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The high proportion of Warrant Officers is due to the fact that most air crew were of this rank. In the schematic below I have only shown the 'combat' elements of the Troop - there was also a Maintenance Section and an Aviation Section. AERO WEAPONS PLATOON
AERO SCOUT PLATOON
AERO RIFLE PLATOON
MISSION TYPES The Troop invariably undertook missions which can be categorized as follows:
'TEAMS' In order to carry out the various missions assigned to the Troop, the combat elements of the troop would, where necessary, be mixed, as appropriate, into teams as below.
TACTICS  Standard tactics
for the aviation elements was to fly HIGH/LOW, that is, one aircraft would fly
very low looking for targets or reconning the area (possibly attempting quite
literally to 'draw' enemy fire in order for the enemy to reveal their positions)
while the second aircraft flew at altitude providing cover, acting as the radio
relay ship and giving the low flying aircraft navigational instructions. In
operations involving OH-6's an OH-6 would always fly low.
The OH-6 would be in constant communication with the high flying AH-1G Gunship, feeding back data which would be annotated by the crew of the Gunship. If necessary the Gunship was always ready to 'roll in hot' in order to provide suppressive fire if the OH-6 came under attack. If the scout observed targets it would drop smoke marking rounds and the Gunship would roll in. TYPICAL EMPLOYMENT OF THE TROOP The following is an example of the way the Troop worked :
Occasionally the Blues would be inserted and then find themselves on the receiving end of determined enemy forces and usually outnumbered. In preparation for this it was common to have a regular Infantry Company on stand-by to reinforce the Blues or to be inserted as a blocking force behind the enemy which the Blues were assaulting. COMPOSITION OF AERO RIFLE PLATOON  The Air
Cav Troop supporting an ARP platoon gives you great versatility and many
options. Although technically under strength compared to a platoon from a Line
Infantry Company, the ARP's made up for a lack in numbers by sheer volume of
firepower. The ARP's pack a punch but they are always on the verge of being
outmaneuvered and overrun since they are such a small combat element.
Nonetheless, with the aerial support which they always have on station, they can engage targets which a standard infantry platoon would avoid. Having an organic lift section of UH-1's also opens up many possibilities - hot insertions, hot extractions, pilot rescue, search & destroy etc. The Air Cav Troop employed as an offensive unit against company sized enemy elements or smaller is a successful choice. Other advantages which the ARP's 'enjoyed' as a consequence of their role, apart from being led by a captain, was extra communications equipment and a disproportionate number of NCO's. This results in greater command and control of the unit. Special thanks to Mike Ruffle for much of the info here. His site, Eleven Bravo is a great resource for the Vietnam historian and wargamer. ____________________________________________________________________________________ See Also: Helicopters and Helicopter Weapons for further information about the helicopters and weapon systems themselves. The Helicopter War - substantial listing of links to web sites of US Aviation units from Vietnam The First Team for information on the 1st Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile) A History Lesson - fictional account of an operation, written by 'War Wagon 14', a pilot in 'D' Troop 3/5 Air Cav. Collecting Forces for Vietnam Crossfire: US Aero-Rifle Platoon - article concerning the incorporation of an aero-rifle platoon into a wargames collection for use with the Incoming! rules. Please note that this article is only available in the Members Area (for more information regarding Membership, click here) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Sources: Low Level Hell, Hugh L. Mills, Dell Books,
ISBN0-440-21549-8 US Army Armor School, Fort Knox, ST 17-1-3 ____________________________________________________________________________________
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There was normally a
single Air Cav Troop organic to each 
