The Huey Helicopter

For most American combat personnel who served in Vietnam, the classic image of the helicopter war was the Huey or Bell UH-1D. The Huey was ready to back troops up, insert or extract them from hot zones or rush the wounded to field hospitals.

While eleven different types of helicopters were deployed during the Vietnam War, the Huey became an indispensable asset in the jungle war against the Viet Cong, since its vertical takeoff and landing capabilities allowed soldiers to be rushed into dense jungles, valleys or hilltops.

Their ability to swiftly insert or extract troops from jungle battlefields became standard practice for war in Southeast Asia, while the Huey’s ability to evacuate the wounded and swiftly convey them to medical facilities proved to be the difference between life or death for tens of thousands of casualties.

UH-1D Huey

First introduced in 1959, the Huey was built by Bell Helicopter to meet a 1952 US Army requirement for a medical evacuation and utility helicopter for an increasingly likely conflict in Southeast Asia.

The Huey was the first turbine-powered helicopter built for the US military, with more than 16,000 produced since 1960, while over 7,000 were deployed during the Vietnam War.

Crewed by one to four servicemen, the Huey has a maximum takeoff weight of 9,500 pounds, with a flight capacity of 14 troops or six occupied stretchers. Packed with a maximum airspeed of 135 miles per hour, the Huey offers a range of 315 miles at its cruising speed of 125 miles per hour, with a service ceiling of 19,390 feet, dependent on factors such as weight and air temperature. The Huey also touts a dizzying rate of climb of 1,755 feet per minute.

Heavy Machine Guns For The Huey

When communist-manned 12.7 mm ground-based machine guns came on the scene, known by American helicopter crews as .51 calibers, Hueys were mounted with a counter-arsenal of heavy machine guns, until the M60 became the standard helicopter door armament on most Vietnam era slicks, which first employed a swivel mount on top of a fixed pintle mount.

As the war progressed, door gunners employed bungee cords to suspend and retain their M60s, which allowed for increased firing angles, as well as easier and faster accessibility.

A total of 1,925 Hueys were lost in combat, while an additional 1,380 were lost in operational accidents, making the Bell UH-1D Huey one of the most critical assets over the jungles of Southeast Asia.