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From the artillery viewpoint, the most significant development of the first year's operation of the 1st Cavalry Division was that aerial artillery came of age. In the beginning, some officers considered aerial rocket artillery to be a nuisance on the battlefield, and they could not understand why its method of employment should be any different than the armed helicopter which escorted the tactical troop lift. Fortunately, the aggressive spirit of the aerial rocket artillery battery demonstrated that it could and should be used in mass. While the other armed helicopters were preoccupied by pinpoint targets, the aerial rocket artillery could deliver area fire with the same responsiveness (and through the same communication channels) that tube artillery had done in the past.
These same aerial rocket artillery assets, if distributed piecemeal throughout the division, could not have functioned nearly as well. In this case, the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. Aerial rocket artillery never entirely replaced tube artillery, nor was it ever meant to. However, by careful allocation of fire and precise timing of ships on station, the aerial rocket artillery was able to provide a remarkable volume of fire at times when no other fire support was available. To their credit, the aerial rocket artillery developed the same combined arms partnership with the infantryman that has always existed between the red leg and the dog soldier.
To the infantryman who has never been in an airmobile division, it is a very difficult thing to explain the responsiveness and effectiveness of aerial rocket artillery. Aerial rocket artillery, in contrast to the roving gunship, generally stayed on the ground with one section having a two-minute alert time. They were positioned so as to be only a matter of minutes away from any potential target. Two minutes after a fire mission was received they were airborne, and in a matter of a few minutes more, on target. As soon as the first section departed, a second section moved from a five-minute alert to the two-minute alert status, and another standby team moved to the five-minute alert. By this method, continuous and accurate firepower could be delivered. Aerial rocket artillery was so effective in the 1st Cavalry Division that the artillery commanders had to constantly remind the Infantry to use the tube artillery when appropriate rather than call automatically for aerial rocket artillery support.
During MASHER-WHITE WING, the 155-mm howitzer was airlifted for the first time using the CH-54 "flying crane" helicopter. During this same campaign, it became an accepted technique to