(EDITOR’S NOTE: Charles Black, Enquirer military writer, recently spent two days at Fort Rucker, Ala., one of the primary training bases for Army Aviation personnel. This is the third of five articles by Black on the training facilities at Fort Rucker.)
By CHARLES BLACK
Enquirer Military Writer
FT. RUCKER, Ala. - The
instructors at Fort Rucker, Ala., where pilots and mechanics for the
Army’s
burgeoning aviation program are trained, include more than 700 officers
and men
who have served in South Viet Nam. The
students themselves, according to official estimates, have “nine
chances out of
10 of going to that conflict.”
The loss of students for all
reasons is about 1 3/4 percent. That
figure was based on the 21,000 men who were trained there during the
past 12
months. (There will be a 35,000 man
yearly rate when all present plans are carried through, probably by
early
summer.)
“There is a lot of
motivation here. You must remember that we get basic trainees who come
here
knowing that when they graduate they will have a 90 percent chance of
going to
South Viet Nam. They don’t HAVE to pass
the training and take that chance. . . but look at the figures. You simply have to give credit to the
instructors for instilling this kind of enthusiasm for a tough future
in the
soldiers they train,” Col. G. W. Putnam, assistant commandant, said.
The harsh realities of what
awaits graduates - duty in South Viet Nam - is reflected constantly
during the
training of the mechanics and pilots here.
The department of tactics,
directed by Col. R. E. Creek, has taken over a full week of the
training cycle
for students in a manner which demonstrates the preparation soldiers
are given
for Viet Nam duty. The week of final
training was worked out by Southeast Asian combat veterans including
Lt. Col.
R. F. Carrigan, deputy director; Lt. Col. D. A. Baker, Lt. Col. R. E.
Brannan,
Lt. Col. D. P. Brandsen, Lt. Col. Nathan Reese, Lt. Col. Reed F.
Scheafnocker,
Lt. Col. A. R. Suddaby, and Capt. J. M. Boone.
Lt. Col. Suddaby, chief of
special subjects branch, said the class of helicopter pilots finishing
its 28
weeks training in March will be the first to take on the week prepared
by the
department. (The enlisted students will
take part in the training with the pilots.)
An actual aviation unit of
the kind in operation in South Viet Nam will be organized from the
students
with officers from the Department of Tactics in the command and staff
positions
to run the aviation unit.
The Vietnamese atmosphere of
the student unit’s field training - covering aviation operations,
airmobile
operations and individual weapons training and survival training - is
insured
by the makeup of the men in charge. The
department has more than 80 percent of its staff drawn from officers
and men
who have served in South Viet Nam, Col. Creek said.
The training will include classroom study of Viet Nam, counter-insurgency problems, supervised flight operations, and a field training exercise which will put the student unit through a full gamut of operations it will take part in during South Vietnamese duty.
Capt. Boone, an eminently
capable looking physical specimen, has charge of 12 hours of
“snake-eater”
training. His tough course teaches the
students to survive if they are knocked down in the Vietnamese conflict
and
have to make it on their own.
The trainees learn to set up
defense perimeters for an aviation unit, practice gunnery, learn
artillery
adjustment (a most important craft for aviation personnel in combat in
South
Viet Nam) and learn many other valuable lessons which formerly had to
be “picked
up” on arrival in the combat zone.
The tactical training includes a training scenario depicting a guerrilla war in “Florianna,” which looks much like South Viet Nam on the maneuver maps. The students, organized into companies of 18 helicopters each, learn to carry troops into assaults, fly medical evacuation missions, act as armed escorts for troop lifts, carrying sling loads, pick up prisoners of war, and to resupply combat troops on the battle field.
“The situation is made as realistic as possible, the training is tough and hard, and the emphasis is on night work. We spent a long time in research to develop a tactical training program which would teach the lessons needed most in South Viet Nam. The idea is to turn out men here who aren’t going to land there cold but who will come with the best preparation for the actual situation we can give them,” Capt. Mills (James) O’Nellion, who served with the 92nd Aviation Company in South Viet Nam, said.
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