Did You Know?

UH-60. CH-47. AH-64. UH-72. OH-58. MH-47

Most readers will recognize these as designations for military helicopters.

The names corresponding to these designations are: Black Hawk, Chinook, Apache, Lakota, Kiowa, Chinook.

Of course, these are names of Native American Nations, tribes, and leaders.

While most readers will immediately recognize the trend, it took a great article in army.mil for this author to “put two and two together.”

While I knew that many Army helicopters had Native American-related names, I did not know the history, background, and the Army regulation behind naming so many helicopters after Native American tribes and figures.

First, there was the tradition.

Way back in 1947, Army Gen. Hamilton Howze was assigned to Army Aviation when the Air Force split from the Army and was tasked with developing “doctrine and the way forward when it came to employing Army aircraft.”

Gen. Howze did not like some of the names of existing helicopters. Names such as “Hoverfly” and “Dragonfly.”

Since helicopters “were fast and agile, they would attack enemy flanks and fade away, similar to the way the tribes on the Great Plains fought during the American Indian Wars,” Howze decided to call the next helicopter produced (the H-13) “Sioux,” “in honor of the Native Americans who fought Army soldiers in the Sioux Wars and defeated the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Little Bighorn.”

Then came the H-19 Chickasaw, CH-37 Mojave, UH-1 Iroquois, OH-58 Kiowa, MH-47 Chinook, OH-6 Cayuse, AH-56 Cheyenne and others.

Tradition became the rule when — in 1969 – the U.S. Army issued Army Regulation 70-28* which required that “Indian terms and names of American Indian tribes and chiefs” be used, and chosen from names provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The regulation also listed criteria on how popular names would be given to major items of Army equipment.

Among the criteria applying to name choices, the names must:

• Appeal to the imagination without sacrificing dignity.

• Suggest an aggressive spirit and confidence in the item’s capabilities.

• Reflect the item’s characteristics including mobility, agility, flexibility, firepower, and endurance.

One must agree that the Native American names given to the Army helicopters certainly meet these criteria.

Army Regulation 70-28 was eventually rescinded, but the tradition continues.**

Other famous Army helicopters:

UH-60 Blackhawk; UH-72 Lakota; AH-64 Apache; RAH-66 Comanche.

Thus, Army helicopters continue to reflect the fine tradition of remembering and acknowledging “the spirit, confidence, agility, endurance and warrior ethos their names evoke.”

CODA:

* Army Regulation 70-28 also directed that tanks be named after American generals; infantry weapons “would receive names for famous early American pioneers;” and assault weapons would have “fearsome reptile and insect names…”

** Army Regulation 70-28 has been replaced by DoD Directive 4120-15, “Designating and Naming Military Aerospace Vehicles.”

The Directive states in part, “In coordination with the Department of the Air Force, assign popular names to their military aerospace vehicles .”

While this author has not been able to verify, globalsecurity.org states: ” Department of Defense regulation, DoD 4120-15, stipulates that the name of a new helicopter must be Native American in origin.”

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