F Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment

1/9 Cav F Troop Avionics	Image courtesy of Mike O'Neil	1st Cavalry division combat certificate presented to Mike O'Neil for service with F troop Image courtesy of Mike O'Neil
Nomex flying shirt with F troop Gun Platoon patch on right chest pocket and Cobra school graduate patch on left Image courtesy of Mike O'Neil	Unique "Party" shirt made of Camouflage parachute material for a pilot that appears to have flown with both the lift and scout platoons Image courtesy of Joe Stone	Lift Platoon patch Image courtesy of "Target"
Troop guidon patch Image courtesy of "Target"	My Nasty Hat - The Browns were what we called the ARVN's we had as a rifle platoon or QRF. After some point in time the US was supposed to be keeping it's ground troops out of offensive ground action. The way to keep up the pressure was for us to substitute ARVN's for our Blue Platoon. They came from a Ranger Battalion, pretty tough nuts there. The LT from our platoon became an "advisor" to them and still went on the ground with them. Our RTO went too. They had there own insignia and the translation they gave to the advisors had Browns sewn onto it. The advisor LT had the patches sewn on his fatigues, he got on real well with them, even married the sister of the ARVN commander. I worked more with the recovery team and sometimes flew as a gunner on the blue slicks. Since we couldn't be "blues" our patch just said 9th Inf on the rocker. I still have that one. Image courtesy of Chris Miller
Lift Platoon patch Image courtesy of "Target"	I have a picture with helmet on and shows the cobra insignia and '10'. It's faded but I think you can make it out. Number 10 meant something bad to the Vietnamese and I played that up whever I could! Image courtesy of Mike O'Neil D/229 - F troop, 9th Cav.	Troop sign - Major Hewlett will remember this Image courtesy of "Target"
Photo taken of me while we were on standby at Lie Kay. This photo shows a ARVIN Ranger named "Dow," who was assigned to our unit after President Nixon told us no more U.S. ground troops could be used for combat assaults. We kept doing the CA missions, but we put in ARVINS instead of our own soldiers. The huey is my bird 450. As you can see I was getting ready to enjoy my c-rat lunch. Image courtesy of "Target"	Two photos I took on 17 Mar 72 at the crash site of 051. They were taken as we returned to the crash site with our own infantry element which we called the "Blues." Our Troop had a platoon of infantry which were often used to secure crash sites and participate in downed aircrew recovery operations. As I remember it, the troops you see on the riverbank are the grunts we had on board earlier in the mission. The VPHA has a copy of the official Army crash investigation report. I was the crewchief on the helicopter right behind 051 as we were flying trail formation. 051 was the second bird in the formation. The two pilots, crewchief and doorgunner were from our unit F Troop 1/9 Cav. The other soldiers killed in the crash were grunts we picked up that morning to put into the field somewhere. After the crash the mission was scrubbed. The other grunts were used to secure the crash site while recovery operations began. It was a day I'll never forget. Image courtesy of "Target"
Personalized SPH-4 Flight helmet worn by Mike O'Neil during his tour as a Cobra pilot with F troop 9th Cavalry Regiment. "Numba One" was classicly the best in Vietnamese culture. Mike took a real delight in being "Numba 10" which was something BAD!!!!". Image courtesy of Mike O'Neil		F Troop, 9th Cavalry 1972 Bien Hoa. Image courtesy of Gary Kesti
F Troop, Scout Platoon in Late 1972 at Bien Hoa Image courtesy of Gary Kesti

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