Stupid question about Army Aviation

[Gatordev]

I was recently on the webs and was reading on another interforums where some guy said that he saw two different Army helo airframes in-country in 'stan and I was curious if he was talking out of his ass. He said he saw:

a) the Lakota, which I thought was odd since I thought it had no ASE and was for CONUS/Domestic (PR and "other") use only...

and

b) Army (he specifically identified them as Guard) Hueys. Again, I didn't even know the Guard still used them, let alone sent them overseas.

In a (very) modest Google search, I couldn't find anything that said the current -72A is deployed, but maybe it's a new thing. So, Army dudes, what say you?

 

[MasterBates]

State has Hueys.

Sent from my PH44100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Lawman]

Talking far from within the ass.

Lakota's dont deploy. There are none in country. They do some cool stuff with Border Patrol/DEA but thats about it.

We dont have any active duty Hueys. Pretty sure the last Guard/Reserve Hueys are done save for the one or two floating around used for Heritage purposes. None of those in Country either (at least not wearing Army on the tail). There are Hueys around. State Department as well as a few contractors use them. Also some of the Allies have them (couple of our guys hitched a ride). My hat is off to the "Swiper" guys on having a hell of a gratifying job. They fly around to all the little COPs and FOBs and pick up guys to take them on midtour or emergency leave since there arent enough Hawks to go around.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Ze Germans flew the EC145 (model the -72 is based on) as a "gunship lite" for a long time, and I'm sure the civil version is flown by someone in that neck of the woods. Maybe that's what he saw?

 

[Brett327]

I suspect the various contractors are flying some non-standard ariframes FW and RW.

 

[Gatordev]

Talking far from within the ass.

Lakota's dont deploy. There are none in country. They do some cool stuff with Border Patrol/DEA but thats about it.

We dont have any active duty Hueys. Pretty sure the last Guard/Reserve Hueys are done save for the one or two floating around used for Heritage purposes. None of those in Country either (at least not wearing Army on the tail). There are Hueys around. State Department as well as a few contractors use them. Also some of the Allies have them (couple of our guys hitched a ride). My hat is off to the "Swiper" guys on having a hell of a gratifying job. They fly around to all the little COPs and FOBs and pick up guys to take them on midtour or emergency leave since there arent enough Hawks to go around.

I specifically asked if the Hueys were DEA or "other," and he said he talked to them and they said they were Army. As I mentioned, he said the Lakotas were ours, as well. I have a feeling he's either sorely mistaken (I think he might be an EOD guy) or a phony. Honestly, I haven't figured out which yet. Thanks for the confirmation.

As for other countries flying the airframes, that would make sense, but it doesn't sound nearly as cool when you brag about stuff on the internet.

 

[Coota0]

I think either Flat Iron at Rucker or the guys at NTC retired the last Hueys about 3 years ago, Pennsylvania Guard got rid of theirs abut the same time, and there should be no Lakotas in Afghanistan. Could it have been former Army guys flying for state that misunderstood the guy's question? Then again depending on how dense this guy was he could've confused a Kiowa with a Lakota.

 

[RobLyman]

Active Duty and Guard Hueys are gone. Guard Lakotas are not deployable OCONUS. They lack ASE gear and are (in our state of Florida) funded by a different program prohibiting their use overseas (Mexico being an exception). There may be AD units doing MEDEVAC in Europe with the LUH, but I doubt they are in 'stan.

As for non-standard RW assets, I have a few friends who are now contractors flying Hips and Pumas over there.

 

[Gatordev]

Thanks. You're reaffirming my take on the guy.

 

[Stearmann4]

I'm enjoying another fall here in this disgusting butthole of a country. There are no US 72's here. Nor arethere are any U.S. "military" UH-1s. Of of contract )canadian helicopters B-2-12s and DOS owned UH-1Hs.

The Army retired the last active duty Hueys out of Ft Lewis, WA about a year and a half ago. I consider it a great priviliaged to eb able to fly a authentically retsoired UH-1H and HH-1K for the Olympia Flight Museum.www.olympicflightmuseum.com

Hats off to the DOS guys, you wouldn't catch me flying one of thse un-modifed one-holers during the day over here though!

MR-

 

[HueyCobra8151]

I'm enjoying another fall here in this disgusting butthole of a country. There are no US 72's here. Nor arethere are any U.S. "military" UH-1s. Of of contract )

There are Marine Hueys there

 

[Flash]

I did some searching and found about half a dozen instances where the US Army and National Guard have retired their UH-1H's but for everyone of those there seems to be an instance of them being retired later. Apparently "the final three UH-1s remaining in the active-duty Army" were retired just this past August, at least according to the article.

 

[Stearmann4]

8151, I was just referring to the Army birds. I'm not currently in a local in-country where I see many USMC rotary wing assets.

 

[highside7r]

21st Cav here at Hood had a fini flight with them in Sept, supposedly the very last UH-1's in active service. For the Phrog drivers, had 2 landing one day at the FOB and walked out to see what squadron they were from (we had no USMC assets in our AO), only to discover N#'s instead, but still in TPS paint. I guess DOS is using whatever airframes they can get their hands on. (UH-1/S-61/H-46)

 

[phrogpilot73]

For the Phrog drivers, had 2 landing one day at the FOB and walked out to see what squadron they were from (we had no USMC assets in our AO), only to discover N#'s instead, but still in TPS paint. I guess DOS is using whatever airframes they can get their hands on. (UH-1/S-61/H-46)

State Department bought a bunch, and DynCorp has the contract to fly them. Pilots are getting close to $300K and crewchiefs are getting over $150K... Needless to say, one or two of the reserve pilots in the squadron fly for them - and damn near all of our crewchiefs who are getting out are heading there...