The 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion Honor Sword is passed each year to a selected member of our unit to act as the “Keeper of the Sword” until the next reunion. Each “Keeper’s” name is engraved on the sword blade and on the scabbard is engraved the names of the initial organizers of our reunion.
Video provided by Thom Carr, B/227, 1966-1967
The Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association memorial for Vietnam helicopter pilots and crew members at Arlington National Cemetery dedication ceremonies
Provided by the VHPA
2019 date: 5 February, The year of the Pig
From Robert Kelly, D/227, 1967-1968
I was in country during the TET offensive of 1968. That time of the year was uncomfortable for me. I finally got the guts to go to a TET celebration. I had so much fun watching the different activities. They announced the national anthem. I figured it would be VN anthem. No. It was the American national anthem. What a surprise. After a few short short speeches (in English) the activities began. Young children, 5 yr old up through high school, all in beautiful attire got on stage. One grade after another they did a skit, singing, dancing, whirling bright cloth. The VN food was good. Any of you have ghosts from the TET Offensive this will take them away. If you have no ghosts you will enjoy enjoy the program. I went with some trepidation and soon everything was good. Very good and enjoyable. So if you hesitate in going, try to give it a go. They embrace America while remembering their Vietnamese ancestors.
By Robert Kelly, A/227 and D/227, 1967-1968
This personal letter is from Ernest “Ernie” Kramer, my best friend,. We were roommates in flight school. We had orders for the CAV. At the replacement station the Captain asked if any two wanted to stay together, Ernie and I raised our hands. We were the only ones and he said we were going to be “Beach Bums” at Phan Thiet, assigned to A/227. On November 1, 1967, D/227 needed two pilots and Ernie jumped at the chance. We were both in the 1st Platoon still at Phan Thiet. Some time, maybe at LZ English, Ernie was assigned to a different platoon. We joined back up as a full company in early 1968 in I Corps. Ernie got his Purple Heart int he A shau Valley.
I have enclosed this letter because it has the WO Frederick Ferguson Medal of Honor mission in Hue. Ernie gives a good description of that mission. They had to go in twice and when WO Ferguson did get to the LZ he had mortar rounds landing under his tail boom and as he was leaving the LZ. He said he was taking heavy fire. Not in the letter, but he told me, to his right, at least 100 NVA were on top of the Citadel and they were putting lots of mini gun fire into them. Then you can see in the letter he was shot down. I don’t know when Ferguson was awarded the MOH. Ernie was awarded his second DFC. He never said this but I always thought he should have been awarded the DSC.
In-Country letter to Robert Kelly from Ernie Kramer, February 5, 1968
Bob,
Well things were really popping for a few days here. We’re staying at a SeaBee base 7 miles south of Hue. The second nite here we got mortared and rocketed. That went on for two nites and also had a few rounds come in during the day.Had a few CA’s, but nothing big ’til January 31st. You probably heard that the VC had control of Hue for a few days. Well, C Company CO along with COL Jackson (Johnson?) got shot down over the city and made it to an ARVN compound. The compound immediately came under mortar attack and small arms fire. We made one attempt to get them and got our ass shot off. Waited 45 minutes and made another try. The slick made it in and got a few people on board as a mortar round went off under the tail boom. They pulled pitch as another round went off knocking the CE out of the AC.
We’d got pretty well shot up on the first pass but all 3 ships (gunships) were still flying. Called in another slick and went back in again. Promptly got our asses shot off. The whole fucking town was shooting at us. I was flying as AC with a brand new 2LT who’d been in country a month. We got shot down (my first day as AC) by rounds thru the fuel cell. Had one round come up between my feet, go thru my pants leg, up thru the cyclic cutting all the wires, and out thru the greenhouse. Talk about coming close! Only damage I got was scratches on the knee from shrapnel. Didn’t see a medic, so I’m out of purple heart. Lost 800 pounds of fuel in 20-30 seconds. Made it out side the city and landed with power in rice paddy. My CE had a round thru the ass and couldn’t walk. A slick picked us up pretty quick, about 2 minutes.
I was the second gunship shot down inside of an hour, both D/227, and our other 2 were shot up so bad they were grounded when they landed. One had to land immediately the other stayed on station for 45 minutes.
