CHAPTER II
The Early Years in Vietnam, 1961-1965
The Army of the
Republic of Vietnam Becomes Airmobile
There is no precise method to divide the
Vietnam War into convenient phases. However, from the standpoint of an
airmobility study, one can consider the first phase as a learning period�a time
when U. S. Army pilots were teaching Army of the Republic of Vietnam commanders
and soldiers how to effectively employ helicopter tactics, while at the same
time the pilots were learning by experience, trial and error. As more and more
helicopters became available, we built additional aviation units to help the
Vietnamese Army become as mobile as the enemy.
This second phase of the war was
characterized by battalion-size air assaults of selected Vietnamese units,
including the paratroopers, the rangers, and the regular infantry. It was the
success of this phase that forced the enemy to increase his effort in South
Vietnam. This proved to be something that the North Vietnamese Army was quite
ready to do, and the improved capabilities of the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam were matched step-by-step with increased resistance of the Viet Cong and
North Vietnamese Army, as additional units and supplies poured down the Ho Chi
Minh Trail complex and across the border. It was during this second phase that
we made great improvements on our tactical employment of helicopters. It was
also during this period that we created our own airmobile division, tested it,
and concluded that in terms of ground tactics, airmobility was here to stay. We
studied the variety of tactics used by the Vietnamese and their U. S. support in
these airmobile operations of extended scope and we tried to apply everything we
learned to the organization and training of our airmobile units.
It was also during this second phase
that the Huey came into its own. The turbine engine helicopter with its great
power, its reliability, and its smaller requirement for maintenance, was the
technological turning point as far as airmobility is concerned. Actually, the
key improvement of technology was the trio of the
