Page:Airmobility 1961-1971.pdf/78

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AIRMOBILITY

Mohawk attack aircraft had been eliminated^[1] (six Mohawks were retained for reconnaissance and surveillance). A full brigade of the division were to be qualified paratroopers, the Little John battalion had been deleted, and the aviation group had been drastically modified. A chart of the 1st Cavalry Division as deployed is shown on page 59.

The division staged out of Mobile, Alabama, and Jacksonville, Florida, on the USS Boxer and three Military Sea Transportation Service ships. Approximately 80,000 man hours were required to process all the aircraft aboard the three vessels. The USS Boxer proceeded via the Suez Canal while the three smaller vessels traveled the Pacific.

An advance party landed in the Republic of Vietnam on 25 August 1965 and arrived at An Khe shortly thereafter. (Map 1) The men immediately began clearing the "golf course," which was to become the world's largest helipad. The 1st Cavalry Division was about to write a new chapter to its proud history.

↑ The air assault division included 24 armed Mohawks in its table of organization and equipment. Nothing could have raised a brighter red flag in front of those proponents of complete Air Force control of all aspects of air support. An unbelievable amount of time and effort was devoted to the roles and missions aspect of the Mohawk during this period. General Johnson, Army Chief of Staff, remarked during the course of the air assault tests that he devoted more than 60 percent of his time in the joint arena to this one relatively small system. Indeed he felt that the whole future of the Army airmobile concept might be jeopardized by the Army's unwarranted concentration on hanging a few machine guns on a twin-turbine airplane. General Johnson described the Mohawk as the "barber pole of the air assault division." After being asked what he meant by that phrase, he replied that when one looks for a barber ship he finds it by looking for a barber pole; and one could find an air assault division in a theater by looking for the armed Mohawks.

[ref1-1] The air assault division included 24 armed Mohawks in its table of organization and equipment. Nothing could have raised a brighter red flag in front of those proponents of complete Air Force control of all aspects of air support. An unbelievable amount of time and effort was devoted to the roles and missions aspect of the Mohawk during this period. General Johnson, Army Chief of Staff, remarked during the course of the air assault tests that he devoted more than 60 percent of his time in the joint arena to this one relatively small system. Indeed he felt that the whole future of the Army airmobile concept might be jeopardized by the Army's unwarranted concentration on hanging a few machine guns on a twin-turbine airplane. General Johnson described the Mohawk as the "barber pole of the air assault division." After being asked what he meant by that phrase, he replied that when one looks for a barber ship he finds it by looking for a barber pole; and one could find an air assault division in a theater by looking for the armed Mohawks.

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