Couldn’t recover either of the two ships shot down, although they weren’t damaged in landing. I think they’ve been destroyed by now, I sure hope so anyway. VC/NVA got my steel pot, flack vest, gas mask, cigarette lighter. Another ship pulled the guns and radios out after we were picked up.
The guys here are really great. They’re all outstanding pilots and know their job well. It been a pleasure flying with them. Rank means next to nothing and experience takes it’s place. The guys were wondering why I wasn’t on AC orders yet. I flew left seat once since I’ve been here, right seat in the lead twice, with the platoon leader. Bradley &
cherry talked to the old man (so they day) and my AC orders will be coming thru as soon as everything gets organized. “Til then (as soon as we get ship) I’ll fly without them.Well friend, keep me posted on whats happenings your AO. Find out how much I owe the SGT for laundry. Take care, see ya in An Khe, if not sooner.
Ernie
CW2 Ernest “Ernie” W. Kramer died after tour on 12/12/05
Robert Kelly (A/227 and D/227, 1967-1968) has found a treasure trove of the “Pouvoir” Newsletters that were published by the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion during that time period.
Each Newsletter is six pages mimeographed and in a PDF file.
1 July 1967
8 July 1967
15 July 1967
22 July 1967
29 July 1967
5 August 1967
12 August 1967
25 August 1967
2 September 1967
9 September 1967
16 September 1967
Beginning May 1, 1970, the 1st Cavalry Division (along with ARVN and other US Units) crossed the border into Cambodia in the area known as the Fishhook. The following documents add background and details about the operation and the role of the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion.
The first document is the Warning Order notifying the Battalion of the upcoming operation. This is followed by the intelligence detail provided by the Battalion S2 of the Fish Hook area inside Cambodia, Assault timeline, Flight Assignments, Flight Leaders Briefing sheet, Description of the “Heavy” flight formations, “Atta-Boy” to Company Commanders, and a copy of the 11th Group Newsletter.
Documents provided by Kirby Lawson. COL Lawson served as CO of C/227 (Ghostrider 6) and also as the 227th Battalion XO (1969-1970)
I have uploaded .PDF documents (below) that have information about the operations of the 1st Cavalry Division for the time period indicated.
Although these documents are not specific to the 227th, they do contain a lot of information about the operations that we were involved with and might jog some memories.
We will add more as they become available.
Quarter ending 30 April 1966
Quarter ending 31 July 1966
Quarter ending 26 August 1968
Quarter ending 31 January 1969
Quarter ending 30 April 1969
Quarter ending 31 July 1969
The following file (.pdf) contains historical documents regarding the Valorous Unit Award for the Bien Hoa action. This award was issued 24 January 1970 with General Order No. 203.
Included are the descriptive narrative for the award, the citation, maps designating gun placements etc, and list of individuals from the 227th decorated for this action.
Also included are the supporting documents and statements in a second file.
This information has been provided by Potato Masher 12, Victor Diatschenko, B/227, 1969-1970. The documents were found initially by Mr. Charles D. Eddins, one of the award recipients from B/227.
A video recording of a presentation by COL Kirby Lawson and LTC Joe Shaffer.
This video is an overview of Army Aviation operations in Vietnam and the development of the air mobile concept. The later part of this video has voice recordings from the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion Assault into Cambodia, May 1970. Captions have been added that go along with the audio of the combat assault flight into Cambodia.
The assault flight was made up of 42 UH-1H “Huey” helicopters and 18 AH-1 “Cobra” gun ships.
LTC Johnson flew above vectoring us into and out of the landing zones, from an altitude
3000 to 5,000 feet to stay out of anti-aircraft fire. The flights went in at tree top level to
avoid exposure.
CALL Signs:
11th Group Commander: Terror 29 – Colonel Mertel
227th Battalion Commander: Anchor 29 – Lt. Colonel Johnson
C/227th Company Commander: Hang 29 – (Yellow One) Major Lawson
B/227th Company Commander: Desire 29 – Major Knudson
A/227th Company Commander: Owner 29 – Major Sundstrom
D/227th Company Commander: Welder 29 – Captain Matocha
The video is provided by COL Kirby Lawson. COL Lawson served as Company Commander for C/227 (Ghostrider 6) and also as the Executive Officer for the 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion during his tour (July 1969 – June 1970).