August 29, 2016 –
YONGIN, SOUTH KOREA – Three I Corps officers with a combined 70 years of experience as Army aviators spent an afternoon with one of the last OH-58D Kiowa Warriors still on active duty – a helicopter each man spent countless hours behind the controls of.
Col. Michael Harvey, executive officer to the commanding general of I Corps, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jim Israel, I Corps senior warrant officer, and Chief Warrant Officer 4 Rian Demery, a standardization pilot, made the short trip to the airfield to see the sleek, football-shaped helicopter with the “basketball” over the main rotor blades fly one more time.
The OH-58D is used primarily for observation, utility and direct fire support.
The helicopter the men went to view was part of 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment based at Camp Humphreys. The squadron will be the last of the OH-58. After the regiment redeploys in early 2017 the Army will retire the aircraft from its fleet, replacing it with farther-reaching Apaches and Blackhawks.
“It’s an aircraft with a long legacy,” said Israel, the most senior aviator in I Corps and – with 30 years of service – one of the most senior in the entire Army. “Its history began in Vietnam and will close here on the peninsula of Korea. In-between it’s been involved in countless direct engagements with ground forces across the world.”
The OH-58 air frame has gone through numerous modifications –taking it from an observation to a direct action aircraft that ground combat commanders relied on time and again, said Israel.
Harvey also reflected on the way the Army’s innovative engineers repurposed the helicopter over the years.
“Originally they weren’t armed. Now they carry everything from hellfire missiles to 50-calibers to 2.75 folding fin aerial rockets,” said Harvey, who spent some 1,900 hours flying the OH-58 during his career as an Army aviator.
It’s a helicopter that earned the name “warrior”, Harvey said.
“The enemy learned over time that we would fly low. They saw that we would close with them a lot closer than some of the other aircraft,” he said. “Being able to provide the fire capability to protect the ground forces was always remarkable. Any time the aircraft came down low the enemy firing typically stopped – and they retreated.”
The OH-58 has been in continuous use by the Army since 1969.
“It’s a family business,” said Harvey. “My dad retired after 42 years of working for Bell Helicopter. For me it’s not as much about being behind the controls – it’s about the mission that the aircraft performed for the ground forces that we supported. The multiple deployments with the aircraft, and the advantages that we took with this aircraft to provide fire, protect our soldiers, identifying IED’s in the roads or guys setting up road blocks – that’s what I’ll remember about it.”