In December 1967 the company experienced its first night combat operations and Lieutenant Commander Ralph experienced his first assignment as air mission commander. A Chinook helicopter later lifted the downed helicopter from the crash site and recovered it back to Vung Tau. Meanwhile Lieutenant John Leek, RAN, in an accompanying gunship circled overhead until his fuel ran dangerously low and he was forced to leave the scene.īefore Lieutenant Casadio and his men were rescued by another EMU helicopter, they successfully drove off an unknown number of Viet Cong, killing two of the enemy in the process. The M60s combined with the small arms they all carried afforded the crew a degree of self-protection. Despite their relative inexperience, the young American soldiers and their Australian Navy captain maintained control of the situation and set up a defensive perimeter using the helicopter’s door mounted M60 machine guns. Once on the ground the Viet Cong immediately attacked the helicopter crew. After his gunship was hit by ground fire several times, Lieutenant Casadio force-landed near the enemy. This occurred on 19 November 1967, during an attack on Viet Cong positions in the Rung Sat Special Zone near Saigon. The first EMU aircraft to be shot down (and the first with an Australian pilot to be hit) was a gunship piloted by Lieutenant Anthony Casadio, RAN. Operation TIGER CORONADO followed and it was during this operation that helicopters of the AHC were first hit by enemy fire. It was also one of the largest operations any RANHFV contingent participated in. This operation involved more than 80 helicopters from a number of helicopter companies flying in support of a combined allied sweep against the 5th Viet Cong Division. The company's first major operation, Operation SANTA FE, was a lift of 9th Infantry Division troops into northeast Phuoc Tuy in early November 1967. Photo courtesy of LCDR JR Brown RANR (Ret’d). The usual daily commitment was one UH1H command and control helicopter, four UH1C gunships and ten slicks.ĭamage to UH-1C of SBLT Cassadio, RAN following tail rotor and main rotor collision with a UH-1H. By the end of November the company had flown 3182 hours in support of the US Army 9th Infantry and the 1st Australian Task Force based at Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy province. Having established their camp, and with a full complement, the 135th AHC become fully operational and flew its first mission on 3 November 1967. This included augmentation of army medical services, search and rescue and the provision of a command and control aircraft capability to supported units. The role of the 135th AHC was to provide tactical air movement of combat troops, supplies and equipment in air-mobile operations. The remaining two were fitted with the XM-5 40mm grenade launcher system (mounted in a ball turret under the nose of the helicopter) rockets and machine guns. Six of the gunships were equipped with mini guns, rockets and machine guns. The 135th AHC was based at Vung Tau and organised to operate two troop lift (‘slick’) platoons, each with eleven UH-1Ds, a gunship platoon with eight UH-1Cs, a maintenance platoon with a single UH-1D and a headquarters platoon. This was fitting, given that the emu is a native Australian bird, and in some ways comical as the emu cannot fly. As a result of this unique relationship between the RAN and the US Army, the unit was officially designated ‘EMU’, for Experimental Military Unit. The flight consisted of eight pilots, four observers, four aircrewmen, 24 technical sailors and six support staff comprising of cooks, stewards, writers (clerks), medics and storemen.įollowing an eight week period of training, the first contingent arrived in Vietnam on 16 October 1967 and was quickly integrated with the 330 personnel of the 135th AHC. The first contingent of pilots, observers, naval airmen and support staff was assigned to 723 Squadron Naval Air Station (NAS) Nowra in July 1967 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Neil Ralph, RAN. The new flight was to be integrated with the United States Army 135th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC) flying the ubiquitous Iroquois helicopters in both the utility and gun-ship configurations. Mr Allen Fairhall, Minister for Defence, announced the formation of this unit on 14 July 1967. As the name suggests, the Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam (RANHFV) was specially formed for service in support of allied forces during the Vietnam War.
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