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LOACH!
The Story of the H-6/Model 500 Helicopter.

Wayne Mutza

The following is an excerpt from the book...

I had gone through the Army's Single Rotor Turbine Utility Helicopter Maintenance Course, and had been assigned a B Model Huey in a cavalry unit before ever laying eyes on an OH-6A Cayuse. But my unit, C Troop, 1st squadron, 17th Cavalry of the 82nd Airborne Division, had both Scout and Huey helicopters and, like many, I took an instant liking to the little helicopter. It took only one flight in the Loach to realize how much it differed from other helicopters.

It was not until my third year in the Army that I became directly involved with the Loach. After my Huey-epuipped assault helicopter unit "stood down" in Vietnam, I served a short stint as an advisor to the Vietnamese Air Force, and then was sent to the in-country Cobra maintenance school at Vung Tau. Thereafter, my orders read "F Troop, 4th Cavalry," a Cobra/Loach unit at Lai Khe that was mixing it up with the enemy near Cambodia. Having tasted combat, I felt I could serve no better purpose than to get back in the action. Cobras were hot in anyone's book, but having become accustomed to flying and fighting with an aircraft I called my own, I begged my way into the scout section. The company First Sergeant, in the gruff, but understanding manner typical of seasoned veterans, told me to report the following morning to the scout flight line.

Flying in the Loach's left front seat with an M-60 machine gun, I heard the pilot's voice crackle in my helmet's headphones, "Let's see how well you can shoot." Headed for the deck, he pointed out a winding creek and told me to try to keep my rounds in the water. Through his wild maneuvering he, along with a platoon sergeant in the rear, showed delight with the unbroken line of geysers created by my "walking" my M-60 rounds in the brown water. I got the job, and have never forgotten how fortunate I am to have survived the Loach experience in Vietnam.

The Scouts was a bawdy, but extremely effective, fraternity that languished in the shadows of other military air arms. We knew we were different, if not special. Now, with our long war behind us, we marvel at the development of the helicopter we called, simply, the Loach. And we wonder if those who climb aboard today's version of the infamous Loach really know, or at the very least understand, what the Loach accomplished, and how many of our legions lost their lives in the process.

Gone is the hammering discord of machine guns, the thud of explosions, the turbine's whine, and the rotor's warm wind awash with the pungent odor of jet fuel. Gone too is the rush of battle and the stench of combat. All were the substance of life when we were young and full of fire. The exhilaration of victory is forever tempered by the bugler's chilling echo of Taps.

Periodically the fling-wing soldiers meet, swap stories, and reinforce the bond. But the Loach never retired. The Vietnam War was its proving ground, giving rise to modernized versions of the metal steed. Read on and discover not only how the Loach came to be, but how it survived and continues to serve in the finest tradition of the Aeroscouts. Wayne Mutza

From LOACH! The Story of the H-6/Model 500 Helicopter by Wayne Mutza

This pair of minigun-armed Loaches of Apache Troop, 7/1, was teamed with a pair of Cobra gunships to form a recon team during the Cambodian incursion in 1970. They are flying near the Vietnam-Cambodia border, west of Moc Hoa. (Bill Staffa)

LOW LEVEL HELL
A Scout Pilot in the Big Red One.

Hugh L. Mills, Jr.

Read an excerpt
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