Army Aviation in the 70s

[Roger H]

After paroussing Mr Breed’s new book on USAREUR , I suddenly realized that the 4 plus divisions assigned to Germany, as well as the CONUS REFORGER divisions had only aviation “companies “ instead of “battalions” .
Where were Kiowas, Cobras and Hueys that made up the divisional aviation battalions ? By 76, they should have fielded the Cobras armed with the TOW launchers in the attack helicopter companies and the divisional /regimental air cav troops . Were all the lift assets confined to the Corps aviation groups or were all the Kiowas and Hueys distibituted amongst the combat and combat support brigade HHC’s?
Was this a leftover issue from the Vietnam War where helicopters and crews were stripped from other theaters to feed the combat attrition losses in Vietnam and whatever was left over got put in a company sized aviation unit instead of a battalion ?

[panzergator]

In the H series divisional cavalry squadron, there resided one air cavalry troop posessing one aeroscout platoon with two sections of 4 Kiowa scouts each plus the platoon hq Kiowa; a recon platoon of 4 UH1s, each carrying a recon squad, plus the platoon U1 HQ; and an aeroweapons platoon of two sections of 4 AH 1s, one section carrying rockets and the other carrying TOW. I find no other atteck helicopers in an armored division in the 1978-79 version of ST 17-1-1, ARMOR REFERENCE DATA, Volume 1, The Army Division. Some are mentioned for the Infantry division. This reference was used for the AOAC classes to familiarize with TOEs, write combat orders and plans, etc, serving as a standard from which to work.

There was an Air Cavalry Combat Brigade at Corps. It had two attack helicopter battalions, each of 63 TOW-equipped AH1s and 36 Kiowas. The corps had at least one, maybe two brigades.

You must keep in mind that despite the Vietnam experience, both the TOW and integration of heliborne weapons systems in general were still developing. It wasn't until AirLand Battle and the J series TOE that things really got going, with an aviation brigade added to the division.

Mister Breed used the same reference I cited above as a basis fir his book. I would point out that his book was specifically for the year 1976. The Army is a very dynamic organization, and was especially after the VN War, with many organizational and equipment changes.

[Roger H]

That would make sense . It’s odd that the Corps Aviation Groups in Europe didnt have attack helicopter battalions assigned . The 6th CBAC at Hood was not listed as a REFORGER unit . Where did the 120+ Cobras for Europe come from ?

[panzergator]

The Corps aviation combat aviation brigade had two attack helicopter battalions. Whether they were there or not, I can't say. I know we had several demonstrations of the difficulty of spotting attack helicopters hiding in the trees and taking shots at us while in the field in '76. Had there been an emergency, I'm sure there would have been more. This was because they were new.

[Roger H]

I’m sure even as late as 1976, the Assault Helicopter Companies were still organized with lift platoons ( Hueys) supplemented with a gun platoon (G model Cobras) as in Vietnam.
Ironically, when the 24th ID was stood up at Ft Stewart in 75-76, the 24th Combat Aviation Battalion was stood up at Hunter Army Airfield . However, the 24th was a leg infantry division and would not “heavy up” until four or five years later.

[panzergator]

I only looked at the armor/mech division last night. Was trying for a quick and dirty answer. Haven't looked at infantry division, air assault, TRI-CAP, etc. As soon as I have the chance, I will scan the 5 STs I have and make them available on request. I have '64, '68, '74, and '78-'79 versions. They represent the E, G, and H versions of TOE, but NOT MTOE. Your units undoubtedly varied.

[redleg]

What's Tri-Cap? is that a type of division? I have never heard that term before.

[panzergator]

1st Cavalry Division in te '70s. Two armor/mech brigades, one air cavalry combat brigades of one airmobile infantry battalion and two attack helicopter squadrons. Roundout battalions enabled deployment as a full armored division as well.

