we all lived, one year at a time.

The Army Aviation story began as far back as October 1954 with the Avn Div. and Flight Det. of MAAG, Indochina in Saigon. In those early years Army Aviation was very very small and consisted of young men baptised in the combat of WWII and Korea,. However, most were trained as aviators well after WWII. The US Army Air Corps had split to form the US Air Force leaving hardly anyone who possessed flying skills within the US Army. Young men like COL. Kenneth D. Mertel, COL. Samuel G. Conley, CW4 Frank Baldwin, Gen Joe Stillwell and dozens more acknowledged by the author, brought together the men and early aviation assets to set rotors/propellers in motion in SE Asia. These pioneers provided leadership which would advance Army Aviation. They carefully formed Army Aviation's stength, tactics and composition to what we know today.

Army Aviation in Vietnam, 1961-1963 is truly an illustrated history of unit insignia, aircraft camouflage and markings. A detail rich text, derived from personal contacts with those who wrote the history, and a humongous amount of fresh personal pictures and illustrations will give you so much detail to absorb that you will want to read and look at each page over and over again. In fact, I can personally attest to the fact that after looking and reading most of the 125 page book several times, I discovered something new every time! Not many books offer that kind of "meat". The pictures are mostly never before seen personal snapshots. They are definitely not the oft used media prints most massproduced media books offer. The hundreds of pictures were offered from the highly prized personal albums of all the contributing men the author personally interviewed and corresponded with during the research phase. This in itself speaks volumes about the respect the contributors have for the job the author has set out to accomplish. You will truly enjoy all the clear, crisp and accurate illustrations. A great job!

Volume 1 is dedicated to the seven men who were in the first night time crash of an H-21 belonging to the 57th Transporation company(Lt Hel) which spun into the ground on an island in the Mekong River at 2200 hours on 11 January 1963. The crash was only days following the Battle of Ap Bac when Army Aviation lost its "cherry" during a large scale combat assault on known Viet Cong positions. Ralph Young devotes several pages to the Battle of Ap Bac and its "lessons learned" which produced many changes to early helicopter airborne tactics. Many of the changes in tactics remained in effect until the deployment of large caliber anti-aircraft and infrared anti-aircraft rockets demanded further change, almost 5 years later. Future volumes by will deal with those changes in much greater detail. I can not wait!

Finally, to put in perspective the task that looms before Ralph Young and his artist and illustrator(who are not even rated aviators) in telling the story of Army Aviation in Vietnam, think about WWII and the volumes of books, movies and stories told over the last half century. Vietnam, on the other hand, was THREE TIMES longer than WWII from 1961-1973! An almost impossible task lies before the author. It is possible that telling the story of Army Aviation in Vietnam might just take a century.

Keep working Ralph, we look forward to each and every book in the 10 book series. I personally will want each and every volume to put in my personal library and to pass on to my children or local library. After all, as I said, it had to be done.

The largest task of an historical writer (after data acquisition) is to assemble an overwhelming jumble of information into coherent and readable, yet accurate text. Ralph Young has done this with this first-in-a-series glossy hardcover.

During the early years of Vietnam, Army Aviation was in flux. Technology advances in power plant design and structural materials had moved helicopters from "damn, it actually flys" category into the realm of practical airborne utility "trucks" that would eventually be fitted with offensive weaponry.

The Army fixed-wing inventory of this period was growing from single-engine light observation and liason aircraft to more complex single and twin- engine cargo and resupply aircraft, capable of STOL (short take-off and landing) performance on remote, unimproved landing strips.

Ralph Young's book chronicles this era, identifying the aircraft, the units and the men that made it happen. The many excellent photos and descriptions detail the evolution and growth of Army Aviation from piston-engine helicopters with their limited carrying capacity to the early "Huey" models. The ubiquitious Huey, with its distinctive shape and sound became, for many, the symbol of everything that flew in Vietnam, but there were others in those early years--the H-13 from Korea MASH fame, the H-21 Flying Banana, the H-34 and the H-37.

The book also covers fixed wing development, as the L-19 (later known as the TO-1D), the L-20 (U-6A) Beaver and the U1A Otter were joined by the twin-engine CV-2 Caribou, RU-8D (L-23) and the OV-1 Mohawk. The Army's growing fleet of fixed wing cargo and offensive aircraft was viewed with alarm by the Air Force as infringement on its perogatives and would be the subject of intense inter-service debate during the mid-sixties.

Anyone interested in accurate details of Army Aviation aircraft, markings and unit insigna from the period of 1961 to 1963 will enjoy this book. The follow-on book will pick up next period, the mid-sixties, and should continue the outstanding effort of this book.

Dennis Toaspern, Historian, Army Otter Caribou Association

If you have any interest in Army Aviation during the Vietnam years, this is the best source of information I have seen.

My father served three tours in Vietnam, in a variety of aviation units. This book has allowed me to gain a better understanding of the units he was assigned to, the type of aircraft they operated, the unit patches, etc...

I have the 2nd Vol. as well, and am anxiously waiting future volumns.