Air Cav unit designations
 

I have searched the internet for an answer before asking this question so here goes...

Can anyone tell me what the meaning of the suffixes attatched to Vietnam era Air Cav units in the US Army OOB?

How do the platoon (I) and support (I) units fit in with the platoon (M) and support (M) units?

I have scoured the net for info on air cav unit organisation and have simply ended up more confused than before with so many different aviation units fielded by the USA in Vietnam. I'm a firm believer in sticking with the OOBs as the designers intended them rather than creating a formation to mirror real life deployments exactly, but I would just like to know what these unit designations mean and which ones I should purchase for a fairly realistic force structure.

Cheers

Bernard

Re: Air Cav unit designations
 

Good question, Bernard. I wonder if it has to do with their having transport or not. Might be extra units added to the platoons. Have you looked at both to see if you can find a difference?

WB

Re: Air Cav unit designations
 

Right.... have done a bit more research on this.

The AirCav Platoon (M) + AirCav Lift makes up an aero rifle platoon, the ground recon element of an air cav troop.

The AirCav Support (I) and Platoon (I) don't relate to anything I've seen on the net, unless they representmixed/dispersed elements of a cav troop (ie Support (I) could represent scout and gunship elements combined to form a "pink" team)

As far as I have read, an AirCav Troop should consist of:-

1)Aero weapons platoon (11xUH-1/AH-1 gunships)
3xhelos in platoon HQ
2xsections of 4xhelos

2)Aero scout platoon (10xOH-6 scout helos)
2xhelos in platoon HQ
2xsections of 4xhelos

3)Aero rifle platoon
5xUH-1 for transport
45xsoldiers in four ten man squads with a 5 man HQ section

A link to my source of information is below:-

http://www.gruntonline.com/TheWar/aero_rifle.htm