B Troop, 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment

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B troop 2/17 Cav	B troop 2/17 Scout Platoon Image courtesy of Russ Baldwin	AH-1G, tail number 17024, Camp Eagle late '71. "024 was the first air conditioned Cobra to arrive at B Troop in Camp Eagle. I had the pleasure of putting a lot of hours on the ship. It was neat to land at the POL point and have the cool white fog come out of the A/C." - Bruce L. Taylor Banshee 28 Image courtesy of Doug Kibbey
"Eve of Destruction" taken in September 1969 at the B /2/17th Banshee pad on Camp Eagle. A/C number was 68-15744... Named by WO1 Scott Kerr Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970	Cobra taken in September 1969 at the B /2/17th Banshee pad on Camp Eagle. A/C number was 68-15705... Shows the gold sabers on the ammo bay doors signifying cavalry and white band on the tailboom signifying B troop... Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970	A Cobra taken in September 1969 at the B /2/17th Banshee pad on Camp Eagle. A/C number was 68-15703 "No Slack"... On the left hand side of B troop Cobras was listed the designated aircraft commander (me in this case), the crew chief (SP/5 Hillebrand), and the armorer (SP/4 Kunkleman) Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970
My aircraft "No Slack" taken in September 1969 at the B /2/17th Banshee pad on Camp Eagle. A/C number was 68-15703... Named by CW2 Bill Russell Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970	The business end of "No Slack" taken in September 1969 at the B /2/17th Banshee pad on Camp Eagle. A/C number was 68-15703... In the fall of 1969 B troop had a policy of assigning an aircraft to each aircraft commander for them to generally fly (operational conditions permitting) and, in the case of the Cobra platoon, arm the way they wanted... The normal configuration for B troop Cobras was to carry a minigun and 40mm grenade launcher in the turret and a set of 7 shot rocket pods on the outboard wing points and 19 shot rocket pods on the inboard points... I instead chose to carry 19 shot pods on all four wing points... Other pilots did not like to fly my a/c (703) because they believed I had overstressed it by carrying 76 rockets without cutting back on fuel and not modifying the high-g maneuvers... This did not bother me, because I didn't particularly wanting them flying my Cobra on my days off, anyway ..... The 76 rocket configuration was the same as used by Aerial Rocket Artillary Cobras, but they flew the aircraft differently due to their different mission than the Air Cav did and thus did not put the strain on the aircraft that I tended to do... Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970	"No Quarter" taken in September 1969 at the B /2/17th Banshee pad on Camp Eagle. A/C number was 68-15702... Named by CW2 Jimmy Allen.. Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970
One of our UH-1B Command & Control aircraft that was flown by the air mission commander (usually the C.O.).... Notice the 40mm grenade launcher in the nose... This would have been taken in April 1969... Soon after, the grenade launcher was removed as being unnecessary for a high flying C&C ship and then later our two UH-1B's were replaced with UH-1C's for added speed... Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970	One of the OH-6A "LOH's" from our scout platoon... This was taken when they were very new looking (April 1969).. They did not look like this for long... The photo was take on the "Lower Banshee" pad where the LOH's resided... It does give a good look at the unit markings placement on a LOH... Crossed sabers indidcates Cavalry... White tailboom band designates it as a B troop aircraft.... Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970	One of the B troop standing missions was to fly a "last light" with a Cobra and LOH to check for suspicious activity west and south of Camp Eagle.... Attached is a picture of one of our Cobra's returning from last light and landing at the Banshee pad... Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970
I was with B troop from the form-up at Fort Hood (fall of 1968), through deployment in March 1969, and then stayed with the troop until the end of November `69 when I went south to the 334th Attack Hel Co at Bien Hoa. I think pieces of all of the 2/17th Cav. ended up in 17th Cav provisional troops towards the end of the war. The call signs of the platoons were Banshee 10 through 19 for scouts, 20 through 29 for guns, and 40 through 49 for lift platoon... I can't remember the Blues (infantry platoon) call sign... maybe they were the 30's numbers....Everyone used Banshee and a number... I think 101st SOP was to keep call sign names to a minimum. Prior too our departure to Vietnam, B troop went under the moniker of F/15th Cav to confuse the enemy. There were platoon patches right after I left, but not while I was there...I just had the usual Cobra school patch on my flight jacket... It's still there in my closet.... Image courtesy of Bill Russell B/2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn Div 1969, 334th Atk Hel Co, 1st Avn Bde 1970	This is an aerial view of Camp Eagle taken in 1970. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Flightline at Camp Eagle 1970 Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett
Flightline and Maintenance Hanger at Camp Eagle 1970. Left end of hanger roof damaged by a rotor blade. Sign in the lower portion says "DANGER STOP FOR LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT". Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Cobra "Eve of Destruction" taken in 1970. Name of person in picture unknown. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Huey outfitted for Night Hawk missions. 1970 Camp Eagle. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett
Cobra in maintenance at Camp Eagle 1970 Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Don Garrett in Jeep at Camp Eagle 1970 Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Cobra in maintenance. Close up of rocket pod and mini gun. Camp Eagle 1970. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett
Don't remember the circumstances, but the expression says it all. Taken at Camp Eagle 1970. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Taken from a Huey don't remember exactly where we were. Notice the Loach in the center of the picture. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Cobra over Camp Eagle with a monsoon rolling in. (1970) Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett
Stage at Camp Eagle 1970. Seats are recycled rotor blades. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Typhoon damage in motor pool area at Camp Eagle, fall of 1970. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett	Cobra at Camp Eagle 1970. Image courtesy of Don (333rd TC Det) & Marianne Garrett

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