Parameters of the Game

[Sabre21]

Ohh boy...sounds like old times to me...Hi all...glad to see others here on this forum like me.

I served in the US Army from 74 until 2000. The first 8 yrs enlisted with the 82nd Abn in a recon unit and then the next 18 as a Cobra pilot. Five of my years were spent in Germany on 2 seperate tours 83-85 and 88-90. On my first tour there with the 3rd ID I was with B Co, 3rd ABC (Aviation Bn Cbt). That was a Cobra AH company with 21 cobras and 12 OH-58's and 3 uh1's. When we went to the J series in the summer of 84...we became the 1Bn 1st Avn Regt which later became the 3rd AH Bn. The size of the unit never changed. My second tour was with the 3/4 Cav 3rd ID up at Schweinfurt (Divisional Cav). I spent over 10 years in Cav units:)

During that first tour I got tagged with the duty of being the company threat officer and since then it grew into a hobby of mine:) Once we went to J series..I was the Bn threat and eventually became the brigade threat officer. I had a lot of fun in them days...training up the other pilots and enlisted on vehicle ID, soviet tactics and organizations, soviet small arms orientations, history of the soviets, even played soviet martial music over the loudspeakers on soviet holidays...hehe. I probably got carried away at times.

A couple things to add from some of the earlier discussions...helicopters were horrid on fuel consumption too. About every 90 minutes of flying the cobras would need to be re-fueled. There were times on major exercises I would get gassed up 4, 5 or 6 times in a day. As for rearming...much easier than a tank. In the 10 minutes it took me to get gas...the armament crew would have me reloaded...no extra wait there.

The 20mm gun we had on board fired at a rate of 730 rpm out to an effective range of 2km. But even using API ammo...penetration of say a BMP was unlikely at ranges beyond 500 m.

As for air assaults. In those days each division at 1 company of Blackhawks (15). The Corps had a battalion of CH-47.
There was at one time a LRRP company in each aviation brigade that was on jump status...but that went away by 88-89. Although in Korea the 2nd ID still had their LRC until 93-94.

The Luxenbourg Army of 1 Light Battalion was a NATO reserve force used in an air assault role. We helped with them guys on a few occasions. Also the British experimented with a brigade in the air assault role...I would have to look it up to see the dates that unit was deployed. Also the US III Corps that was a designated NORTHAG reinforcement had several aviation lift and attack assets. And if I remember right, the French Air Assault division was also a reinforcement for northern Germany. The US 101st had as one of their 2 primary missions to reinforce 7th Army. So it is also possible to see units from there deployed all over the theatre. By 89...all of the IIIC storage sites were in place for a rapid deployment to Europe.


I could go on all day...but I guess I better go eat some chow. Hmmm..I could sure use a Jager schznitzel and some pommes frites right about now (sorry for my spelling...its been a while:)


Take care all


Sabre21