F Troop, 8th Cavalry Regiment

Click here to visit BlueGhosts.com
F troop, 8th Cavalry regt. was formed from assets of C Troop, 7/17th cav, 1st Cav Division on 1 April, 68 and assigned to Americal Div, Chu Lai (I corp). From I April 68-May 69 we were assigned to 1st Squadron, 1st Armored Cav because their air cav unit (D,1/1 ) was further north. Conducted daily operations out of LZ Hawk Hill. Sometime in June 69, we logged our 2000th enemy Kia. In May 69, D troop returned and took it's place back with 1/1. We were assigned back to divisional control and operated out of Tam Ky and Chu Lai. I guess you could consider us "fireman" as we did our usual thing plus put out "brush fires". The troop moved to Marble Mt in 1971 and was assigned to 196th LIB. Moved to Danang in June 72 under the command of 11th CAG. October 72 the troop was moved again, this time to Bien Hoa and conducted operations around Saigon (III corps) and was assigned to 12th CAG. The troop left Vietnam and was deactivated in Feb 73. Information courtesy of Dan Delor
8th Cav, F Troop Image courtesy of Tom Burkhart via Dan Delor	8th Cav, F Troop	F Troop 8th Cav Blue Ghost (1st Design)
Section of OH-6 Rotar blade hand painted with "Blue Ghost" troop patch design	Sleeve patch for the 23rd Division "Americal" made by a Vietnamese seamstress, sealed in plastic and fitted with button hanger tab for wear on the Tropical Worsted, short sleeve shirt
Maintenance Hanger Information courtesy of Dale Baker	ChuLai PX Information courtesy of Dale Baker	Sign that hung over company street Information courtesy of Dale Baker
Slick nose art Information courtesy of Dale Baker	F troop Blues, Summer 1970 Information courtesy of Dale Baker	V.C. captured by blues platoon f/trp 8th cav in I corps Information courtesy of Dale Baker
Summer 1970, somewhere out in the A.O. would have been west of HawkHill. Which is where this slick with load of blues is refueling. We could hear them firing at our LOH before we started fragging these bunkers and this guy came rolling out. From a member of Blueghost.	The 570th TC Detachment and its sister unit, the 415th Signal Corps Detachment, built up at Fort Campbell KY and left by C-141 in June 1968, flying via Alaska and Japan directly to Chu Lai RVN, arriving on 25 June. We provided direct support (DS) maintenance for F Troop 8th Cavalry "Blueghost" Hueys, Cobras, Loaches. The unit was later absorbed into the Blueghosts in 1970. For more information and pictures go to www.blueghosts.com Image courtesy of Tom Burkhart	I served with F/8th Cav in 1972/73, and my assigned aircraft was Cobra 68-15054. This aircraft did three tours in Vietnam, all with the Cav, 7th and 8th. Cav.. In 1972, Dwayne Shirley and I bagged a couple of PT-76 tanks with this ship. It has been pictured in a couple books by Lou Drendle and is the centerfold in an Osprey Combat Aircraft book on the Cobra. This is how it appeared in 8th Cav livery and my paint job in September 1972 at Chu Lai. The name is �Hammerhead.� Neal Thompson, Blueghost 26-CW4 Retired Image courtesy of Neal Thompson, Blueghost 26-CW4 Retired
These are all shots of 054 taken Memorial Day 2003 when it was dedicated as part of a war memorial in Big Spring, Texas. The little guy in the cockpit with me is my son Nick, who was 14 months old. The grown up (such that he is) in the front seat is Dwayne Shirley, former snake driver and recently retried from the Houston P.D. You will no doubt notice that the nose is somewhat irregular. This is because 054 had been converted to an S-Model, which had a cannon and a FLIR system that had been removed, leaving the nose open. The boys who restored it had to fabricate the nose you see. They did quite a job. Image courtesy of Neal Thompson, Blueghost 26-CW4 Retired

All images remain the personal property of this site and the contributor of the photo. You may download them for your personal use but they may not be published or used on any other site without written permission from the webmaster and the contributor.