Casper aviation platoon Casper Platoon Story

Casper

This site was last updated: 2/15/15

Reprinted from: Fire Base 173 Newspaper

April 12, 1971

LZ ENGLISH - "As long as there is a chance, we'll go in and get 'em, we can put our ships just about anywhere, " said Captain Bill Thomas, Casper Aviation Platoon CO.

"Where there is a will there is a way," and Casper helicopter pilots usually have the will to find the way when it comes to rescuing the "Herd" out of tight spots.

During the heavy monsoon rains of last October, Casper pilots were rescuing Sky Soldiers from rooftops, rafts, tops of vehicles, mountain peaks and even trees.  Despite lack of visibility and poor communications, the Casper crews never hesitated to pull members of the "Herd" out of trouble.

"Hot LZs" are no novelty to Casper pilots either.  "If we can get some gun cover," said Thomas, "We won't hesitate to go down and get someone.  All we need is enough room to land the craft and maneuver."

Primarily, missions carried out by Casper in support of the 173d include CAs (Combat Assaults), log missions (resupply), troop movements (insertions and extractions), Charley-Charleys (Command and Control) and visual reconnaissance.