Among the most dangerous flying roles in US 21st Century combat operations was piloting the OH-58D Kiowa armed reconnaissance helicopter. We spoke to former US Army OH-58D pilot Dan Berriochoa to find out more.
When I first joined the Army back in 2000, the OH-58D had two different roles. The first was that of armed reconnaissance, the traditional cavalry role. The second role was light attack. I was never in a light attack unit, although we did practice certain attack tactics with hellfire missiles.
The cavalry mission was by far my favourite, and it consisted of the usual reconnaissance and security tasks. My first unit was a division cavalry unit, 1-10 Cavalry, 4th Infantry Division. We had three troops of M-1 Abrams and Bradley Fighting Vehicles and two troops of the OH-58D, totalling 16 aircraft. There were also a few support troops in there as well. We would work a lot with the ground side, operating over the shoulder for the tanks and Bradleys. Typicall,y we would scout out routes, look for river fording sites, recon bridges, landing zones/pick up zones for air assaults and conduct the doctrinal screen, guard, and cover missions (although a Cavalry squadron couldn’t conduct the doctrinal cover mission).Â
Now I would say this all changed post-invasion of Iraq. As the battlefield transitioned from linear to asymmetric doctrinal roles for the OH-58D changed. We transitioned to more of a security role, providing convoy security and on-call fire support for the troops on the ground. We still did our reconnaissance, but it was no longer focused on probing enemy front lines.
Afghanistan was primarily security-focused. We flew in support of the ground force commander and operated over the top of the infantry or whoever was on the ground. It was still doctrinal in the sense that we were there to provide reaction time and manoeuvre space to the ground forces and allow them the freedom to manoeuvre, but it was no longer at the brigade or division level; it was at the platoon/company level. We were there for on-call close combat attacks. It became a knife fight.
The 58D had agility and manoeuvrability. If you thought it, the aircraft was doing it. THIS EXCITING STORY CONTINUES ON OUR NEW SITE HERE.
Nice write up Dan. Very nice to hear a bit of our story in the dust bowl. Lots of good memories. Take care brother.
Air Cav guys, real cow boys, oil smearing out the side panels of their Kiowa and they would tell their crew “it’s fine!” , and they only had one engine and these little rubber bands holding the blades. Wow. The things kept flying in and out non stop rumble buzz. Apaches, not so much, had the reputation of being hangar queens, and their pilots were much more conservative in terms of handling their machines carefully in and out the pads. At night their bright red strobe lights gave it a feel of Star Wars buzz. They always practicing straffing run as they cruised along too, and you could see them doing bell shaped S climbs and dives like Stukas one behind the other taking over cover. Too bad the Army Militarists felt inferior to Air Cav and tried to tone them down. Air Cav was incredibly supportive of its support crews, always giving medals and promotions, keeping the moral up, whereas elsewhere in Apache CABs it always was a p$$ed off crew. Militarists always hate and try to destroy real swash buckle warriors who do not do this rank discipline obedience pavlovian BS. The Cav type warriors trust each other and are much more energetic and respectful of each other.