1st Cavalry Div Air Assault W Air Assau Tapestries

1st Cavalry Div Air Assault w Air Assault Badge during the Vietnam War, American soldiers were to war on helicopters - Air Assault - riding their metal horses into battle

Specialist 4th Class Jim Brannen who served in Vietnam during 1969 and 1970 in the Military Assistant Command Vietnam (MACV) and later the 4th Infantry Division agrees: Not a lot of people actually know that the whole decks were aces. I knew. I saw many of them in the Pleiku area since the 1st Air Cavalry was at An Khe. The 4th Infantry took over An Khe in March 1970. There were plenty of those ace of spades decks around. I wish I had kept some. I did see a few of the cards used. It is hard to talk about it now but during the war things were different. Some soldiers would place the cards on the eyes of a dead Viet Cong. It meant that the card was the last thing they saw. The Viet Cong really feared the Air Cavalry.

Specialist 4th Class Jim Brannen who served in Vietnam during 1969 and 1970 in the Military Assistant Command Vietnam (MACV) and later the 4th Infantry Division agrees: Not a lot of people actually know that the whole decks were aces. I knew. I saw many of them in the Pleiku area since the 1st Air Cavalry was at An Khe. The 4th Infantry took over An Khe in March 1970. There were plenty of those ace of spades decks around. I wish I had kept some. I did see a few of the cards used. It is hard to talk about it now but during the war things were different. Some soldiers would place the cards on the eyes of a dead Viet Cong. It meant that the card was the last thing they saw. The Viet Cong really feared the Air Cavalry.

. Today, the 17th Cavalry Regiment is found across the army within the combat aviation brigades, where the squadrons, now constituted as attack/recon helicopter squadrons, carry on the legacy of the 17th Cavalry Regiment.

1st Cavalry Div Airmobile w Basic Airborne Badge

In the Vietnam War, the First Cavalry Division suffered more casualties than any other army division: 5,444 men killed in action and 26,592 wounded in action. However, the First Marine Division suffered 7,012 men killed in action and the Third Marine Division suffered 6,869 men killed in action.

The 3d Squadron, 17th Cavalry arrived in Vietnam on 30 October 1967 and was assigned to the 12th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, primarily stationed at Dĩ An. It was responsible for air cavalry support in the western part of III Corps Tactical Zone. On 20 July 1970 it was placed under the control of II Field Force, Vietnam. In January 1971 Troop C was transferred to the 7th Squadron, 1st Cavalry. Troops A, B and D departed Vietnam together in April 1972 and Troop C rejoined them for the redeployment.

1st Cavalry Div Airmobile w Air Assault Badge during the Vietnam War, American soldiers were to war on helicopters - airmobile - riding their metal horses into battle

1st Cavalry Div Air Assault w Basic Airborne Badge,

For the majority of the Vietnam war, the principal weapon of the door gunner was a medium machine gun (MG), initially, a M1919A4 .30 caliber MG, and soon thereafter, the M60 7.62mm MG became the standard helicopter door armament system. Initially however not all helicopters were armed or outfitted with a dedicated MG for door armament. For example the very first U.S. Army helicopter units, flying CH-21 helicopters, that began flying combat missions in Vietnam in 1962 didn't. Therefore door gunners on Vietnam photographs are sometimes seen using an M1 Carbine, an M14 rifle, or an M16 rifle, as their only weapon. Initially, the door gunner's MG weapons were mounted on swiveling mounts (on a pintle mount) in order to retain and stea...

On 8 August 1967, the unit left Fort Hood for Vietnam where they were attached to the 4th Infantry Division, headquartered in Pleiku. During their service in the Central Highlands, troopers saw action in Pleiku, Đắk Tô, Suoi Doi, Kon Tum, An Khê and many other nameless stretches of road and jungle.