The following information comes from the compilation put together by Gary Roush of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association. Please send any corrections or additions to:
Gary Roush
43 Overbrook Roads
Painted Post, NY 14870
Copyright 1998 and 1999 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association
DATE FLT HRS UIC UNIT AREA POST COUNTRY 197010 0 0 W0Y6AA USA FLT OPN OFC 5TH ARMY ST LOUIS AMC 197011 89 89 WC43AA 175 AVN CO VIETNAM RVN 197012 103 192 WC43AA 175 AVN CO VIETNAM RVN 197101 1 193 WCLUAA 611 TC DS VIETNAM RVN 197509 0 210 W0MUAA SUPPLY DIV 5TH ARMY FORT KNOX TRADOC 197510 0 210 W0MUAA DIR OF SUPPLY IN STORAGE CORPUS CH AD AVSCOM 197511 0 210 W0MUAA DIR OF SUPPLY IN MAINT CORPUS CH AD AVSCOM 197512 0 210 W0MUAA DIR OF SUPPLY IN STORAGE CORPUS CH AD AVSCOM END (Note: Database is truncated at the end of 1975)
"175 AVN CO" is the 175th Aviation Company aka 175th Assault Helicopter Company (AHC) or Air Mobile Light (AML).
Company Nickname: "The Outlaws"
1st Platoon "The Professionals"
2nd Platoon "TRANH-DAO HOA-BINH" = "Fight for the Peace"(?) (Is this the II. on the nose?)
3rd Platoon "The Mavericks" (gunships)
History of 175th Assault Helicopter Company by W.O. Carson N. Snow III, 175th Assault Helicopter Company, 1967
OUTLAWS: Protectors of the Delta, Hawk Magazine, January 1970
Outlaws in Vietnam, 1966-67 in the Delta, by David L. Eastman
"611 TC DS" is 611th Transportation Company Direct Support: They did aircraft recovery (when one had to crash land) and repair.
Having only 193 hours might mean it was damaged, repaired, stored and then selected for refit as an EH-1X due to its low hours. Only ten EH-1X models were created. The EH-1X birds were UH-1H's fitted with radio direction finding and radio jamming equipment. This is a picture of an EH-1X. Notice the dipole antennas on the tail boom:
This is a picture of the antenna mounts on Fat Lady's tail boom:
This is a closeup of the ?H-1X markings on "Fat Lady":
The "jammer warning" sticker on "Fat Lady's" instrument panel was not a feature of regular UH-1H Hueys:
The reason we've concluded that it IS 69-15752 is based on a few things. First, the tail # is 0-15752. Zero is often used as a prefix when a tail # is repainted and the aircraft is over 10 years old. According to Gary Roush, after looking at the pictures of the Fat Lady, "It is either 68-15752, 69-15752, or 70-15752. All three served in Vietnam. 67-15752 was a Cobra."
You can barely make out the 69 after "NO." as the first 2 digits of the serial # on the door:
The serial # is painted on the tail, so, combining the tail # 0-15752 (0 for being 10 years old) and the first 2 digits of the serial # on the door being 69, it's a pretty safe conclusion that this is 69-15752.
This is what's left of the nose art:
"FAT LADY II." with snake-eye dice. We don't yet know if this was painted by troops in Vietnam while she was a UH-1H or afterwards during her career as an EH-1X for electronic warfare. All of the 175th "Outlaw" Hueys bore the unit crest on the nose, so it's very unlikely that it had the same nose art in Vietnam, and maybe not even the same name. If you have any more information on this helicopter, please send it to zensins @ yahoo.c0 m.
The following is an email exchange with Bob Keller, former crew chief of the "Fat Lady" after her transformation to an EH-1X. Sensitive information has been removed:
--- On Tue, 7/7/09, Keller, Bob <Bob.Keller@> wrote:
From: Keller, Bob <Bob.Keller@>
Subject: I'm a former crew chief for your EH-1X hulk
To: "'bwrpaintball@yahoo.com'" <bwrpaintball@yahoo.com>
Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 12:12 PM
752 was my “baby” back at Fort Hood (2nd Armored Division) from 1986-1988. We had three EH-1X aircraft, all 1969 models (338 and 234 were the other tail numbers). I was curious as to what became of my “children”, specifically that one, since with a full crew (3) and all the electronics; we were just less than 200 lbs from going over max take-off weight. Since each of the aircraft were assembled slightly differently from each other, mine was considered the “first”, because the later ones came out much “lighter”. So weight was always a consideration we had to take into account on any mission. (Editor note: Could this have anything to do with the "Fat Lady" designation, even though it was added later?)
There was NO NOSE art at all on any of our aircraft when I left for Korea. The Army at that time did not allow any sort of ”art”, as was present in previous wars/conflicts; so I’m quite sure the art is probably something someone put on after the aircraft was decommissioned.
Robert L. Keller, Jr.
Principal Programmer
(Different Email Message)
As I said before, we didn’t have ANY names or nose art, NOTHING on the fuselage. Granted her take-off weight was at the edge of what was allowable for the airframe due to the equipment that was inserted within the fuselage.
As for finding you and the site, I was just Googling my aircraft tail number and looking in the EH-1X (Quick Fix) program out of nostalgia. I initially dismissed what I saw on your site only because at the time, you only had a couple of pictures with nothing really definitive. Just the other day, I looked again and you had many more pictures which confirmed that you have her “remains”.
I’m just curious as to what her history was when she was replaced for the EH-60A that was to arrive after my departure for Korea. Judging from the fact that the dipole antenna mounts are still on the tail boom, it’s possible that the aircraft was possibly sent either to a Guard/Reserve unit, or that it went right back to the depot at Corpus Christi, Texas at which time they held it until the order came to decommission it. The DA Form 2408-17 (Acft Inventory Record) would contain EVERYTHING on that aircraft from the time of purchase. What you have on your site is just an excerpt from that form. I’m not sure if those records are retained for a period of time or destroyed after the aircraft is taken out of inventory.
As for my time with her, it was interesting. I was her second crew chief (I contacted my predecessor to update him at the time I dropped you a note). The cabin was full of racks of electronic equipment used in direction finding, monitoring and jamming of radio signals. Our unit would normally support the intelligence units in the field in terms of monitoring transmissions to gather intelligence. Normally an Army linguist (ours were Russian) would be manning the console in a totally shrouded cabin. The cockpit with the pilots would be curtained off to keep light levels low in the cabin to be able to view the (archaic) plasma screens. We did have a fourth seat in the cabin for another intelligence analyst, or the crew chief as necessary. The equipment on board when used properly would identify the source of the signal, and the exact location of the source using inertial guidance (long before GPS became a reality). However, the problem with that was when the gyro was out of service so was direction finding. Flare-chaff systems were installed as a counter-measure against heat seeking missiles. Our aircraft never saw anything in the way of combat as EH-1X since the Cold War was still going on.
The funniest moment with my aircraft was when we took them back to Germany for a REFORGER exercise, I sent her off on a mission with two linguists, since I was acting platoon sergeant I couldn’t get away too often. When they returned, one of the pilots came over to inform me that the senior linguist vomited all over the console and keyboard. It was bound to happen since they were seated backwards in a dimly lit area, with very little ventilation. I went over to find him literally cleaning up the “chunks” from the keyboard using toilet paper from the food packs (C-Rations/MRE’s). He did it all, maybe out of fear, but probably more out of embarrassment. He had a bad habit of eating the unwanted junk food we kept in the console drawer.
Anything more just ask...
Robert L. Keller, Jr.
Principal Programmer