Aviation Patch

[JOHN JONES]

A nice 2nd Bde Aviation patch recently appeared on E-Bay.
I thought I would share some research details I have obtained,
since I purchased an example a couple of years back.

The generic patch seems to have made in panel contruction with
[U]dull[U] black thread for wording, added letters / numerals seem to
have been done in a shined thread.

I believe this to be a Crew Chief patch, ala the addition of CE

Aircraft 67-19516 was a UH-1H, that served Jan-August 1969,
and then rotated out for major repairs / overhaul, thus the X'd out number

John.

[JOHN JONES]

Former pilot Ben Hess relates.

'HHC was a small unit. They were supposed to be manned for 18 pilots I believe but we never reached that. It was down to 9 pilots at times. They had 4 UH-1’s and 8 OH-6a. When pilot manning got low, usually to people crashing, they would start flying the one pilot OH-6a for command and control instead of the two pilot UH-1’s.'

Crew Chief Jim Drye posed a nice picture for posterity, although its a low
pixel, I can confirm Jim X'd a former ship and added CE and 585[

UH-1H 68-16585 Served with the unit Feb 1970 - April 1971, before
damage repairs / overhaul in country.

John.

[JOHN JONES]

Ben also added.

'Pilots always had two digits. The number assigned was random except for some numbers below 20 that were reserved for the commanding officer, executive officer, etc. Crew chiefs were three digits, that corresponded to the last three digits of the tail number of the aircraft they were assigned.

I left the 2nd Brigade in July ’70 and transferred to three corps. That was a supposed to be an eight month extension for an early out but I came home in Dec. ’70 due to Nixon’s drawback. '

Kevin Knehr, purchased a mint patch to bring home, may be completely custom
made, as 477 is in dull thread.

OH6A 67-16477 served with the unit Dec 68 - Feb 1971.

John.

[D. Michael Kim]

John thanks for sharing the patches and information. Army Aviation from Vietnam is a great area to collect.

[historyguy]

Yes, thanks John, for sharing the patches and information.

[JOHN JONES]

Thank you Michael / Andy, you are welcome. I also add:

My patch was most probably worn by a Gunner who served with the 2nd Bde.
This Loach flew over 1000hrs with the unit, but became a combat loss in early
1970. Its scorched remains, lie somewhere in the jungles of Vietnam.
Below is the Goldbook entry giving the relevant details.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information on U.S. Army helicopter OH-6A tail number 67-16473
The Army purchased this helicopter 1168
Total flight hours at this point: 00001095
Date: 02/27/1970
Unit: 2 BDE 101 ABN
This was a Combat incident. This helicopter was LOSS TO INVENTORY
This was a Recon mission for Unarmed Recon
Unknown this helicopter was Unknown at UNK feet and UNK knots.
South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: YC797982
Count of hits was not possible because the helicopter burned or exploded.
Small Arms/Automatic Weapons; Gun launched non-explosive ballistic
projectiles less than 20 mm in size. (7.62MM)
Systems damaged were: PERSONNEL
Casualties = 01 INJ, 02 WIA . .
The helicopter Crashed. Aircraft Destroyed.
Both mission and flight capability were terminated.
Destroyed by friendly forces

196812 Flight hours 37 WAB5AA 2ND BDE 101 AB VIETNAM Delivered to unit

197002 Flight Hours 1095 WAB5AA 2ND BDE 101 AB VIETNAM Destroyed.

[JOHN JONES]

An entry from the ASMIC Avn catalog, circa 1984.
I am not overly familiar with these catalogs, but I presume the small line
drawings, mirror photo's / xeroxs of patches sent in by ASMIC members.
Note the 2 'x'd ship numbers and the word Ghost, I am asking my veteran
contacts, if they have any remembrance of this 'nickname'?

John.

[Ross Lee]

Very nice and good info.

[Lloyd I.]

Nice patch. They appear every now and then but aren't as common as many of the others. At one point all I collected was Army Aviation pocket patches.

Very good way to present your item and provide the background. Top notch!