B Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment

"Blues" platoon sign - "I was the Lt's RTO ( Blue India) in 69 & 70 for 9 months and then was transfered to the TOC." - Robert Hraben Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9	1/9 Cav B Troop Operations	1/9 Cav B Troop Aero Rifle Platoon
Our bar tender for the Bravo Blues. Notice the bar top is a blade off a chopper. Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9	"The Red" (Cobra) Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9	"The White" (LOC) Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9
"The Blue" (UH1H with the troops) Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9	Think this was called a "Grass Hopper" Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9	Flying into Quan Loi Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9
Blues of B 1/9 out in the "boonies" Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9	Remember when we used to practice repeling from a chopper? Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9	We were practicing repeling with B troop in 1969 at Quan Loi on our flight line. That's me ( Robert J. Hraban ) doing the repeling. Image courtesy of Robert Hraben B troop 1/9
Lt. Larry G. Brown, between tours, at an awards ceremony, Fort Knox. . Larry Served with B troop as Scout platoon commander (Saber White 14) in 1967-68. Upon return to the U.S. he qualified on CH-54s and went back to Vietnam. In Larry's words - "When I got in country Col. Jimmy Hughes, 12th Group Commander, 1st Avn. Bdg., told me I was going to C/3/17 because of the OH58 test and that "I owed him after Ft. Knox". I was going to be there 6 months, then I could go to a crane unit. Ten Months later I transferred to E/1/9 to be Scout Platoon leader." Larry was one of a very few Scout pilot's to fly the 3 main scout aircraft of the war - The OH-13, the OH-6 and the OH-58. Image courtesy of Col. Larry G. Brown ret.	Larry Brown frequently carried an AK-47 in the aircraft on missions. This magazine was hit on one of his missions. Read the attached excerpt from Larry's Chapter in "Hunter Killer Squadron" to find out what happened. Image courtesy of Larry Brown
This is a photo of me taken by Al Deflorian,� Bob Zion's crewchief.�I can't recall where it was taken!�Jack Oliver, of the LZ Betty 3-4 Nov event,� Just went out the door after spend ing 3 days with me and shooting a big turkey yesterday.� Jack was the one that had the north side ambush site at LZ Betty and then had to work himself and his men back in� to the Lz while the entire perimitor was under fire from the Congs.� Jack was the one also that was the ground commander at the Hospital sight on the 1st of Nov. a few days before.� That is where we captured a million or so dollars worth of equiptment and prisonners.� It was the first such battle to take place in VN by an all American unit.� This hospital site was found by one of our scout pilots David Bray flying an H-13S model.� Image courtesy of John Ghere	A captured 57mm Recoiless Rifle. From right to left are: John Ghere, Steve ballard, unknown,Nelson Blankenship, unknown Click here to read a story about this incident from John Ghere Image courtesy of John Ghere	Canned Heat of B & E troops, 1/9 Cav. Roger Snow, gunner, �can be seen�standing behind the pilot's door. The last three digits of the serial number were 555 so the ship was more often referred to as "Triple Nickel Image courtesy of Roger Snow
"Triple Nickel" (last three digits of the serial number) of B & E troops 1/9 Cav. The "Canned Heat" nose art, painted by Roger Snow, can be seen on the Aircraft art page. Click here to read some of Roger Snow's experiences Image courtesy of Roger Snow	Quon Loi Image courtesy of Robert Hraban	Gene Marcum sitting in our helicopter "617". Gene was the best and the most desired crewchief in the outfit. He built that twin gun mount from stuff he picked up from wrecks. He and I experimented with everything and were encouraged by Colonel John B. Stockton. John B. encouraged everyone to get the job done but if you see something that needs an improvement, "do it". This picture was taken on a mountain North of the Golf Course at where ever the old French fort was located. Its a little blury now. Image courtesy of John Ghere
Walked away from this one after being shot down Image courtesy of Robert Hraban		This is a 20 mm system that we were supposed to try out. This helo was supposed to be used by each troop but "you know who" wrecked it just before B Troop got to fly it. Picture by Steve Ballard my co-pilot. Dec-Jan '66. Image courtesy of John Ghere
This was the beginning of our inventivness. I decided we needed a .50 cal. for a door gun. The first test in this configuration knocked Jamie Davidson back accross the seat against Marcum on the other side and fired one round. Back to the drawing board! We soon built a steel base for it and it worked out quite well. Image courtesy of John Ghere	This is me (John Ghere) on the left and Steve Ballard (my co-pilot)on the right. We got into some close combat in a creekbed and apparently damaged the helo. We should have been a little more careful. Schrapnel was inside the cockpit under my feet with a big tear in the heel skid of the left pedal. Image courtesy of John Ghere	Hong Cong Mtn is to the rear. This is looking up the street to where the tents and hooches were on the ridge line. Image courtesy of John Ghere
John Ghere, Ballard and Marcum at the reunion in 2002 at Dothan. Gene Marcum was the last one out of VN in circa. August 1966. Our a/c 617 crashed about 2-3 weeks after that because of wx. I think 3 men died at that time. Image courtesy of John Ghere	There's not too many people will believe this! That is a 250 Lb napalm can. We carried two of them and they worked great. That was one of my "inventions". They held about 29 gal of gas and the jelly stuff. We droped them individually by pulling a piece of commo wire attached to the emergency lever on the bomb shakle. It was really tough on a village. We used this several times on the north end of happy valley. I think it slowed there actively shooting at us every time we flew by. Image courtesy of John Ghere	B Trp in a lager area. Image courtesy of John Ghere
I think "Dry Boots" says it all. Image courtesy of John Ghere	Saber White 14, Scout Section Leader Larry Brown and "checking" Jerry Anderson's OH-13 "UFO" at An Kha, November 1967. Image courtesy of Larry Brown	Gook gun (Chic-com Type 53) taken in Feb of 68 at Camp Evans. That's me on the left and my observer, SSG Don Crosby, on the right. This was during Tet and the same day White and I had the shoot out to see who was Super Scout.....Crosby and I won about 20 KIA to his 7 KIA for the day! Image courtesy of Larry Brown

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