Author: Lobo

D/227 Crew Chief Hank Steffes provided an article that appeared in the Army Avn Digest in 1983.

Stay Clear of Hue PDF

Although the article is about W.O. Ferguson who was in C co. It is also about the two Dco. gunships that went into Hue to cover for him.
I am sure that no one in Dco. that was there for the Tet Offensive will ever forget the battle for Hue.

My aircraft was shot down in this rescue attempt(as mentioned in the article). So I attached my award of the DFC to compare to the story in the article. My gunner at the time was Paul Steed and he too was awarded the DFC.

Paul died in 1994 after suffering PTSD for years.

When the 1st Cavalry Division left Vietnam all of the units of the 227th remained in Vietnam and were re-designated/re-assigned.

On 1 September 1970, E Troop, 1/9th was organized from D/227 under the command of Major Hilbert H. Chole. The troop was initially stationed at Lai khe then later moved to the 1st Cavalry Division headquarters at Phouc Vinh.

John P. Conway who maintains the VHPA Museum online has found a “Yearbook” for E Troop, 1/9th Cavalry that was created in the summer or fall of 1971 that he has provided for our website.

The link below will open a large PDF file of the entire “Yearbook” which has a lot of photos of personnel and aircraft, along with a section of individual photos with names.

E,1/9th CAV Yearbook

The Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA) has provided information from their archives about the early beginnings of the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion. This information includes a lot of newspaper articles and photographs from the early days of the 11th Air Assault as the 227th was first organized and began to develop the Air Mobile concept.

227_ASLT_HEL_BN.pdf

Photo taken from a short section of a YouTube Video about the 1CAV called “Death from Above An Khe Army Airfield, 1st Air Cav, FAC and other stories (Vietnam War)

Ben Michels, SGM USA Retired, was the PSNCO of the 227th from Jul 66 to Jul 67. He has sent along a copy of a 227th “Award” from that time period and confirmed that the 227th Battalion call sign was “Tiger Tail”

During our joint A/227 and D/227 reunion in Savannah, GA, members of our units were hosted for a tour and BBQ by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The attached story of our visit was posted in DVIDS – (Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System) on 11/6/2014.

Link to the story

Greetings from the 11th Airborne Division Association,

We would like to invite all 1st Cav vets who were previously members of our 11th Air Assault (Test) Division in 1963 – 1965 to join our 11th Airborne Division Association. The 11th Air Assault unit is an integral part of our total association. To be eligible for membership, the vet must have earned either the “parachutist” or the “air assault” wings (authorized in 1964).
To receive an 11th Airborne Division Association membership application, please contact:
Bill Merkin, 11th Abn. Div. Assoc., 6482 Fox Hollow Dr., Galena, OH 43021