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| Here's a photo of a SOTAS Huey (Stand Off Target Acquisition System) on the D Company, 501st ABC ramp, Katterbach AAF, cir. 1980. Notice that it's setting on a concrete extension from the asphalt ramp. These were very heavy aircraft. It had a max crew of three, who all wore parachutes. The US Army was said to have made only four of these aircraft. All were stationed in West Germany. The two at Katterbach AAF were with to the 501st MI Battalion. They were assigned a corner of our Delta Company (501st ABC) hanger. They were always hooking it up to the overhead bridge crane and suspending it in the air. They then raised the landing skids hydraulically, which enabled them to rotate the radar boom. To keep the aircraft from rotating during the activation of the radar boom, a crew member (or two) would hold onto the tailskid while standing on a chair. From time to time Delta Company would provide two of our more qualified Huey mechanics, so they could perform their heavy maintenance. |
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| Two Huey's of the 501st ABC, on the door gunner training range at the Hohenfels Training Center, cir. 1980. As seen in this picture, the right side M-60's could be fired down range from their static position. While on the ground, this gave the gunners as well as the pilots a chance to put some lead down range. Standard practice was for one Huey at a time to fly up and down the valley. Each aircraft had a pilot and copilot, two door gunners, and two training/safety NCO's. Only the gunner on the down range side was allowed to fire during the slow flight through the valley. We quickly learned that the standard issue ammo feeding assemblies for the M-60's were useless. All they did was cause malfunctions. During wartime we would have installed an empty C-ration can to each weapon for smooth ammo feeding. The one aircraft we used for the D Company training that day, had a number of red X's on it when we returned back to Katterbach AAF. It was a quick lesson in the abuse a Huey had to take during wartime. |
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