75 Years of Army Aviation
Branch Command Sergeant Major / By CSM Gregory M. Chambers: You could say Army Aviation reaches as far back as the Civil War, when both Confederate and Union forces used balloons to direct artillery fire. But in 1942, when the Secretary of War ordered the Army to establish organic air observation elements for its Artillery units, the formation of these small Aviation elements represented the official birth of Army Aviation. The OH-13, Sioux, performed MEDEVAC and scout missions during the Korean War and subsequently was used as an instrument trainer at the Army Aviation School./ Photos: U.S. ARMY FILE PHOTOS...
Learn MoreArmy Aviation in Transition, 1992-2003
By The Army Aviation Branch Chiefs and Complied by GEN (Ret.) B. Doug Brown: The events in the years 1992-1993 would be a precursor of events a decade later that would have a dramatic impact on the World, the United States, the U.S. Army and Army Aviation. TH-67 Creek replaced the TH-55 Osage as the primary rotary wing training aircraft./ U.S. ARMY AVIATION CENTER PHOTO On 3 October 1992 U.S. forces from the Joint Special Operations Command conducted Operation Gothic Serpent in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia. Task Force Ranger was supported by elements of the 160th Special Operations Aviation...
Learn MoreThe Modern Era Arrives, 1983-1992
By Joseph P. Cribbins: On 6 June 1992, Army Aviation completed 50 years of dedicated service to the U.S. Army. During the fifth decade, Army Aviation matured greatly and realized a potential that had been developing since 1942. From the beginning, Army Aviation struggled for identity, first with the USAF, then in-house among the combat arms and logistics branches. There were sharp debates on whether to form a branch. Supporters believed Army Aviation needed the identity and cohesion of a combat arm like Infantry, Armor, and Artillery. Aviation had proven capable in the air maneuver dimension of battle; the Army...
Learn MoreA Decade of Transition, 1973-1982
By General Robert M. Shoemaker, Ret.: At the start of the fourth decade of Army Aviation, the U.S. Army had just finished its withdrawal from Vietnam. Retrenchment rather ·than expansion was the order of the day. The production of new aviators was cut back from its peak of over 7,800 in 1969 to an annual total of only 1,255 in 1973. Aviation School activities were consolidated at Ft. Rucker, AL; Ft. Wolters, TX was closed, and individual aviator training at Ft. Stewart, GA was ended. During the 1970s, production of new aircraft was sharply curtailed. The spares production base atrophied...
Learn MoreThe “Golden Age” Begins, 1963-1972
By Lieutenant General Harry W. O. Kinnard, Ret.: This decade was the worst of times; it was the best of times. Worst in its preoccupation with a war which cruelly tried and divided our country – a war which asked our Military to fight under unwinnable ground rules, subjected to a new and totally different level of news media scrutiny, and with least inconvenience to the American people. Best because, in it, Army Aviation ended its dependency on the Air Force and Navy, began to show its true promise, and moved from a walk to a full gallop. Helicopters from...
Learn MoreThe Foundation of Air Mobility, 1955-1962
By General Hamilton H. Howze, Ret.: The period of 1955-1958, for Army Aviation, was one of gradual transfer of authority and responsibility from the Air Force to the Army. The offices of the Chief of Army Aviation, the Chief of Transportation, the Transportation Center at Ft. Eustis, VA, and the Army Aviation School were all recipients of major responsibilities by that transfer. The Air Force, by and large, had done a good job in training our pilots and technicians, in supplying our fleet and developing our aircraft, but now the jobs became ours to do. The CH-37 Mojave picks up...
Learn MoreThe Early Years of Struggle, 1942-1954
1942-1954, From Balloons to Air Mobility / By Lieutenant General Robert R. Williams, Ret.: The roots of Army Aviation can be traced back to the Civil War in 1861 with the formation of the Balloon Corps, which pioneered the missions of reconnaissance and artillery spotting. These two basic missions were accomplished in World War I by the Army Air Service using fixed-wing aircraft, plus a few balloons. The Piper L- 4 Cub, shown here on the USS LST-906 flight deck being prepared for take-off with additional L-4s stowed alongside the deck, was the first plane used by the first class...
Learn MoreWomen in Army Aviation Flying “Wingtip to Wingtip”
By BG Anne F. Macdonald: This will by no means be inclusive of all women aviators— past or present—but highlights a few who paved the way for others to follow. Just a few years after the Wright brothers’ conducted their first powered flight in 1903, E. Lillian Todd designed and built an aircraft. In 1910, Blanche Stuart Scott became the first woman to solo an airplane. Harriet Quimby became the first U.S. woman to earn a pilot certificate in 1911 and to cross the English Channel in 1912. In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo.Women...
Learn More11th Air Assault Division (Test)
History / By Mark Albertson: If we are successful, the Air Mobile Concept will be a dynamic advance for the Army. If we are not, we will go back to flying Piper Cubs, if we have that much left, and the Army and the country as a whole will lose one of the things that . . . can mean the difference between victory and defeat in future land combat. COL George P. “Phip” Seneff, Jr., 11th Aviation Group, 11th Air Assault Division (Test) * * * * * The 11th Air Assault Division, 1954 Outstanding Aviation Unit On August...
Learn MoreTaking the First Step. . .
Looking Back 1861 / By Mark Albertson: The opening phases of the War Between the States was hardly a glowing example of maneuver warfare; rather, a feeling out process by two armies of uncertainty; two armies which, at this stage of the conflict, seemed barely able to engage in, let alone understand, the rapidly unfolding commercialization of war, courtesy of the Industrial Revolution, which itself was unfolding with a meteoric alacrity. Yet, as both the Federal and Confederate armies grew in size, scope and experience, they learned the military art in that School of Hard Knocks known as Modern War. Left:...
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