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The Restructuring and Enhancing of the United States Army Essay

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During the overall restructuring of the United States Army current active Army units began to transform into modular organizations to enhance the capability to perform its mission by making them a quickly deployable, flexible and lethal unit than had been previously structured. Therefore, Combat Aviation Brigades were developed and are multi-functional, allowing for a combination of attack helicopters, reconnaissance helicopters, medium lift helicopters, heavy lift helicopters, and medical evacuation capabilities. It was decided that aviation units will not be a portion of a larger unit such as combat brigades and will continue to reside at the division level due to resource constraints. The various helicopters that are to be …show more content…

On 25 June 1963 its assets were used to form the 119th Aviation Company (Airmobile), and it was re-equipped with turbine powered single rotor UH-1A and UH-1B helicopters. The entire central highlands of Vietnam as well as large areas of Laos and Cambodia were the company’s vast area of operation. The 119th Aviation Company was eventually assigned to the 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade and headquartered in Pleiku at a helicopter base known as Camp Holloway. Also, for a short time during the war, they were based out of an airfield in An Khe. The 119th had helicopters that were equipped with 16 to 20 armed UH-1Ds and approximately eight Huey UH-1C model gunships which were better known as “Crocodiles” or “Crocs”. At one time or another, the company also used the call sign called "Black Dragon" from which the 52nd's "Flying Dragon" call sign evolved. Crew members, pilots, field maintenance and critical support personnel are what the company was mainly composed of; bringing the total strength for the company during this time frame to approximately 225 personnel. Along with flying many classified missions for a multi-service U.S. Special Operations unit known as MACV-SOG, the 119th Aviation Company also provided helicopter support for over eight years in Vietnam for the 1st Cavalry Division, 25th Infantry Division, 4th Infantry Division, 173d Airborne Brigade, United States Marine Corps, United

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