Women 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:...
Learn MoreCombat 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...
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