Air Mobile Vietnam: Four films on tactical air mobile operations in the Vietnam with complete 430-page "Operator's Manual for Army Model UH1/V Helicopters ("The Huey")

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Air Mobile Vietnam

Photos from the Vietnam War: Huey and Chinook Helicopters, air mobile infantry wading through deep swamps and air dropped field artillery.

Still photos taken from the films

-- Air Mobile Vietnam DVD

Four films on Air Mobile Operations in Vietnam

Plus a complete 430-page "Operator's Manual for Army Model UH1/V Helicopters"
"The Huey" -in printable Adobe Acrobat file format

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Description

Our DVD Specs

Air Mobile Vietnam Four films plus a complete 430-page "Operator's Manual for Army Model UH1/V Helicopters"(Declassified)

Films on this DVD have received digital color correction and noise reduction restoration.

The Vietnam War remains controversial, but it's extremely important that the heroism of the men and women who fought there is remembered and preserved. We owe them that -- and a lot more! These films show them at their best under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

* Sky Troopers: First Cavalry Division, Air Mobile (1965, Black & White 28:00) The 1st Cavalry Division is one of the oldest units in the Army, with regimental histories going back to 1855, participating in all major conflicts since then through several incarnations. This film covers the development of the "1st Air Cavalry Division, Air Mobile," from it's constitution and operational field testing in in the Fall of 1964 as the 11th Air Assault Division, through 1st Cavalry divisional activation at Fort Benning in July, 1965, to rapid deployment to Vietnam in October of the same year. The film focuses on the development of the revolutionary organization, mission and tactics of this unit as the first truly independent "air mobile" division that could have all it's components, including command and control, supply, logistics, communications, infantry, and light artillery air transported and fully deployed by it's own helicopters and supported by it's own gunships . The Division was developed largely with the Vietnam War in mind, where complete air superiority made it possible to seek out and destroy carefully concealed and rapidly launched enemy operations spread over a vast area without conventional battle lines.

In late November 1st Air Cav was already engaged in large scale a airborne search and destroy ops against a corps size force of North Vietnamese regulars operating in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, which was besieging the strategically important Special Forces base near Plemei. "Operation X-Ray" culminated in a costly victory, the intense "Battle of the Ia Drang Valley." (See below) After that, 1st Air Cav was very active in the Vietnam War until it's withdraw in 1971, subsequently to be reconstituted in Europe as a "Tricap" division, with a new emphasis on more traditional armored and assault helicopter capabilities. The Division was an active participant in "Operation desert Storm" in Iraq, Bosnian peace keeping operations, "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in Iraq and is currently deployed there. (See the 1st Cav's informative web site)

* The Army Air Mobility Team in Action in Vietnam (1966, color, 25;00) focuses on air mobile operations as they happened in the field, with a heavy emphasis on combat footage. You'll see a variety of offensive ops, including "vertical envelopment" assaults on hilltops with Hueys & Chinooks landing assault infantry, supported by USAF bombers & helicopter gunships, to establish LZs on terrain commanding fire bases. You'll also see maintenance and support operations, refueling, and the quick establishment of forward airfields by air mobile engineers. You'll also see "Apache" helicopter gunships and airborne artillery provide vital support for a fierce ground against enemy bunker complexes near Bong San. And last, but not least, you'll see the essential role proved by helicopter medivac units to quickly evacuate the wounded to forward hospitals, thereby saving many lives.

* "'Huey' in a Helicopter War'" (1967, Color, 25:00) was produce Bell Aircraft to show the essential part played of their "Huey" UH-1 Iroquois Helicopter in nine different of rolls, including recon & fire direction, transport & supply, a variety of assault gunships configurations and medical evacuations. The film uses dramatic combat footage to illustrate the theory, tactics and practice of Huey operations, including from the cockpit views of airborne assaults and the establish and development of LZ's. The advantages over and differences from traditional ground assault tactics are discussed and shown detail, along with varying tactics for different situations. This film is a dramatic combination of a thorough examination of Huey operations with down and dirty combat footage.

* The Battle of Ia Drang Valley" (1965, Black & White, 30:00) is a "Special Report" produced by CBS News one week after this pivotal battle in the Fall of 1965, introduced by Walter Cronkite and narrated by then combat correspondent and subsequent "Sixty-Minuets" regular Morley Safer. As such, it can be seen today on two levels: as an an immediate after action documentary report on the three week campaign, including combat footage and interviews with troops at all levels, and as a window on the way the war was covered by "The Media" during a critical escalation that saw the first large scale air mobile operations against newly massed, large concentrations of North Vietnamese regular army troops operating in the South.
While pursuing NVA units after the relief of the Special Forces base at Pleimei, 450 1st Air Cav soldiers were dropped into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were quickly surrounded by more than 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. An intense battle ensued as more US forces were ferried in, supported by intense aerial bombardment, including, for the first time, tactical B-52 strikes. (Click here for a detailed description of the action. ) It was a tough and heroic victory for US forces that defeated the NVA's thrust from the Central Highlands to potentially split the South in half, but at the cost of unprecedented US casualties for a single battle to that point in that war (240 dead, 470 wounded), albeit while extracting a death toll of thousands more NVA soldiers. The air mobile concept was vindicated and improved, but the North Vietnamese learned lessons too. Troop commitments on both sides increased rapidly -- as the did frequency and scale of actions -- along with higher casualties.
All this was was brought home with unprecedented immediacy into living rooms across America, with first hand reports from battle participants and the reactions of families of soldiers killed in action. At the end of the program, Safer asks the critical question (paraphrasing), "despite the continuing determination and success of US forces on the battlefield, how long will the American people continue to support years of combat casualties?" Time would tell.

* Complete 430-page "Operator's Manual for Army Model UH1/V Helicopters" The Huey. (Declassified) in printable Adobe Acrobat 'pdf file format. See performance charts, detailed operating instructions, cockpit & systems diagrams, weapons and much more. Pilot's manual viewable & printable on computer based DVD player. Don't have a DVD player on your computer? We can put the manual on a separate CD-ROM that will play on any computer! Click here for info.

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