Organization
The 162nd had an initial authorized strength of 219 men (including 41
Warrant Officers and 14 Officers) and 25 aircraft-later increased to
31, including eight gunships. The company also had three attached direct
support units. These were the 407th Transportation Detachment for direct
support maintenance with an authorized strength of 72 men, the 450th
Signal Detachment for avionics support with an authorized strength of
9 men, and the 758th Medical Detachment with a flight surgeon and 5
other medical personnel. Roughly, 80% of the entire complement of enlisted
men were regular army and 20% were draftees.
At this point, the war in Vietnam was rapidly heating up and the need for pilots far exceeded the supply. A decision had recently been made to dramatically increase the number of pilots trained but it required approximately a year to produce new pilots and the pipeline was nowhere near full. Consequently, the 162nd, and other units formed in late 1965 and 1966, had a difficult time obtaining pilots. Anyone with a set of wings, Major and below, was press-ganged into cockpit duty. Initially at Ft. Benning the original aviator staffing was 26 Majors, mostly fixed wing aviators who had gone through the rotary wing transition course, 13 Captains, 2 Lieutenants (Ed Brock and Tom Turner) and not a single Warrant Officer. Some of the pilots were not even checked out in a Huey.
However, the shortage of pilots was only part of the problem. Skilled mechanics, crew chiefs, avionics and armament specialists were also in critical demand. Twenty-six Private E-2 crew chiefs (all draftees) were bussed to the 162nd straight out of maintenance school at Ft. Rucker on October 29, 1965. There were only 3 maintenance personnel with any experience-two of them were civilian maintenance technical reps and one was a gunship CE (crew chief).
The aviator staffing shortly after arrival in Vietnam consisted of 28 Majors, 18 Captains, 3 Lieutenants and a couple of Warrant Officers. There were Majors all over the place-some weren't even Aircraft Commanders. There were probably enough Majors in the 162nd to fill all the Major slots in the entire First Aviation Brigade at that time! The pilots used to joke that "the last one out of the shower had to be the leader" and "every major gets an airplane". Of course, they all understood the shortage of pilots and proceeded to have a good time flying while they still had the opportunity.
At Ft. Benning the company had chosen the call sign "Dragon" but upon arriving in Vietnam it was learned that some administrative outfit in Saigon was using that call sign. The men of the 162nd then chose the call sign "Vulture" for the two slick platoons and maintenance and "Copperheads" for the gun platoon. The first company patch was square with a flying vulture holding a helicopter. This was simplified in December 1967 when the round Vulture and Copperhead patches were adopted. Later, in 1970, the maintenance platoon came to be known as the "Hangar Rats" and had their own patch. Not to be outdone, the lift platoons also had their own patch-"Executioners" for the 1st and "Easy Riders" for the 2nd platoon. The motto for the company, emblazoned on the later Vulture patch was "STS" for "Set the Standard", or perhaps as some folks thought more appropriate "Slicker Than S----."
During its tour in Vietnam, the 162nd had a total of 14
commanding officers as shown below:
|
RANK
|
NAME
|
COMMAND DATES
|
|
MAJ
|
Joseph E. Pfluger
|
Sep 65-Jun 66
|
|
MAJ
|
Albert H. (Rip) Roughen
|
Jun 66-Dec 66
|
|
LTC
|
Gerald W. Kirklighter
|
Dec 66-Apr 67
|
|
MAJ
|
Neal C. Petree, J
|
Apr 67-Aug 67
|
|
MAJ
|
Stokely L. Wilson
|
Aug 67-Jan 68
|
|
MAJ
|
James E. Thompson
|
Jan 68-May 68
|
|
MAJ
|
Ronald K. Andresen
|
May 68-Nov 68
|
|
MAJ
|
Robert K. Wright
|
Nov 68-May 69
|
|
MAJ
|
George W. Venti
|
May 69-Nov 69
|
|
MAJ
|
Kenneth D. Loveless
|
Nov 69-Apr 70
|
|
MAJ
|
Thomas E. Beauchamp
|
Apr 70-Oct 70
|
|
MAJ
|
Walter B. Moore
|
Oct 70-Mar 71
|
|
MAJ
|
Ronald A. Brooks
|
Mar 71-Sep 71
|
|
MAJ
|
Ronald L. Grooms
|
Sep 71-Apr 72
|