[Roger H]

It was sort of a failure because it was hard for a division commander to control armor, light infantry and air cavalry at the same time . For the time when we were “division centric”, the Tri Cap just couldn’t work with the technology we had . The good thing to come out of those tests was the Air Cavalry Combat Brigade , which was the basis for the Division 86 Aviation Brigade and the Combat Aviation Brigade of today .
In the mid 70’s, the Tri Cap division didn’t really work because we didn’t have a C3 net to control armor at the same time you had to control air cavalry and airmobile elements in a battle space . We just didn’t have the tools or the doctrine tweaked down at the time to integrate light and heavy on the division level and be effective on a Central Front battlefield
Turn the clock forward 30 years and we mastered that problem as Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom showed .

[panzergator]

Not everything tried in te '70s worked. Lots of innovation, though. TOW, Hellfire, laser uses, UTTAS (UH60), attack helicpters, A-10, to name a few.

[redleg]

Thanks for the information, fellas! I had never heard of that. I learned something new today!

[Cav Dog]

6th CB(AC) was my first TO&E unit out of flight school. We were the III Corps Aviation Brigade with a primary mission of NATO and later RDF once that became a reality. We were also a test bed for all things attack helicopter and got to do some cool stuff like Reforger, Bright Star and way too many NTC rotations. We did a lot of the early development of the Joint Air Attack Team working with A10s and other fast movers doing live fire at Nellis, Tonopah, White Sands and Chocolate Mountain gunnery ranges.

When I first got there we had 2 squadrons, 7/17 Cav and 4/9 Cav along with 34th Support which had 12 (16?) CH 47s, if my memory serves me. 7/17 had 3 H series attack troops, each with 21 AH-1s, a mixture of Modernized and Production S, the biggest difference was the Mod S had rounded canopies and the Prod S had flat plate. The chin turret was still a 40mm grenade launcher and a 7.62 mm minigun. Wing stores were typically a 4 missile Tow Launcher and a 19 shot rocket pod on each side. We also had 12 OH-58Cs which had flat plate canopies but no armament, and 3 UH-1Hs for C&C.
4/9 had 3 H series Air Cav troops each with 9 AH-1s, again Mods and Prods, 10 OH-58Cs and 8 UH-1H including a "Blues" platoon.

Regiment decided that A 4/9 would be OpCon to 7/17 and A 7/17 would be OpCon to 4/9 so the Attack Squadron deployed as 2 Attack Troops and an Air Cav Troop and the Air Cav Squadron would deploy as 2 Air Cav troops and an Attack Troop.

6th CB(AC) did have a Reforger Mission but that was not widely known, primarily because we did not have a POMCUS set like the rest of III Corps - the biggest reason was that the Army didn't have enough TOW Cobras to go around and leaving almost 100 sitting in warehouses was out of the question. We practiced loading 3X5 mixes on C5s a lot. 3 Scouts and 5 Cobras were the typical mission package for attack units at the time.

After we got back from Bright Star in 83, J series came knocking and in preparation for Apaches being fielded, 7/17 was broken up into 3 Attack Squadrons: A 7/17 became A,B and C Troops 7/17 Cav each with 7 AH-1s and 4 OH-58s with squadron HQ retaining the UH-1s. B 7/17 became A, B and C Troops 1/6 Cav, and C 7/17 became A, B and C Troops, 5/17 Cav. I don't remember what happened to 4/9 Cav, I think they were disbanded at Ft Hood and the guidons assigned elsewhere.

I left right after that but the Brigade became the Apache Training Brigade, although they kept the 6th Cav designation and operational missions but I think each of the attack Squadrons became either 1/6, 2/6 or 3/6 Cav, or something like that!

[Roger H]

Cav Dog, I think 7/17 and 4/9 got rearranged and reflagged as 1/6, 2/6 and 3/6 upon time they were in Apache NETT there at Hood . One of those squadrons stayed behind in Europe after the first REFORGER the Apache was a participant and the attack helicopter battalions in V and VII Corps started their NETT .