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Vietnam, they could count on more time between such tours and more diversified assignments to fill out their career pattern.
In Southeast Asia, the Army aviator had become the sine qua non of combat operations. No major plan was ever considered without first determining the aviation assets available to support it. Nowhere was this better exemplified than in the 1st Aviation Brigade.
On the second anniversary of this unit back on May 25th, General Abrams, Deputy Commander, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, summed up the feeling of the non-rated officers this way: "It has always been interesting for me to note that the aviators and men of this Brigade have been taken into the brotherhood of the combat arms. Not by regulation, not by politics, but that have been voted in by the infantry, who are the chartered members of that secluded club, the combat arms." During this same organizational day ceremony, noting the presence of General Cao Van Vien, Chairman of the Joint General Staff, General Abrams added, "They are heroes to the district chiefs; they are heroes to the province chiefs; and they are heroes to soldiers of every nation that fights here."
During the same ceremony, General Vien presented the Brigade its second Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm, an award earned by the men of the Brigade for their outstanding aerial support of such operations as JUNCTION CITY and JEB STUART, and their opposition to the Tet offensive. General Williams, the Commanding General of the 1st Aviation Brigade, listed a few of the Brigade's accomplishments during 1967 when they airlifted more than five million troops—the equivalent of 313 infantry divisions—in more than 2.9 million sorties. In that year Brigade aircraft flew more than 1.2 million hours—the equivalent of 137 years. The Brigade was credited for killing 10,556 Viet Cong, sinking nearly 10,000 supply sampans, and destroying more than 10,400 enemy structures and fortifications.
It is very difficult to properly document the accomplishments of the pilots and crews of the 1st Aviation Brigade since their deeds have been interwoven in the combat operational reports of the units which they supported. This support almost became accepted as routine.
I have tried to spare the reader the series of inevitable "wiring diagrams" so beloved by many students of military organizations. However, the organizational structure of the Brigade as of 31 July has a special impact in the sheer number of separate aviation units that were supporting the Free World Forces at this time. (Chart 2)