The
history of the ACH-47A is as follows. Four armed/armored
ACH-47A Chinooks were specially built for the US Army by Boeing
Vertol in late 1965. Three of the four aircraft were
originally fielded in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) for a six month
temporary duty (TDY) test period assigned to the newly formed 53rd
Aviation Detachment, nicknamed "Guns-A-Go-Go".
The three ACH-47A's to deploy
were 64-13149 "Easy
Money", 64-13151 "Stump
Jumper" and 64-13154 "Birth
Control". The first ACH-47A produced, 64-13145 (later known
as "Co$t of
Living") remained in the US for further weapons systems testing
at Edwards AFB, California. Following the test period, the unit was
attached to the 1st Cavalry Division's 228th Assault Support Helicopter
Battalion and re-designated as the 1st Aviation Detachment (Provisional).
By February 1968, only one of the original four gunships was still flying. "Easy
Money" 64-13149 was the only ACH-47A to survive the Vietnam War. These
aircraft were Chinook Gunships and as such....they experienced their share of
combat.
I'm
pleased to be able to review this new sheet from Zotz
Decals featuring
4 different ACH-47A Chinooks from the Vietnam War. These 4
choppers include;
- 64-13149 "Easy
Money" actually survived it's combat career and became a
maintenance trainer in Vietnam at the Boeing Facilities until the
withdrawl of US forces.
- 64-13154 "Birth
Control" On Feb 22 1968 while participating in the big push
to recapture Hue during the Tet Offensive, "Birth Control"
received numerous hits from small arms ground fire while pulling up
from a gunrun and had to autorotate into a dry rice paddy.
- 64-13151 "Stump
Jumper" On Aug 5 1966, "Stump Jumper" was
involved ina ground accident with another A model Chinook and
was destroyed.
- 64-13145 "Co$t of
Living" On May 5 1967 "Co$t of
Living" was lost in action when one of it's M-24A 20mm
cannon forward mounting pins vibrated loose during a gun run,
permitting the weapon to rotate upward and fire into the forward rotor
system. The blades quickly separated from the aircraft, causing
it to tumble out of control to the ground.
All aircraft feature
colorful noseart. Decals
are contained on 2 decal sheets with 3 pages of instruction sheets. The
paint schemes on all these Chinooks is overall green. Recommended kits are
1/72 & 1/48 Italeri ACH-47A Armed Chinook. This
is a very nice decal sheet and sure to be of interest to helicopter modellers
interested in adding one of these 4 rare gunships to their display case.
I'd like to thank Zotz
Decals for the review
sample.
Steve
|