In the early days, these Transportation Companies and the UTT Company gained the first significant experience with helicopter warfare and perfected such tactics as combat assaults, close air support and aerial resupply long before they became associated with the 1st Air Cavalry Division.
To provide this protection, an experimental armed attack helicopter company was formed, the Utility Transportation (UTT) Company, to convert helicopters for this role, which came to be called gunships. Once in Vietnam it became apparent that the CH-21’s needed protection from the unexpectedly intense level of enemy ground fire. They came to Vietnam strictly as troop transport companies without armed escorts. The initial Army helicopter units dispatched to Vietnam, named Transportation Companies (Light Helicopter), were equipped with the obsolescent Piasecki/Vertol CH-21 tandem rotor helicopter. Assault Helicopter Companies went on to serve in Vietnam until the last days of the American war in 1973, long after most American forces had departed. The forerunners of these units began the helicopter war in Vietnam in 1961, long before the arrival of American ground troops and Air Cavalry units. The exploits of the other primary component of Army combat aviation in Vietnam, the Air Cavalry, were widely publicized during the war and have received much attention in both fictional and historical accounts of the war since.Ī total of approximately 70 Assault Helicopter Companies served in Vietnam at one time or another. that one group of units that falls into this category are the Army aviation companies known collectively as Assault Helicopter Companies (AHC’s) which served primarily within the 1st Aviation Brigade in Vietnam, the largest single Army aviation unit ever formed. Other units that significantly contributed to the conduct of the war received scant attention from the news media at the time and probably because of this, have received scant attention in the historical record. In fact, it can be argued that some of these units have dominated the history of the Vietnam War beyond their relative contributions to the war effort. Many military units that participated in the war have already received significant historical attention, to include the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group and 1st Air Cavalry Division, the Marine Corps generally, the Air Force and Navy aviation, Riverine and SEAL units.
The political context of the war as well as the details of how it was waged have been the subject of much historical scrutiny. The American war in Southeast Asia, commonly referred to as the Vietnam War, lasted for almost fifteen years from the late 1950’s through the early 1970’s.
Our purpose is to preserve a small part of the history of the war, not to pass judgment on America’s involvement in it. Because America’s participation in the Vietnam War was and remains controversial, EMU, Inc. The following historical overview is abbreviated in deference to other, more exhaustive treatises. It is important to understand some of the history of U.S.
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