117th Assault Helicopter Company

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Warlord Crest Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	1st Aviation Brigade sleeve patch Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Air Mobile Crest Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
Original 117th Av Co. Crest Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	Unit Crest when the company was re-named Assault Helicopter Company Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	Gag crest made up by 117th pilots circa 1968 Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue
Company Area Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	117th Operations Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Side Winder Nose Art Image courtesy of Dale E. Garber
A bunch of Side Winders Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Eating some Coconut Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Major David Jayne & Lt. Butch LaRoue Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
Taking a break Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Send Off Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Lt. Butch LaRoue Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
Chicken Plate Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Having a Coke Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Beach Bum Annie brings 'em back home Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
Annie 747 Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	2nd Platoon Pink Panther Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	117th Chow Line Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
117th Flight Line Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Drop off - "It was so humid that day that the slicks had to bunny hop their way to the edge of the mountain (in the distance) and then fall off the edge in order to gain enough forward air-speed to create lift." Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	A pair of Annies Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
Going in hot - Notice the white flash. That's a VC Rocket! Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Air Assault Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Ready Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
Warlord 26 with 50 cal Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	117th AHC 1st platoon Annie Circa 1967 Image courtesy of James Fischer	VC prisoner and Lt. Butch LaRoue Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue
Village Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	August 28, 1968 Home at last! Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	Plantation Inn - 117th Officers Club image courtesy of Pat La Roue
(L-R) Lt Charlie Presnell, Lt Cummings, Capt Johnson Image courtesy of Pat La Roue	Not so good landing Image courtesy of Butch LaRoue	image courtesy of Pat La Roue
Image courtesy of Pat La Roue	Image courtesy of Pat La Roue	Butch La Roue giving candy to children near Bagi, RVN 1968 Image courtesy of Pat La Roue
ARVN Back from Patrol at LZ Courage, notice radio around neck Image courtesy of Pat La Roue	117th Tent Area Bao Loc RVN '67 Image courtesy of Pat La Roue	18 C-130's moving day for the 117th IOC Lt La Roue Image courtesy of Pat La Roue
117th at Dong Tam Airstrip '67 Image courtesy of Pat La Roue	117th Swimming Mate Image courtesy of Pat La Roue	Helmet Art Image courtesy of Mike O'Leary via Pat La Roue
Helmet Art - Photo 2 Image courtesy of Mike O'Leary via Pat La Roue	A "very" young me next to my aircraft's nose art. Image courtesy of Dallas E. Figgins	This is my unit patch. I was with the 117th AHC in 1969 at Plantation airfield.  My callsign was Sidewinder08 and my a/c tail number was 488. I flew "firefly" missions, 2 "C" model gunships and one "H" model slick with 7 C130 landing lights in a cluster.  We flew 2 missions a night, one team flew three mission for III Corp then 15 min. standby the rest of the night, the second team flew 5 min. standby all night (lots of med-evacts)". Dallas E Figgins. NOTE-Unusual feature about Dallas's patch is that it has been personalized with Dallas's aircraft tail number, call sign & nickname "Figg" Image courtesy of Dallas E. Figgins
The M21 armament system, m134 minigun and m158 seven tube rocket launcher on a "C" model Huey Image courtesy of Dallas E. Figgins	UH1H 65-09679, "Pussy Galore", after conversion from D configuration. Note the nose mounted pitot tube. Song Be, Fall of 1968 Image courtesy of Keith Alleger	Revetment area at Song Be Image courtesy of Keith Alleger
1st Lt. Jerry Rafferty taken at Song Be. That may be Nui Ba Ra in the background Image courtesy of Keith Alleger	Warrant Officer Jimmy Herron. Photo taken at Song Be Image courtesy of Keith Alleger	Me with Warlord 679. Photo taken at Song Be field. We were still flying Special Forces B-36. Late Fall of 1968. Image courtesy of Keith Alleger
SP Holoska, one of our crew chiefs, after he and our aircraft took some shrapnel. I was AC (Aircraft commander) that day and we were picking up a Special Forces Recon Team from a hot L.Z. North of Nui Ba Dinh. The shrapnel actually came from a rocket fired by one of our Sidewinder Gunships. We were picking up the Green Berets from the South side of the LZ and the guns were supressing an enemy unit in the treeline on the North side. The Sidewinder AC who fired the rocket later told me that he fired a pair and they collided after leaving the tubes. One went left and one went right. The one that went right landed just to the left of my aircraft as I was sitting in the LZ. The Explosion rocked the aircraft and the Master Caution Light and alarm went off along with all the caution lights on the warning panel. We were taking a lot of small arms fire. Caution lights or not, I was not about to sit in the LZ, so I took off half expecting to return to earth any second. When we got back to Tay Ninh, we discovered that there was no serious damage to the aircraft. A piece of the shrapnel had cut a wiring harness to the the warning panel and that, in turn, had set off all of the warning lights. Image courtesy of Keith Alleger		One of our Crew chiefs photo-ed while in route to somewhere Image courtesy of Keith Alleger
A 117th Slick down somewhere in the Mekong Delta in the late summer or early fall of 1968. Note marking on tail boom Image courtesy of Keith Alleger	117th aircraft at Tay Ninh city Airport with Nui Ba Dinh in the background. The crewmember sitting at left was a kid named Barnes. I can't recall the name of the other kid. Barnes was killed six months later when his aircraft crashed while resupplying a B-36 Special Forces CIDG battalion in the field. Image courtesy of Keith Alleger	Home away from home. In the Fall of 1968 we were supporting Special Forces team (B-36) with a temporary base camp at Tay Ninh City Airport, The tent to the right was the 2nd plattoon tent, the tent to the left was what passed ror a club. Image courtesy of Keith Alleger
Officer's Hooches at 117th Base (Plantation Airfield, Long Binh) taken from the front of the 2d Platoon Warrant Officer Hooch. Image courtesy of Keith Alleger	A 117th ship, crew and location unknown. Probably D/75 Rangers on board Image courtesy of Tom Delaney photo via Randy White	This shot  was taken in early 1970. Image courtesy of Tom Delaney photo via Randy White
A diecast 1:48 replica of a Huey UH-1D tail number 65-00747. One of a kind - I promise that! My father was flying this huey while he received his DFC. His unit - the 117th BeachBums - Annie Fanny on the nose of course! Image courtesy of Pat LaRoue
Major John Gower Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	Steve Walker Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	Lt. Butch La Roue Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue
Jim Watkins Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue
Sidewinders - 117th Guns (circa 1967) Image courtesy of Dale Garber	"Pink Pussy" - short lived nose art found on a rough and ready 117th Slick (circa 1967) Image courtesy of Pat LaRoue via Al Bennett	Hiller OH 23 Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue
LZ English Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	III Corps Tactical Zone HQ - Bien Hoa, RVN Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue	MACV HQ - Aug '68 Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue
This is AC 68-16406 in the revetment at Plantation sometime in 1971 Image courtesy of Alan A. Gott	2nd Platoon "Pink Panther" patch still sewn to pocket of an M-65 field jacket. Image courtesy of Tillman	Click here to read a letter home from 12/7/1967 Click here to read a letter home from 12/9/1967 Image courtesy of Patrick La Roue

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