Combat Debut
75 Years of Army Aviation / By Mark Albertson: November 8, 1942, American troops stormed ashore at Safi, Casablanca and Port Lyautey. The Allied invasion of French northwest Africa was on: the first concerted land action by the Western Allies against the Axis in the European Theater of Operations; and, which also marked the combat debut of the Air Observation Post concept. The following day, November 9, Captain Ford “Ace” Allcorn would lead three other Army Aviators into action. * * * * * LT William A. Butler, Jr. and CPT Brendon A. Devol, Jr. prepare to take off. /...
Learn More75 Years of Army Aviation:“Army Aviation is on its Way”
Looking Back / By Mark Albertson: [Source: Suggested from chapter 7, pages 9-15, “Grasshopper Infestation,” Vol.1, SkySoldiers: The Saga of Army Aviation, unpublished manuscript.] Lieutenant William H. Butler, Jr., and Captain Brendon A. Devol, Jr., being readied for takeoff. It was agreed between London and Washington that the Third Reich posed the greatest threat among the Axis Powers.(1) Yet it was Japan which attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Hitler solved a potential dilemma by declaring war on the United States on December 11, 1941. Therefore what had been, for the most part, a European war was now a...
Learn More75 Years Ago, Day of Infamy
By Mark Albertson: It is fitting that we, at Army Aviation, recall a day that changed the complexion of this Nation; irrevocably changed the course of the 1939-1945 conflict and, helped to determine a new global balance of power by 1945; and in addition, helped to set the stage for the founding of Army Aviation some six months later . . . and that event was, the Day of Infamy, December 7, 1941. Battleships sunk, left to right, West Virginia (BB-48), Tennessee (BB-43) and ill-fated Arizona (BB-39). 0753 hours, Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Pacific Fleet...
Learn MoreEnemy Countermeasures
November 16, 1962 / By Mark Albertson: Saigon, December 11, 1961, USS Card (AKV-40) offloaded 82 U.S. Army H-21 helicopters and 400 men.(1) Units in question were the 57th Transportation Company (Light Helicopter), out of Fort Lewis, Washington; and, from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 8th Transportation Company (Light Helicopter). Before the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), 11th Air Assault Division (Test) or even the Howze Board, the Army was already forging the Airmobility Concept in the jungles of Vietnam. The Flying Banana’ carried the ball as that vehicle for Airmobility during the early stages of the Vietnam conflict. Not two weeks after...
Learn MoreThe Sixth Man
Looking Back, September 2016 / By Mark Albertson: George P. Seneff, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1916. His Army career commenced in 1936, when he enlisted as a private. Within a year, he was selected to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1941, a 2nd Lieutenant attached to the Field Artillery. WWII Axis Powers During World War II, he served in the European Theater of Operations, attached to the 14th Armored Division. Following the defeat of the Axis Powers, he served as a Tactical Officer at the Military Academy (1946-1948); after which he was transferred...
Learn MoreAviation’s Place in the U.S. Army.
August, 1991 / By Captain Peter M. Vozzo: Months after the impressive display of military might which has come to mark the short-lived operation known as DESERT STORM, Captain Peter Vozzo related a narrative marking the post-Soviet era that was to follow; one into which the United States Army had been thrust, and, which has been characterized by a term of overriding significance . . . downsize. General Hamilton H. Howze, chairman of the 1962 Howze Board which set the Army on the road to adopting Airmobility. The writer explained that the Army would face a shortfall of personnel and...
Learn MoreYO-3A
Historical Perspective / By Mr. Mark Albertson: Editor’s Note: This article is a follow-on to “Flying on the QT” by Mark Albertson in the July 31, 2015 issue of ARMYAVIATION. PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO When the sun goes down, the insurgents come out. Yet aircraft styled upon acoustic-based stealth technology proved successful in stealing the night away from Charlie. One of these was the QT-2PC which, after nine months in theater, was withdrawn to be replaced later by the YO-3A. However the next step in the development chain was the Q-Star, a possibility Lockheed was developing on its own dime. Q-Star...
Learn MoreUmbilical to Steinstucken: Army Aviation in the Cold War
Historical Perspective / By Mark Albertson: From 1933 to 1945, Berlin stood as the capital of Nazi Germany. Yet after a lifespan of only twelve years, the Thousand Year Reich died a miserable death, leaving Berlin to rise from the ashes to take on a significance of a different sort . . . that of focal point of the Cold War; central to the decades of strategic stalemate between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Immersed within the global contest for political and military supremacy was a tiny group of Army Aviators who, over a ten year span, performed an errand of...
Learn MoreArmy Aviation in the Pacific Theater of Operations
Historical Perspective / By Mark Albertson: This is Part II of a two-part series commemorating the 70th anniversary of V-E Day in World War II. L-4 Cubs on Sandberg Field, Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, 1943 / ARMY AVIATION MUSEUM COURTESY PHOTO Combat conditions in the Pacific Theater differed from those in the European Theater. With the latter, the war was of the conventional type, replete with armor, artillery and infantry. While in the Pacific, Allied strategy was based on naval supremacy. As the Pacific Fleet recovered from Pearl Harbor, the Island-Hopping campaign gathered momentum. Unlike the aforementioned conventional war in...
Learn MoreFlying on the QT
Historical Perspective / By Mr. Mark Albertson: 1961-1973: Much of the American effort in Vietnam was devoted to counterinsurgency. Daylight saw the comings and goings of American troops and aircraft; the night, though, belonged to Charlie.1 An aircraft known as the QT2 was an effort to take the night away from Charlie. The QT-2 in flight./ PHOTO COURTESY OF DALE ROSS STITH The QT2 and its successor, the YO-3A, were attempts to circumvent a dilemma in Vietnam; that of noisy aircraft which alerted the enemy to their presence. Many of the aircraft employed in the Second Indochina War2 – with...
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