The Army Mobility Team (1965) - Video On Demand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Army Mobility Team - Movie Review |
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Produced in 1965, Army's Air Mobile teams is US Army film shot by Army Combat Cameramen that outlines Air Mobility Team doctrine in the early-mid Vietnam war and contains helicopter and ground combat footage primarily of the 1st Air Cavalry Division. The United States Army's Air Mobile teams provide essential support to the infantry, armoured, mechanized and other ground troops operating in guerrilla warfare conditions during the Vietnam War. These teams have been made famous through their portrayals in big budget Hollywood films such as 'Apocalypse Now'.
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The Army Mobility Team - Cast & Crew |
| Copyright: Public Domain Format: Colour Duration: 30 mins Year: 1965 Tags: Air Mobile, Documentary, Military, Vietnam War |
The Army Mobility Team Trivia - Did You Know?In Apocalypse Now the character of Col Kilgore (I love the smell of napalm in the morning) is rumored to be based on the real-life Colonel David Hackworth, who served in Vietnam as a gung-ho battalion commander although he never commanded an air cavalry brigade. Hackworth accumulate numerous combat medals, including 10 silver stars, which were roughly equivalent to the British Military Cross, and became the youngest "Bird Colonel" (full colonel) in Vietnam. Hackworth's memoir of Vietnam, About Face, was one of the finest accounts of the conflict because of his historical understanding of guerrilla warfare as well as his extraordinary personal story. Related FilmsThe Battle Of Midway | Apollo 13: Houston, We've Got A Problem | Starfish | Superman - Japoteurs | Superman - Destruction Inc | |
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Air Cav Goes To War
The 1st Cavalry Division was sent to Vietnam as the first full division of the US Army to arrive. During October-November 1965 the 1st Cavalry Division fought in the bitter battle of Ia Drang Valley in Pleiku Province from which some of this footage was derived. This was the first major battle of the Vietnam War between the United States Army and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). During this action, the division conducted 35 days of continuous airmobile operations. The opening battle, the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, was described in the book 'We Were Soldiers Once...And Young' which was also the basis of the subsequent Mel Gibson film 'We Were Soldiers'.
The two-part battle (LZ X-ray and LZ Albany) took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965, at two landing zones (LZs) north-west of Plei Me in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. The US lost 234 troops, with 242 wounded in the X-ray and Albany battles together. In addition, November 17th was the deadliest day for Americans in the entire Vietnam War, with 155 killed and 126 wounded. The PAVN lost 1,037 killed with an estimated 1,365 wounded. Throughout the war the 1st Cavalry Division lost 5,444 men killed in action, with 26,592 wounded in action.
The battle served as a microcosm for the war as a whole. The combination of air mobility with air and artillery firepower proved to be an extremely effective means for the Americans to accomplish their tactical objectives. The PAVN and Viet Cong forces learned that they could mitigate the effectiveness of American firepower by engaging US forces at very close range. The North Vietnamese would later refine this tactic, calling it "getting between the enemy and his belt." With it they would achieve a rate of attrition that the Americans would find politically unsustainable in the long term.
More recently, the full 1st Cavalry Division did not take part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq - although in the early hours of 24 March 2003, Apache Longbows of the 1st Cavalry Division fought a fierce battle with units of Iraq's Republican Guard (Medina Division) between the cities of Karbala and Al Hilah, south of Baghdad. However, it deployed to Iraq in early 2004, relieving the 1st Armoured Division in Baghdad. After spending more than a year in Iraq, it redeployed back to the US by April 2005. During its deployment the Division lost 165 soldiers in combat, while about 1,500 were wounded (out of total establishment of 17,000).
