The Huey As An Icon

The geographic and political realities of Vietnam called for a new kind of warfare, one the U.S. Army termed "Airmobile." Remote battle zones, mountains topped in old-growth hardwood jungles, and poorly developed roads eliminated motor vehicles as a means of quickly moving masses of troops and supplies. Helicopters took over. In Airmobile warfare, flocks of helicopters took troops and supplies to strategic locations, monitored operations from the air, engaged in battle, and evacuated forces. The famed U.S. Army 1st Cavalry joined aviation units already in Vietnam to pioneer Airmobile operations, trading its horses for helicopters and creating an archetype followed by the 101st Airborne, the 1st Aviation Brigade, and several other aviation units and smaller detachments.

Many helicopters were used in Vietnam, but none was as widely employed as the Huey. The UH-1 "Iroquois," popularly dubbed the Huey, is known as "the workhorse of the Vietnam War," used by all military forces for utility, evacuation, and assault. Hueys transported troops and supplies to the lines as the horses for a modern cavalry. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps made them into gunships, modifying them with machine guns and air-to-ground rocket pods and putting them to work in frontal assaults. Hueys carried officers to develop battle plans, soldiers to battle, nurses to orphanages, and "Donut Dollies" to entertain troops. Outfitted with broadcasting systems, they ferried Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) messengers. And, perhaps most significantly, Hueys were the technology behind "Dustoffs," evacuations of the wounded so-named by a pilot who gave his life doing it. The ability to swoop into the battle, load the Huey with wounded, and fly to evacuation hospitals, started in Korea and refined in Vietnam, has been called "one of the major medical innovations of the Vietnam War." This quick transport meant that more than 90 percent of wounded soldiers who reached a medical facility survived. The courage and skill it took to pilot an unarmed helicopter into the middle of an active battle in order to ambulance out wounded soldiers was the stuff heroes are made of. The medical evacuation technology gained in the Huey experience of Vietnam came home to become the air rescue operations we today take for granted.

The Huey is an enormously versatile helicopter, easily modified for various missions. The interchangeable interiors of the Huey allowed for easy conversion from troop carrier to ambulance. It was also an amazing machine, capable of flying in extreme stress and relatively easy to get in and out quickly--a feature crucial in troop extraction and rescue missions. Those who flew and maintained them, the pilots and crew chiefs, are fiercely loyal to the Huey, even though many have flown many other aircraft.

When you talk to people who served in Vietnam--soldiers, nurses, medics--you'll find that most have a Huey story: the ride in to the landing zone, filled with fear and anticipation, and the ride out, exhausted and relieved. How the Huey brought the wounded, the ammunition, a rare treat of chocolate bars or beer. Like any good icon, the Huey was always there, and its ubiquitous presence still hovers in the collective memories of Vietnam Veterans, whose lives, thirty years later, are tinted by the shadows of the blade.

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